Canadian literature has been hot in recent years. But where does this writing come from? Much of it derrives from the lit program at the University of British Columbia. “Sure, there are other schools – the universities of Victoria, New Brunswick and Windsor prominent among them – but UBC was first (founded in 1965 by poet Earle Birney) and it’s earned the kind of cachet that must drive its rivals to distraction. “Indeed, nearly half the graduating class of 2001 finished school with a book contract. Every publishing house, it seemed, needed its own author from the Buchanan Building.”