“In a world where print material is rapidly losing ground to all things digital,” says author and publisher Michael Hingston, “we remain stubborn, true believers in the power of the physical book. Our titles are driven by design and full of the unexpected—both the words on the page, and the look and feel of the page itself. We’re suckers for unusual lengths, formats, perspectives, and ideas.”

One could call Michael’s interests eclectic – his bibliography includes a history of Calvin and Hobbes called Let’s Go Exploring, the novel The Dilettantes, co-writer of Harnarayan Singh’s memoir One Game at a Time, as well as “the ghostwriter of some other stuff.”

Michael’s latest book is Try Not to Be Strange: The Curious History of the Kingdom of Redonda, which was shortlisted for the Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize. The book tells the bizarre history of Redonda – an uninhabited, guano-encrusted island that transformed into a fantastical and international kingdom of writers. The Washington Post called it “wonderfully entertaining,” and Publishers Weekly described it as “a jaunty historical footnote.”

His journalism has appeared in places like National Geographic, Wired, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Hazlitt, The Walrus, and The Globe and Mail. He’s also the creator of Edmontonia Trading Cards, and the co-founder of Hingston & Olsen Publishing, the outfit responsible for the Short Story Advent Calendar and other literary experiments.

Michael lives in Edmonton.

Michael’s appearance is supported by Author Patron Doriana Bisegna

Appearing in 27. The Big Idea: CanLit Unbound, and WR9. Creative Collaborations – Combining Imagery and Words