Ira Wells
Ira Wells is a critic, essayist, and an associate professor at Victoria College, University of Toronto. He teaches in the Northrop Frye stream in literature and the humanities in the Vic One program. His writing has appeared in publications including The Atlantic, The Globe and Mail, and The Guardian, among others. Wells has authored two other books of nonfiction, Norman Jewison: A Director’s Life and Fighting Words: Polemics and Social Change in Literary Naturalism. He lives in Toronto.
Writers & Books
Award History
2026 - Finalist
Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing
forOn Book Banning: Or, How the New Censorship Consensus Trivializes Art and Undermines Democracy
Jury Citation
“In On Book Banning, Ira Wells offers direct and incisive writing that brings suppressed voices into the light and challenges readers to question the moral authority of censorship. Refusing both academic detachment and easy provocation, Wells presents rigorous research with clarity and balance, pairing the ridiculous with the brilliant. His work is passionate and compassionate, inviting sustained reflection on freedom, responsibility, and the imperfect humanity behind all writing, and leaving readers with a deeper, more self-aware engagement with literature.”—2026 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing Jury (Norma Dunning, Chantal Hébert, Paul Wells)Works Recognized by WT