HistoryTag
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February 28, 2022
"She Saved Our Lives, But it Cost Her a Great Deal" March Writer-in-Residence Amanda West Lewis on the Story Behind Her New YA Novel
It's a daunting task to take on capturing New York City in the 60s, but Amanda West Lewis is more than up to the job in her tough, compelling, autobiographically inspired young adult novel These Are ...
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January 18, 2022
K.R. Wilson on His Daring New Novel that Follows One Memorable Character from the Fall of Rome to Contemporary Toronto
Guernica Literary Prize winner K.R. Wilson's sophomore novel Call Me Stan: A Tragedy in Three Millenia (Guernica Editions) is as ambitious as it is memorable, following the titular hero through centuries ...
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December 15, 2021
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 ...
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December 07, 2021
"So Bizarre, It Must Be True... Nonfiction Brings the Past Alive" Nate Hendley on Nonfiction & His Wild New True Crime Story
It was a plotline that could be considered too outlandish even for a TV crime drama: a bank robbery in an iconic costume, a shootout with a military veteran, and an insanity plea that kicked off a years-long ...
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November 24, 2021
"Maximum Curiosity and Maximum Respect" Susan Glickman's Collected Essays are a Hymn to Thoughtful Literary Criticism
For those who worry that thoughtful, long-form literary criticism is becoming a thing of the past, Susan Glickman's Artful Flight (forthcoming from the Porcupine's Quill; available for pre-order now) ...
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August 25, 2021
Read an Excerpt from Mark Frutkin's The Artist and the Assassin, A Retelling of Revolutionary Artist Caravaggio's Life and Death
Italian artist Caravaggio revolutionized painting in the 17th century with his dramatic use of light and shadow (a technique known as chiaroscuro). During his life though, his tumultuous personal affairs ...
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July 15, 2021
Read an Excerpt from Irish Author Doireann Ní Ghríofa's Haunting, Beautiful, and Genre Defying Book, A Ghost in the Throat
Part autofiction, part literary study, and part keen-eyed examination of domestic labour, Doireann Ní Ghríofa's strange, intense, and beautifully written A Ghost in the Throat (Biblioasis) is impossible ...
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July 08, 2021
James A. Onusko on the Complex Legacy of the Baby Boomers' Suburban Youths
Both urban and rural settings abound in literature, but the manufactured homogeneity of suburban areas is less frequently deemed worthy of literary exploration. Academic James A. Onusko challenges that ...
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January 26, 2021
Lorna Poplak on the Notorious History of The Don Jail & How It Failed Its Hopeful, Progressive Roots
An imposing but externally beautiful building on the east bank of the Don River, the Don Jail—invariably known simply as "The Don" to Torontonians—has a long and troubled history. From its opening ...
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January 19, 2021
Trina Davies' Brilliant New Play, Silence, Brings an Overlooked Figure in History to Centre Stage
It would be hard to find anyone who doesn't know who Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, was. But Mabel Hubbard Bell isn't a name that pops up in many history classes. The untold story ...