By Neale McDevitt and Daniel McCabe, BA'89

Canadian literature has never been healthier and some of the country’s finest authors have emerged from McGill

For the longest time, it seemed that whenever the subject of Canadian literature came up, the same names were bandied about. Atwood. Munro. Richler. Davies. Ondaatje.

Things have changed.

Canadian writers of substance are now almost legion. The best novels produced in Canada match up against anything authored anywhere in the world. Each year, when the finalists for the Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Awards are announced, a fierce debate typically ensues over the many good books that didn’t quite make the cut.

Some of the most exciting fiction being produced these days is the work of McGill graduates. Three of the last six winners of the Books in Canada First Novel Award, for instance, are McGill alums – Eva Stachniak, BA’88, Mary Lawson, BA’68, and Colin McAdam, BA’93.

They aren’t the only McGill graduates making waves in literary circles. CBC online journalist Katrina Onstad, BA’94, earned raves for her first novel, the acerbic How Happy to Be, while the award-winning Trout Stanley, by playwright Claudia Dey, BA’95, was described by the New York Times as a “deliciously lyrical piece of Canadian Gothic” when it made its Big Apple debut in mid-2006. Andrew Pyper, BA’91, MA’92, draws plenty of attention for his slick, brainy thrillers, as does Edeet Ravel, MA’86, PhD’92, for her poignant tales of love amidst the political strife of the Middle East.

Here are some McGill authors whose work we suspect you’ll be reading – and reading about – for years to come.