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.
Kelsea O'Connor on "Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language" by the Canadian linguist Gretchen McCulloch.
Claudia Casper
Let’s Go For A Walk
Claudia Casper on the way "Lost Lagoon" allows us to experience time rather than get through it.
Kathleen Murdock
Fighting Fires
Kathleen Murdock on the shiny TV adaptation of "Little Fires Everywhere".
Daniel Francis
Pandemic Non-Reading
Dan Francis asks you not to read "Midnight in Chernobyl."
Michael Hayward
Nothing Doing
Michael Hayward on "How To Do Nothing."
Anson Ching
The Plot Thickens in the Weimar Republic
Anson Ching on "Babylon Berlin."
Anson Ching
Why Turn to Myths
Anson Ching on "An Orchestra of Minorities."
Michael Hayward
Happy Talk
Michael Hayward on "Strange Planet" by Nathan W. Pyle.
Michael Hayward
Glorious lists
Michael Hayward on "The Glorious Mountains of Vancouver’s North Shore: A Peakbagger’s Guide."
Michael Hayward
Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread
Michael Hayward on "The Baker's Wife" by Marcel Pagnol.
Stephen Osborne
The Future Is Uncertain Country
As men of high seriousness appear on television with their crystal balls, Stephen Osborne shares what he learned about the future from Ray the astrologer.
roni-simunovic
Flight of Fancy
Roni Simunovic takes an Air Canada rouge flight from Halifax to Calgary and ridicules the flight attendants' absurd new uniforms.
Phoebe Tsang
Be Careful What You Wish For
A tarot card reading for John Franklin, Arctic explorer and Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land, by Phoebe Tsang.
Stephen Osborne
Snows of Yesteryear
A blizzard hits two days before Christmas, stirring up feelings of trepidation and excitement for the passengers of a bus.
David Mitchell
Imaginary City
Crack addicts, art critics and pregnant waitresses populate David Mitchell's uncanny vision of Vancouver.
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.
Michael Hayward
Into the Heart of the Landscape
Michael Hayward on the recursive nature of reading and writing inspiration.
Barry Kirsh
Soulmates: Honoring the Mysteries of Love and Relationships
Barry Kirsch on the juices and nutriments of imagination.
KELSEA O'CONNOR
Broken Hearted
Kelsea O'Connor on two comic-obsessed teens in rural Nova Scotia.
Paul DeLorme
Escapist
A Canadian soldier captured at Dieppe in 1942 tells what happened next.
Thad McIlroy
Trial by Water
Ebb and flow in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico.
JILL MANDRAKE
Unity, Order and Equilibrium
Jill Mandrake on the beauty of crafted visual poetry.
Bill MacDonald
The Ghost of James Cawdor
A seance to contact a dead miner at Port Arthur, Ontario, in 1923—conducted by Conan Doyle himself.
Ann Diamond
The Second Life of Kiril Kadiiski
He has been called the greatest Bulgarian poet of his generation. Can one literary scandal bury his whole career?
Sewid-Smith Daisy
Three Stories About Moving
The worst time for your pet to run away is when you are moving, and my family moved a lot.
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