A recent feature from CBC Books has named You’ve Changed by University of Toronto English professor Ian Williams as one of three contemporary works by Black Canadian authors with the potential to become “modern classics.”
In the segment on The Next Chapter, columnist Ryan B. Patrick reflects on what makes a novel endure, describing a classic as a work that “delivers layers of meaning that shift as your lived experience shifts.” Alongside books by Dionne Brand and André Alexis, Patrick points to You’ve Changed as a recent novel whose formal innovation and thematic depth mark it as a significant contribution to Canadian literature.
Published in 2024, You’ve Changed follows a married couple in Vancouver as they navigate a period of personal and relational upheaval. Patrick praises the novel’s exploration of intimacy, race and identity, as well as its inventive structure, noting Williams’s “hyper-awareness of gender and race” and his willingness to experiment with the visual and material possibilities of the page.
Williams, who is a professor in the Department of English, is also the author of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. His debut novel, Reproduction, won the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and he delivered the 2024 Massey Lectures based on his nonfiction work What I Mean to Say.
The CBC feature situates You’ve Changed within a broader conversation about how Black Canadian writers are reshaping the national literary canon and redefining what a Canadian “classic” can look like.
Read the original CBC Books article.