 October 1971 cover | |
| Discipline | Literary criticism |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Edited by | Olga Stein |
| Publication details | |
| History | 1971–2008 |
| Publisher | The Canadian Review of Books Ltd. (Canada) |
| Frequency | 9/year |
| Standard abbreviations | |
| ISO 4 | Books Can. |
| Indexing | |
| ISSN | 0045-2564 |
| OCLC no. | 421761698 |
| Links | |
Books in Canada was a monthly magazine that reviewed Canadian literature, published in print form between 1971 and 2008. In its heyday it was the most influential literary magazine in Canada.
One of the co-founders of Books in Canada in 1971 was the radio producer, book publisher and jazz music columnist Val Clery (1924–1996). [1] He decided the magazine was needed after writing a report for the Canadian Book Publishers' Council on promotion of books in Canada, and was the first editor of the magazine. [2] The journal received subsidies from the Canadian government. [3] It was published by Bedford House Publishing Corp. [2]
Books in Canada included reviews of Canadian poetry, literature and non-fiction books. Authors such as Margaret Atwood, Margaret Laurence, bpNichol and Michael Ondaatje contributed reviews. [4] It also included interviews with authors and profiles of authors, and other topics. [2] The author, journalist and second-hand bookstore owner Donald Herbert Bell (1936–2004) wrote a column called "Founde Bookes" that described his activity locating and selling books. [5]
Books in Canada was the most comprehensive book review journal in the 1980s and early 1990s, giving a broad overview of the Canadian literary scene that was valued by writers who wanted to keep in touch. [6] Books in Canada appeared nine times per year. It was sold in book stores and newsstands across the country, and by subscription. Circulation was about 12,000 per issue. [2] According to Stephen Henighan it was sometimes facile, and sometimes paid too much attention to activity in Toronto, but it published reviews by freelancers from across the country and covered almost all Canadian fiction and poetry publications. The magazine was readable, light and journalistic. [7]
Books in Canada was acquired by Adrian Stein in 1995. [8] The magazine was published through Stein's company named The Canadian Review of Books Ltd. [4] Olga Stein, wife of Adrian Stein, edited the journal. [3] The Steins converted Books in Canada to a new format. Henighan suggests that it became more selective about what it chose to review, ignoring important works in favor of obscure academic books and lengthy opinion columns. Circulation dropped sharply. [7] Early in 2000 the journal suspended publication. [8]
In 2001 Adrian Stein made a deal with Amazon.com, an online book retailer, which generated some controversy. [3] Stein sold Amazon the electronic rights to old reviews, while Amazon provided cash and advertising to the journal, which resumed publishing in July 2001. [8] With the new Amazon arrangement, print circulation increased dramatically to 100,000 copies per issue while subscriptions remained the same. Amazon offered every Canadian customer a complimentary copy of the publication in the mail.[ citation needed ]
In its last years Books in Canada was sometimes narrowly focused on Toronto, sometimes attempted to address the global market. [9] The Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council and Canadian Heritage Magazine Fund reduced or dropped funding. [8] The magazine published an extensive defense of the Canadian newspaper publisher Conrad Black before his trial for fraud in the U.S. [3] The January/February 2008 issue had an article titled "The Knotted Knickers of Naomi Klein" with a caricature of the author. [10] The magazine continues to provide an online archive of its reviews. [11]
Books in Canada established its prestigious "Books in Canada First Novel Award" in 1976. It was later sponsored by SmithBooks, a bookseller, and known as the "Smithbooks/Books in Canada First Novel Award". [12] When Smithbooks was acquired by Chapters in 1995 the award was renamed the "Chapters/Books in Canada First Novel Award". Later the award became the "Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award". After Books in Canada closed it became the "Amazon.ca First Novel Award". [12]
Rohinton Mistry is an Indian-born Canadian writer. He has been the recipient of many awards including the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 2012. Each of his first three novels were shortlisted for the Booker Prize. His novels to date have been set in India, told from the perspective of Parsis, and explore themes of family life, poverty, discrimination, and the corrupting influence of society.
The Giller Prize, is a literary award given to a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection published in English the previous year, after an annual juried competition between publishers who submit entries. The prize was established in 1994 by Toronto businessman Jack Rabinovitch in honour of his late wife Doris Giller, a former literary editor at the Toronto Star, and is awarded in November of each year along with a cash reward with the winner being presented by the previous year's winning author.
