Criticism & Essays

Voluptuous Pleasure: The Truth about the Writing Life?

Boundaries between fiction, essay, and memoir blur in Voluptuous Pleasure. In nine short, experimental pieces, author and critic Marianne Apostolides revisits territory that will be familiar to readers of her bulimia memoir, Inner Hunger, or ... Read More »

May 15, 2012 | Filed under: Criticism & Essays

Attack of the Copula Spiders and Other Essays on Writing

By Douglas Glover

Novelist and short story writer Douglas Glover, author of the novels Elle (winner of the 2003 Governor General’s Literary Award) and The Life and Times of Captain N., among other works, has earned his bread ... Read More »

April 12, 2012 | Filed under: Criticism & Essays

The Dog on the Bed: A Canine Alphabet

By Richard Teleky

Writers who choose dogs as their subjects are often doomed not to be taken seriously. Despite the fact that literary legends like Jack London and Virginia Woolf tackled the canine/human bond, writing focused on man’s ... Read More »

December 19, 2011 | Filed under: Criticism & Essays

Winter: Five Windows on the Season

By Adam Gopnik

It’s fitting that New Yorker staff writer Adam Gopnik’s series of Massey Lectures begins with a quotation from Northrop Frye, as Frye’s influence can be felt throughout this wide-ranging cultural examination of the most archetypically ... Read More »

October 17, 2011 | Filed under: Criticism & Essays

In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination

By Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood, arguably Canada’s most beloved author, has faced criticism for the distinction she makes, both in relation to her own work and that of others, between “science fiction” and “speculative fiction,” appearing to elevate ... Read More »

October 11, 2011 | Filed under: Criticism & Essays

Reading the 21st Century: Books of the Decade, 2000–2009

By Stan Persky

Reviewing Tony Judt’s Reappraisals, Capilano University philosophy professor and literary commentator Stan Persky remarks, “the book is strikingly more coherent and tightly argued than one might expect from a compilation of seemingly disparate essays.” It ... Read More »

September 26, 2011 | Filed under: Criticism & Essays

Why Not? Fifteen Reasons to Live

By Ray Robertson

Toronto author Ray Robertson’s Why Not? Fifteen Reasons to Live is equal parts intimate autobiography, philosophical treatise, and cri de coeur regarding the sorry state of Canadian culture. Peppered liberally with quotations from the poets, ... Read More »

September 19, 2011 | Filed under: Criticism & Essays

How Shakespeare Changed Everything

By Stephen Marche

It is clear from the opening paragraphs of this charming tribute that novelist and culture columnist Stephen Marche is besotted by the Bard. This highly accessible paean to someone whom Marche describes as “the world’s ... Read More »

June 13, 2011 | Filed under: Criticism & Essays

Finding the Words: Writers on Inspiration, Desire, War, Celebrity, Exile, and Breaking the Rules

By Jared Bland, ed.

Editor Jared Bland opens this essay anthology with a story about his father. The two of them were walking near their home when 13-year-old Bland said something offensive. Bland’s father pinned him against the wall ... Read More »

May 11, 2011 | Filed under: Criticism & Essays

When Tish Happens: The Unlikely Story of Canada’s “Most Influential Literary Magazine”

By Frank Davey

Frank Davey’s latest book recounts his development as poet, critic, and founding editor of the famed University of British Columbia poetry newsletter Tish. (The newsletter’s name is an anagram of “shit.”) Davey begins with his ... Read More »

April 6, 2011 | Filed under: Criticism & Essays

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