Ontario book news, interviews and more

Falling in love with audiobooks

I used to have to walk to get my babies to sleep in the stroller. I would walk and walk until they were asleep, loops of the same block, and then I’d sit on a bench, the one bench in my entire neighbourhood, ...

Author & Illustrator Team Jo Ellen Bogart and Maja Kastelic Launch Our New KidLit Convos Series of Chats Between Literary Co-Creators

It's always fascinating to learn about how writers and illustrators create the magical children's books we all love. But for author Jo Ellen Bogart and illustrator Maja Kastelic, there was a twist to ...

CBC Books Announces the 5 Finalists for the 2021 Poetry Award, Chosen from Thousands of Submissions

Today, five writers have been shortlisted for the 2021 CBC Poetry Prize. The prize, which has been awarded since 1979 and is one of the most prestigious and richest awards in the country for a single ...

Shane Goth on Exploring the Excitement of "Little Things That Adults Overlook" in His Enchanting Debut Picture Book

There's something magic about being awake when everyone else is asleep. Sisters Milly and Becca know that to be true when they form The Midnight Club, which meets, of course, at the stroke of midnight ...

Canada Council Announces Governor General's Literary Award Winners, with a Great Showing for Small Presses

This morning the Canada Council for the Arts announced the winners of seven English language and seven French language prizes for the 2021 Governor General's Literary Awards. It's an excellent year for ...

Novelist Barbara Langhorst on Why Her Toughest Character to Write Became Her Favourite

Barbara Langhorst's The Winter-Blooming Tree (Palimpsest Press) takes readers deep into a seemingly ordinary family to showcase unforgettable characters.Ursula Koehl-Niederhauser is a teacher whose ...

Getting to Know Shawna Lemay, Whose New Novel Explores Secrets, Belief, and Women's Connections

In Shawna Lemay's Everything Affects Everyone (Palimpsest Press), Xaviere is left a strange gift when her dear friend Daphne passes away and, in her will, requests that Xaviere transcribe a series ...

Letters that were never intended for me

It’s no secret that I love letter writing. My debut novel, Letters to Amelia, is full of them, and I even created an entire community arts project based around the power of writing letters. But with ...

Andrée Poulin Tackles Period Stigma in Her Beautiful New Verse Novel for Young Readers

Andrée Poulin's Burying the Moon (Groundwood Books, illustrated by Sonali Zohra) tells the story of a young Indian girl whose courage changes the lives of all the girls and women in her village. In ...

James T. Brophy & Margaret M. Keith Break the Silence on the Hidden Crisis of Assaults on Health Care Workers

In health care settings, it's easy to assume the most vulnerable people are, at all times, the patients. But there is another element of vulnerability that is rarely discussed, despite its reaching a ...