Columnists

Small gifts from writers: The power of writerly connections

On one especially sunny day when I was a young girl sitting at my kitchen table scribbling stories on the backs of old receipts my mother left on the table, I closed my eyes, looked into the future, and ...

Book Therapy: The Centaur’s Wife

“It isn’t just her own survival she’s thinking about. She’s thinking about everyone else. That’s how they’re all going to survive—by thinking about everyone else.”—Amanda Leduc, The ...

Why We Need to Question “Hobbies” in the Pandemic

On a rainy Thursday morning at the end of January 2021, I lay in bed staring at the ceiling for far too long... I couldn’t remember what I had done in 2020. I remember the past couple of years clearly: ...

Claiming Space for Indigenous Languages in English Literature

English is the language of the colonizer. It came with the arrival of settlers to what many people call Turtle Island, or North America. It is a relatively new language to this land, and has only been ...

Book Therapy: 100 Miles of Baseball

“Baseball is about connecting—with people we’ve just met, people we’ll never meet again, people we know, people we love and miss.”—Dale Jacobs and Heidi LM Jacobs, 100 Miles of Baseball In ...

Achievable, Artistic Resolutions for Authors and Illustrators

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I love coming up with new year’s resolutions. I love committing to some kind of regular creative activity … no matter the outcome! Last year, I said ...

Just because I don’t “look” like an editor...

Just because I don’t “look” like an editor... I remember the first time I went to pick up the mail from our post office box, when I was the managing editor at Room magazine, and was told by one ...

How to Make Your Longest, Darkest Nights Shine

The Winter Solstice is happening as I write this column. It’s the shortest day of the year and the longest, darkest night of the year. But during this time, every night often feels like the longest, ...

Indigenous Identity and the Responsibilities of Telling Stories

Writing the stories of your people is the ultimate honour. It is also a privilege, and carries immense responsibilities. This is especially true of Indigenous communities in Canada, who continue to recover ...

I Wrote 100,000 Words in a Month: Or When Productivity is Really Crip Grief

(This is not a ‘How To’ article. This is also not an inspiring story about a disabled person doing an extraordinary thing. There is nothing extraordinary here. There is only a dispatch from a place ...