Cover of ackson’s Wars: A. Y. Jackson, the Birth of the Group of Seven, and the Great War by Douglas Hunter. Shows one of Jackson's paintings.

Throwback: Hard, Clear Sunlight: The Rise of a Distinctly Canadian School of Art Out of the Devastation of WWI — Jackson’s Wars: A. Y. Jackson, the Birth of the Group of Seven, and the Great War by Douglas Hunter

The impacts of lived experiences in the totality of misery and death along the Western Front were enduring and consequently reflected in their art. Douglas Hunter’s biography Jackson’s Wars: A. Y. Jackson, the Birth of the Group of Seven, and the Great War explores the impacts of World War I on A. Y. Jackson and the Group of Seven in shaping their vision of a distinctly Canadian School of painting.

Fearnoch by Jim McEwen

[Editor’s note: this review, written by Naomi MacKinnon, appeared at her Consumed by Ink book review blog and is reproduced here with her kind permission.] As soon as I saw this book I knew I wanted to read it (I do love judging a book by its cover!). But who knew I would love it …

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The Ann Burke Interview

Ann Burke’s The Seventh Shot (Latitude 46 Publishing) is a recounting of two grisly Ontario murders some thirty years on, and the remarkable efforts of police detectives to unravel the senseless brutality of these crimes.The author and one-time classmate of the killer, haunted by the grisly crimes, she sets about shedding light on how the …

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Cottagers and Indians by Drew Hayden Taylor

Taylor’s two-person play Cottagers and Indians was inspired by a years-long dispute between cottage owners on Pigeon Lake in Ontario and an Anishnawbe man seeding manoomin (wild rice) in their waterways. In the play, Maureen Poole, a white woman at her lakeside split-level ranch house, and Arthur Copper, an Indigenous man in his canoe, face …

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Brother by David Chariandy

The following review is by Naomi MacKinnon of Consumed by Ink, and is reproduced here with her kind permission. [dropcap]If [/dropcap]you’re looking for that one beautiful gem, David Chariandy’s Brother just might be it. It’s raw and honest, and the writing is as smooth as silk. Michael and his older brother Francis are close as …

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