Canada has a long, rich and storied literary tradition. Canadian authors have contributed to the best of world literature in every genre, from mystery and sci-fi to historical fiction and memoir. These creatives have penned novels and short stories, poetry and essays, investigative non-fiction and biographies, screenplays and TV shows – and they are not only writers, they are podcasters, activists, public speakers, politicians, editors, publishers and more. From legendary authors like Alice Munro and Richard Wagamese to young, rising literary stars reinventing CanLit such as Billy-Ray Belcourt and Tanya Talaga, this selection of writers represents the incredible diversity that defines Canadian culture.
Margaret Atwood
Easily one of Canada's most celebrated authors, Margaret Atwood has published more than 50 books throughout her prolific career, spanning genres including fiction, non-fiction, poetry and graphic novels. She's best known for her 1985 dystopian classic The Handmaid's Tale, and she's won numerous awards, including two Booker Prizes – for The Blind Assassin in 2000 and The Testaments in 2019. She is one of only four writers to have won the award twice.
The first installment in Atwood's riveting dystopian MaddAddam trilogy, Oryx and Crake is set in an all-too-plausible future, a world of human-made ruins and biological monsters, ecological devastation and desperate people living on the brink. Campbell Scott's eerie performance will keep listeners enthralled through every uncanny revelation.
Billy-Ray Belcourt
Billy-Ray Belcourt is a poet and scholar from the Driftpile Cree Nation. His four published books include poetry, memoir, a novel and a collection of short stories. His work explores the intersections of queerness and Indigenous identity, Indigenous futurity, grief and desire, and historical and current Indigenous resistance movements.
In his first novel, Belcourt returns to and expands upon many of the themes present in his poetry. The novel's unnamed narrator, a queer Cree PhD student, is trying to figure out what it means to live and make art as an Indigenous person in Canada in the 21st century. In pursuit of answers to this seemingly impossible question, he returns to his hometown in northern Alberta to talk to his family and community. Jesse Nobess gives an intimate performance of this beautiful story of searching and striving.
Lily Chu
Toronto-based author Lily Chu writes romances set in the city she lives in and loves. Toronto comes alive in her work, often feeling less like a setting and more like a vividly realized central character. Her stories feature Asian women going for what they want – and getting into some dicey situations along the way. Her exceptionally charming Audible Originals are narrated by Broadway’s incomparable Phillipa Soo.
Named one of Audible's Best of 2021, Chu's debut romance, The Stand In, follows Gracie Reed, who is doing just fine – well, sort of. When a famous Chinese actress asks her to be her stand-in, Grace accepts because she needs the money. But she's not at all prepared for the man assigned to escort her ... who just happens to be as annoying as he is handsome.
Alice Munro
Considered one of the greatest modern writers of the short story, the late Alice Munro transformed the short fiction genre with many innovations over her long career. Much of her work is set in Huron County in her native Ontario, and it explores the small but vital rhythms and upsets of everyday life and everyday human drama. Munro won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2013.
Like all of Munro's work, this collection of stories is full of poignant detail. It centres on moments of chance and change – those tiny decisions that can alter a life forever. Narrated by Kymberly Dakin, Runaway is Munro at her best: gorgeous, intimate short stories filled with shimmering characters that capture something essential about what it is to be human.
Dennis E. Taylor
Dennis E. Taylor is a science fiction writer best known for his Bobiverse series, which explores the human condition through technology, alien encounters and artificial intelligence. He's a former computer programmer whose deep knowledge of technology informs his work. He self-published his delightfully irreverent first novel, We Are Bob, in 2015; it was later brought to audio as the Audible Original We Are Legion. He has received particular acclaim for his career in audiobooks, a number of which are fan-favorite bestsellers.
This hilarious, witty and irreverent space adventure was named Audible's Best Science Fiction Book of 2016 – and with good reason. Veteran narrator Ray Porter's performance perfectly captures the wacky and endearing cast of clones and other AI characters. But it's his take on Bob, a retired software engineer who has his head cryogenically preserved and wakes up 100 years later in the body of an intelligent space probe, that utterly steals the show.
Tanya Talaga
Tanya Talaga is an author, journalist and podcaster of Anishinaabe and Polish descent. She has published two non-fiction books that expertly blend history, politics, social commentary and investigative journalism.
In this chilling and revelatory work of investigative journalism, Talaga delves into the stories of seven Indigenous high school students who died in Thunder Bay, Ontario, in the early 2000s. She braids these contemporary tragedies with one from the past, that of a 12-year-old Indigenous child who froze to death after running away from residential school. Michaela Washburn narrates this incisive and deeply necessary look at the history of violence toward First Nations people in Canada.
