Ontario book news, interviews and more

Make It New (Again)!

I was shocked a few years ago when, in a workshop I attended, a thirty-something writer who had already published a book (and has since gone on to publish two much more successful ones) dismissed the ...

Contest! Win a Summer Reads Prize Pack of Essays from Porcupine's Quill!

Porcupine's Quill wants you to have the best summer reading experience you can, and all it takes to nab a chance at it is sending a simple email. That's right folks, we've got another terrific prize pack ...

Why It’s Okay If You Haven’t Finished Your First Book Yet

I thought I would finish my first novel by the time I turned 25.I laugh at the absurdity of that now. But in my early 20s, I believed it when people told me that anything was possible with hard work and ...

Writing What You "Know"

I’m one of countless writers who found his way thanks to this old standby, and having just published a book of stories set in small Southwestern Ontario towns a lot like the ones where I grew up, it’s ...

An interview with Klara du Plessis

“It’s Very Common for me to Constantly Switch Codes While Thinking.”The poems in Klara du Plessis’ debut collection, Ekke, treat translation like ekphrasis, exploring in English the impossibilities ...

"Here Might Be a Path Out of Myself" Steve McOrmond on Discovering Poetry

Steve McOrmond's  Reckon (Brick Books) is his first book since the widely-praised The Good News About Armageddon was published in 2010. Reckon is worth the wait, packed with poems that balance wit ...

Being Prime Minister author J.D.M. Stewart Takes Us Behind the Scenes

With just 23 members, it may be the country's most exclusive club. Canadian Prime Ministers, seven of whom are still alive in addition to our current PM Justin Trudeau, have shaped the course not only ...

Did You Really Go Through All That?

I stole the title of this post from a scene late in the film Sideways, but I could’ve taken a similar line from nearly anywhere—for instance, the second of Orhan Pamuk’s Norton Lectures (collected ...

Alain Deneault on Late Stage Capitalism & the Curious, Harmful Rise of the Mediocre

Alain Deneault is known for his take-no-prisoners approach to challenging corporations and political systems that undermine the public good (in particular, he is well known for being the target of lawsuits ...

Contest! Travel the Country on the Page with Brick Books' Cross Canada Poetry Contest!

The power of place in poetry is undeniable. A poem can transport you, and Open Book and Brick Books want to do just that with our Cross Canada Poetry Contest! Courtesy of Brick Books, you can enter to ...