Art by Valerie Thai

Ronnie Riley learned through social media that their first novel was facing censorship. Riley was scrolling late one evening when they saw what appeared to be a leaked school memo. Their middle-grade book about a non-binary pre-teen named Jude was one of four 2SLGBTQIA+ books that Ontario’s Waterloo Catholic District School Board was trying to get out of students’ hands.

The book wasn’t explicitly banned, but there were enough hurdles for kids to access the novel that Danny Ramadan, the chair of The Writers’ Union of Canada, called the decision a “shadow ban” in an interview with the Toronto Star. (Ramadan’s book Salma Writes a Book, part of his children’s series about a young immigrant, was also challenged by the school board.)

Riley, whose work so far is most prominent in the Canadian children’s literary scene, says that while they anticipated having some issues in the U.S., it’s difficult to acknowledge that Canada is not immune to book bans. “In the States…they’re more vocal,” Riley says. “But I do believe that it’s happening in Canada, just very quietly.”

Advocacy groups in the U.S.—Parents’ Rights in Education, Citizens Defending Freedom and Moms for Liberty are three of the most vocal organizations—represent a growing trend of censorship there. By re-framing language as advocating for parental rights rather than literary censorship, groups like these have been able to successfully ban books. This harms children by suppressing their ability to access information, though advocacy groups often claim that they’re trying to protect children from explicit and inappropriate materials. And, though in its characteristically slower, slightly quieter way, the same has been happening in Canada, with an increase in book ban requests here in recent years.

It’s not just these authors’ books that are at risk. Without them, children have fewer opportunities to learn about other people and customs, and about themselves. Children’s education and exposure to different ways of life are under threat, and public libraries may be, too.

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In the U.S., recent data from the American Library Association (ALA) found that “[books] targeted for censorship at public libraries grew by 92 percent from 2022 to 2023,” and “47 percent of challenged materials represent the voices and experiences of those in the LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC community.” In Texas, 578 books were banned in the 2021-22 school year, 424 in Pennsylvania, and 401 in Florida.

Moms For Liberty, a so-called parental rights group that reports having over 130,000 members, has often made the news due to its continuous calls to ban children’s books in libraries and schools across the country. In July 2023, they were successful in getting five books banned across Leon County schools in Tallahassee, Florida. The books had characters dealing with HIV, sexual assault, leukemia, and life after death.

While parental calls to ban books aren’t always successful, the ones that are can set off a political ripple effect for other parts of the country. “What we know to be true in several states is that they’ve been following each other in a race to the bottom about how many books you can ban in how many different ways,” says John Chrastka, executive director and founder of EveryLibrary, a non-profit political action organization focused on fighting book bans in the U.S.

Chrastka references data from the Unpacking 2023 Legislation of Concern for Libraries report, created by EveryLibrary to examine the status of bills in the U.S. aiming to censor access to books in both school and public libraries. Chrastka says that EveryLibrary was able to track that some bills, despite being in different states, were using the same language as one another to ban books. “That cut and paste job—that copycat—is sometimes very explicit,” he says. “And sometimes it’s based on the intent of the law: how can we make it easier to call a book criminal, call a book obscene, call a book harmful?”

There’s a clear “feedback loop,” Chrastka says, between groups like Moms For Liberty and politicians when it comes to banning books, meaning that citizen organizations and political leaders are influencing each other. “It is a witch’s brew of interest groups that are utilizing a fairly soft target—public libraries—which are intended to be, under law, under Supreme Court precedent, public forums, and the materials are available for all—as long as they’re legal,” he says. “If you can say that those books about those human beings are obscene or criminal or harmful, you can make an attack on those populations by proxy, whether it’s LGBTQ or Black and Brown communities.”

When libraries refuse to remove books from their shelves, parents sometimes push to remove their funding altogether in retaliation. Chrastka says that while not every library will lose funding from continuing to stock challenged books, there have been and continue to be states where this is the case. In Alabama, a legislative code change, enacted this past May, made $6.6 million in state funding for public libraries contingent on their compliance with the Alabama Public Library Service Board’s guidelines about restricting access to books deemed inappropriate for certain ages.

This isn’t just happening in southern states. In Michigan, the Patmos Library nearly lost 84 percent of its funding after the town’s residents voted twice that taxpayer money shouldn’t support the library as long as it continued to supply 2SLGBTQIA+ books. But library staff would not remove the books, and after a third vote, the library will remain open.

