Est. 2012 · Canada
A Canadian Literary Initiative
Celebrating the endurance of Canadian voices — writers, poets, storytellers, and scholars who carry the flame of literature through every season.
Literature is the memory of humanity — and Canada has stories worth remembering.
— Lions in Winter, founding statement
What we do
Featured Initiative
Six weeks of immersive creative development in collaboration with Canadian literary institutions, offering emerging writers the time and community they need to complete ambitious work.
Learn moreCommunity
Connecting emerging writers with established Canadian authors for year-long mentorships.
Meet the mentorsPublication
Essays, reviews, and original fiction from the Canadian literary community, published quarterly.
Read the latestFrom the journal
Essay
How the particular quality of Canadian winter silence shapes the interior life of writing — and why isolation can be a creative gift.
Margaret Éveline · Dec 2024
Poetry
A sequence of poems tracing the northern highway and the people who travel it — memory, migration, and the myth of the road.
Thomas Okafor · Nov 2024
Review
Half a century after her first collection, what does Alice Munro's work say to a new generation of Canadian readers and writers?
Danielle Nguyen · Oct 2024
Origins
The name comes from a simple observation: a lion in winter is not diminished — it is patient, watchful, and full of something that has been quietly accumulating through every cold season. That is the model for the writer we most admire, and the kind of literary culture we most want to foster.
Lions in Winter began as a conversation between three writers in a borrowed cabin in the Laurentians in 2012. The question was straightforward: who takes care of the mid-career writer? The debut novelist receives attention. The Governor General's Award winner is celebrated. But what about the serious writer in the middle — the one working on their third book, without the resources to simply write?
We are not interested in literature as commodity, in writing as content, or in the writer as brand. We are interested in the difficult, patient, necessary work of making something true.
From that founding question grew a small community, and from that community grew a set of programs — residencies, mentorships, reading groups, and eventually a journal — all oriented toward the same simple goal: more time and more support for the writers who need it.
We are funded by a combination of individual donors, provincial arts council grants, and a small endowment established by a gift from the estate of a writer who wished to remain anonymous. We are entirely volunteer-governed by a board of writers and scholars from across Canada.
Six weeks in January–February at a partner retreat centre in Ontario or British Columbia. Writers in residence receive accommodation, a small stipend, and access to a community of peers. Open to prose writers and poets at any career stage.
Year-long mentorships pairing emerging writers with established Canadian authors. Mentors and mentees meet regularly to workshop manuscripts, navigate the industry, and build lasting professional relationships.
Monthly public readings and conversations hosted in partnership with independent bookstores and libraries across Canada. Features both program alumni and invited Canadian voices.
A competitive fellowship for writers publishing their first or second book. Fellows receive a $10,000 grant, a faculty position at the Annual Symposium, and publication consideration for the Lions in Winter Journal.
A dedicated programming stream supporting Indigenous writers across Canada — featuring residency spaces, translation support for works in Indigenous languages, and partnerships with First Nations cultural institutions.
A three-day gathering each October bringing together past and present program participants, board members, and the broader Canadian literary community for panels, workshops, and celebration.
2025 Calendar
| Date | Event | Location | Type | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 6 – Feb 14, 2025 | Winter Residency (Ontario cohort) | Haliburton, ON | Residency | In progress |
| Jan 13 – Feb 21, 2025 | Winter Residency (BC cohort) | Salt Spring Island, BC | Residency | In progress |
| Feb 18, 2025 | Reading Room — Toronto | Type Books, Toronto | Reading | Upcoming |
| Mar 12, 2025 | Reading Room — Montréal | Librairie Drawn & Quarterly | Reading | Upcoming |
| Apr 1, 2025 | New Voices Fellowship — applications open | Online | Fellowship | Upcoming |
| Sep 1, 2025 | Winter Residency 2026 — applications open | Online | Applications | Upcoming |
| Oct 9–11, 2025 | Annual Symposium | Ottawa, ON | Symposium | Upcoming |
Mentor Circle 2024–25
Our mentors are established Canadian writers who give a year of their time and experience to the next generation. We are grateful to each of them.
Margaret Éveline
Fiction · Québec
Author of four novels including The Ice Road (Biblioasis, 2019). Writes in both French and English.
Thomas Okafor
Poetry · Ontario
Poet and translator. His collection Caribou Road won the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2022.
Danielle Nguyen
Non-fiction · BC
Cultural critic and essayist. Contributor to The Walrus, Quill & Quire, and The Globe and Mail.
James Yellowhorn
Fiction · Alberta
Blackfoot writer and storyteller from southern Alberta. Author of Napi's River (Anansi, 2021).
Simone Tremblay
Drama · Québec
Playwright and director. Her work has been performed at the Centaur, Soulpepper, and the NAC.
Dr. Anika Reyes
Criticism · Nova Scotia
Professor of Canadian Literature at Dalhousie and author of Reading the Cold (UTP, 2020).
Dr. Lorraine Bédard
Fiction · Ontario
Five novels, three story collections, and a Governor General's Award in 2017. Our founding chair.
Paul Achebe
Poetry · Manitoba
Nigerian-Canadian poet and essayist. His work appears in The Malahat Review, Prairie Fire, and Brick.
Quarterly publication
Essays, poetry, fiction, and criticism from the Canadian literary community. Winter 2025 issue available now.
There is a particular quality to the silence of a Canadian winter morning — not the absence of sound, but the presence of it, somehow made audible by the cold. I have been trying to write about this for twenty years and I am only beginning to understand what it does to the work...
Read essayI. The road north of Whitehorse / runs out like a sentence the speaker has forgotten — / its grammar dissolved in spruce and grey shale, / in the specific colour of November sky / that has no equivalent in any southern language...
Read poemsWhen Dance of the Happy Shades was published in 1968, Alice Munro was not yet a canonical figure — she was a housewife in Victoria with an eye so precise and a range so complete that the Canadian short story would never recover from it. Fifty years on, what do we do with that inheritance?...
Read reviewMy grandmother said the river remembers everything. Not the way a person remembers — with effort, with the fear of forgetting — but the way water holds the shape of whatever passes through it, long after the thing itself is gone. I thought about this when my uncle's body came up near the old crossing...
Read storyWe met at a café in Kensington Market on a Wednesday in July. Brand arrived with a notebook and a wariness I have come to expect from writers who have spent decades being asked to explain themselves. She did not want to explain. She wanted to argue, which is much more interesting...
Read interviewGet in touch
Whether you're a writer interested in our programs, a donor, an institution wanting to partner, or simply someone who loves Canadian literature — please reach out.
hello@lionsinwinter.ca
Mailing address
Lions in Winter
PO Box 8842, Station A
Toronto, ON M5W 1R0
Response time
We aim to respond within 5–7 business days. We are a volunteer-run organization and appreciate your patience.
Send a message
Lions in Winter is a registered Canadian non-profit. Your information will never be shared with third parties.