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literary prizes

September-October 2009

Canada’s an urban nation. Why is our literature still down on the farm?

Darryl WhetterWebsite

CanLit has the literary equivalent of the Y2K bug—it can’t flip over into this century 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 from a then-unheard-of Russell Smith. Metcalf claims that Smith […] More »
March-April 2009

Worth a Thousand Words?

Drew NellesWebsite

Jillian Tamaki found that literary juries are still learning how to read graphic novels Last year, on October 21, Jillian Tamaki got a phone call from her cousin, the Toronto-based writer-performer Mariko Tamaki. Their muchloved co-creation Skim had made history by becoming the first graphic novel nominated for a Governor General’s Award, in the Children’s […] More »