The Ontario Review built itself a reputation of being a small magazine but a selective one. The Ontario Review only publishes from 3 to 4 books annually. Although this is a small number compared to other magazines, one of these books would be nominated for great awards. The list of books that were published by the Ontario Review and were nominated include On the Island, a book written by Josephine Jacobsen. This book was nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Also, in 1985, The World About Us, the novel by Claude Simon was only available in the United States through The Ontario Review. Claude Simon is a French author who won the Literature Nobel Prize in 1985.