Miriam Toews
Miriam Toews is the author of nine novels thus far. She grew up in Manitoba, the daughter of Mennonite parents, and many of her novels are set in Mennonite communities. The characters in her emotionally resonant stories often have complicated relationships with their homes, religion, culture and family.
A group of eight women have gathered in secret to discuss what to do in the wake of a wave of catastrophic sexual violence in their remote Mennonite community. Based on true events that took place over the course of 48 hours, this harrowing, urgent and ultimately transcendent novel is narrated with grace and depth by Matthew Edison.
Lucy Maud Montgomery
L.M. Montgomery was born on Prince Edward Island in 1874. Her mother died when she was a baby, and after her father moved away, she was raised by her grandparents in the small town of Cavendish. Montgomery would later immortalize Prince Edward Island in one of the most popular children's series of all time. Few characters in Canadian fiction have the staying power of Montgomery's boisterous, passionate and indomitable heroine, Anne.
In this remarkable recording of a beloved classic exclusively on Audible, actor Rachel McAdams embodies Anne's spark, spirit and boundless energy. Every description, from the flowering trees outside Anne's window at Green Gables to the hilarity of her kitchen misadventures, sounds just as it should. McAdams brings Anne and the rest of the residents of Avonlea to life with the warmth and humour that has been delighting fans for over a century.
Louise Penny
Louise Penny is the author of nearly two dozen mystery novels set in Quebec, all starring the same main character, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec. The books are mostly set in the fictional village of Three Pines, and while each one focuses on a different murder, they all feature the complicated relationships the characters have with each other. She has won two notable mystery prizes – the Agatha Award and the Anthony Award – a total of five times each.
Adam Sims skillfully narrates Penny's debut, the book that introduced listeners to Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and the village of Three Pines, where he investigates the death of a woman in what appears to be a hunting accident. It won a slew of prestigious genre awards, including the New Blood Dagger, Arthur Ellis, Barry, Anthony, and Dilys.
Richard Wagamese
Richard Wagamese was an Ojibwe novelist, poet, journalist and non-fiction writer from the Wabaseemoong Independent Nations in Ontario. Though best known for his 2012 novel Indian Horse and his other fiction, he also published poetry, memoir and children's books. Much of his work deals with the violence First Nations people have experienced throughout Canadian history, including the residential school system, but it is also full of the richness and beauty of Ojibwe culture.
Indian Horse
In this story of heartbreak and hope narrated by Jason Ryll, Saul Indian Horse, an Ojibwe man in a treatment center for alcoholism, begins to haltingly tell his story. As he recounts the triumphs and struggles of his life, from his childhood in the woods of Northern Ontario to the abuses he survived at residential school to his unlikely career as a hockey star, he's at last able to make peace with the past.
Emily St. John Mandel
Emily St. John Mandel is the author of six highly acclaimed literary novels, all of which combine beautiful prose, unusual speculative scenarios and complex character work. She burst onto the scene in 2014 with Station Eleven, which is set in the wake of a catastrophic flu that kills most of the world's human population. It has since been adapted into a TV series, and was selected for Canada Reads in 2023.
Kirsten Potter gives a haunting, unforgettable performance in this novel about art, theatre, survival, beauty and human connection. Told in intersecting timelines that traverse the before and after of a world remade in the aftermath of a deadly flu, it's both a chilling post-apocalyptic adventure and an ode to the power of storytelling.
Malcolm Gladwell
Malcolm Gladwell is an author, journalist, podcaster and public speaker. His work spans a wide variety of subject matter, but all of it is rooted in the social sciences. He's especially interested in sociology and psychology, and the surprising revelations research in these fields have to offer about human nature, current events and history.
This is an exhilarating exploration of how we talk to—and think about—the people we don't know, and the profound consequences those ways of thinking and speaking have on the world. It comes alive on audio, as Gladwell incorporates the voices of the people he interviews and re-creates courtroom scenes in real time. The result is an incredible blend of audiobook, podcast, drama and live investigative reporting.
Neil Pasricha
Neil Pasricha is an author, podcaster and public speaker whose work focuses on happiness, positivity and how to celebrate the simple pleasures of life. He's best known for his The Book of Awesome series, and his TEDx talk "The 3 A's of Awesome" is one of the most-viewed TEDx talks of all time.
