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January 15, 2020The Craft of Reading: How Reading 260 Books This Year Made Me a Better Writer
I was making a care package for a writer friend recently and wanted to include a book in it.“What have you been dying to read?” I asked her before heading out to the bookstore.“Fever Dream by Samanta ...
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April 19, 2021Play to your strengths: a short guide to arts admin for emerging artists
And we're back! As promised, these last two weeks of Careful Inventory are a bit lighter, more directly applicable in the pandemic—thanks for sticking with me so far! We’ve covered online safety, ...
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May 25, 2017Talking about Poetry with the 2017 RBC Bronwen Wallace Award Nominees
The RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers (administered by the Writers' Trust of Canada) has an all-star list of past winners and nominees, including names like Madeleine Thien, Jeramy Dodds, ...
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December 14, 2021"Numbers Stations, 90s Indie Rock, Conspiracy Theories" David Whitton on Turning His "Nerdy Fixations" into a Stunning Debut Novel
In unnamed luxury hotel, seven employees work quietly, unobtrusive amongst the rest of the staff. Nothing could be more ordinary. Except that these seven people aren't ordinary employees at all — they're ...
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February 22, 2021
LOVE IN THE TIME OF COVID: The writing process Part 7 of 9
Love like anything that matters in this life is a risky business. To fall in love, one must take a big leap of faith. I wanted my characters who were dissatisfied with their isolation to jump both feet ...
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January 17, 2014
Open Book Toronto Update: Online Reading, Literary Resolutions & a Literary Event You Won't Want to Miss!
Fresh & Local: Your connection to Toronto's vibrant literary sceneDear Readers,New Year, new books! 2014 is the year to realize your literary resolutions — whether it's a specific book you've been ...
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November 15, 2019
Revision Part One
Revision, where the piled fragments of a draft shift and reassemble, is my favourite part of writing. It’s where the most substantial changes happen, and a story is overhauled in ways that are surprising ...
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March 08, 2018Getting to know Daniel Heath Justice: Tolkien, D&D, and The Golden Girls
Acclaimed scholar and author Daniel Heath Justice's Why Indigenous Literatures Matter (Wilfrid Laurier University Press) is a tour de force, combining cultural history, literary analysis, and artistic ...
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March 25, 2018
There's a lot to be said for not knowing what you're doing.
I’ve been writing professionally for nearly 40 years now, across a variety of media, and even now, every time I start a new project, it’s as if I’ve never written anything before in my life. I generally ...
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July 04, 2016Service Industry Hell (Part 1): One Angry Writer and Two Warring Bosses
A lot of the inspiration for my new book, Congratulations On Everything, came from the things I saw while working in bars, restaurants, and hotels, and from the experiences of friends who did the same. ...