Memoir & Biography

The Heart Accepts It All: Selected Letters of John Glassco

In the introduction to A Gentleman of Pleasure, his 2011 biography of John Glassco, Brian Busby points out that the flamboyant memoirist, pornographer, poet, and flâneur characterized himself as “a great practitioner of deceit.” “Among ... Read More »

November 13, 2013 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography

★ Chuvalo: A Fighter’s Life

By George Chuvalo and Murray Greig

Here are some things commonly said of boxing hall-of-famer George Chuvalo: he could take a punch, he threw powerful body shots that sometimes drifted below the belt, he never won a major title, and his ... Read More »

November 13, 2013 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography

And Then There Were Nuns: Adventures in a Cloistered Life

By Jane Christmas

Jane Christmas has always felt drawn to religious life. The quiet, simple existence of cloistered nuns holds great appeal, and after two failed marriages, she decides to enter a convent to find out if she ... Read More »

October 22, 2013 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography

This Great Escape: The Case of Michael Paryla

By Andrew Steinmetz

With the most sprawling POW film ever produced as its backdrop, This Great Escape details the short but eventful life of Michael Paryla, a part-Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany who moved to Canada with his ... Read More »

October 22, 2013 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography

Projection: Encounters with My Runaway Mother

By Priscila Uppal

Priscila Uppal, author of nine books of poetry, brings her unique lyrical approach to one of literature’s trickiest forms – the family memoir. Projection: Encounters with My Runaway Mother mines the intimate depths of the ... Read More »

October 22, 2013 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography

★ A House in the Sky

By Amanda Lindhout and Sara Corbett

As a child growing up in small-town Alberta, living in a dank basement apartment where her mother often suffered beatings at the hands of her boyfriend, Amanda Lindhout found escape in copies of National Geographic ... Read More »

October 7, 2013 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography

Kasparov Versus Deep Blue

By Monty Newborn

In the weeks following Garry Kasparov’s loss to IBM’s Deep Blue this May, editorial pages were full of breathless soul-searching about What It All Meant. Had machines crossed the intelligence barrier? Could Deep Blue really ... Read More »

October 1, 2013 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography