March 11, 2010
Review: The 500 Years of Resistance Comic Book by Gord Hill
In The 500 Years of Resistance Comic Book, Vancouver-based writer Gord Hill blends his visual and literary talents to tell the story of aboriginal life since the arrival of Europeans in the Western Hemisphere in 1492. If the book’s title isn’t enough to tell you what perspective Hill, a member of the Kwakwaka’wakw nation, is taking, the names of the book’s three sections certainly will: Invasion,... [More >>]
January 26, 2010
Review: This American Drive by Mike Holmes
A frame from Mike Holmes' new book, "This American Drive." Courtesy Invisible Publishing. When Mike Holmes passed through Toronto on his reading tour last fall, he warned the audience, “I’m a cartoonist, not an author.” Holmes is, in fact, both. His latest work, This American Drive, is not just a novel with pretty pictures. Weaving traditional storytelling and elements of the graphic... [More >>]
January 8, 2010
In the twilight of the independent bookstore, Chapters looms
The local indie bookstore is an endangered species, and the blue meanie, Indigo, is their predator Pages Books' bare shelves in its final days of business. Photo by Rick McGinnis. On a warm night in early September, several hundred people gathered at Toronto’s Gladstone Hotel to hold a wake for a bookstore. For 30 years, until its closing at the end of August, Pages Books, located in the heart... [More >>]
October 6, 2009
Book Review: Who’s Your Daddy? And Other Writings on Queer Parenting
Who's Your Daddy? And other writings on queer parenting, edited by Rachel Epstein The legalization of gay marriage in Canada has coincided with an era that might be dubbed the first “queer baby boom.” As such, this generation of queer parents and their children have been forced to adopt the ambivalent role of pioneers in a social space in which the model of the “traditional” nuclear family... [More >>]
September 18, 2009
Canada’s an urban nation. Why is our literature still down on the farm?
CanLit has the literary equivalent of the Y2K bug—it can’t flip over into this century Most Canadians live in cities. Why is our literature so relentlessly rural? Illustration by Graham Roumieu. When he delivers public lectures, editor and writer John Metcalf is fond of illustrating CanLit’s paradoxical obsession with tales of the rural past by describing the query letter he once received... [More >>]
August 12, 2009
Review: Nicole Brossard’s latest novel throbs with linguistic menace
Quebec writer Nicole Brossard’s latest novel, Fences in Breathing (translated by Susanne de Lotbinière-Harwood), confronts a subject favoured by a cadre of contemporary literary darlings, Roberto Bolaño, David Foster Wallace, and John Wray among them: namely, a profound distrust in the magic of fiction. A woman of letters herself, Brossard’s Québécoise protagonist, Anne, labours to write a... [More >>]
June 18, 2009
Dear CBC: Review more books
Professional book reviewing is dead in this country. The CBC could revive it. The CBC could be a force for CanLit. Why isn't it? Illustration by Dushan Milic If Clive Owen were a Canadian author, maybe the CBC would finally review books. Katrina Onstad, a film columnist for CBC.ca, begins a recent review: “The International opens with a long, extended close-up of Clive Owen’s face, following... [More >>]
June 12, 2009
B.C. libraries introducing homegrown e-books — for free
Publishers, libraries co-operating to get locally published e-books into the public’s hands If the Association of Book Publishers of B.C. gets its way, the province’s libraries will be making a major acquisition this summer without gaining any weight. The association’s Best of B.C. Books Online project plans to purchase electronic rights to a collection of some 1,000 non-fiction titles... [More >>]
June 4, 2009
Welcome to the no-growth economy
York University economist Peter Victor says it’s time to shrink the economy, not grow it York University economist Peter Victor: "We're in serious trouble right now." Photo by Molly Crealock How can we escape our current economic mess while simultaneously avoiding the looming triple threats of peak oil, climate change, and species extinction? York University ecological economist... [More >>]
May 1, 2009
Four Poems by Fraser Sutherland
Consistency When the soldiers came in their armoured vehicle they gave the little Muslim boys candy bars. They gave pieces of candy bars to barking or tail-wagging dogs. When the soldiers drove away, some of the boys ran after them, ran and ran and ran until there was only one boy, run- ning, running. The next time the men came they taught the little boys to chant in English, “I love pork! I... [More >>]
