Books & Lit

The 2021 Ottawa Book Awards celebrate 19 local authors who published works of English and French fiction and non-fiction in the last year.

Check out the shortlist for the Archibald Lampman Award, recognizing the best in Ottawa and area poetry.

Damn Magazine is back in print, and embraced one of the more interesting pivots of COVID-19 times: the edgy music mag now celebrates intergenerational stories and is hoping to appeal to seniors and youth alike.

Arc Poetry has released its 94th issue with a focus on non-binary, trans, gender non-conforming, and Two-Spirit poets and artists.

Local author, television and film writer, and longtime movie buff Dan Lalande has released a memoir detailing Ottawa’s glory days of downtown movie theatres.

Local author Ian Roy is launching a middle-grade novel called The Girl Who Could Fly virtually on Thursday, June 3 at 7pm, through Octopus Books. 

Natif de Cornwall, le nouveau poète lauréat francophone d’Ottawa Gilles Latour a reçu sa formation universitaire à Paris et Montréal. Cependant, il a passé la plus grande partie de sa vie à Ottawa, où il a mené une carrière en développement international, et servi Les Éditions L’Interligne en tant qu’éditeur de la collection poésie. Ses poèmes ont paru dans un grand nombre d’anthologies et de revues, et il a publié cinq recueils.

Ottawa’s new Anglophone Poet Laureate, Albert Dumont or “South Wind,” is a poet, storyteller, speaker, and an Algonquin traditional teacher. He was born in traditional Algonquin Territory (Kitigan Zibi), and has been walking the Red Road since commencing his sobriety in 1988. He has published five books of poetry and short stories and two children’s books, written in three languages.

A new anthology is looking for 25 Ottawa-based Muslim visual artists and poets to appear in an anthology titled Ottawa Inshallah.

Since 2012, the Toronto Writers’ Collective (TWC) has been empowering members of underserved communities to find their voice and uncover their inner strength through safe, accessible and inclusive writing workshops.

This week in the Future of Ottawa series, we’re taking a deep dive into Ottawa’s poetry scene—what it’s like now and where it’s headed. Read on for a guest post from rob mclennan on small press publishing.

This month’s Creative Sunday will be April 25. We’re looking for several pieces of short fiction or creative non-fiction around the theme “Ottawa is home.”

The Christmas COVID lockdown sounded like a great opportunity to Josh. Up ‘til now, there had always been an excuse to continue the drinking. Maybe multiple excuses. Yet for most of the last year he’d thought about just stopping altogether.

I decide not to let another Spring day come and go as I watch—through my bedroom window—the sun set itself on fire and gently put itself out. The city begins to stir as the cold lets go of its hold on us. We emerge enlivened under clear blue skies while the river thaws and floods in again.

Ottawa poet Samukele Ncube is taking over the @apt613 IG Story this weekend.