Speculation has been swirling in Toronto’s literary community over the authorship of The Calling, a new recent crime fiction novel, penned by a prominent and highly-regarded writer under the alter-ego of Inger Ash Wolfe. First, Maclean’s guessed the author was Jane Urquhart, who denied the rumour. Then, citing as evidence a handful of anonymous leaflets [...]

Since January 2006, quirky black-and-white brushstroke illustrations have graced the back page of the The New York Times Magazine. The work is that of Toronto-based designer and OCAD teacher Bob Hambly, who just completed his 500th illustration—a bus—for the prestigious Sunday newspaper supplement. “Even after twelve years, I still get that little pang in my [...]

On Sunday night, Team Bloggers kicked some cab driver and celebrity impersonator ass on CBC’s Test the Nation: Trivia. The evening ended with the cleanest sweep in quiz show history: bloggers had the best team score with an average of 50; team captain Samantha Bee had the highest score of all the Canadian celebs; teammate [...]

Photo by Pete Nema from the Torontoist Flickr Pool. It's hard to believe it's already been over six months since the Rheostatics played their final show at Massey Hall. You may be wondering what each of the members have been doing since, and in Dave Bidini's case the answer is easy: he has already found the time to travel the world, write about his journeys, and get his book published by McClelland & Stewart....

Ok, so we're starting to get the message that we need to act on this whole "we're killing the planet" thing, and fast. But amongst all the noise about how much trouble we've gotten ourselves into, it's sometimes hard to hear the solutions and see the positive ideas. Enter GreenTOpia, the third installment in Coach House Books' uTOpia series, which is being released at a party this weekend into our eagerly outstretched arms. As we...

A couple of weeks ago, The Daily Show upgraded their website, adding a free and fully-searchable video database of the past eight years of programs from the Jon Stewart era. For fans of the show, it was heaven. Imagine being able to instantly watch one of those old “Even Stevphen” segments with Carell and Colbert, [...]

Monday morning, amidst a first-rate buffet of coffee, chocolate chip cookies, and fresh orange juice at the Four Seasons Hotel, a disheveled group of journalists and bankers gathered to hear the shortlist announced for the 14th annual Scotiabank Giller Prize. Only the second year that the final contenders were culled from an initial longlist of [...]

For Toronto’s Kids On TV, it’s been a long road to get their debut album completed, one that has lasted the better part of three years. For those waiting to hear Mixing Business With Pleasure, released last week by the Blocks Recording Club, there has been the lingering question of how the music would translate [...]

The best things in life are free: long walks on the beach, make-outs in the dark and, for one day a year, comic books. Comics nerds around the globe will unite in spirit this Saturday to celebrate Free Comic Book Day, which means a trip to your local comic book store will result in a [...]

Past Griffin Award recipient Christian Bök once stated, “The Griffin is the poetry award that can drastically change a poet’s life.” Christian isn’t exaggerating: the $100,000 prize, shared by two winners, is one of the largest poetry awards in the world. In a 2000 speech, Scott Griffin, founder of The Griffin Trust for Excellence in [...]