The Walrus just wouldn’t be The Walrus without extensive arts and culture reporting.
From literature and music to visual art, we offer something for every taste—stories guaranteed to stir up conversations about the state of the arts in Canada and beyond.
An Acclaimed Canadian Playwright Faces Questions of Pretendianism
BY MICHELLE CYCA
Jani Lauzon has maintained she is Métis and her play 1939—now touring Canada—is based on her father’s experience at a residential school. What if none of it is true?
IYKYK: When Novels Speak a Language Only Part of the Internet Gets
BY GRETA RAINBOW
Every time the names of products or microcelebrities appear in a book, they prick us like a targeted ad
The Hidden Racism of Book Cover Design
BY TAJJA ISEN
The publishing industry’s troubling reliance on visual stereotypes
Why Did Canada’s Top Art Gallery Push Out a Visionary Curator?
BY JASON MCBRIDE
The AGO wanted to shake things up with Wanda Nanibush. Then it balked
In the Shadow of Green Gables: L.M. Montgomery’s Life and Legacy
BY CANADIAN TIME MACHINE
Best known for Anne of Green Gables, Montgomery crafted characters who embody resilience and imagination
Joni Mitchell’s Best Album Is Turning Fifty. It’s Not Blue
BY KC HOARD
For Court and Spark, Joni the lonely, Joni the soloist, did something nobody expected her to do. She hired a band
Undoing the Fairy Tale of Alice Munro
BY JUSTINA ELIAS
For years, I helped spread a glowing narrative about one of Canada’s most famous authors
The “Multi-Multi-Multi-Million-Dollar” Art Fraud That Shook the World
BY LUC RINALDI
Norval Morrisseau was one of the most famous Indigenous artists anywhere. Then the fakes of his works surfaced—and kept coming
What’s Lost in the Quest for Black Authenticity
BY CONNOR GAREL
The media’s appetite for “gritty” Black stories turns misery into entertainment
