Michelle Syba

Sep 24, 2024 | toronto.thewordonthestreet.ca | Daniel Cox |Michelle Syba |KR Byggdin |Blair Hurley

The Word On The Street’s 35th Annual Festival returns to its iconic fall weekend, September 28th and 29th, at Queen’s Park.

Jun 21, 2023 | reviewcanada.ca | Michelle Syba |Andrew Torry

The New Testament scholar James L. Resseguie described the Book of Revelation as having a master plot that depicts the deep spiritual struggles of seekers on the path toward a promised land. That quest is echoed in the title of Michelle Syba’s debut collection, End Times, which follows both Christian and non-religious protagonists as their beliefs are tested and their lives transformed. The author herself grew up in a Pentecostal home in Toronto before losing her faith.

May 5, 2023 | 49thshelf.com | Curtis LeBlanc |Julie Booker |Michelle Syba |Philippa Joly

I wanted to explore these ideas in “Kevin Bombardo,” and I was particularly interested in using a character as a kind of catalyst for the protagonist to repeatedly confront these questions about himself. The inspiration for Kevin Bombardo, the enigmatic character who plays the role of catalyst, came from a friend who told me an anecdote about a Kevin he once knew.

May 4, 2023 | 49thshelf.com | Trevor Corkum |Julie Booker |Michelle Syba |Philippa Joly

We've got copies of Sunsetter up for giveaway right now! Don't miss your chance to win. ****I have always been drawn to narratives that feature young protagonists and characters in key roles. Maybe it was because I found my younger years to be so formative, and so profound in the way they still influence my life (it’s when I decided I had to be a writer, after all), but there is something incredibly powerful and insightful about the perspective of youth in literature.

Apr 20, 2023 | 49thshelf.com | Julie Booker |Michelle Syba |Hazel Jane Plante |Philippa Joly

Hollay Ghadery's latest book, Rebellion Box, is up for giveaway right now! Enter for your chance to win. Heroic leaps between genres. Wild and wonderful shifts between forms. As a child, Lucy Maud Montgomery set the standard of what could be accomplished by a masterful multi-genre writer. Her poems, novels, essays, and short stories were enthralling. I marvelled at how she moved between genres; how she seemed at home in whatever form she chose—how I felt at home in the whatever worlds she created.