Ontario book news, interviews and more

Painting a Story: Danila Botha on Writing and Painting

Since I was a kid, I’ve always painted. I’ve painted through every age of my life, through every possible emotion. I’ve painted when I was ecstatic and needed to share the feeling, I’ve painted ...

Painting a Story: Danila Botha on Writing and Painting

Since I was a kid, I’ve always painted. I’ve painted through every age of my life, through every possible emotion. I’ve painted when I was ecstatic and needed to share the feeling, I’ve painted ...

CBC Canada Reads: A Tense Vote Sets up a Tight Race Going Forward

We're at the halfway mark already in the 2023 edition of CBC Books' Canada Reads competition, one of the biggest literary events of the year and a potentially career-making accolade for the author of ...

"I Was Genuinely in Love with This Little Creation" The 2023 Canada Reads Panellists on Strategy, Book Love, & Celebration Trees

Today is the day – this morning, the 2023 edition of CBC's book debate bonanza, Canada Reads kicked off. We'll be covering the debates at tomorrow's halfway point and after the winner is crowned at ...

Was It Worth It?

Was it worth it? I get asked this a lot.I think they are asking if putting in all the time, effort and emotional labour to write a vulnerable and raw memoir about trauma, is worth it. Like, if I say yes, ...

"Regret, like Sediment Gathered in His Blood" Read an Excerpt from Lauren Carter's Beautiful & Devastating Places Like These

The longing to reconnect with the people we've lost can supersede logic, even in the steadiest people – a truth discovered by the widowed speaker in the title story of Places Like These (forthcoming ...

"Raw and Real and Blunt" Hannah Green on Getting Sober & Her Semi-Autobiographical Long Poem, Xanax Cowboy

The long poem that is Hannah Green's electric Xanax Cowboy (forthcoming from House of Anansi Press in April) is like nothing most poetry readers have encountered. When an early version of the poem was ...

Writers' Trust Announces New $75,000 Weston International Award for Nonfiction

It's a busy time for Canadian literary prize news, following last week's announcement of the newly-merged Griffin Poetry Prize longlist and with next week seeing the always-eventful CBC Canada Reads debates. ...

Murder at Sea, a Roaring 20s Romp, & an Aristocrat with a Shady Past: Read an Excerpt from The Merry Widow Murders

The last thing Lady Lucy Revelstoke—the endearing protagonist of Melodie Campbell's madcap historical mystery novel The Merry Widow Murders (Cormorant Books)—needs is anyone prying into her past.The ...

You didn’t get a grant…now what?

It’s grant notice season, and while some writers will be happy dancing all over their kitchens (if you are one of them, this column is for you!), some of us, well, won’t be dancing in the kitchen. ...