Ontario book news, interviews and more

A Writer’s Guide to Reading in 2022

I read a lot of books in 2021. More than I ever have, except for maybe the summers when I was eight and would clear out the chapter book section at Humber Bay library. I have always been an escapist, ...

"Ubuntu Has Gone From a Reminder to an Urgency" Chidiogo Akunyili-Parr on Inhabiting Her Revolutionary Mother's Voice & Philosophy

Dr. Dora Akunyili was a Nigerian pharmacologist who spent her life crusading against a scourge of counterfeit drugs in her country—drugs that were responsible for the deaths of millions, including Akunyili's ...

"I am Obsessed with Place" Anna Dowdall on Whisking Readers to Paris and Montreal in Her Twisty New Mystery Novel

Private investigator Ashley Smeeton returns for a third time in Anna Dowdall's lush new mystery novel, April on Paris Street (Guernica Editions), which sees the Montreal-based PI travel to Paris on ...

"I Knew I Wanted Big Stories" Susanna Fournier on Crafting Hundreds of Years of Dystopian History for Her Plays

Imagine creating not just a fully realized world, but an entire history that spans hundreds of years. That is the creativity Susanna Fournier brought to her suite of three plays, The Empire (Playwrights ...

Wrap Up 2021 with an Excerpt from Tim Bowling's Meditative Book of Essays, The Call of the Red-Winged Blackbird

For our final post of 2021, we're sharing an excerpt from a truly special book. Tim Bowling, the award winning author of more than twenty books of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, draws on sixty years ...

"I Did Not Choose to Become a Poet" Nduka Otiono on Ghost Writing Love Letters, Negotiating with Poems, & More

DisPlace: The Poetry of Nduka Otiono (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, edited by Peter Midgley with an afterword by Chris Dunton) gathers powerhouse poems from one of Canada's most insightful and timely ...

December Gratitude: Check Out 5 of Our Favourite Author Interviews & Excerpts from 2021

For our final instalment of December Gratitude, the series in which we are rounding up of some of our favourite postings from 2021, it's a double-whammy: we're sharing five of our favourite author interviews and five ...

Book Therapy: Favourites from my favourites

Every year, in the back of my agenda, I keep a simple running list of the books I’ve read. More than anything, it’s a handy way to remember what exactly I consumed and when, but it also offers a useful ...

Robert Rotenberg on His Family's Lost Story of Heroism, A Memorable Opening Line, & Going Back to Chandler

Bestselling crime writer Robert Rotenberg, who is also a prominent criminal lawyer, knows how to craft a good story. But he got a serious surprise when two distant relatives wrote a story he'd never heard ...

The Renaissance of Fanfiction

For those who have grown invested in any fanbase whether it be movies, musicians, anime, cartoons and, of course, books, it’s more than likely you’ve come across fanfiction at some point in your life. ...