Columnists

Embracing Tropes

A lot of my summer reading list involved beachy romance novels like Leanne Toshiko Simpson’s Never Been Better and Carley Fortune’s Every Summer After, and, like many twenty-something women, (re)reading ...

In Defense of Procrastination

The procrastinating author is a time-honoured trope. For me personally, I’m at my most productive with other tasks (vacuuming, crocheting, washing dishes, doing laundry, clearing up clutter) when I ...

More Tips on Writing Book Reviews

One year ago, I wrote a column on getting into writing book reviews. The topic of book reviews remains ever-important, especially in a media climate where outlets to review grow smaller and smaller. In ...

Unlocking Out of Editing

In my April 2025 column for Open Book, I wrote about the difficulties of locking into editing. Coming back to a manuscript you feel you’ve completed is tricky, especially when you’re at the stage ...

Locking In, Letting Go

I’ve thought of myself as a writer who loves revision. I rewrote large chunks of my two poetry collections between the ‘final’ version submitted to my publisher, and the version that ended up being ...

Finding a Press for Your Poetry Manuscript

In one of my first columns as an Open Book columnist, I shared my process of realizing I had a full-length poetry manuscript. Since then, I’ve written a number of columns about how to go about preparing ...

Audiobook Magic

Poetry books rarely come in audio format, and perhaps this is the reason it’s taken me until 2025 to discover the magic of audiobooks. In 2024, I began writing more fiction after several years of focusing ...

Bleak Futures & The Sheridan College Creative Writing & Publishing Program

“Heartbroken” is the word I would use to describe my reaction to finding out the Creative Writing & Publishing Program at Sheridan College is one of forty programs being cut. The suspension of ...

Preparing a Poetry Manuscript for Submission

In my last column, I wrote about preparing a cover letter for your poetry manuscript submission. Well, what about preparing the actual manuscript?As I mentioned in the last column, most poetry presses ...

Writing a Cover Letter for Your Poetry Manuscript

In the world of Canadian publishing, poets rarely have agents. Poetry collections are often published through small presses, and these presses have open submission periods where anyone can submit a manuscript. In ...