Today marks the first day of school. Millions of children in Ontario and Canada are going back to class, back to their teachers and subjects, back to their school routine. This is the first fall, ever, that I haven’t gone back to skool. Reflecting on the whole experience I feel a big nostalgic, even a […] 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 »
A shrewd writer who told the ugly truth about poverty I first read Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes when I was 14. My family took a road trip from Saskatchewan to Ontario — 1,800 kilometres, 20 driving hours, and about 40 pounds of gummy bears. Anyone who has travelled across the country in a minivan with […] More »
Girls are expected to behave a certain way. While I’m not exactly sure what that means, I do know that I was once chastised by one of my high school drama teachers for what she diagnosed as “this stupid Goth thing you’re going for”: referring—albeit inaccurately—to my self-styled uniform of inky dyed hair, Salvation Army […] More »
Is it too ambitious to call chapbooks the quintessential medium for Canadian poetry? Certainly many do. And it is true that in these tiny works of ephemera have been published some of the most experimental and best work of Canadian poets such as Gwendolyn McEwen, Jay Millar, and of course bp Nichol. Moreover, like the […] More »
The English language reached 1 million words yesterday. It’s a bit of a humbling realization if you’re intent on developing your vocabulary. It means, if you want to know every English word, you will need to learn a word an hour for the next 114 years, which means you’re probably already too late. That’s also […] More »
This morning the Canada Council for the Arts threw a little party to announce the finalists for this year’s Governor General’s Literary Awards finalists. The literati and assorted hangers-on crowded into Ben McNally Books on Bay Street in Toronto to hear the announcement, and I stopped by to see the festivities (I think I qualify […] More »
Best-selling author Yann Martel was so unimpressed with the reception he and other artists received in the House of Commons recently that he’s come up with a web-based response: For as long as Stephen Harper is Prime Minister of Canada, I vow to send him every two weeks, mailed on a Monday, a book that […] More »
On Buy Nothing Day, those kids at the Torontoist blog are showing their dedication to balance by interviewing lapsed culture jammer, Andrew Potter. It’s a great chat, so check it out. I thought of Potter last night while I read an essay about the American socialist poet Carl Sandburg. I think Potter would like Sandburg. […] More »
In a year City Hall is calling the Year of Creativity for Toronto, what is needed is an honest survey of the city’s arts community: From expensive productions to hidden gems, how are the arts helping to shape Toronto? This Sunday, interested parties can take a step toward answering this question by attending a day-long […] More »
Last night I discovered a wonderful little online tool, LibraryThing, for tracking one’s reading habits. It can search the LIbraray of Congress and Amazon to return info on thousands of books and thumbnails of their covers. It’s simple to add books to your “library,” rate them, and see what others like you have enjoyed reading. […] More »