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May-June 2010

Fiction: “Away and Home” by Jonathan Bennett

Jonathan BennettWebsite

They gathered, encircling the freshly opened earth where Danny Douglas would soon rest. Who could believe it gone, that smart-alecky grin? Over in the field beyond the yellow-brick church, corn swayed. The sky was a deep gold with wisps of mauve and the mourners’ eyes were downcast. They all wore black. When the formal part […] More »

Book Review: George Monbiot's Heat: How to Stop the Planet from Burning

daniel tseghay

[Editor’s note: Heat has been out for some time, but given it’s Earth Day, and also given the recent shutdown of so much air traffic after the Eyjafjallajokull volcano eruption, we thought it wasn’t a bad time to revisit it here.] Few issues require as much research as climate change science. You have to know […] More »

Donate to This and receive Rogue Stimulus, a book of prorogation poetry

Graham F. Scott

We’re kicking off our usual spring fundraising drive at This, and we’ve got a special treat this year. If you donate $100 or more, we’ll send you a copy of Rogue Stimulus: The Stephen Harper Holiday Anthology for a Prorogued Parliament as a thank-you gift from us to you. Edited by Stephen Brockwell and This […] More »
July-August 2008

The gruesome genius of Michael Ondaatje, destroyer of worlds

John DegenWebsite

Twice over the endless winter of 2007-08, I finished a pleasant-enough telephone conversation with my mother only to have her call me back a couple of minutes later. “I know what I wanted to tell you,” she said both times, “so-and-so died.” The first unfortunate object of forgotten conversation was a dear old great aunt […] More »

Body Politic #11: Race, gender, and the life and death of Henrietta Lacks

lyndsie bourgon

Chances are Henrietta Lacks has been a part of your life. Without actually seeing her, Lacks could have helped you recover from surgery or a rare medical treatment. And while you might not know who she is, you may have heard of her alter ego: HeLa. Henrietta Lacks lived only to the age of 31, […] More »
March-April 2010

Capturing the Life of Helen Betty Osborne, in words and pictures

Susan Peters

November 13, 1971, The Pas, Manitoba. Four young white men drive past Helen Betty Osborne, a 19-year-old Cree girl. They call for her to get in the car and party with them. “I think I heard a yes,” one man taunts. When she refuses, the men pull her into the car and drive off. Flip […] More »
March-April 2010

In some corners of the web, pirates serve as curators of high culture

Navneet AlangWebsite

There’s more to online piracy than Beyoncé singles and porn In the summer of 1999, a terrifying rumour began circulating on the then-young internet, gluing millions to their screens: Napster, the illegal music service, was about to be shut down. It seemed like the party with an endless soundtrack was coming to an end. The […] More »

Announcing 2010's bigger and better Great Canadian Literary Hunt!

Graham F. Scott

We’re exceptionally excited to announce the launch of this year’s annual This Magazine tradition, the Great Canadian Literary Hunt. Now in its 14th year, we’re on the trail again of Canada’s best undiscovered poetry, short fiction and — drumroll! — graphic narrative. That’s right, we’ve added a third category to the contest, a visual category […] More »
March-April 2010

Review: Imagining Toronto by Amy Lavender Harris

Ava Baccari

Long before communities existed on Facebook, there were tangible places in a city where people with common interests converged. In a place like Toronto, where communities of different cultural groups and ideas form in often isolated pockets, the struggle to define a common identity among them is as old as the city itself. But part […] More »

Buy a book, help save Al Purdy's house

kim hart macneill

The ramshackle A-frame house Al Purdy built still stands by the lake in Ameliasburgh, Ontario. A place “so far from anywhere,” he wrote, “even homing pigeons lost their way.” Inside, it’s nearly as it was when he died 10 years ago. His drawers and cupboards still hold the flotsam and jetsam of a well lived […] More »

Interview: Liz Worth, author of Treat Me Like Dirt

Graham F. Scott

For today’s instalment of Verbatim, Marisa Iacobucci interviews Liz Worth about her new book, Treat Me Like Dirt: An Oral History of Punk in Toronto and Beyond. The original podcast is available to listen to here. (To ensure you never miss an episode, how about subscribing to the RSS feed or through iTunes?) The book […] More »