Ontario book news, interviews and more

On making art and writing and the cover of Glorious Frazzled Beings

I like to draw, and collage, and paint with watercolours, and glue bits of lichen and bark I find in the forest onto the things I draw, collage and paint. Sometimes I make a painting and then I cut it ...

Waiting for the bumper year

What cicadas can teach us about embracing the murk This year, millions of cicadas emerged from the ground and took to the trees in deafening chorus across North America. During the hottest days of summer, ...

Aaron Schneider's Debut Story Collection Plays with Genre Constraints & Brings Readers Into the Experiment

Aaron Schneider's debut story collection What We Think We Know (Gordon Hill Press) asks readers to consider the genre through the lens of the title. What do we know about the short story? Schneider plays ...

Indigenous Storytelling Shines on the Powerhouse 2021 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction Shortlist

This morning, the Writers' Trust of Canada announced the five 2021 finalists for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction, the $60,000 award that has quickly come to be the defining nonfiction ...

Read an Excerpt from The Shaytan Bride, Sumaiya Matin's Powerful True Story of Escaping Forced Marriage

As a small child, Sumaiya Matin had heard about the Shaytan Bride. A woman with something wrong with her. Maybe she was crazy, or defiant. Or maybe she was possessed, trapped or seduced by an evil spirit ...

Word on the Street Guest Authors Ralph Benmergui, Emily Brewes, & Hollay Ghadery on Ontario as Inspiration, Virtual Events & More

The Word on the Street is just around the corner, starting this Thursday, September 16 and wrapping up September 26. In pre-pandemic times, the Word on the Street was a sprawling and beloved outdoor literary ...

On Anabiosis and Mosses Helping with Sleep

On Wednesday, on the way to the river, I stopped in my tracks, struck by the moss habitat on a birch tree on the bank. It is a twinned paper birch — with one dead trunk snapped off about two meters ...

What Big Open Spaces Taught Me About Finishing a Draft

Who doesn’t like writing at home, with the comfort of Maltesers, a perfect sound setup, and being able to write naked? Writing outside of your comfy space is much harder than it seems.In June this year, ...

Anosh Irani, Author of Masterpiece One-Man Show, Buffoon, on His Life and Process as a Playwright

Anosh Irani is one of Canada's most treasured and exciting playwrights and novelists, with his past work landing him on numerous award lists, including the Governor General's Literary Awards and the ...

The Books on My Desk, Time, Habits, Children, and Orderliness

I feel like I need to mention that I just found out this morning that Glorious Frazzled Beings has been long listed for the Scotiabank Giller Prize because it has taken up most of my morning with a hullaballoo ...