Category: Canadian Literature
Ivankivtsi Dust
The fall of Mariupol coincides with this article from Theresa Kishkan, whose new book, Blue Portugal and Other Essays (University of Alberta Press, 2022), has an essay about her time […]
Homecoming
It’s been one month since the “abroad” part of my life was left behind when we returned to Canada from Jerusalem. A busy month, a discombobulating month. “Are you happy […]
Writers Summit
Let’s say you swallow the pretentiousness of the title, with its peaks and important meetings of world leaders, all contained in that word “summit” in the Canadian Writers Summit, held […]
The Art of Frances Itani: Review of That’s My Baby
Review of That’s My Baby by Frances Itani, HarperCollins Canada, 2017, hardcover, 345 pages. Reviewed by Debra Martens. Are artists more accessible to authors as characters because artists, as do […]
Closing 150 with Granta
The literary journal Granta published a special issue on Canada (Autumn 2017) edited by Catherine Leroux and Madeleine Thien. Single-handedly Thien has done more to promote Canadian Literature outside of […]
Mount’s Story
Nick Mount, Arrival: The Story of CanLit (Anansi 2017), 448 pages. Reviewed by Mark Sampson It’s perhaps no accident that the title of Nick Mount’s survey of the so-called “boom […]
Salty 150
Canadian Writers Abroad has kept a low profile through Canada’s 150th celebrations, and finally, serendipity has delivered exactly what’s needed: something from the 100th.
Oh My Canada
Twenty years ago, Antony Millen moved to New Zealand from Nova Scotia with his wife and children, where the small town of Taumarunui has been their home. Millen has taught […]
Home, yet not home
A new writer for a new year. Louise Ells was studying in the UK while I was living in London. Because I liked her written voice, I invited her to […]
Joe’s ID
Imagine believing something about yourself and your family and then having someone tell you it’s not true. This seems to be what has happened to Joseph Boyden. We’ve met Boyden […]
What then?
Remembrance Day. Is it enough to remember those who lost their lives fighting in the First World War? Sharon Johnston’s novel, Matrons and Madams (Dundurn 2015), asks us to consider […]
Nalo Hop
On Saturday 18 June, 2016, at Harbourfront in the Fleck Dance Theatre, author Nalo Hopkinson revealed her quick-step mind to an audience that came in part from the four-day Canadian […]
Falling for the Love of Books
“Let me tell you what it’s like to be edited by Doug Gibson. If he’d edited Shakespeare, there’d be no Shakespeare, it’d all be on the floor.” On the […]
Writer Two Kids
Michelle Smith’s piece on Devon appeared in CWA in July 2014. Author of the poetry book dear Hermes…, she and co-author Faye Hammill recently published the monograph Magazines, Travel, and […]
Carnival
Rawi Hage came to Canada (via New York City) from Lebanon, where his first novel, DeNiro’s Game, is set. Quite the debut it was, pulling in such prizes as the […]
Pay the Rent
In the Spring of 2015, the Writers Union of Canada surveyed 947 writers about their income, and in May released their report on their findings: Devaluing Creators, Endangering Creativity. The […]
Progress in Penang
I met Alison Gresik at our writing group in Ottawa. She was the exciting young writer whose first book, a collection of stories, Brick and Mortar, had been nominated for […]
Ron Schafrick Interprets Korea
Remember Mark Sampson and his novel about comfort women in Korea, Sad Peninsula? He agreed to interview writer Ron Schafrick, whose first collection of short stories, Interpreters (Oberon 2013), is […]
Viceroy and Writer: John Buchan
I am happy to report that CWA has found another contributor. This piece on author and Governor General of Canada, John Buchan, is by D. S. Proudfoot, an apprentice test […]
Marvellous Mavis, Great Gallant
Mavis Leslie Gallant, née de Trafford Young (1922-2014), died yesterday in Paris at the age of 91. Gallant was famed for her short stories, which were, from her first publication, […]
Mauricio Segura
Numéro Cinq has published this week a review of Eucalyptus by Quebec writer Mauricio Segura, and an excerpt from the reviewed novel. While reviewer Benjamin Woodward poses the question “What […]
The Winter Gift of Silence
How could I choose an American for CWA’s solstice post? Adam Gopnik lived in Montréal and did his BA at McGill University, then left for New York. Known for his […]
Fun words and not so fun
What is a tweeny? A faddist? Researching Sara Jeannette Duncan for an essay this summer, I came across some startling vocabulary, not quite as fun as boffin but interesting. During […]
Dust to Dust
How does one become a war poet? Suzanne Steele began by being curious about the exact colour of the Afghan dust when writing “Elegy for an Infantryman” in 2005. She […]
Trans-national Literature
There are times when Canadian Writers Abroad seems quaint. Do people stay at home most of their lives and then undergo a great upheaval by moving abroad? This is […]
Munro’s and Jerry’s Nobel
This post is in celebration of Alice Munro‘s Nobel Prize in Literature. The quick facts: she is the first Canadian writer, the 13th woman, and the 27th English speaking author […]
A Cloistered Life
Jane Christmas is a Canadian writer living in England. Her recent memoir, And Then There Were Nuns: Adventures in a Cloistered Life is a fall 2013 publication with Greystone Books. […]
A Fine Neustadt
Does winning an international prize count as abroad? The Neustadt prize “was established in 1969 as the Books Abroad International Prize for Literature, then renamed the Books Abroad / Neustadt […]
Pirate Queen
K.V. Johansen went to Macedonia to promote a translation of her children’s book, Torrie and the Pirate-Queen. Her trip was supported by the Canada Council for the Arts. Which got me […]
Land of the Lumberjack
A quick search of UK media to try to get a little fact — how many people turned up at the Canada Day celebrations in Trafalgar Square — was frustrating. […]
Writers by the Dozen: Peter Wilkins’ Portraits
Last night I was at Canada House to hear Angela Hewitt and Gerald Finley perform in an enchanted evening (that was the closing song). If you have never been to […]
Rhonda Douglas in Thailand
The Shoemaker and the Rooster: Rhonda Douglas in Thailand. Canadian Writers Abroad Mini-Interview with Rhonda Douglas Rhonda Douglas is a poet and writer based (most of the time) in Ottawa, […]
A deluge of fat words
White. White stones on the beach, white buildings, white stones in the paving of streets, white marble steps with flat red brick edging. Olive trees hiking up the hills, agriculture […]
Postcards
You are on a trip somewhere. You spin the rack, buy some postcards, some stamps, go sit at a cafe and write a postcard to your lover, your parents, your […]
Jane Austen and…
January 28, 2013, was the 200th anniversary of the publication of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. There was a readathon in Bath on the day, and by Jane Austen societies […]
Place and the Blues
“My lifelong involvement with Mrs. Dempster began at 5:58 o’clock p.m. on the 27th of December, 1908, at which time I was ten year and seven months old. I am […]
Solstice
I was thinking of wintry poems for this holiday post, and hit upon Robyn Sarah’s “Solstice.” So I emailed her to ask if I could post her poem, and she […]
Leonard Cohen Gives Back
This is not breaking news, but I forgot to mention it last week. When Leonard Cohen was awarded the Glenn Gould prize, he gave the money back to the Canada […]
When one is gone and far: Leonard Cohen
Audrey Thomas isn’t the only Canadian writer to have spent time in Greece. I almost called today’s post “resurrection man” because he resurrected his career, but I didn’t because something […]
Canadian Writers Abroad 