Criticism & Essays

★ Raise You Five: Essays and Encounters 1964-2004: Volume One

One can only assume that if Barry Callaghan had had any choice in the matter, the occupation of writer wouldn’t have been high on his career wish list. Before Atwood, before Munro, before Ondaatje, there ... Read More »

September 15, 2005 | Filed under: Criticism & Essays

Confessions of a Small Press Racketeer

By Stuart Ross

For a quick and dirty breath of fresh air, it’s difficult to beat renegade urban poet Stuart Ross’s latest effort. Confessions of a Small Press Racketeer is a collection of Ross’s impolite, funny, and occasionally ... Read More »

May 24, 2005 | Filed under: Criticism & Essays

Nothing for Granted: Tales of War, Philosophy, and Why the Right Was Mostly Wrong: Selected Writings 2000-2003

By Mark Kingwell

We have hardly set foot upon the deck of Nothing for Granted, University of Toronto philosophy professor Mark Kingwell’s disappointing and haphazard collection of columns from the National Post, when the author himself rings the ... Read More »

May 17, 2005 | Filed under: Criticism & Essays

The Enamoured Knight

By Douglas Glover

Douglas Glover’s extended meditation on Don Quixote, The Enamoured Knight, is simply packed to the brim with marvellous stuff. Not only does he lovingly and with great thoughtfulness delve into the richness of Cervantes’ masterwork, ... Read More »

March 11, 2005 | Filed under: Criticism & Essays

A Short History of Progress

By Ronald Wright

The Massey Lectures series has weighed in, once again, with a provocative and timely exploration of important ideas. Ronald Wright, one of this country’s intellectual treasures, brings his background in archaeology, history, and comparative culture ... Read More »

November 1, 2004 | Filed under: Criticism & Essays

Moving Targets: Writing with Intent, 1982-2004

By Margaret Atwood

For Moving Targets, her second collection of reviews, journalism, and occasional pieces, Margaret Atwood has elected to follow a strictly chronological organizing format. While this may seem simplistic at first glance, ultimately this approach unifies ... Read More »

November 1, 2004 | Filed under: Criticism & Essays

A Lover’s Quarrel

By Carmine Starnino

Montreal poet, editor, and critic Carmine Starnino is a lonely brave voice in a milquetoast milieu. To readers panting in a critical desert of “joylessness and phrasal drabness” he offers “ebullience, ardency and verve.” He ... Read More »

October 18, 2004 | Filed under: Children and YA Non-fiction, Criticism & Essays

The Solid Form of Language: An Essay on Writing and Meaning

By Robert Bringhurst

“Years ago, in a Bosnian town, a woman tried repeatedly to speak to me, though the words she knew and trusted were words I did not understand,” recalls the writer Robert Bringhurst. “At length, in ... Read More »

June 15, 2004 | Filed under: Criticism & Essays

Chinese Brushstrokes: Stories of China

By Sandra Hutchison

Sandra Hutchison is a Canadian English professor who spent time in eastern central China teaching English language and literature at a university in Hefei, the capital of Anhui province. She was evacuated in June, 1989 ... Read More »

March 16, 2004 | Filed under: Criticism & Essays

Enterprise Zones: Critical Positions on Star Trek

By Taylor Harrison, et al., eds.

Star Trek and its sequels have tantalized the imagination for 30 years. Both the technological marvels and the egalitarian social relations are inspirational. But is this world really so idyllic?The 12 essays that make up ... Read More »