Toronto Pop Culture

Toronto has had starring roles in an incredible number of books. You’ll find familiar streets and scenes in works by Toronto residents Margaret Atwood, Andrew Kaufman, Zoe Whittall, Michael Ondaatje, Michael Redhill and Anne Michaels. Read Anne Michaels’s Fugitive Pieces and Michael Redhill’s ‘Consolation’ to get a feel for the city’s past—and Zoe Whittall’s ‘Holding Still For As Long As Possible’ and Andrew Kaufman’s All My Friends Are Superheroes to get a blast of its edgy present. As Canada’s main city, Toronto is home to the majority of the country’s music stars. Big names from Drake, K’naan, and Justin Bieber to Barenaked Ladies, Peaches, Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, Final Fantasy and Neil Young have all had a home in or near the city at various stages of their careers. To see Toronto in cinematic splendor, watch melancholic Fugitive Pieces; suburban, East Indian romp Hollywood/Bollywood; cautionary tale Owning Mahowny; and the arthouse When Night is Falling. You won’t glean many Toronto facts, but you can also see Toronto’s rambunctious Gay Village masquerading as Pittsburgh’s rambunctious Gay Village in the TV series Queer As Folk.