Ontario book news, interviews and more

Read an Excerpt from Steven Heighton's Final Story Collection, Instructions for the Drowning

The CanLit community came together in mourning last year when the news broke that beloved and acclaimed Kingston-based writer Steven Heighton had passed away at the age of 60. Known for his powerful multi-genre ...

Annahid Dashtgard on Her Exploration of Belonging, Racial Justice, and "the Glorious Messiness" of Being Human

As CEO of Anima Leadership, Annahid Dashtgard has helped countless organizations create more inclusive and equitable workplaces. And one of the most powerful ways to create those needed changes, both ...

Shakespearean Transformations: All’s Well by Mona Awad

Mona Awad’s 2021 novel, All’s Well, follows a drama professor suffering from chronic pain. She’s staging one of Shakespeare’s plays, All’s Well That Ends Well, which is about an orphan named ...

Cool-down Time

There’s a third part to the poetry tour series. This post doesn’t have resources or logistical advice, but rather on how to survive the way a book tour suddenly occupies huge parts of your life.In ...

Andrew F. Sullivan Explores a Literally Toxic Future Toronto in His Crackling New Horror Novel, The Marigold

One could arguably already describe Toronto's housing market as dystopian, but in Andrew F. Sullivan's wickedly dark new novel The Marigold (ECW Press), Sullivan takes our metaphorical horror-scape ...

I Just Got Published - So, Why Don't I Feel Great?

When I was 18, I resolved to be a published writer one day. It was something I’d dreamed of even before then. As a younger teenager I wrote simple books inspired in varying degrees by The Outsiders. ...

I Just Got Published - So, Why Don't I Feel Great?

When I was 18, I resolved to be a published writer one day. It was something I’d dreamed of even before then. As a younger teenager I wrote simple books inspired in varying degrees by The Outsiders. ...

Poetry Tours: Funding

Last time on the WIR blog, I talked about tips for planning a poetry tour, including tips on building a tour from existing events. In this post, I hope to share some resources on funding a poetry tour, ...

Read an Excerpt from Richard Sanger's Final Poetry Collection, Way to Go

Facing a terminal diagnosis, poet, playwright, and translator Richard Sanger had to decide how to use his final days – and how he felt about the end. In time, he decided to do what he'd been doing ...

Vera Constantineau on the Haibun Form & Finding Poetry in Buddhism's 108 Defilements

While Catholicism has its seven deadly sins, Buddhism gets a lot more specific, with a whopping 108 temptations that practitioners seek to avoid. Alternatively translated as impurities, vexations, or ...