Community hub, free book store, venue for lectures and debates, internet cafe: the public library serves a large number of roles, some of which perhaps seem less relavent in the new digital age. Perhaps my favourite description of why public libraries are still important comes from the ever witty interweb guru Cory Doctorow: “Damn right libraries shouldn’t be book-lined Internet cafes. They should be book-lined, computer-filled information-dojos where communities come together to teach each other black-belt information literacy, where initiates work alongside noviates to show them how to master the tools... | Continue reading article

In today’s so-called Twitter age, when attention spans are supposedly non-existent and books are seen as quaint anachronisms, it is cool to claim that epic novels are dead. For in a world where 140-characters are all the rage, who has time to read hundreds of pages, let alone invest the mental effort to process a story full of complexity, nuance and wonder? Fortunately for book lovers (and there are still many), English-born writer Edward Rutherfurd puts the lie to the view that epic literary sagas are passé. “People are reading more... | Continue reading article

Many Ottawa residents know Clive Doucet as a former municipal politician, the principled city councillor who served for four terms at City Hall and who ran unsuccessfully for Mayor in 2010. What some local residents may not be aware of, however, is his remarkable literary career that has seen Doucet publish numerous books and several plays. “The reality is that I have always been an artist and a writer,” Doucet tells me in a phone interview.  ”This is my lifetime’s work.” While his involvement in city politics from 1997 to... | Continue reading article

Ottawa is filled with fabulous authors. To showcase our city’s great literary talent, today we begin a new series in which we speak to writers from the National Capital Region. Ricardo Ramirez, the police inspector in charge of the Havana Major Crimes Unit, can see dead people. Yet again, his ability to interact with the ghosts of murdered victims may be nothing more than a mental disease, perhaps even the same one that killed his grandmother. Amidst this personal anguish inside the head of a Cuban detective, a Canadian police officer... | Continue reading article

Despite his shrill voice, pedantic charisma and somewhat smarmy aura, Nardwuar the Human Serviette gives great interviews. Especially deft are his closes, where he commonly asks “Why should people care about (the artist/band that are engaged in the interview)?” Many respond like well-seasoned self-promoters. Some scoff. Others are humbled and end up chewing their way through some kind of statement which they hope straddles the divisive line between the aloof and the thoughtful. But probably now more than ever – in our information age, where everyone is producing– the question... | Continue reading article

Since 1997, the Ottawa Writers Festival has been bringing the best literary talent from around the world to the nation’s capital.  The festival has been so successful, it now offers semi-annual editions – one in the spring and the other in the fall – with scattered events throughout the year. The spring 2013 edition is set to be another fantastic gathering, with authors discussing such topics as the creation of the universe, time, global food production, songwriting, poetry and mystery novels.  One event that particularly caught my eye was the songwriter’s... | Continue reading article

It’s fashionable in some circles to argue that the novel is a dying art form.  According to this group – which includes, ironically, published fiction writers – novels no longer have the power to move society, nor do they offer much space for new forms of artistic creativity. In her remarkable début novel Ru, Saigon born but now Montreal-based writer Kim Thúy clearly demonstrates that the reports on the death of the novel have been greatly exaggerated.  In a beautifully written, poetic story, she tells the tale of a Vietnamese... | Continue reading article

Local writer rob mclennan has had a profound impact on Ottawa’s literary scene.  The author of 26 books, including two novels, the non-fiction work Ottawa: The Unknown City (a must read, if you want to get to know the city’s little secrets), and numerous volumes of poetry, he has also published, interviewed and reviewed the work of a large number of his fellow wordsmiths. In fact, it’s no exaggeration to say that he has promoted hundreds of writers from the National Capital Region and beyond, many of whom would not have... | Continue reading article

Alexander McCall Smith is a modern day renaissance man.  In addition to selling tens of millions of fiction books around the world, he is a recognised expert on medical law and bioethics, having served on such bodies as the International Bioethics Commission of UNESCO.  He is also an emeritus professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh, on top of his charity work in Africa. Currently on a two-and-a-half week speaking and signing tour of Canada and the United States, McCall Smith will be in Ottawa on Wednesday, April... | Continue reading article

Nancy Richler is a fantastic writer and is a joy to read.  Luckily for local book lovers, the Montreal-native will be in Ottawa on Thursday discussing her latest novel The Imposter Bride, a beautifully written story that focuses on a heartbreaking mother-daughter relationship. The novel begins with a mysterious European woman who arrives in Montreal from Palestine just after World War Two.  Set to marry Sol, a man who she has never met, she is told on arrival by her husband-to-be that he no longer wishes to marry her.  Amidst this... | Continue reading article