When asked whether parental requests for libraries to censor 2SLGBTQIA+ materials could lead to budget concerns, the ALA told This Magazine in a written statement that while they don’t have national data to validate this correlation, they felt this outcome was unlikely: “Although it is challenging to quantify, these incidents emphasize the ongoing importance of defending libraries as vital community resources,” the statement reads.

As Chrastka says, though, “This is not a casual social interaction. This is a political movement.” It’s a movement that’s travelling north of the border, and in an unprecedented way.

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Fully banning a book in Canada is a tough task, and it’s not always clear how it can be done. Public libraries, though funded by municipalities, are run by independent boards which have jurisdiction over the contents of their shelves. Libraries usually respond to disputes by following their challenge policies or request for reconsideration policies. In Canadian schools, the process for vetting books often involves the board developing selection methods through training with librarians, and then trusting librarians to implement those methods. Curricula are set by provinces, and teachers decide how best to meet the curricula. It’s not the role of school boards to police individual books, though parents sometimes appeal to them in attempts to bypass any formal selection and reconsideration processes that boards entrust librarians to follow. When these policies do not exist—and they often don’t—it’s often board members and administrators who end up handling the issue and responding to parental pressures.

Shadowbanning, though, is easier to accomplish. It can include what happened to Riley, where their book was moved to a shelf inaccessible by students and “a teacher must provide the Catholic context” before students are allowed to borrow the book. Basically, citizens and school districts are finding other ways to get books out of people’s hands rather than outright banning them. In the words of Fin Leary, the program manager at We Need Diverse Books, a nonprofit organization focused on making the publishing industry more diverse, the goal is to “not have them seen as often.” He says it’s much harder to fight this kind of censorship.

Regardless of whether or not a book is challenged in a public library or a school, book bans affect both readers and authors. A November 2023 statement from the Ontario Library Association said that a diverse representation of books helps students “learn how to navigate differences and develop critical awareness of their environments.” The largest worry, according to Canadian School Libraries, is that groups calling for censorship in the U.S. will continue to inspire Canadians to use similar organization tactics.

According to data from the Canadian Library Challenges Database (CLCD), Canadian libraries facing the most calls for censorship are the Edmonton Public Library (143 requests), the Ottawa Public Library (127 requests) and the Toronto Public Library (101 requests). While the database has information from as early as 1998, some libraries have only reported censorship requests from recent years.

Michael Nyby, the chair of the Intellectual Freedom Committee of the Canadian Federation of Library Associations, said in an article published on Freedom To Read’s website that library challenges from September 2002 to August 2023 represent the highest number ever recorded in Canada in a twelve-month period. According to data from the CLCD, books and events with 2SLGBTQIA+ content made up 38 percent of all challenges in 2022. (Between 2015 to 2021, less than 10 percent of all challenges were connected to 2SLGBTQIA+ matters.) Books surrounding sexual content (19 percent) and racism (16 percent) made up the next highest percentages. The influence of library censorship in the U.S. also extends to books on drug use, abuse, violence, grief, and death.

Though Riley’s novel’s shadow ban was overturned after public outcry, concerns about a rise in book censorship in Canada, and calls to defund in the event that it doesn’t happen, aren’t without reason. At the Prairie Rose School Division (PRSD), a Manitoba-based school board, 11 requests for books to be banned were made in just 2023. Among them were 2SLGBTQIA+ books like Juno Dawson’s This Book is Gay. Dawson, who spent seven years working as a sex-ed teacher, described the nonfiction book as “essentially a textbook.” Each chapter of the book focuses on a different aspect of queer life, including definitions of 2SLGBTQIA+ identities, the history of HIV/AIDS, and sex. The book also addresses the importance of queer dating apps and using sexual protection. According to the PRSD, parents proposed banning this book (among multiple others) for reasons of pornography— though the book teaches children about bodies, and is not pornography. The school board said there was “some connection with the Concerned Citizens Canada Twitter account,” but not whether the parents proposing the ban were part of the group, which self-describes as “addressing sexually explicit materials being made available to children in our public libraries.” Still, the group’s account falsely tweeted that This Book is Gay was encouraging minors to solicit sex from adults on Grindr. The school board did not end up removing Dawson’s book (or the others proposed in the ban), but Concerned Citizens Canada is just one of many social and political groups that continue to advocate for book censorship.

