Why we should never feel bad about what we read “I keep telling myself that this winter I’m going to re-read In Search of Lost Time. I can’t believe how long it’s been.” “Oh. Yeah. Um. Me too, it’s been … way too long since … that.” “But you have read Proust, right?” “Proust? Have […] More »

Literary prizes are often seen as either a barometer or an enforcer of national taste. Gillian Roberts’s Prizing Literature turns instead to how prizes like the Giller and Booker confer upon their Canadian recipients an unofficial certificate of citizenship. With clear prose and theoretical acumen, Roberts probes the vexed relationship between national culture and hospitality, […] More »

Alice Munro, one of the giants of Canada’s literary scene, has always been a tremendously sensitive and humane writer; in turning down yet another nomination for the prestigious Giller Prize, she’s proven to be an equally sensitive and humane cultivator of Canadian writing talent. Having already won the Giller twice—for The Love of a Good […] More »