The Book of Awesome
By Neil Pasricha
Narrated by Therese Plummer, Erin Moon, Neil Hellegers, Jesse Einstein, Josh Hurley, Kevin Free
The news cycle will always be there to remind you that the world is most likely falling apart, which is precisely why Neil Pasricha wants to remind you that some of life's most profound pleasures are simple, free and easy to find. In this hilarious, heartwarming audiobook narrated by a full cast, Pasricha catalogues a series of feel-good moments that will leave you smiling.
Cherie Dimaline
Cherie Dimaline is a Métis writer of speculative fiction and fantasy for both adults and young adults. Her work draws on and centres Indigenous world-views, and is rich with Indigenous history, ritual, folklore and magic. She's best known for her dystopian YA duology The Marrow Thieves and Hunting by Stars.
In a future ravaged by climate change, everyone – except for the Indigenous people of North America – has lost the ability to dream. This has caused mass sickness, and so Indigenous people are being hunted for their bone marrow, which is believed to contain the thing that allows them to continue dreaming. Meegwun Fairbrother narrates this story following an Indigenous teenager and the community of kin he travels with, trying to stay alive.
Michael Ondaatje
Michael Ondaatje has won numerous awards for his novels and poetry, including the Booker Prize for his bestselling novel The English Patient. But his many contributions to Canada's literary scene are not limited to his extensive catalogue of novels and poetry: He was also the longtime editor of the literary journal Brick, and has championed indie presses and up-and-coming writers throughout his career.
Winner of the 1992 Booker Prize and later adapted into a film that won the Academy Award for Best Picture, this intimate, sweeping novel tells the interconnected stories of four people living in an Italian villa near the end of World War II. Narrator Jennifer Ehle brings this tale of love, betrayal and war to life with grace and poise.
Suzette Mayr
Suzette Mayr is the author of six novels and several books of poetry. Her work traverses diverse settings and time periods, and explores themes of queerness, race and identity. Many of her books have a surreal bent. Several of her novels have won or been nominated for major awards, including her latest, The Sleeping Car Porter, which won the Giller Prize in 2022.
Set in 1929, this surreal and haunting novel follows Baxter, a queer sleeping car porter working on a train that travels the country. When the train gets stuck in the mountains, the everyday racism and sleep deprivation that Baxter faces in this hard and thankless job become even more heightened. Chris McPherson does a brilliant job capturing the breathless, claustrophobic intensity of Mayr's exacting prose.
Eden Robinson
Eden Robinson is the author of several novels and short stories, most notably her humourous and playful coming-of-age trilogy, which begins with Son of a Trickster. Born in Kitimat, British Columbia, she belongs to the Haisla and Heiltsuk First Nations. The rugged and beautiful landscape of Kitimat and the surrounding area features prominently in much of her work.
Though she's best known for her Trickster trilogy, Robinson's gorgeous debut novel, Monkey Beach, deserves more attention. Set in her hometown of Kitimat, it's the story of Lisa, a young Native girl whose life is thrown into turmoil when her brother's fishing boat goes missing. Moving seamlessly between past and present, Noelle Kayser narrates this richly textured and deeply human novel about kinship, belonging, rebellion, memory and redemption.
Dionne Brand
One of Canada's most acclaimed and accomplished poets, Dionne Brand is the author of 11 books of poetry, half a dozen novels and numerous works of non-fiction. Her work, which is both personal and scholarly, explores themes of gender, sexuality, feminism, state power and liberation.
Nomenclature: New and Collected Poems
By Dionne Brand, Christina Sharpe - introduction
Narrated by Dionne Brand, Christina Sharpe
This comprehensive book collects eight of Brand's poetry collections, published between 1982 and 2010, as well as a new long poem, "Nomenclature for the Time Being," and a rigorous introduction by scholar Christina Sharpe. It's an essential listen that highlights Brand's prowess as both poet and thinker over a span of four decades. Brand reads the poems herself and Sharpe reads the introduction.
Thomas King
Though he was born in California in the 1940s, Thomas King moved to Canada in the 1980s, and his literary career took off soon after. His debut novel, Medicine River, came out in 1990. Much of his work deals with issues facing First Nations communities and often incorporates Indigenous oral traditions and trickster stories.
In this playful and moving work of non-fiction, King draws on his own life, Native history and stories, historical events and pop culture to paint a complicated portrait of what it means to be an Indigenous person in North America. Brimming with King's signature wit, infectious warmth and sharp observation, Lorne Cardinal's riveting narration makes this a must-listen for anyone seeking to understand where we are and how we got here.
This post was originally published on Audible.ca.