In the summer of 2022, Manitoba’s South Central Regional Library was also pressured to remove three books about puberty and consent from shelves. Residents protested a library board meeting, flooded city council meetings, and said public library funding should be removed if the books weren’t, calling them “child pornography.” However, both Cathy Ching, the library services director, and local city councillor Marvin Plett both denied these claims. “Calling books pornographic does not make it so,” Plett said at a Winkler council meeting in July 2023. “Censuring books based on content that some find objectionable can have far-reaching and unintended implications.”

Around the same time, in Chilliwack, B.C., the RCMP were called to investigate after books there were reported for alleged child pornography in schools, too. Also in 2023, library picture books about gender in Red Deer, Alberta were vandalized. A page about using a singular “they” pronoun for nonbinary people was ripped out, according to a news report from the Red Deer Advocate.

Though the case in Chilliwack was dismissed and the books in Red Deer were replaced, parents’ calls to defund the Manitoba library if certain books aren’t removed echoes bills proposed by American lawmakers stressing that libraries should lose funding if bans aren’t enacted. And while books aren’t being overtly removed from shelves in Canada very often, there are other, sometimes more insidious impacts this attitude is having on queer and racialized youth.

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The Toronto Public Library (TPL) is Canada’s largest public library system. When asked about whether groups like those in the U.S. seeking to defund libraries for not removing 2SLGBTQIA+ material could affect what happens in Toronto, the media team at TPL said in an emailed statement that its budget is not affected by these groups. “We are governed by a library board and while our budget is ultimately approved by City Council, our materials selection is governed by our Board policies,” the email reads.

TPL’s Intellectual Freedom Challenges – 2023 Annual Report states that none of the requests to remove books from its shelves were successful that year. However, the same report also acknowledges that there are other issues at play. “TPL has experienced objections to 2SLGBTQ+ content outside of the formal request for reconsideration process, with opposition to Drag Queen Story Time programs at five branches and protests at three of them; damage to Progress Pride decals at eight branches; vandalized Pride Celebration displays at two branches; and vandalized 2SLGBTQ+ books at one branch.”

Historical book banning represents violence and censorship. Current book bans, though they may be disguised as parental rights, are more of the same. Vandalism of Pride displays at TPL is another form of violence, and while it may not be physical in nature, it has lasting effects that can harm queer youth for years beyond the act itself.

Banning queer and trans people’s books sends the message that these folks shouldn’t exist, at least not publicly. Ideas like these contribute to the state of widespread violence against them. Recent data from Statistics Canada found that around two thirds of 2SLGBTQIA+ Canadians had experienced physical or sexual violence. However, this number could be much higher: data from the same report found that around 80 percent of physical assaults against this group within the year prior to the survey didn’t “[come] to the attention of the police.”

Many 2SLGBTQIA+ people also struggle with feelings of suicidality. In the U.S., data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that 29 percent of trans youth have attempted suicide. In Canada, researchers at the University of Montreal and Egale Canada reported that 36 percent of trans people in Ontario experience feelings of suicidal ideation. Systemic discrimination, erasure, and invalidation contributes to this, and book banning is part of this wider package of behaviours that harms the community.

Canadian author Robin Stevenson was interviewed for PEN Canada about her children’s rhyming picture books, Pride Colors and Pride Puppy!, being targeted by the recent wave of book censorship in the U.S. and Canada. “Book banners say that they want to protect children, but they are doing real harm to the very children they claim to protect,” Stevenson said, explaining that “learning to hate yourself was far more dangerous than any book could ever be.”

Leary says that removing these types of books from libraries can send a message to publishers: if they notice that titles aren’t making it to school libraries or are banned, it could discourage them from publishing and promoting them. “As much as the book bans are horrifying, they also are so much scarier when you consider the larger context of why they’re happening—because it’s to legislate folks out of existence, or to legislate folks out of having an education about these topics.”

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Representation matters because it helps reduce stereotypes. Books with diverse representation are vital. They can help teach empathy and understanding, while also showing readers that they aren’t alone in their experiences. Diverse books also teach a fuller picture of history, sharing stories previously overlooked. They are a key aspect of a well-rounded education.

While it is a terrifying moment for queer and racialized writers, authors are not silencing themselves as a result of the pushback. Protecting their work from the possibility of being banned, though, will take a concerted effort on the part of anyone hoping to support them.

Riley believes that the shadow ban of their novel at the Waterloo Catholic District School Board was only overturned because of statements from not only their publisher, but other authors as well. They say they had a sound support system, and that helped.

