From Margaret O'Brien: Madeleine Thien's Dogs at the Perimeter

Madeleine Thien has, bravely I think, chosen to write about a particular evil reality. Through Janie she unveils a dreadful truth.

Our Year of Mourning Leonard, by Ariela Freedman

My father died twenty years ago and I cannot listen to Leonard Cohen without mourning him. As I write, I’m listening to his copy of Cohen’s album Songs from a Room. “What is a saint?” Cohen asks in Beautiful Losers, and he answers himself, “I think it has something to do with the energy of love.”

Publishers' Weekly Publisher Cevin Bryerman in Montreal

“The world is changing, and we’re trying to change with it.”

Poet and psychiatrist Joël des Rosiers wins Quebec’s national literary prize

In addition to being a gifted poet and a practicing psychiatrist, Des Rosiers is a courageous and open-minded gentleman for whom I have great respect. This, as we all know, has nothing much to do with literary merit, most of the time. I mention it because it gives me even more reason to rejoice that Quebec has chosen to celebrate Joël des Rosiers and his work with its highest literary honour.