July 1 is Canada Day! Canada Day is a Canadian national holiday that celebrates Canadian culture and history, not unlike the Fourth of July for Americans.
To celebrate our northern neighbors, we hope you’ll check out some of these celebrated authors that call Canada home:
Authors of Novels for Adults
Margaret Atwood: Perhaps most famous for her dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood is a widely celebrated author who has published more than 66 works across fiction, nonfiction, children’s literature, and poetry.
Yann Martel: Yann Martel is an award-winning author who is most famous for his novel Life of Pi, the story of a young man surviving on a stranded boat with a Bengal tiger. The book was adapted into an Oscar-winning movie.
Louise Penny: This famous mystery novelist has written more than a dozen books in her Inspector Gamache series, most recently The Grey Wolf. Penny’s books have been translated into 35 languages and are enjoyed by crime novel enthusiasts worldwide.
Emily St. John Mandel: With six novels under her belt, Emily St. John Mandel may be best known for her work Station Eleven, which was adapted into a limited series on HBO Max. Her other works include The Glass Hotel, which was selected as one of Barack Obama’s favorite books of 2020, and Sea of Tranquility, which debuted at number 3 on the NYT Best Seller List.
Authors of Novels for Children and Young Adults
Jon Klassen: Known for the “Hat Trilogy” series: I Want My Hat Back, This is Not My Hat, and We Found a Hat, Jon Klassen has won both the American Caldecott Medal and the British Kate Greenaway Medal which celebrate excellence in illustration in children’s books.
Gordon Korman: Gordon Korman wrote his first book when he was 14 years old and had written 5 books by the time he graduated from high school. He’s written many beloved books for middle grade readers such as Schooled and War Stories as well as books in the action-packed 39 Clues series.
Kenneth Oppel: Kenneth Oppel has written dozens of books for children and young adults, including the Silverwing and Airborn series. He is also the recipient of the Printz Honor Award, which honors exceptional literature written for teenagers.
L.M. Montgomery: L.M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery is most known for her Anne of Green Gables stories, the beloved children’s classic of a young orphan girl growing up on Prince Edward Island in Canada. While Anne was her most well-known character, Montgomery wrote more than 1000 short stories, poems, and essays combined.
Alison Robles, a Yonkers native, received her MS in Information and Library Science from the University at Buffalo in February 2025. She works at the Crestwood Library and is an avid reader with a passion for YA lit, historical fiction, and fantasy.