Ontario book news, interviews and more

The Dirty Dozen with Katherena Vermette

Katherena Vermette's The Break (House of Anansi Press) was nominated for both the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and the Governor General's Literary Award this year, a rare feat for a first novel. ...

Madeleine Thien Tops Year of Honours with Scotiabank Giller Prize

Every once in a while a book comes along that captures readers' and juries' imaginations so completely that it becomes the book of that year. After last night, it's impossible to deny that 2016 belongs ...

Featured Video: Jennifer Welsh's CBC Massey Lecture Predicts More Trouble Ahead

Every year, House of Anansi Press, CBC, and Massey College work with a leading Canadian thinker to publicize and publish the CBC Massey Lecture. Subjects vary widely, but have touched on topics cultural, ...

Adventures in Book Signing: why I need a heart-to-heart with my muse

By Bianca Lakoseljac: Writer in Residence I am back to book signing! Since the release of my new novel, Stone Woman, in September, I’ve embarked once more on this adventure.I meet some of the most ...

The Art of Giving Feedback

In 2009, after I had finished an early draft of my first book, God Loves Hair, I gave some of my closest friends a copy of the manuscript for their feedback. It was a vulnerable experience, especially ...

"What's Your Story?" OBPO Contest Winners Part 3: East York

We've got four pieces of brand new, original writing today on Open Book - it's the third instalment of the Ontario Book Publishers Organization's inaugural What's Your Story? writing competition!The ...

Writers' Trust Awards Honour Campbell, Thanh & More with $200k in Prizes!

Last night, at an event at CBC's Glenn Gould Studio, the Writers' Trust of Canada gathered authors, publishers, and readers together to present over $200,000 of prize money to the winners and finalists ...

The WAR Series: Writers as Readers, with Katherine Ashenburg

Katherine Ashenburg's All the Dirt: A History of Getting Clean (Annick Press) gets pretty filthy, but it's still appropriate (and irresistible) for its middle grade audience, because this dirt is the ...

The 2016 Weston Prize Finalists on Inspiration & Non-fiction: "Your Books Choose You"

From life as an Israeli soldier to the surprising story behind one of the world's most famous paintings, the fascinating books on this year's Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction shortlist ...

November—Month of the Novel

Bianca Lakoseljac: Writer in ResidenceI am thrilled to be Open Book’s Writer in Residence for the month of November. It is a month of transformation and whimsy—it harbours a type of incongruity in ...