Ontario book news, interviews and more

Tim Welsh's Debut Novel, Ley Lines, is a Refreshing, Intimate Take on Frontier Life

Readers have seen frontier tales about the gold rush and mining boom towns before, many of which carry familiar tropes and trappings. But, our featured author today has written an original work that upends ...

Second Story Press Reveals an Exciting New Logo on the Heels of Ownership Transfer

At the start of the year we shared the news that OBPO member publisher Second Story Press would have a transfer in ownership, with long-serving Co-Founder Margie Wolfe handing over the reins to General ...

The Key to Publishing a Book: Being a Staunch Celebrationist

Writing a book takes forever. Or, it does for me. I always think I’ll be able to crack the code for the next one, and write faster and be more efficient, but the reality is, it takes me five years to ...

Carolyn Ramzy Shares Profound Poetry About a Coptic Girlhood in Taslim: We Are the Prophets

Carolyn Ramzy's scholarly endeavours have taken her to a professorship in Ethnomusicology at Carleton University, where her main focus is on Egyptian Coptic Christian music-making. So it's no surprise ...

Unlocking Out of Editing

In my April 2025 column for Open Book, I wrote about the difficulties of locking into editing. Coming back to a manuscript you feel you’ve completed is tricky, especially when you’re at the stage ...

How I'm Adjusting My Writing Routine For Spring and Summer

A few months ago I wrote about how I’m adjusting my writing routine for autumn & winter. Now that we’re well into spring where I live, I’ve been strategizing for the warmer months ahead. My ...

Saad Omar Khan Delicately Illuminates the Arcs of Two Haunted Lives in Drinking the Ocean

Having already built a reputation for his short fiction, Saad Omar Khan is another new voice with a depth of experience and knowledge that finds its way into his storytelling. The author has now arrived ...

A Missing, Celebrity Feline is at the Centre of Another Case in Mystery at the Biltmore #2: The Classified Catnapping

Our featured title today is the second book in the ongoing, acclaimed Mystery at the Biltmore series (Pajama Press), which has been enticingly billed as "Only Murders in the Building meets Harriet ...

Griffin Prize Giveaway! Win Two Tickets to this Year's Readings, and a Poetry Prize Pack!

The Griffin Prize awards ceremony is right around the corner, and lucky poetry fans can hear all of the shortlisted authors at the upcoming Griffin Prize Poetry Readings right before the announcement ...

Scholar Cheryl Thompson Unpacks a Crucial Part of our National History in Canada and the Blackface Atlantic

While most Canadians tend to think that the legacy of racism and slavery that forms so much of United States history is separate from ours, there is a far deeper connection that is often ignored. From ...