Goodbye and Deep Thanks from Hamilton Review of Books
November 27, 2025
Hamilton Review of Books started as a labour of love. In the spring of 2016, I approached Noelle Allen at Wolsak & Wynn with an idea: what if we started an online book review journal that would aim to fill in the gaps being left by larger media outlets removing their book coverage? What if that journal sought to showcase not only books and authors throughout Canada, but also right in our own backyard? What if we staffed that journal with Hamilton-based writers, reviewers, academics, publishers, bookstore owners, and literature lovers? And what if that journal consistently paid its contributors? Noelle loved the idea, and happily so did the four women who became our first editors: Sally Cooper, Rhonda Dynes, Krista Foss, and Jessica Rose.
Together with a group of enthusiastic and supportive advisors – Noelle Allen, Ian Elliot, Spencer Gordon, Jamie Krakowski, and Gena Zuroski – we launched HRB in the fall of 2016 with a very basic website, very little money, lots of connections to wonderful writers and plans for what we wanted to cover, and a lot of hope that the journal would take root. And, indeed it did.
Since that time, we’ve published countless reviews, interviews, essays, excerpts, roundups, columns, podcast episodes, and more, all at no cost to our readers. Monthly, we published an independently published bestsellers list (thanks to Noelle Allen), the first of its kind in Canada. Many of our published pieces were first publications for our contributors. Many of our published pieces were first and, sadly, only reviews for very worthy books. We’ve hosted several events in our community, including crowd favourites like our Poets & Prosecco evening at the Red Church Café, panels such as “It’s Great and I Like It: What Happened to Criticism?” and “Radical Words: The Role of the Writer in Polarizing Times,” and most recently the Great Hamilton Poetry Show. We were so fortunate to have at these events some of the smartest, most engaging writers, thinkers, and speakers who shared our abiding love of books and ideas. We have made it our mandate since the beginning to cover a diversity of authors and books (most often from our marvellous indie publishers), along with many voices and perspectives. We’ve made mistakes along the way, but we have always prioritized kindness and respect. We stayed true to our initial promise to pay our contributors promptly for their work, though we always wished it could have been more.
Nine years have come and gone quickly, and it’s time for Hamilton Review of Books to come to an end. We will cease publication at the end of this year. The reasons are not going to surprise anyone: a dearth of money and time. Sustaining a publication like HRB is extremely challenging. Grants are harder and harder to come by (though we are very grateful to have received two in the past from the Ontario Arts Council), and so we endeavoured to fundraise as much as possible, turning all of our proceeds from events back into paying our contributors. We also started our Page Turner program, and were fortunate to have a number of our readers support us with one-time or ongoing donations. We thank everyone who financially contributed to the journal, but a particularly hearty thanks goes to the following individuals who stuck with us to the very end with monthly donations: Rick Cairns, Brenda Hansen, Elizabeth Obermeyer-Kostash, Margaret Nowaczyk, David Simpson, and Daniel Snaith. While these monetary gifts went a long way to making HRB possible, they didn’t cover everything, and eventually the financial toll becomes too much.
And time. Who ever has enough of it? Over the years, we’ve had many exceptional editors and staff members – all volunteers – all with busy lives, careers, families, and creative work and projects. It’s difficult to continuously dedicate the time required to sustain a publication like HRB, and at a certain point, people naturally want to move on to new things, as they should. Along with our previously-mentioned advisors, past members of our editorial group made an enormous difference to the journal, so warm thanks go to Sally Cooper, Rhonda Dynes, Faizal Eidoo, Krista Foss, Nico Mara-McKay, Ja’miil Millar, Shazlin Rahman, and Brianna Wodabek.
To the current editorial staff, I want to thank you all so very much for the work you did, the enthusiasm you showed, the support you offered, and the shared vision you had for our little publication. Noelle Allen, James Cairns, Jaclyn Desforges, Alex Kerner, Jamie Krakowski (an endlessly supportive honorary editor), Vinh Nguyen, Jen Rawlinson (who gets an extra special shout-out for her amazing work designing and maintaining our website for many years), and Jessica Rose, you are all such talented, brilliant, special people with whom I have been privileged to work. It’s been fun! Thank you, all.
