Writers of the City

This issue has been mailed to subscribers as of Oct 1. 2023

Novelists mine the past, mirror the present, and imagine the future to create the settings for their stories. When their novel is set clearly in a particular city, that city itself can become one of the characters. It shapes the story, and at the same time its own story starts to be shaped by the writer. The accumulation of these stories becomes an overall narrative of the city’s past, present, and future. In this issue, we decided to explore how writers, especially novelists, have engaged with Toronto.

Meanwhile, in our front section the stories also expand the way we think about the city. In an extended feature, Ian Darragh’s writing and photography take us to meet the people developing urban agriculture for Black and other communities. In a special section on benches, Cara Chellew and John Lorinc analyze why these modest elements of public infrastructure are vital for public spaces.

Both fiction and non-fiction tell us stories about our city, revealing new ways of seeing it and of experiencing it. Each has a role in shaping our image of Toronto.