Literary Review of Canada, November 2025

Named Canada’s best literary magazine at the 2025 National Magazine Awards, the Literary Review of Canada has prided itself on being a journal of ideas for more than thirty years.

Patrice Dutil, a political scientist and historian, founded the magazine in 1991. Originally a kitchen table venture, it filled a serious void in Canada’s cultural landscape, providing a space for the country’s best and emerging writers to reflect deeply on politics, philosophy, science, history, culture, and literature. With the help of volunteers, Dutil quickly attracted a small but influential readership. He sold the magazine to Carleton University Press in 1996.

Two years later, a team of editors and co-publishers, including David Berlin, brought the publication back to Toronto. In 2003, Bronwyn Drainie, a former host of the CBC’s Sunday Morning, started a twelve-year tenure as editor.

In 2005, the Literary Review of Canada won the Kroeger College Award for Public Discourse, with the jury calling the magazine “nourishing, entertaining and inspiring.” Sarmishta Subramanian followed Drainie as editor in 2016. Kyle Wyatt was appointed the editor in January 2019, and he oversaw the redesign of the magazine that launched with the January/February 2020 issue.

At a time when books coverage is shrinking dramatically, the Literary Review of Canada offers writers the real estate they need to thoughtfully respond to the country’s vast intellectual output — everything from policy and politics to history, biography, and fiction. The magazine puts the written word front and centre. In addition to reviews, its original essays and poetry provide readers with informed, engaging, and confident cultural context not found anywhere else.