My thanks to Shane Hewitt for the great questions and for taking the time to talk to me about Take This for the Pain: Essays on Writing and Life, it was good to talk about writing, Orwell and more.…

Ford’s war on bike lanes is a culture war. From protests to narrowing roads, here is how Toronto can fight back.

In his second full-length poetry collection, Half-Earth, Blair Trewartha explores what it means to survive in a world beset by climate crisis and the ever-distorting realities of digitized human li…

In Sixteen Homes Catherine Owen pulls together the ideas, words and images that surround our understanding of home and housing. Asking questions about transience and about how long it takes to set dow...

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The Ontario Court of Appeal cleared Doug Ford to remove Toronto bike lanes. Here is why the plan won’t solve traffic congestion.

Art has a way of turning up in unexpected places, and Take this for the Pain (Palimpsest Press) follows those moments wherever they lead. Drawing on ...

ALT: Charlie Chaplin in The Lion's Cage

In this interview, author Alex Boyd discusses his new essay collection, Take This for the Pain. Inspired by George Orwell’s clear, accessible style, Boyd reflects on his diverse reading habits—champio...

"...[Alex Boyd 's] book **is** the art and life of writing, and understanding it that way changes what you expect from it." - reviewer Renée K. Nicholson

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A curious look at art and culture in a rapidly changing world. Pre-order Take this for the Pain now

Russell Thornton is a Canadian poet with nine poetry collections previous to Two Songs, Selected Poems (2026, Harbour Publishing) including previous titles shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize,…

It pays to have your books in Canada’s libraries! Learn more about the Public Lending Right Program

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I don’t know who originally said that certain rare individuals might step over every body in a battlefield fo mourn the passing of a butterfly. At first glance it suggests a useless personali…

I don’t know who originally said that certain rare individuals might step over every body in a battlefield fo mourn the passing of a butterfly. At first glance it suggests a useless personali…

This review was originally posted to The Danforth Review in 2006, the year before the introduction of the iPhone. Editor Kevin Smokler explains in his introduction to Bookmark Now that the voices b…

ALT: a black and white photo of a man in overalls standing in a kitchen .