Phrase books are tools of cultural globalization—but they are also among its casualties.
Stephen Henighan
Collateral Damage
When building a nation, cultural riches can be lost.
Stephen Henighan
Transatlantic Fictions
Coming to harbour in a new world.
Alberto Manguel
Arms and Letters
Science and the arts fulfil their functions to help us survive through the imagination.
Stephen Henighan
Reheated Races
Dividing and conquering local populations confines them to manageable administrative units.
CHERYL THOMPSON
Dismantling the Myth of the Hero
In a world dominated by heroes, difference is not tolerated.
Alberto Manguel
Achilles and the Lusitan Tortoise
“Have patience” and “Tomorrow” are two inseparable locutions in the Portuguese tongue.
Stephen Henighan
All in the Same CANO
For a brief period the band CANO gave shape to the dream of a bilingual Canadian culture.
Stephen Henighan
Residential Roots
"The hemispheric context reveals the roots of the residential school system...Destroying Indigenous cultures was a positivist policy from Patagonia to Dawson City."
LISA BIRD-WILSON
Occupation Anxiety
Lisa Bird-Wilson on UNDRIP, reconciliation, and the anxiety felt by Indigenous people in Canada.
Stephen Henighan
Not Reading
What we do when we absorb words from a screen—and we haven’t yet evolved a verb for it—is not reading.
Alberto Manguel
Library as Wishful Thinking
Libraries are not only essential in educating the soul, but in forming the identity of a society.
Stephen Henighan
Lethal Evolutions
Our society is formed on the assumption of a healthy immune system.
Stephen Henighan
Confidence Woman
The woman who called herself Tatiana Aarons gave me an address that led to a vacant lot.
Alberto Manguel
Léon Bloy and His Monogamous Reader
Dogged dedication grants a reader vicarious immortality.
Stephen Henighan
Plague
What we can—and can’t—learn from the plague
Stephen Henighan
A Pen Too Far
On March 5, 2006, a group of people gathered in a small Ontario city in the expectation of having books signed by an author who was not present.
George Fetherling
The Daily Apocalypse
The newspaper wars aren’t what they used to be.
Stephen Henighan
Taíno Tales
A package-deal paradise reputation curtails gringo knowledge of Dominican life.
Alberto Manguel
Art and Blasphemy
Faith seems to shiver when confronted by art.
Alberto Manguel
A Fairy Tale for Our Time
What can the Brothers Grimm teach us about the state of our economic system? Everything.
Alberto Manguel
Literature & Morality
Must artists declare their moral integrity?
Stephen Henighan
Flight Shame
Without air travel, family networks might have dissolved long ago.
Alberto Manguel
The Defeat of Sherlock Holmes
There’s something not quite right about the grid on which the game is played.
Michael Hayward on László Krasznahorkai's The Manhattan Project.
Alberto Manguel
The Devil
We insist The Devil whispers horrible things in our ear and inspires our worst deeds.
JILL MANDRAKE
Recall, Retention, Recognition
Jill Mandrake on False Memories and Other Likely Tales by Ernest Hekkanen.
Marc Plourde
Rooms to Let in Bohemia
A poem by Marc Plourde from Borrowed Days: Poems New and Selected.
Thad McIlroy
Baskets Case
Thad McIlroy thinks you should watch Zach Galifianakis' Baskets.
Daniel Francis
Murder, He Wrote
Daniel Francis on Geoff Meggs attempt to solve the murder of strike leader Frank Rogers.
LISA BIRD-WILSON
Smashing Identity Algorithms, Yes Please
While status registration under the Indian Act is a construct, claiming status identity isan important factor in Indigenous identity and cultural transmission.
Peggy Thompson
Haunts
Peggy Thompson on Amber Dawn's Sodom Road Exit.
Kris Rothstein
The Art of Travel
Alain de Botton, whose intellect and sense of humour brought us How Proust Can Change Your Life and The Consolations of Philosophy, enters new territory with The Art of Travel (Hamish Hamilton). Here he takes on our fascination with other places and
Michael Hayward
The How and Why of It
Michael Hayward on books that may make you a better writer.
JILL MANDRAKE
In the Wee, Small Hours of the Morning…
Jill Mandrake discusses Kevin Shaw's poetry.
KELSEA O'CONNOR
New Spinsters Smash the Patriarchy
Mallory Ortberg's subversive dark fairy tales.
Stephen Osborne
Putting Away Bagua
What happens when Stephen Osborne tries to get organized.
Patty Osborne
Freely Indirect and Illegally Selfish
Patty Osborne shares insights on Peter Carey's book.
Jennesia Pedri
T-Bay Notes
Leaving Thunder Bay isn't one of the things that gets easier with practice
M.A.C. Farrant
Stories from a West Coast Town
Very quietly, very slowly, happiness can take over a person's life
Michael Hayward
Sweet Spot
Michael Hayward on a selection of Notting Hill Editions' latest releases.
J. Jill Robinson
Hot Pulse
I am sorry I caused you pain. But I thought it was okay.
KELSEA O'CONNOR
Shipwrecked Lily
Kelsea O'Connor on "The Case of the Gilded Lily," a film by Shipwrecked Comedy.
Jocelyn Kuang
Candy Cap Magic
Forgotten cutlery, missing mushrooms and lingering doubt: a recipe for bewilderment.
Mandelbrot
Reaching Out
Mandelbrot schleps a pen around for a week to feel it out.
Stephen Henighan
Victims of Anti-Communism
Anti-communism, retired by most Western governments,receives monumental status in Canada
Michael Hayward
Old Cobblers
Michael Hayward on "Autumn" by Karl Ove Knausgaard.
JILL MANDRAKE
Orwell Recollections
Jill Mandrake on "The Orwell Tapes" compiled by Stephen Wadhams.
Thad McIlroy
Working for the Weekend
Thad McIlroy on "The Weekend Man" by Richard B. Wright.