Literary

Phonogram: Rue BrittaniaKieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie(Image Comics)Phonogram is a comic borne from the authors’ nostalgia for the Britpop phenomenon of the ’90s, and an interest in magic and fantasy. This could be trite, but it’s not. Aging British scenesters have magic powers gained from tapping in to the energy of music; 10 years on, […]

Three for the road Miriam Toews’ energetic new novel The Flying Troutmans depicts an unlikely family trip. Holly Gordon gets sucked into her characters’ lives. You wouldn’t know Miriam Toews’ voiceto hear it on the phone. Speaking from her home in Winnipeg, Toews’ upbeat, quick-to-laugh demeanor is unexpected after reading her Governor General’s award-winning A […]

Taras Grescoe is leading a downward journey toward bottomfeeding. “Twelve to 14 years ago I became a fish-eater, a piscivore,” he says in a baritone voice, over the phone from Montreal. He is touring eastwards promoting his new book, Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood, with a stop at Saint […]

Long-distance cycling–touring–is a risky venture. Writing a novel about a lone cyclist’s trip through eastern Canada: also risky. As with similar stories—whether on wheels, in a car or on foot—arguably two big things have to happen: First, the physical journey has to engage interest and, second, evoke the life of the rider. “Journey stories are […]

In her poem “No Man’s Land,” Astrid Literski writes, “On remand/I am my old country’s/No man’s land.” Diana L. Richard’s “Harley My Darling” is an epitaph for a young son “buried under the sun.” Sara Tait’s “Time” sums up her drug addiction in 18 painful lines. Words Without Walls, a book of poetry, writing and […]

Green Gables, the inspiration for Anne of Green Gables in Cavendish, PEI, is an example of the expectations people build when something permeates mass culture. Chantelle MacDonald, who works at the site, knows about high hopes. The house has hosted numerous Anne pilgrims since it became a national historic site in 1937. MacDonald says sometimes […]

When Pico Iyer was a small boy growing up in Oxford, England, his father would tell him a story about another young boy “born in a simple rural cowshed far from anywhere, and very high up, who was seen by some passing monks one day and declared to be a king.” In proper fairy- tale […]

Despite her 41 years as a writer, despite her seven books, despite her Giller, even, Elizabeth Hay—kicking off this year’s Halifax International Writers’ Festival—still occasionally feels a deep panic that, when she sits down at her desk, picks up her pencil and closes her eyes, the words might not come out. “I go back to […]

Chances are you’ve never met anyone like Ollie Wood.In his former life as a Canadian sports hero, Ollie was the toast of the professional tennis circuit. Back then, he enjoyed all the perks that go with the job—the money, the limos and Lear jets, the drugs, the sex with models, movie stars and other hot […]

With a name like Ivan E. Coyote, it’s surprising—ironic—the artist remains elusive. Coyote has made a name for herself writing stories about the wilds of the Yukon, gender-bending and growing up rough and tough, and will bring her stories to Halifax during the first week of March. In some native mythologies, the coyote is known […]