A few closing thoughts:
If you happened to read, as I did, writer and publicist Hollay Ghadery’s excellent and timely social media post back in October about the lack of support for literary magazines, then you know that the problems HRB has faced are not new. When arts funding is scarce, as we know it is, and people are forced to volunteer their time and assume the financial burden of publishing a journal like ours, it’s simply unsustainable in the long term. Online publications are not produced for free, and they are time-consuming if done well. We call such endeavours labours of love or passion projects, and as lovely and romantic an idea as that is, the reality for those doing the actual work is quite different. To quote Hollay, “what are you willing to do to help create the literary landscape that you hope to thrive in?” Yes, what can we do? Certainly, if you’re able to contribute financially, that is extremely helpful. Make a donation to a journal, purchase a subscription if one is available, buy a ticket and attend a fundraising event. If you can give of your time (yes, most likely as a volunteer), commit a few hours a month to being an active part of a publication. Perhaps start your own publication! And, if those things are not within reach, one of the easiest actions you can take – that costs nothing but a moment of your time – is to share content. If you see a post on Instagram from a journal like HRB, like it, share it, leave a comment, spread the word. That helps more than you know.
In case you’re wondering, HRB’s website isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. It will live on for the foreseeable future as an archive of some truly great writing about books. I hope you will take some time to browse through what’s there.
Alright, that’s enough from me. It’s time to hear from the rest of the wonderful HRB group. Thank you, all!
Dana Hansen, Founding Publisher and Editor-in-Chief
Noelle Allen: As a publisher, and a Hamiltonian, I’ve always loved the way the HRB celebrated writing across the country, while still making space for the city many of the editors call home. I’ve also loved how the HRB, and particularly Dana Hansen as the Editor-in-Chief, has always been open to new ideas, to trying things that might seem unusual for a reviews site. Whether it was a bookstore round up, a podcast, or even an Independently Published Bestseller list, these all found space on the pages alongside fabulous interviews, in-depth reviews and lots of fun round ups. It’s been an amazing run and I’m very glad to have been a part of it.
James Cairns: One of the things I loved best about HRB was its celebration of the indie-publishing ecosystem in Canada. The HRB introduced me to books, authors, and publishers I might not have found otherwise. Because of my time on the board, I discovered a world of formal and informal relationships among and around independent presses tying together literary communities across vast distances. The HRB played a significant role in sustaining that ecosystem over the past decade. It goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: I learned loads and had a blast working with Dana and the amazing volunteer board she led with endless energy, intelligence, patience, and love of literature.
Jaclyn Desforges: My first encounter with the Hamilton Review of Books was at the Poets & Prosecco fundraiser at Red Church Cafe and Gallery all the way back in 2018! One of my favourite poets, Shannon Bramer, was reading. I came away from that event with a tote bag full of goodies and a sense that this publication was really doing something special.
When James Cairns reached out to me several years later to find out if I’d be interested in volunteering as Poetry Reviews Editor, I was so excited. The past few years working with this team have been so wonderful, and I know we’ve made an impact on the literary landscape not only in Hamilton, but across the country. I will be forever grateful to Dana for her guidance as editor-in-chief, and I will look back so fondly at this time.
Alex Kerner: I have always loved reading and talking books. When HRB reached out to me to put together a podcast I was taken aback, scared but also excited to do it. We live in a world with too much audio content, too many podcasts. Nonetheless, I think we did some really great work for the HRB putting together fascinating content with super engaged guests. I hope the legacy of the many episodes continues and that folks continue to discover the great work the HRB did, even as it closes its metaphoric doors. Thanks so much to Dana Hansen and all the other ed board folks who supported and sometimes came onto the show. It has been a ride.
Vinh Nguyen: Although my time with the Hamilton Review of Books was brief, I have gained so much from the community and camaraderie. The HRB team is a special bunch of literature lovers and advocates, people I will always admire for their work and passion. Thank you, especially, to Dana Hansen for her tireless dedication to leading the magazine.
Jessica Rose: When we first began the Hamilton Review of Books, I knew we were filling a gap. Fewer publications were dedicating space to books, and it was becoming more and more difficult to find high-quality literary criticism in Canada. In the years that followed, the HRB became a much-needed space for talking about books — in particular, Canadian books. I’ve always been proud of the HRB for shining a light on books that deserved to be in the spotlight, and I’ve heard from so many writers that being included in the publication was so important to them. For me, the HRB provided the opportunity to work with an incredible volunteer group of editors and advisors, many of whom are now good friends. And, of course, absolutely none of this would be possible without Dana Hansen’s dedication and leadership.