That kind of unified support is crucial to fostering an environment that permits the continuation of freedom in publishing. Leary says that from an advocacy standpoint, parents opposing book censorship have the most power when they stick together. “Our voices are stronger when we are collectively organizing, and it also kind of allows parents to have each other to lean on,” he says. One way to do this is by communicating with school board members and going to community meetings that include opportunities to speak to these issues.

Riley keeps their final advice to anyone passionate about this issue simple and blunt. “Keep speaking out,” they say. “Keep making sure that books get into the hands of kids—especially queer books.”

Photo courtesy of BookThug.

Since it began in 2004, Toronto-based literary press BookThug has been best known for publishing innovative and groundbreaking works of contemporary literary fiction and non-fiction, poetry, and drama. Now, it’s delving into new territory. With the recent launch of Chaos & Star Records, the press has begun a new label that brings together readings by BookThug authors with Canadian musicians on limited-edition seven-inch vinyl.

Chaos & Star Records was created in collaboration with musician and longtime poetry lover Andrew Whiteman of Broken Social Scene and Apostle of Hustle fame. The goal of the label is to “provide a space where two different modes of creativity and listening can converge.”

The label’s first three eclectic releases each boast a vibrant cover that reimagines the design of the authors’ books. On Rich & Poor: The Single, Whiteman teams up with Jacob Wren, whose timely novel is written from the perspective of both a poor dishwasher and the billionaire he’s plotting to kill. Two other releases pair Liz Worth with members of Toronto indie band Zeus and Jennifer LoveGrove with songwriters Christine Fellows and John K. Samson. Each recording is an example of music heightening and intensifying the already-dynamic literary readings.

These titles, which are just the first for Chaos & Star Records, are available online and at selected booksellers and record stores, including Type Books and Soundscapes in Toronto, Drawn & Quarterly in Montreal, and the Paper Hound Bookshop in Vancouver.

Photo courtesy of Another Story/Facebook.

A chalkboard sits on the sidewalk outside of Another Story, the first sign that this isn’t your typical bookstore. Written on it is a quote from American political activist Angela Davis: You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time. Since 1987, Another Story’s mission as an independent bookstore has been to do just that—carrying titles with themes of social justice, equity, and diversity.

Located in the Roncesvalles neighbourhood in the west end of Toronto, the store has become a staple in the community and beyond, receiving orders from across the country. Another Story’s carefully curated collection is a reflection of owner Sheila Koffman, who died in September after a battle with cancer, and her strong commitment to increasing the representation of different perspectives and ideas through literature.

Independent bookstores like Another Story are much more than a place to buy books. They become a local hub for neighbours to meet and interact, a space to launch indie authors, and where customers and staff are on a first-name basis. But as big-box stores and online giants, such as Amazon, continue to grow, independent shops find it more and more difficult to stay afloat.

This year marks 30 years since Another Story opened. It’s a milestone not just because the store has survived, but because it has thrived and plans to continue what Koffman set out to do three decades ago. 

Koffman worked as a civil servant prior to opening Another Story in the late 1980s. Its first location was in a basement on the Danforth in the east end of Toronto. For the next decade and beyond, the shop struggled as one of the few political bookstores at the time. Koffman ordered titles from home, inviting publishers over and forming lasting friendships along the way. The store relied on its wholesale business to keep afloat, eventually establishing strong relationships with teachers, librarians, and school boards across Ontario.

Jeffrey Canton, a former employee, began working at the store during this period and credits Koffman’s foresight and business savvy. She recognized the need to incorporate more diverse books into classrooms early on, before curriculums caught up. “That focus on equity and social justice… and all the various things that she focused on in the store were things that she was doing long before it was part of the real conversation that we have today,” says Canton. “She fought really hard to make sure that her store reflected that.”

It was important to Koffman to champion smaller and independent titles. Another Story held launches, readings, and evenings specifically for teachers, to introduce customers to books they might not have heard of otherwise. The store would end up moving twice more around the same area. In 2006, the store made one last transition to its current space in Toronto’s west end.

In the store, books are organized by theme. The brightly painted orange, green, and purple walls are lined with titles covering topics such as race and gender identity. At the front of the store is a shelf of staff picks—they try to read as many as they can and discuss before ordering. Boxes labelled with the names of various schools are stacked high at the back of the store, soon to be transported across the province.

