NovelsTag

Amazon.ca and The Walrus Announce the Amazon First Novel Award Shortlist

It's clear that we're firmly in Spring literary prize season, and there's plenty to celebrate. With the announcement of the Griffin Poetry Prize shortlists, the CBC Short Story Contest winner, and the ...

Ross Breithaupt on Weaving Together Music, Mourning, and the Gritty Reality of Tree Planting in His Moving First Novel

Anyone who's ever tried their hand at tree-planting in Canada knows it's an intense undertaking. For 20-year old Rory Fleck, the intensity is just what he's looking for—a place to forget himself and ...

Contest! Enter to Win Legal Thrillers by William Deverell That Will Keep You Reading (and Laughing) All Night

William Deverell knows the highs and lows of legal drama well — a former criminal lawyer himself, he'd pretty much seen it all when he turned his hand to writing novels. With his Arthur Beauchamp ...

Novelist John Jantunen on Opening Scenes, Naming Murderers After Friends, & the Strange Time He Met His Protagonist in Northern Ontario

In the not too distant future, a prison filled with hardened inmates is suddenly plunged into darkness. The power has mysteriously gone out, and it's not coming back. The guards flee the prison, leaving ...

"I Adore Their Fortitude, Ferocity, Verve, and Heart" Christy Ann Conlin on Her Past Characters Returning in Her Gripping New Novel

Coming off the success of her 2019 short story collection (not to mention her two widely-praised novels that preceded it), Christy Ann Conlin is back this season with The Speed of Mercy (House of ...

The Chaos of Creation and Why I Chase the Rupture Point

When I write, it feels like I am on the inside of a spinning wheel that never stops. The wheel lets itself loose from the chassis and throws itself, willingly, down the hillside. The after effects of ...

"A Sustained Think... on Trauma" March 2021 Writer in Residence Anne Stone on Writing a Pandemic Novel Before COVID

Sometimes an author's imagination dovetails so perfectly, and unexpectedly, with the outside world that the prescience seems almost chilling. Such is the case with Girl Minus X (Wolsak & Wynn) by Anne ...

"I Like Inhabiting One Character": Philipp Schott on Telling Family Stories, Building Character, & "Invisible Scaffolding"

Philipp Schott's The Willow Wren (ECW Press) follows the complex and harrowing story of Ludwig, a child growing up in Hilter's Germany. Sent against his will to a Hitler Youth Camp, shy and gentle Ludwig ...

Read an Excerpt from Russell Banks' Stunning New Novel of Confession and Secrets, Foregone

Russell Banks is one of American letters' most treasured writers, exploring themes of violence, alienation, luck, and justice, often set against the backdrop of seemingly peaceful small towns in novels ...

A.G. Pasquella Shows Readers the City's Dark Side in His Compulsively Readable Toronto Crime Novels

Toronto's dark side takes centre stage in A.G. Pasquella's Jack Palace series. Season of Smoke (Dundurn Press), the newest instalment in the series, sees Jack backed into a terrible corner when his past ...