I’m delighted to share that The New Quarterly included my short story “Condolence” (published in the spring 2023 issue) in its Pride Month Reads online collection last month. Also included in this collection is “Homebodies,” a creative non-fiction essay by my partner, who writes under the name J.P. Letkemann. In addition, the journal recently published a blog post I wrote as a contribution to its “writing spaces” series. The Pride Month Reads collection will be freely available on the The New Quarterly’s website until August. The post Pride Month Reads in <em>The New Quarterly</em> ..read more

Am leaving soon for the Vancouver Writers Fest, where I’ll be appearing, alongside Malinda Lo, on a panel called YA Stars: Coming of Ages, moderated by Tanya Boteju and held on Thursday, October 20 at 1:00 p.m. (Pacific). I’ll be reading from In the Key of Dale and talking about the process of writing the novel, but I’m especially looking forward to talking to Malinda and Tanya about their most recent books, A Scatter of Light and Bruised, both of which are just amazing. I’ll also be visiting a tenth-grade composition class at a high school in North Vancouver, which should be a lot ..read more

As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, there will be two launches for In the Key of Dale this weekend that are open to the public. An in-person event will be held on Saturday, October 15, at 2:00 p.m. in the fellowship hall at Trillium Church (22 Willow St. in Waterloo, Ontario), and a virtual event will be held on Sunday, October 16, at 2:00 p.m. (EDT) over Zoom. (Meeting ID: 840 7192 8925. Passcode: 117790.) These events are free, open to the public, and suitable to people of all ages. Both events will consist of me reading short excerpts the book, offering a ..read more

Photo by sittered (Flickr), licensed under CC BY 2.0. “I’m thirty-one. I own two pairs of pants and I live in a dungeon. In so many ways I don’t feel like an adult.” I have so much to be thankful for this weekend. By an odd coincidence, my first published short story, “When It’s Over,” appeared yesterday in Plenitude Magazine (an online literary journal showcasing the work of queer writers), just three days before the Canadian release of my first novel, In the Key of Dale, from Arsenal Pulp Press. “When It’s Over” is about academia, although I hadn’t planned to write about academia when I be ..read more

Today is October 1. Most years this day is significant to me because it’s the day that all the Anne of Green Gables “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers” memes come crawling out of the woodwork. (They seem to peter out the rest of the month, almost as though what Anne really said was “I’m so glad I live in a world where there’s an October 1st.”) This year, though, today is significant for another reason, which is that my debut novel, In the Key of Dale, will be released ten days from now, on October 11 (at least in Canada; the official publication date in the rest of the wor ..read more

Over the last few weeks, In the Key of Dale has started to appear in more and more places online. Although it won’t be out until mid-October, it can now be pre-ordered directly from the publisher, Arsenal Pulp Press, or directly from the distributor, University of Toronto Press Distribution, or from numerous chain and independent bookstores located all over the world. I’ve started author accounts on Facebook and on Instagram (in addition to my existing account on Twitter) and would certainly encourage you to follow me there. And I recently had an energizing marketing meeting with three of my ..read more

I just received an automated email from Amazon.ca recommending my own book. Why, yes, I am interested in In the Key of Dale! And if you are interested in it also, you can now pre-order it from Arsenal Pulp Press, from your local independent bookstore, or from several Amazon branches worldwide. Amazon (Canada) Amazon (USA) Amazon (Brazil) Amazon (France) Amazon (Germany) Amazon (Italy) Amazon (Japan) Amazon (Spain) Amazon (Sweden) Amazon (UK) The post <em>In the Key of Dale</em> on Amazon appeared first on Benjamin Lefebvre ..read more

This week has been really exciting—and distracting—because In the Key of Dale has started to appear online in advance of its release next fall from Arsenal Pulp Press. So this seems like the perfect time to reveal the cover and the synopsis! Part comedy, part grief narrative, In the Key of Dale is a disarming coming-of-age novel about a queer teen music prodigy who discovers pieces of himself in places he never thought to look. Sixteen-year-old Dale Cardigan is a loner who’s managed to make himself completely invisible at his all-boys high school. He doesn’t fit with his classmates ..read more

I’m thrilled to announce that my first novel—entitled In the Key of Dale and telling the story of a queer sixteen-year-old music prodigy who starts writing letters to his late father—will be published by Arsenal Pulp Press in fall 2022! The deal was arranged by my agent, Chris Casuccio of Westwood Creative Artists, with whom I signed as a client this past February. News of this deal appeared on the Publishers Marketplace website yesterday. This book has been in the works for a number of years now, and I wrote it as part of a long writing apprenticeship. As I write this blog post today, I can ..read more

I’m thrilled to announce the forthcoming publication of my next book, Becoming L.M. Montgomery, by University of Toronto Press in September 2018! This book has been several years in the making and has involved extensive research in archives and rare periodicals, including three trips to Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa. It is the first of several volumes to gather Montgomery’s extensive periodical publications and make them available to twenty-first-century readers. So looking forward to sharing this new material with L.M. Montgomery’s readers! Years before she published her intern ..read more