Ontario book news, interviews and more

The Writer (You Think) I am

The year before trying out for the Simon Fraser University basketball team, I trained in ways and at an intensity I never before had. I wanted to make that team so badly, so desirous was I to prove myself, ...

Artist's Books

For my last blog post as Open Book’s writer-in-residence and to close out poetry month I want to talk to you about one of my favourite things: Artist’s Books! I’ve shared some of my passion for ...

Book Therapy: Good Mom on Paper

“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 ...

May Writer in Residence Mark David Smith on His Macbeth Inspired Witch-Detective Series for Kids

If you read Macbeth and thought (like us) "less political scheming and more of those fabulous witches, please", you're in luck because teacher and writer Mark David Smith's The Weird Sisters: A Note, ...

How I look at a map (part three): software

In my two previous posts I’ve been detailing my process for creating a new piece of visual poetry. In part one, I talked about what I’m looking for when I look in the archives at maps and talked a ...

How I look at a map (part two): found poetry

In previous posts you’ve seen some of the things I’m thinking through when I’m creating visual poetry. And in the last post we got started working on a new piece by looking through archival material. ...

Keith Garebian on Reinventing Nature Poetry as Unsentimental & Giving the Suburbs Its Poetic Due

The western suburbs of Toronto might not seem like an obvious spot to inspire a poet, but Keith Garebian turns the Lakeshore Road area of Mississauga and Etobicoke into something meditative and striking ...

"This is the First Time I’ve Kissed a Girl" Meet Sophie Labelle's Nonbinary Teen Protagonist in an Excerpt from Wish Upon a Satellite

Sophie Labelle, creator of the popular web comic Assigned Male and an acclaimed writer, activist, and artist, has created a memorable, witty, and vibrant nonbinary protagonist in Ciel, the teenage ...

Get Ready for Poem in Your Pocket Day This Friday

Poetry Month is nearing its end for 2022, but that doesn't mean there isn't plenty of time to indulge your love of verse. One of the best ways Poetry Month helps us honour the form is the creative Poem ...

How I look at a map (part one)

Art is all about process. Community spurs us on and the practice of creation is an active one. There is of course the cliché about art never being finished, merely abandoned, but in my opinion, neither ...