"Bad Land" Book launch with Corinna Chong

Join author Corinna Chong in conversation with Makda Mulatu for the launch of Corinna’s new book, Bad Land!

About Bad Land:

A slow-burning story exploring the generational effects of repression and transgression, set against the raw, eerie landscape of the badlands.

Regina is a socially awkward loner who is content to live a life withdrawn from everyone except her cherished pet bunny. But after seven years of silence, Regina’s brother, Ricky, shows up unannounced on her doorstep, along with his daughter, Jez — a peculiar six-year-old with an unnerving vicious streak — upending Regina’s quiet life.

It’s clear to Regina that something terrible has happened, though the truth won’t come to the surface easily. After all, Regina and Ricky lived a childhood fraught with secrets buried as deep as the fossils in the desolate landscape around them. But this secret is one that cannot stay buried for long, and its exposure sets off a calamitous journey through the plains and mountains of Alberta’s badlands to the coast of BC, forcing Regina to confront the brutality of family love and to question how far she is willing to go to preserve it.

By turns thrilling and heartwarming, rife with gothic tension, and carried by fervent compassion, Bad Land is a story about the toxic nature of guilt, the fragility of memory, and the ways we shape our own versions of the truth in order to survive.

About the author:

Corinna Chong’s books are the novel Bad Land (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2024), the acclaimed story collection The Whole Animal (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2023) and the novel Belinda’s Rings (NeWest Press, 2013). Her short fiction has appeared in magazines across Canada. She lives in Kelowna, BC, where she teaches in the English department at Okanagan College.

About Makda Mulatu:

Makda Mulatu is a writer and podcaster based in amiskwaciwâskahikan, or Edmonton, Alberta. Her poetry, interviews, and culture writing have appeared in publications like Contemporary Verse 2, filling Station, and This Magazine, among others. Since 2020, she has hosted and produced Glass Bookshop Radio, a literary podcast from Glass Bookshop that connects readers with some of the most exciting authors and publishers in Canada. These days, you can find her talking about her favourite books on CBC Edmonton’s Radio Active or teaching figure skating at her community rink.