Anjula Gogia, former co-manager of the Toronto Women’s Bookstore, organizes events for Another Story. This past summer, the store hosted two of its biggest—the Toronto launch of Roxane Gay’s Hunger and Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. Each event brought out hundreds of attendees. For the store, it was proof that small, independent sellers still have a place among their larger retail competitors. “It’s a chance for people to gather together, to talk about issues, to meet one another, [and] to discuss strategies for change,” says Gogia.

Like many of the store’s staff, co-manager Laura Ash was drawn to Another Story for its commitment to making a social impact through books. For the past few years, the store has been organizing book fairs in schools, bringing alternative titles directly to students. The shop continues to host author events, supporting and advocating for underrepresented writers that might not be carried anywhere else. “All the bookstores that have survived and been around for so long in this city, it’s because they have a community that loves them and they also support that community,” says Ash. 

Staff are determined to keep the store moving forward with the knowledge that Koffman’s legacy lives on in Another Story and all that’s on the shelves. “I come in everyday and I still think she’s going to call,” Ash says. “All these books are books that she bought—this is all her.”

Another Story Bookshop’s 30th Anniversary Bash and Tribute to Sheila Koffman will be held on October 21.

Fashion is often mistaken as temporary, nothing but a wave of passing fads—but not in Bad Girls of Fashion: Style Rebels From Cleopatra to Lady Gaga by Jennifer Croll. In her vividly illustrated book, Croll takes us through fashion contextually. Readers get a chic inside look at artists, queens, musicians, and designers who didn’t just change fashion—they challenged it. From Marie Antoinette, who used fashion as a way to prove her influence, to Lady Gaga, who used her outfits as protest, Croll reminds readers: “fashion is anything but frivolous.”

Quiet No More examines the meaning and promise of Idle No More, the Occupy movement, the Quebec student spring and other expressions of new activism sweeping the world. by Joel D. Harden, Carleton University

The result of meticulous sociological research and clinical work, Nasty, Brutish, and Short is a groundbreaking picture of the reality of gangs in Canada. by Mark Totten, Humber College

Lorimer publishes books on keys issues and topics in Canadian sociology, politics, history, communications, and indigenous studies written by authoritative scholars.

Quality Canadian books you’ll love to read. For more information visit lorimer.ca/academic.

By the time Friday rolled around last week there was a veritable anthology of jokes to which “David Gilmour” was the punch line. The paper-bag jowls and complacent half-smile of his face pasted on News Feeds and blogs like an advert for a public flogging. Everywhere that CanLit went, so too went the name David Gilmour, followed by some expletives or exasperated eye-rolling. The Canadian author had detractors aplenty; but he had defenders a-one.

In case you missed the original rant, here it is. For people, like myself, who care a good deal about Canadian literature, it was big news. Far from being incensed, many of us saw it as an opportunity to laugh at the curmudgeonly prattling of a man who should’ve lived a hundred years ago. But backlash opportunism reared its head—as it does when anything seems too one-sided—and its head was in a national newspaper.

Coming to Gilmour’s defense, Margaret Wente, a Globe and Mail columnist, steered the conversation towards academic feminism and its pesky reputation of late for sneaking into all nooks of the humanities faculty. “Frankly, I was surprised and glad to learn that there remains one small testosterone-safe zone at U of T”, she said. “As anyone who’s set foot on campus in the past 30 years ought to know, courses in guy-guy writers are vastly outnumbered by courses in women writers, queer writers, black writers, colonial writers, postcolonial writers, Canadian writers, indigenous writers, Caribbean, African, Asian and South Asian writers, and various sub- and sub-subsets of the above. But if you’re interested in Hemingway, good luck. No wonder male students are all but extinct in the humanities.”

Well, I went through a humanities faculty—an English department more specifically—and I can confirm that quite a few courses privileged “sub-sets” of writers, but I can also say that I took a whole course devoted to T.S Eliot, and that, in literature classes that teach a period before our current one, male writers still make up the bulk of the syllabus. I mean, I didn’t go to U of T, but I can only guess that—Wait, what? They post their course list online? And the first three courses are exclusively male? Oh…

Here’s the kicker, Margaret Wente: I didn’t go to university to have my masculinity stroked. I didn’t go so that I could grow a great bushy beard like Hemingway and shoot belts of whiskey off a buck’s carcass—I could’ve done that without higher education, I’m pretty sure. I went to school to learn. And a big part of learning in the humanities is empathizing, divesting oneself of the performance of gender, or class, or race, and digging an antenna into what it is to be human.

