About Literary Review of Canada

Literary Review of Canada

The Literary Review of Canada (LRC) is a Toronto-based magazine of ideas published ten times a year, featuring long-form essays and reviews of books on political, cultural, social, and literary topics, alongside original Canadian poetry. Founded in 1991 by political scientist and historian Patrice Dutil, it has been described on its own site as a unique journal of ideas and was named Canada's best literary magazine at the 2025 National Magazine Awards. It is published from offices at Massey College in the University of Toronto, following a partnership forged with the college in 2019, and carries the ISSN 1188-7494.

Overview

The LRC exists to give Canadian writers the space to respond thoughtfully to the country's intellectual output — policy and politics, history, biography, fiction, science, and philosophy — at a time when books coverage in general-interest media has shrunk dramatically. Each issue combines substantial review essays, original essays, and poetry, illustrated with original artwork by Canadian illustrators. Its readership is famously engaged and highly educated: the magazine's own audience research has found that 85 per cent of readers are over 45, 61 per cent have household incomes of $100,000 or more, and 41 per cent hold PhDs, with circulation estimated at about 6,500 per issue.

The magazine publishes ten issues per year and has run a digital "Online Originals" feature since January 2008, publishing reviews and essays on its website between print issues. In 2005 it won the Kroeger College Award for Public Discourse, with the jury calling the magazine "nourishing, entertaining and inspiring." Its current editor is Kyle Wyatt, appointed in January 2019, who oversaw a redesign of the magazine that launched with the January/February 2020 issue.

History

Patrice Dutil, a political scientist and historian now a professor in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at Toronto Metropolitan University, founded the Literary Review of Canada in 1991 as what the magazine's own history calls a kitchen-table venture. The first issue appeared in November 1991 (some accounts date it to December), filling what Dutil saw as a serious void in Canada's cultural landscape: 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, the magazine quickly attracted a small but influential readership.

In late 1996, after publishing fifty-five issues, Dutil sold the magazine to Carleton University Press. Two years later, in 1998, a team of editors and co-publishers — including David Berlin, Denis Deneau, and later managing editor Helen Walsh — brought the publication back to Toronto as a private venture. Berlin left in 2001, the same year Mark Lovewell joined as partner and eventually co-publisher; Deneau departed in early 2003. Bronwyn Drainie, a former host of CBC Radio's Sunday Morning, was hired as editor in 2003 and held the position for twelve years, until 2015. Sarmishta Subramanian followed Drainie as editor from July 2016 to October 2018, and Kyle Wyatt took over in January 2019.

The magazine has marked its history with ambitious editorial projects. In the January/February and March 2006 issues it unveiled its list of the 100 most important Canadian books ever published, arranged chronologically from Jacques Cartier's Bref récit et succincte narration de la navigation faite en MDXXXV et MDXXXVI (1545) to Jane Jacobs' Dark Age Ahead (2004). In September 2008 it published the winning entry in its New Voices call for essays, "Progressivism's End" by David Eaves and Taylor Owen. For its twenty-fifth anniversary in the fall of 2016, it published "The LRC 25," a selection of the most influential non-fiction books published in Canada over the previous quarter-century, presented by figures including Niigan Sinclair, Nahlah Ayed, and Lee Maracle. The thirtieth anniversary was marked with the November 2021 issue, the largest in the magazine's history.

Content

The LRC's core offering is the review essay: long, serious engagements with new books on politics, public policy, history, biography, culture, and literature, written by academics, journalists, and public intellectuals. Alongside reviews, the magazine publishes original essays and Canadian poetry — the poetry program began early in the magazine's history through the efforts of Wayne Ray and the Canadian Poetry Association, and its poetry editors have included Molly Peacock, Moira MacDougall, Fred Wah, and George Murray.

Articles are illustrated with original artwork commissioned from illustrators such as Barbara Klunder, Tom Pokinko, Silvia Nickerson, Aino Anto, Kevin Sylvester, Clarke MacDonald, and Aimee Van Drimmelin, giving the magazine a distinctive visual identity. The "Online Originals" feature, running since January 2008, extends the print offering with web-only reviews and essays. The magazine's editorial stance is non-partisan but intellectually ambitious: it puts the written word front and centre and provides what its own materials describe as informed, engaging, and confident cultural context not found anywhere else.

The January/February 2020 redesign under Kyle Wyatt refreshed the magazine's look while preserving its long-form character, signalling the title's intent to carry its kitchen-table founding spirit into a fourth decade. Contributors have ranged from established academics and veteran journalists to emerging voices discovered through initiatives like the New Voices essay competition, and the magazine continues to solicit work from writers across the political and disciplinary spectrum.

Coverage & Audience

The LRC is a national magazine read across Canada by an audience of academics, professionals, policymakers, writers, and serious general readers. Its demographic profile — overwhelmingly over 45, affluent, and highly educated — makes it one of the most distinctive readerships in Canadian magazine publishing, and its influence extends beyond its circulation through the prominence of its contributors and the public conversation its essays generate. The 2006 "100 most important Canadian books" list and the 2016 "LRC 25" supplement both became reference points in Canadian cultural discussion.

Based in Toronto with offices at Massey College since the 2019 partnership, the magazine draws contributors from across the country and covers books and ideas of national scope. Its digital presence at reviewcanada.ca makes current and archived content available to readers everywhere, and its poetry and essays have introduced emerging Canadian writers to a national audience. For Canadian publishers, an LRC review remains a meaningful marker of serious critical attention — the kind of long-form engagement that daily newspapers and general-interest magazines have largely abandoned.

Ownership

The Literary Review of Canada is an independent magazine. After its early sale to Carleton University Press (1996–1998), it has been owned by private publishing partnerships — currently associated with co-publishers Helen Walsh and Mark Lovewell. Past editors and publishers include founder Patrice Dutil, David Berlin, Anthony Westell, and Lewis DeSoto. The 2019 partnership with Massey College in the University of Toronto gave the magazine offices on the college's premises and embedded it in one of the country's leading intellectual communities, while preserving its editorial independence.

Digital Presence

The magazine's website, reviewcanada.ca, publishes the "Online Originals" essays and reviews, contributor pages, subscription and donation information, and archives of past issues. The site's "About" page traces the magazine's history from Dutil's kitchen-table founding through the Drainie, Subramanian, and Wyatt editorships, and notes the 2025 National Magazine Award honour. The LRC's history is also documented in its Wikipedia entry and in reference works, and founder Patrice Dutil's own writing — including his books on Sir John A. Macdonald — continues to appear in Canadian public discourse.