ABSTRACT
Canadian fantastic literature in both languages experienced unprecedented growth during the 1980s, with 1979 a pivotal year in which much of the groundwork for what followed was laid. The chapter looks at the “seeding” of that phenomenon during the 1970s, especially the individuals who promoted the writing, publishing, and reading of Canadian fantastic fiction—many of them immigrants from countries like the United Kingdom, the United States, and France, where science fiction and fantasy had long-established traditions. The chapter also describes the institutions that supported or grew out of the “flowering.” Most of the chapter discusses the authors who emerged during the 1980s and 1990s in various genres from hard science fiction to paranormal romance.