In her last paragraph, Wente attempts to dissolve the whole discussion by saying that only in academia would this be a controversy. Her last sentence, directed at academic feminists is, “Please get a life”. This is classic, children’s rhetoric. Offer a viewpoint then erase the issue’s importance to ensure that yours is the last viewpoint.

It’s a shame. The argument shouldn’t have been jilted that easily, because it’s one that still crops up in literature studies, most notably from the luminary American critic Harold Bloom, in what he terms “The School of Resentment”. Wente’s done no one a favour by stifling the discussion around this topic. Is academic feminism ruining the aesthetic aspects of literature studies by politicizing them? In this age when girls outnumber boys in all but the engineering department, is education becoming feminized, and is that feminization built around opposition rather than inclusion? Is women’s studies, as University of Ottawa English professor, Janice Fiamengo is quoted as saying, “actually preventing learning by substituting a smug sense of oppositionality, woundedness and bitterness for the intellectual curiosity, openness to ideas and eagerness to pursue truth that university education in the humanities is supposed to produce”?

Or might it be that viewpoints can co-exist. Art can be for art’s sake, and it can also be a social bellwether and political tool. Humanities education can be a hulking chimera of feminism, masculinism, normalization, destabilization, aesthetics, politics, etc. and we can trust students to understand that the large tapestry of viewpoints, only when understood holistically, may indicate a deep sense of what it is to be human. There exists in this world oppositionality and woundedness, and, far from these things being substitutions for truth, they are part of the truth. Young men and women interested in literature would do well to read voraciously—in, as well as out, of their comfort zone. Authors (ahem, David) would do well to do the same. Professors would do well to attempt to teach the vast, variegate human experience. Reporters for national newspapers would also do well not to feed into this petty cycle of boys vs. girls, girls vs. boys and all the balderdash that goes along with that. And I think we’d all do well just to listen to each other.

Leslie Vryenhoek is a writer, poet and communication consultant based out of Newfoundland. Her work has appeared in various Canadian and international publications. Leslie has received numerous awards for her poetry, fiction and memoirs including the Winston-Collins Descant Best Canadian Poem 2010 prize, two provincial Arts and Letters Awards, the Eden Mills Festival Literary Competition and the Dalton Camp Award. Her two books Scrabble Lessons (fiction) and Gulf (poetry), both published by Oolichan Books, received a great deal of praise from the literary community. We recently spoke with Leslie about her work, literary contests, and the idea of plot versus character.

This Magazine: You took second place in our Great Canadian Literary Hunt back in 2009 as well as third in 2006, how has that helped your career?

Leslie Vryenhoek: The 2006 showing was one of my first published poems, so it was a real shot in the arm. Both poems—Stuck and My Parents’ Past—were published last year in a collection called Gulf (Oolichan Books).

LV: Since Gulf was published, I’ve been working on finishing and revising a novel—my first attempt at the interminable form—but I keep getting distracted by ideas for screenplays that keep appearing out of nowhere. So a lot of sketching out ideas, and then wading back in to wrestle the beast I’ve tentatively titled Doubtful Accounts.

LV: At the very least, they usually come with a subscription to a good publication, which it is important to read. And maybe if you win, a few bucks. But most importantly, literary contests have deadlines—they make you finish something. Also, they help up and coming writers get used to soul-crushing disappointment. It’s never too soon to start on those callouses.

LV: Write the best thing you can write, not what you think the judges might want. That said, read the damn rules and follow them.

LV: Whoa, that’s like asking What’s more important: arms or legs, love or sex, coffee or vodka … Character is essential for driving a plot, but the things that happen, plotwise. necessarily develop the character. They are equally crucial.

Lynn Cunningham will be judging our creative non-fiction category this year.

This Magazine is happy to announce Lynn Cunningham as one of our creative non-fiction judges for this year’s Great Canadian Literary Hunt. Lynn is an associate professor at Ryerson University’s School of Journalism. She is well known throughout the magazine industry, holding senior editorial positions at Canadian Business, Quest and Toronto Life. In 1999, she was awarded the Lifetime Achievement award at the National Magazine Awards. We recently sat down with Lynn to discuss creative non-fiction and judging the Great Canadian Lit Hunt.

This: We’ve had a lot of questions surrounding our new category, creative non-fiction. Could you share your thoughts about what it exactly is?

