Ontario book news, interviews and more

Glenn Gould biographer Peter Goddard takes our Proust Questionnaire

There are few artists who have remained in the hearts of Canadians quite like Glenn Gould. The virtuoso pianist's recording of Bach's The Goldberg Variations still stands as one of the most influential ...

Interview with Kelly Collier

Today we’re talking to Kelly Collier about A Horse Named Steve.Here’s the thing, guys. HERE’S THE THING!!! Kelly Collier is a debut author-illustrator who sent in an unsolicited submission to Kids ...

Read an Excerpt from Oisín Curran's forthcoming Blood Fable!

Today we have a sneak peek at an exciting Fall 2017 book from BookThug: Oisín Curran's Blood Fable will be released in October, but you can read an excerpt now, exclusively on Open Book. In Blood ...

On Productivity

A few months ago I quit my safe, reliable customer service job at Starbucks to focus on writing. I’d just received a grant and I was ready to go full-throttle towards finally writing a book. Those last ...

Interview with Kyo Maclear

Kyo Maclear is one of my favourite children’s book authors and one of the loveliest people I know. She’s the author of many acclaimed picture books including Spork, Virginia Wolf and The Fog, and ...

Kevin MacKay on the Coming Ecological and Social Collapse & How We Can Still Avoid It

If you're feeling overwhelmed in the face of the worrisome changes to our economic and ecological environments, you may want to listen to Kevin MacKay. The Hamilton-based professor and activist has ...

Improv Taught Me How to Craft a Story

I know a lot of people who want to write books who don’t actually do any writing. It’s a curious thing to want to do something you don’t do. I used to be one of those people, so I say that with ...

Gillian Best on the Power of the Sea, Glaswegian tap water, & a Postcard from Jonathan Franzen

Gillian Best is making waves with her debut novel (we couldn't resist!).The Last Wave (House of Anansi) is an intergenerational drama set in Dover, spanning the decades from the 1940s to the present ...

Gwaandak

This started off as a straightforward article about Gwaandak Theatre, Yukon’s only Indigenous theatre company. But something went wrong. Or right.I wanted to feature Gwaandak’s production, Map of ...

Paul Butler on Subverting Jane Austen & How We Define Love

Jane Austen provided some of literature's most famous (and most beloved) happily ever afters, including in her first novel, Persuasion. But what happens after the curtain falls on those scenes? And what ...