Toronto Review of Books

Toronto Review of Books is an independent Canadian periodical devoted to long-form criticism, essays, and cultural commentary. It publishes reviews and conversations on contemporary and historical literature, politics, and visual culture, positioning itself within Toronto's literary scene and the broader anglophone publishing world. The Review engages with writers, translators, curators, and scholars from institutions across North America and Europe.

History

Founded in the 2010s by a collective of Toronto-based critics and editors, the Review emerged amid a resurgence of interest in print and online literary forums in Canada. Early contributors included figures associated with HarperCollins, McClelland & Stewart, House of Anansi Press, and academic departments at University of Toronto, York University (Toronto), and Ryerson University. The periodical has intersected with events at International Festival of Authors, Toronto International Film Festival, and programming from the Art Gallery of Ontario, while participating in dialogues spurred by publications from Penguin Random House, Faber and Faber, Knopf Doubleday, and Verso Books.

Editorial Structure and Contributors

The editorial collective is composed of an editor-in-chief, managing editors, section editors, and an advisory board drawn from critics, historians, and translators. Past and recurring contributors have included critics affiliated with The Globe and Mail, The Walrus, The New York Review of Books, London Review of Books, and academics from Harvard University, Columbia University, University of Oxford, and University of Cambridge. The Review commissions essays, review essays, and serialized conversations with novelists and poets linked to Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro, Michael Ondaatje, Mavis Gallant, Derek Walcott, Seamus Heaney, Toni Morrison, Kazuo Ishiguro, Neil Gaiman, Salman Rushdie, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Zadie Smith, Jhumpa Lahiri, George Saunders, and translators associated with Anthea Bell and Gregory Rabassa. Guest editors have come from arts institutions including Royal Ontario Museum, National Gallery of Canada, and publishing houses such as Bloomsbury and Simon & Schuster.

Content and Themes

The Review covers fiction, poetry, biography, memoir, translation, and criticism of visual arts, film, and music. It publishes sustained essays on works by authors like Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro, Michael Ondaatje, Joseph Boyden, Esi Edugyan, Miriam Toews, Robert Kroetsch, Mordecai Richler, Leonard Cohen, Rainer Maria Rilke, Anna Akhmatova, Derek Walcott, Aimé Césaire, and Wole Soyinka. The magazine engages with debates prompted by titles from Jonathan Franzen, Don DeLillo, Ian McEwan, Salman Rushdie, Hilary Mantel, Robert Caro, David McCullough, Simon Schama, Peter Ackroyd, Susan Sontag, Roland Barthes, and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. It produces thematic dossiers on translation linked to Walter Benjamin, on poetics linked to T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound, and on politics in literature linked to events such as the Arab Spring, the Fall of the Berlin Wall, and the Brexit referendum. Visual-culture pieces reference exhibitions at Tate Modern, Museum of Modern Art, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, and curatorial projects by Okwui Enwezor and Hans Ulrich Obrist.

Reception and Impact

The Review has been cited in discussions of Canadian letters alongside The Walrus, Maisonneuve (magazine), Canadian Literature, and Quill & Quire. Academics from University of British Columbia and McGill University have referenced its essays in syllabi on contemporary Canadian fiction, while reviewers in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and London Review of Books have noted its role in transatlantic critical exchange. The Review's interventions on topics involving Indigenous sovereignty and settler narratives engaged readers alongside work by Taiaiake Alfred and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, prompting panels at Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences and readings at Toronto Reference Library.

Notable Issues and Features

The magazine has produced special issues devoted to Canadian short fiction, translation studies, and the future of the book, featuring roundtables with figures such as Dory Nason, Michael Redhill, Esi Edugyan, Jordan Peterson (in dialogue contexts), and essays referencing archives like Library and Archives Canada and collections at University of Toronto Scarborough. Regular features include long-form review essays, literary conversations, and artist-portfolios tied to exhibitions at Art Gallery of Ontario and programming by Harbourfront Centre. Digital supplements have hosted podcasts with editors and interviews with poets and novelists connected to PEN International and award announcements coinciding with Scotiabank Giller Prize, Governor General's Awards, Man Booker Prize, and Nobel Prize in Literature seasons.

Category:Literary magazines published in Canada Category:Culture of Toronto