by Steven W. Beattie

Spring Preview 2017: Fiction

Fantastic four A quartet of major novels from literary heavy-hitters: State of confusion Pasha Malla’s debut, the 2008 short-fiction collection The Withdrawal Method, won the Trillium Book Award. His debut novel, 2012’s People Park, was ... Read More »

January 30, 2017

Montreal author Sylvain Neuvel followed an unlikely route to success

By Steven W. Beattie

Sylvain Neuvel’s career as a best-selling science-fiction author has its genesis in a toy robot he made for his son. When his boy was two-and-a-half years old, Neuvel, who dabbles in model making and robotics, ... Read More »

December 14, 2016

Books of the Year 2016: Three books blur the distinction between novels and short stories

By Steven W. Beattie

When Mona Awad’s debut book of fiction, 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl, won the 2016 Amazon.ca First Novel Award, some readers might have had reason to be puzzled. The book, which comprises ... Read More »

November 17, 2016

A chance meeting led to Canadian poets appearing at Edinburgh Fringe

By Steven W. Beattie

It began, in one respect, because a poet was in need of a pen. Though based in Kingston, Ontario, poet Ian Burgham is no stranger to Scotland, having done post-graduate work at the University of ... Read More »

August 15, 2016

Fall Preview 2016: Fiction

By Steven W. Beattie

Translations Québécois reveries In the May 26, 2015, issue of The New Yorker, writer Pasha Malla mused about the status of French-to-English translations in Canada. The occasion was a review of Maxime Raymond Bock’s short-story ... Read More »

July 25, 2016

Let all Black People speak this poem: remembering Austin Clarke, 1934–2016

By Steven W. Beattie

Austin Clarke never considered himself part of the CanLit firmament. Despite his many achievements – which include winning the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and the Trillium Book Award for his 2002 novel The ... Read More »

June 27, 2016

Ian Reid

By Steven W. Beattie

Profile: Iain Reid explores new territory in his debut work of fiction, I’m Thinking of Ending Things

April 27, 2016

Yasuko Thanh

By Steven W. Beattie

Profile: Yasuko Thanh harnesses a wandering spirit and an inner strength

March 28, 2016

“A hands-on shepherd to her flock of often straying lambs”: Remembering Ellen Seligman

By Steven W. Beattie

Ellen Seligman – the iconic editor and publisher of McClelland & Stewart, who died of undisclosed causes on March 25 – embodied CanLit. Her influence was pervasive, though like all good editors she remained resolutely ... Read More »

March 28, 2016

Prominent right-to-die advocate John Hofsess claims to have helped poet Al Purdy end his life in 2000

By Steven W. Beattie

When reports of Al Purdy's death appeared on April 21, 2000, they stated that the renowned poet, who was suffering from metastatic lung cancer, had died in his sleep. Yesterday, Toronto Life published a posthumous ... Read More »

March 1, 2016 | Filed under: Authors

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