Ontario book news, interviews and more

"Not Only Landmarks, But Vibration" Tanya Turton on Her Love Letter to Her Toronto Neighbourhood and Black Queer Womanhood

To lose a sibling as a young adult is a brutal experience. For Jade Brown, the protagonist of debut novelist Tanya Turton's Jade is a Twisted Green (Rare Machines/Dundurn Press), the tragedy is made ...

A Thousand More Lives: On Reading

I recently stumbled across an article written by Umberto Eco in Rome in 1991, translated into Spanish by Jorge Cruz and published in the Argentinean newspaper La Nación, explaining why he believed that ...

Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction Shortlist Combines Urgent Social Issues with Powerful Personal Storytelling

This morning, the Writers’ Trust of Canada announced the five finalists for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction, with an interesting mix of subject matter, publishers, and literary ...

Hannah McGregor on the Books That Shaped Her Writing and the One That Helped Her Break Genre Barriers

You can tell a lot about Hannah McGregor from the titles of her acclaimed podcasts, including Witch, Please and Secret Feminist Agenda. A writer and creator unafraid of a bit of cheeky fun with a serious ...

"All Language is Your Playground" Poet Otoniya J. Okot Bitek on Chance Encounters and the Power of Poetry

In her new collection, decorated poet Otoniya J. Okot Bitek plays with form and expectation, rewriting history both colonial and literary. A Is for Acholi (Wolsak & Wynn) sees Okot Bitek rewriting ...

Plant a tree, have a child, write a book? Not so fast!

“Plant a tree, have a child, write a book.” Whether it was Cuban poet and freedom fighter José Martí or some other worthy who first uttered this maxim is irrelevant. What matters is its message: ...

Read an Excerpt from Harold R. Johnson's Final Book, The Power of Story

The late Harold R. Johnson was a master storyteller. He published a dozen books prior to his passing in February 2022 and was acclaimed for his fiction, which often drew on elements of his Cree heritage ...

On Translation

My favourite assignment during my time as an undergraduate student at the English Literature Department in Mexico’s National Autonomous University (UNAM), was the translation of a short story of my ...

The Writers' Trust Announces an All-Indie Press Shortlist for the Atwood Gibson Fiction Prize

We're well and truly into the literary season now, with the Writers’ Trust of Canada today announcing the second of the major fiction prize lists of the year (following the Giller Prize's longlist announcement ...

Leslie Kern's New Book Challenges Assumptions about Gentrification & Offers Hope in the Face of Rampant Housing Inequality

Gentrification, and the massive housing affordability crisis to which it is related, is an issue plagued with myths and misunderstandings. As we enter an era where housing has become unaffordable for ...