Lynn Cunningham: My book club only reads creative non-fiction. When we first met, we spent some time clarifying what we meant by that term. We agreed that this genre is characterized by true stories, with emphasis on both “true” and “story,” that employ techniques of fiction–plot, dialogue, strong characters, effective scenes. But my favourite part of our definition is that a book has to be a “ripping good read.”

This: As one of our judges this year for creative non-fiction, what will you be looking for in a winner?

LC: See above, particularly the ripping good read part.

This: What value do literary contests have for new writers?

LC: It’s often hard for beginning writers to get much validation, or even to get someone outside their immediate family to read their work. A contest is sort of like what an open-mike night is for musicians—a chance to show their chops. And if they win, they have a great clip and a bit of dough to put toward the garret rent.

This: Where can people find examples of creative non-fiction?

LC: There are usually some tucked into the bestseller lists. One current example is In the Garden of Beasts, by Erik Larson; another is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot . Frequently, the winner of the Governor General’s award for non-fiction qualifies. One of the titles my club read this year was The Golden Spruce, by John Vaillant, which received the 2005 GG. Its subtitle alone is enticing: “A True Story of Myth, Madness and Greed.” How could you not want to read that? Goodreads offers a lot of excellent suggestions, though I’d quibble with a few (Eat, Pray, Love? Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim?) and caution that some of the authors—Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil’s John Berendt, for one—have copped to being a little too creative with the verite.

This: Is there a place for creative non-fiction in mainstream media?

LC: If you consider book publishing part of the MSM, as I do, certainly. Of course, a lot of magazines—and not just the obvious ones, like The Walrus or The New Yorker—regularly publish articles that qualify. Download some of the winners of this year’s National Magazine Awards for a sample. As newspapers move away from the inverted pyramid tradition, particularly in features, you can encounter examples of this genre in their pages as well. Think of Ian Brown’s affecting meditation on his dad and loss published this past Father’s Day in The Globe and Mail.

Worry no more!

This Magazine has enlisted Natalie Zina Walschots (Thumbscrews and DOOM: Love Poems for Supervillains), and Dani Couture, (Algoma, Sweet, and Good Meat). Together, they’ll walk you through a 101-style workshop on the craft of writing and the business of writing. You’ll hear tips and walk away with tools for finding ideas, dealing with the ubiquitous writer’s block, making writing routine, and pushing creative boundaries. You’ll also find out how to get an agent, whether you even need one, how to promote yourself, plus how today’s top Canadian writers got their start. We’ll also give you the chance to ask those burning questions and make sure you leave with a head full of resources.

The workshop fee is $25.00 and space is limited so register today! You must register to attend. To register please visit http://www.eventbrite.com/event/3868031386

The workshop will be held Wednesday July 11, 2012 from 6:00-9:00 pm at #408-401 Richmond St W, Toronto, ON.

For more information please contact publisher@thismagazine.ca or 416-979-9429.

Jennifer and her bird Antonia

Jennifer Lovegrove is the author of two collections of poetry, I Should Have Never Fired the Sentinel (2005) and The Dagger Between Her Teeth (2002). Her work has been featured in a number of Canadian publications including Taddle Creek, The Fiddlehead, Sub-Terrain and This Magazine. We recently sat down with the former Great Canadian Literary Hunt judge to discuss her work, writing contest and workshops.

This Magazine: You recently had a couple poems published in This Magazine (Jan/Feb 2012), what else have you been working on lately?

Jennifer Lovegrove: Yes, This Magazine recently published my poems “Squall” and “Stove,” which was an honour; This is my favourite magazine and has been for a long time. Those two are from a batch of poems that I’ve been working on for the last year or so. It didn’t start out as a series or anything, but I see some thematic and aesthetic links in the poems now, and now I’d say they’re part of a manuscript in progress. My novel – Watch How We Walk – is coming out next year, and I’m on the verge of another rewrite – the last one before I hand it over to my editor. I promise! There are a few other bits and pieces of projects that may or may not evolve into other forms; too soon to say. Also, I am resurrecting my lit-zine dig. – 2013 will see its thirteenth issue, so writers, send me your poems and stories.

JL: Well, it was a few years ago, so I don’t remember all the details, but yes, it was tough, but an enjoyable challenge. My fellow judges (David O’Meara and Mark Truscott) and I narrowed it down to a shortlist we agreed upon and then via email, we discussed and debated the top few and eventually settled on winners. We had great discussions about our poetic values and priorities and preoccupations and how these fit into the process.