The Amazon.ca First Novel Award, formerly the Books in Canada First Novel Award, is a Canadian literary award, co-presented by Amazon.ca and The Walrus to the best first novel in English published the previous year by a citizen or resident of Canada. It has been awarded since 1976.
Shyam Selvadurai is a Sri Lankan Canadian novelist. He is most noted for his 1994 novel Funny Boy, which won the Books in Canada First Novel Award and the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction.
Russell Claude Smith is a Canadian writer and newspaper columnist. Smith's novels and short stories are mostly set in Toronto, where he lives.
Aritha van Herk,, is a Canadian writer, critic, editor, public intellectual, and university professor. Her work often includes feminist themes, and depicts and analyzes the culture of western Canada.
Michael Redhill is an American-born Canadian poet, playwright and novelist. He also writes under the pseudonym Inger Ash Wolfe.
The Governor General's Award for English-language fiction is a Canadian literary award that annually recognizes one Canadian writer for a fiction book written in English. It is one of fourteen Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit, seven each for creators of English- and French-language books. The awards was created by the Canadian Authors Association in partnership with Lord Tweedsmuir in 1936. In 1959, the award became part of the Governor General's Awards program at the Canada Council for the Arts in 1959. The age requirement is 18 and up.
Dennis Bock is a Canadian novelist and short story writer, lecturer at the University of Toronto, travel writer and book reviewer. His novel Going Home Again was published in Canada by HarperCollins and in the US by Alfred A. Knopf in August 2013. It was shortlisted for the 2013 Scotiabank Giller Prize.
Thomas Wharton is a Canadian novelist.
Stephen Patrick Glanvill Henighan is a Canadian novelist, short story writer, journalist, translator and academic.
Mark Frutkin is a Canadian novelist and poet. He has published ten books of fiction, three books of poetry, as well as two works of non-fiction and a book of essays. In 2022, his novel The Artist and the Assassin won the Silver Medal in the IPPY Awards, in the category of literary fiction. In 2007, his novel, Fabrizio's Return, won the Trillium Prize for Best Book in Ontario and the Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic, and was nominated for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book. In 1988, his novel, Atmospheres Apollinaire, was short-listed for a Governor General's Award and was also short-listed for the Trillium Award, as well as the Ottawa-Carleton Book Award. His works have been shortlisted for the Ottawa Book Awards five times.
Brian Francis is a Canadian writer best known for his 2004 debut novel Fruit.
Claudia Casper is a Canadian writer. She is best known for her bestseller novel The Reconstruction, about a woman who constructs a life-sized model of the hominid Lucy for a museum diorama while trying to recreate herself. Her third novel, The Mercy Journals, written as the journals of a soldier suffering PTSD in the year 2047, won the 2016 Philip K. Dick Award for distinguished Science fiction.
Shelf Awareness is an American publishing company that produces two electronic publications/newsletters focused on bookselling, books and book reviews.
Us Conductors is a debut novel by Canadian writer Sean Michaels. Published in 2014 by Random House in Canada and Tin House in the United States, the novel is a fictionalized account of the relationship between Léon Theremin, the inventor of the theremin, and Clara Rockmore, the musician regarded as the instrument's first virtuoso player.
Bear is a novel by Canadian author Marian Engel, published in 1976. It won the Governor General's Literary Award the same year. It is Engel's fifth novel, and her most famous. The story tells of a lonely archivist sent to work in northern Ontario, where she enters into a sexual relationship with a bear. The book has been called "the most controversial novel ever written in Canada".
Jael Ealey Richardson is a Canadian writer and broadcaster. The daughter of former Canadian Football League quarterback Chuck Ealey, she is best known for The Stone Thrower, a book about her father which has been published both as an adult memoir in 2012 and as an illustrated children's book in 2015.
Joshua Whitehead is a Canadian First Nations, two spirit poet and novelist.
Split Tooth is a 2018 novel by Canadian musician Tanya Tagaq. Based in part on her own personal journals, the book tells the story of a young Inuk woman growing up in the Canadian Arctic in the 1970s.
