Columnists
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June 10, 2022Writing with kids: Impossible or sometimes maybe possible?
By Lindsay Zier-VogelSummer is nigh, which means picnics and sunlight until 10 p.m. and swimming pools and watermelon. And it also means my kids are going to be around a lot more, and finding windows to write is going to ...
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June 03, 2022On Becoming an Acquiring Editor
By Russell SmithFor thirty years I was on the other side of the desk: submitting books to editors who didn’t reply or who took six months to reply, who replied with no-thank-you formulae, or who replied with suggestions ...
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May 27, 2022Reminders on the Path - Sheniz Janmohamed in Conversation with Natasha Ramoutar
By Natasha Ramoutar & Sheniz JanmohamedWhen my first poetry collection Bittersweet was released in 2020, my mentor Sheniz Janmohamed published our conversation about full circles and first books with Open Book.Sheniz has been so instrumental ...
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May 10, 2022Genres You Didn’t Learn About in Kidlit 101
By Vikki VanSickleOne of the most formative experiences in my development as a writer was working in a bookstore. For four glorious years I was the manager of the award-winning, much beloved Flying Dragon Bookshop in Toronto. ...
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April 29, 2022Book Therapy: Good Mom on Paper
By Stacey May Fowles & Jen Sookfong Lee“Children require their parents to search for small moments of peace or grace or dignity. Maybe we can treat creativity the same way: creating the one true thing within a project that is otherwise just ...
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April 21, 2022How to Start a Writers’ Group
By Lindsay Zier-VogelI spent years working on a novel about a lifeguard who was terrified of drowning. Years, of sitting in the same corner of the same coffee shop bashing out draft after unreadable draft. And the only feedback ...
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March 31, 2022The Best of Both Worlds
By D.D. MillerHumber College’s new undergrad in creative and professional writing strives to nurture skilled creative professionals.I always wanted to be a writer. Or maybe it’s that I always wrote. I took the ...
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March 29, 2022The challenges (and joys) of receiving feedback
By Lindsay Zier-VogelI am not proud of it, but my initial response to feedback on my writing is an instant NOPE. No way! ABSOLUTELY NOT. “What if you switched the point of view to third person?”NOPE. No way! ABSOLUTELY ...
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March 25, 2022Locked Down and Longing for Community: The Genesis of The Quarantine Review
By Jeff Dupuis and Sheeza SarfrazIt started in a pub on the Danforth, the bar filled with older gentlemen dejected at the cancellation of the Dave Mason concert at the Music Hall a half-block away. COVID wasn’t real to them yet, as ...
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March 18, 2022Making the Leap: Why Writing Programs Matter Right Now
By Meaghan StrimasI’ve been on campus exactly once since March 2020, during the height of one of the province’s lockdowns, to pack up my old office at Humber College’s Lakeshore Campus. I was leaving my post as the ...