Ontario book news, interviews and more

Telling and Writing the End of the World

My grandmother, Aileen Rice, was the strongest connection I had to a pre-contact world. She used to tell me stories about how her great-grandparents’ generation used to migrate up and down the eastern ...

Guernica Editions Celebrates 40 Years of Literary Innovation with New Events, Imprint & Prize

Guernica Editions is one of Canada's oldest, most prestigious independent publishing houses, having steadily published literary fiction, non-fiction, and poetry for a whopping four decades. Their apt ...

An Interview with Shazia Hafiz Ramji

“My Instinct was to Listen and Notice in Order to Survive.” - Shazia Hafiz RamjiIn her debut collection, Port of Being, Vancouver poet Shazia Hafiz Ramji manages to take the personal and make it into ...

Understanding the Eternal Appeal of Anne Frank's Story With All About Anne Author Menno Metselaar

It's hard to name a cultural figure who has had the impact Anne Frank has. Her eponymous diary and the museum created in the house where she and her family lived in hiding are known around the world, ...

Governor General's Literary Award Lists Released, Including a Hat Trick for Rawi Hage

"Innovative, troubling, surprising and emotional" -- that dynamic list of qualities is how Simon Brault, Director and CEO of the Canada Council for the Arts, described the 2018 Governor General's Literary ...

The Story of My Face Author Leanne Baugh on Teenaged Self-Consciousness & Crafting Memorable Characters

Every teen feels awkward and self-conscious sometimes, but 17-year old Abby Hughes, the resilient young protagonist in Leanne Baugh's The Story of My Face (Second Story Press), has a serious reason ...

Shortlist for 25th Giller Prize Announced: DeWitt, Dupont, Edugyan, Heti, & Lim

This morning in Toronto, publishers, media, and writers gathered for the announcement of the 2018 Scotiabank Giller Prize shortlist. 2017 winner Michael Redhill was in attendance, as well as Toronto ...

Why Does It Take So Long to Make a Picture Book?: Or, How To Get Really Good at Waiting

I don’t know about you, but I wasn’t prepared for all the waiting I’d have to do in life. And when it comes to writing, you do a lot of waiting. Waiting for inspiration to strike. Realizing that ...

Contest! Get Personal with a Prize Pack of Auto-Fiction From Book*hug!

Not quite autobiography, not quite fiction: auto-fiction may be a new term to many, but it refers to a genre that's been beloved by readers and writers alike for decades, and which is getting a new life ...

Binaakwe Giizis - Moon of Falling Leaves

Happy October! In Anishinaabemowin (the Ojibwe language), October is commonly known in many places as "Binaakwe Giizis", or the Moon of Falling Leaves. Anishinaabemowin is a very poetic and descriptive ...