Canadian Literature is a quarterly peer-reviewed journal of criticism and review, founded in 1959 and owned by the University of British Columbia.

Rather than focusing on a single theoretical approach, Canadian Literature contains articles on all subjects relating to writers and writing in Canada.

[6] Institutions make up the majority of its print subscription base, which is largely made up of university and college libraries.

In addition to publishing a range of special issues, Ricou oversaw the relaunch of Canadian Literature's website and the creation of the CanLit Poets resource.

[21] During Fee's editorship, Canadian Literature made its back catalogue of issues openly accessible through the journal's website, and in 2012 launched the CanLit Guides open-access online educational resource, which uses archival material from the journal to teach students of Canadian literature about academic writing and reading.

[22] Moss's work as editor has sought "to ensure that the journal continues to be vital to a wide readership," keeping in Canadian Literature's tradition of critical eclecticism while emphasizing the "social utility" of Canadian literary criticism and the "journal as a space to speak freely, debate passionately, think safely, question vigorously, argue vehemently, and express contentious opinion.

[24] A silent art auction to support undergraduate students interning at Canadian Literature included pieces donated by Margaret Atwood, Leonard Cohen, Dennis Lee, Thomas King, Patrick Lane, Joni Mitchell, and Fred Wah.

Canadian Literature's 60th anniversary was celebrated in 2019 with a reading emceed by the poetry editor, Phinder Dulai, featuring Jordan Abel, Sonnet L’Abbé, Daphne Marlatt, Cecily Nicholson, and Shazia Hafiz Ramji, followed by the awarding of the 60th Anniversary Graduate Student Essay Prize.

[25] CanLit Guides is an online, open-access, and flexible educational resource created and maintained by Canadian Literature.

[26] The project is designed to supplement classroom learning and assist students and educators to critically engage with Canadian writing while promoting independent study.

The website offers a variety of content composed of textbook-style modular “Chapters” that are organized into larger thematic “Guides” and available for users to curate into customized reading lists.

[27] The Chapters and Guides cover topics of importance to studying, reading, contextualizing, and writing about Canadian literature, including on literary theory; literary, cultural, and political history; specific authors and works of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and drama; and skills-based research and composition topics.

The CanLit Guides draws from Canadian Literature’s journal archives of articles, editorials, reviews, and poetry in its content.

The chapters and activities are freely accessible to the public and published to support learning in undergraduate and advanced high school levels.