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March 09, 2021
A love letter (to books)
The first quote-unquote serious novel I read was One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn. My eighth grade teacher set down a box at the front of the classroom and, in a seemingly ...
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March 30, 2021"To Write About My Feelings Without Guilt or Censorship Felt Redemptive" Phantompains by Therese Estacion Hailed as a Masterpiece
"I love its humour, clarity, irreverence, and rage," said poet Sara Peters about the stunning new collection, Phantompains (Book*hug Press) by Therese Estacion. And even that effusive list doesn't cover ...
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March 29, 2021
Writing/Not Writing
Some language cracks the shell of a thing open, so we can newly see what’s being described. And some language forms a perfect egg shell around what it aims to describe, obscuring more than it reveals. ...
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December 08, 2024Low-Stress Yearly Reading Challenge Ideas
If you’re a reader with internet access, you’ve likely encountered yearly reading challenges and goals. The most common type of reading challenge is the “Read X Number of Books This Year” type, ...
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May 08, 2014Guttersnipes: Meags Fitzgerald
TCAF is the Toronto Comic Arts Festival. It is an annual week-long celebration of comics and graphic novels and their creators, featuring readings, interviews, panels, workshops, gallery shows, art installations, ...
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March 15, 2022Why Canada Reads Needs Unhappy Narratives
Each year on Canada Reads, five books of fiction and nonfiction are chosen by Canadian celebrities who advocate for their book of choice as one that “all of Canada should read.” One book is voted ...
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September 11, 2024Two Young Athletes Find Themselves Torn Between the Sport They Love and State Rule in Eyes on the Ice
Already the author of two critically acclaimed hockey biographies for young readers, Anna Rosner has stayed with the sport, but shifted approaches and forms in her latest work. The result is the powerful ...
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April 11, 2017
Alice Burdick on Poetry Exercises
My next few posts as Writer in Residence here at Open Book will feature short interviews with Canadian poets discussing their relationship to poetry prompts and exercises. They'll talk about what they ...
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August 18, 2023Picture Book Trends
Picture books, like all art forms, are subject to trends and shifts in theme, style and format. I don’t necessarily recommend writing to trend, but it’s always good to be familiar with what’s working ...
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September 08, 2015
Literary Perturbations: Math, Rhythm, and the Unforgettable Sentence
I want to write about perturbations created by literature, how when you’re reading something that connects to you, you can feel shaken, disoriented almost, like everything in the world has suddenly ...
