Ontario book news, interviews and more

CBC Host Amanda Parris' New Play Celebrates Black Women Working for Change in a Biased Society

How do you change a society that seems stuck in its biases and ignorance? This is one of the urgent questions at the centre of CBC host Amanda Parris' powerful new play Other Side of the Game (Playwright ...

Kim Hyesoon, Don Mee Choi, and Eve Joseph win 2019 Griffin Prizes, with Lifetime Honour for Nicole Brossard

Last night in Toronto, the the Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize was awarded to Eve Joseph for Quarrels (Anvil Press), while International Griffin Poetry Prize was presented to writer-translator team Kim ...

Read an Excerpt from Linda Quennec's Fishing for Birds, A Novel of BC and Cuba

In Linda Quennec's Fishing for Birds (Inanna Publications) widow at just 32, leaves her home in Vancouver Island searching for solace. After settling on a tiny island, she meets Ivy, whose stories ...

Interdependence as Disabled Poetics and Praxis: Or Why My Novel is Dedicated to My Disabled Friend Maddy

People often say that they couldn’t have written their books without the help and support of friends and family. This is particularly true for disabled writers. Finishing my novel required many hours ...

Cheryl Thompson on the Complicated History of the Black Beauty Industry in Canada

The politics of Black hair can be deeply complex, and the industry surrounding Black beauty intersects with the cultural and personal experiencing of Black people, especially women. From the struggles ...

Carrianne Leung Captures $10,000 Danuta Gleed Literary Award for Her Beloved Story Collection

On Saturday night at the Writers' Union of Canada's OnWords Conference, the Union announced that Carrianne Leung is the winner of the $10,000 Danuta Gleed Literary Award. The award recognizes the best ...

I Promise You, It's Fiction.

Full disclosure, I had another post planned to kick off my Writer in Residency here on Open Book but I decided to change topics after seeing a write-up/review of my forthcoming short story collection. ...

Contest! Win Essential Contemporary Nonfiction from Coach House's Exploded Views Series

Coach House Books, one of the oldest and most influential independent publishers in Canada, started their Exploded Views nonfiction series several years ago to "offer surprising perspectives on the most ...

"I Wanted This to Be About a Specific Third Culture Kid" June 2019 writer-in-residence Zalika Reid-Benta on her Stunning New Story Collection

We are extremely excited to announce that Zalika Reid-Benta, author of Frying Plantain (House of Anansi Press) is our June 2019 writer-in-residence. Frying Plantain, Reid-Benta's brand new book of short ...

The Mindful Writer and the Desire To Publish

This is my last post with Open Book. I tried to approach my residency by writing about things that writers might find useful, or at least semi-entertaining. And I find it amusing that just like being ...