Toronto  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

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1. The provincial capital of Ontario, Canada.

Synonyms

• The Big Smoke
• Hogtown
• T.O.
• York (its former name)

Literature

The Greater Toronto Area is the centre of English Canadian literature and many of Canada's best known writers, such as Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje, write and set their books in Toronto. Other prominent Toronto-based writers include Rohinton Mistry, Morley Callaghan, Michael Ignatieff, George Elliott Clarke and the late George Faludy and Jane Jacobs. Canada's English language publishing industry is mostly based in Toronto. It is home to major companies, such as McClelland and Stewart and smaller firms like House of Anansi Press, Key Porter Books and Coach House Books. The Toronto Book Awards honor authors of books of literary or artistic merit that are evocative of Toronto. Pen Canada, based in Toronto, was formed in 1926 to defend freedom of expression and is one of 141 centres of International PEN. North America's largest literary festival, the annual International Festival of Authors takes place each fall in Toronto. See a partial list of books set in Toronto.

Both of Canada's English language national newspapers (the National Post and the Globe and Mail) are based in Toronto, as is Canada's largest-circulating daily newspaper (The Toronto Star) and many other major magazines and periodicals. The city is thus home to a large number of Canada's journalists. As a nexus of multilingual activity, Toronto has 79 ethnic periodicals.