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 >>]

May 1, 2009

Let’s Get It On

Canadian fiction prefers the joinery of farmhouses — not farmhands The preference among Canadian literary awards for historical fiction has created a national literature devoted to burlap sacking instead of life in the sack. The repeat shortlisting of historical fiction, in which a rural or foreign yesterday is somehow more important than today, contributes to our excessively chaste literature. England... [More >>]