Ibi Kaslik

The recent conclusion of quantitative research on epigenetic inheritance, the concept that environmental influences from everything from smoking to stress can affect the genes of one’s children—and even grandchildren—is likely no news to Wab Kinew. As a public personality and broadcaster, Kinew, whose aloof father’s experiences informed his life and choices, is acutely aware of how inherited trauma has shaped his own…

Names such as Thomas King, Tomson Highway, Richard Wagamese and Joseph Boyden have entered the pantheon of Canadian writing in recent years. The relative absence of self-identifying female First Nations authors, with exceptions such as Eden Robinson and a few others, is unsurprising given the historical marginalization of Native women in Canadian culture and society. And if First Nations females are sparse in the country’s literary…

One of the slimmest, most elliptically poignant modern short stories, “Escapes,” by Joy Williams, from a collection of the same title, is about a fractious relationship between a child and her alcoholic mother. To the narrator, a young girl, the ever-pervasive vodka fumes signify “daring and deception, hopes and little lies.” The mother smells “like the glass … always in the sink in the morning.” (Note to alcoholics who drink vodka because they think it does not smell: it does.) “Escapes” is not only about the humiliation and confusion of seeing a parent…

An informal survey reveals that Jian Ghomeshi is an important Canadian for the following reasons: he maintained his composure during Billy Bob Thornton’s on-air meltdown; he is nice; ladies think he is sexy and smart, having the perfect mix of vulnerability and confidence; through Q, he made CBC cool again. Readers of Ghomeshi’s memoir, …