Aesop’s Fables (1571) is the oldest book in McGill’s Rare Children’s Book Collection. Written in Latin, with interpretive notes in Greek, it’s now housed in a collection of children’s literature—despite predating the Victorian conception of childhood itself. But this story also begins later, in the 1930s, with Sheila R. Bourke.[Read More…]
Tag: literature
Goodreads Choice Awards prioritizes sameness over diversity
Most people have heard of the Grammys and the Oscars, but unless you’re an avid reader, the Goodreads Choice Awards may be less well-known. Goodreads is a social media platform dedicated to books and those who read them. Since 2009, the website has hosted its annual Choice Awards, allowing users[Read More…]
Electric, ethereal, and earnest: An evening at Tommy Lefroy’s ‘Le Trashfire’ tour
On Sept. 28, Tommy Lefroy fans at Montreal’s Le Ministère sent seismic sound waves across North America as the crowd chanted along to the duo’s ethereal and addictive harmonies. With Wynter Bethel and Tessa Mouzourakis—who record as Tommy Lefroy—on electric guitar, and Blake Evans on drums, the hour-long set incorporated[Read More…]
Finding Mr. Right in Indigo’s Bestsellers section
All of us have picked up a book advertised by Indigo as “a thrilling new romance between two forces of nature” only to find out it’s a drawn-out bore about two coworkers who are just afraid to ask each other out. Or maybe it’s about a woman falling in love[Read More…]
The Sally Rooney effect
In reaction to the pandemic, people have indulged in melancholy. Though Sally Rooney’s novel Normal People was neither her debut nor her most recent, it was the one that made her famous. The gloomy but beautiful novel was published in 2018, and adapted for television by the BBC two years[Read More…]
Literary theorist Jeff Dolven pays a virtual visit to the English department
On Jan. 19, the McGill English Department held its 2022 Spector Lecture, an annual event that highlights contemporary work in the literary field. This year, the department welcomed Jeff Dolven, a poet, literary critic, and Princeton professor of English. Later, students and faculty had a chance to hear several of[Read More…]
Finding the right place to read
A university lecture or a book club: By way of discussion, both bring the personal act of reading into an academic or social realm. However, these cultural spaces don’t necessarily motivate the same types of discussion. Barring other factors, like contextual formality or accessibility, an individual moves through these spaces[Read More…]
Point-Counterpoint: Old literature or new literature?
The McGill Tribune contributors Sequoia Kim and Jonah Fried present their opinions on old versus new literature. The case for contemporary literature Sequoia Kim Literature has been foundational to the ebb and flow of ideas in the world: Words and stories inform, persuade, and inspire us. However, bookshelves are[Read More…]
Drawn & Quarterly welcomes up and coming Canadian authors
Canada’s contemporary literary scene is on the brink of something special. On Oct. 4, La Petite Librairie Drawn & Quarterly converted its tight space into a stage, hosting three significant writers, Alix Ohlin, Megan Gail Coles, and Audrée Wilhelmy. Ohlin and Coles’ novels have just been shortlisted for Canada’s prestigious[Read More…]
A bus ride worth a thousand words
McGill shuttle bus driver moonlights as an author and poet.