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February 16, 2020
Blogpost #4: START TO FINISH, The Story Behind the Story 2- A Likkle Miss Lou
In this second instalment of my START TO FINISH, The Story Behind the Story series, I focus on my latest picture book A Likkle Miss Lou: How Jamaican Poet Louise Bennett Coverley Found ...
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November 23, 2021
Book Therapy: Good Burdens
“You may feel like you’re behind the rest of the world because you haven’t accomplished your to-do list or gotten to inbox zero or have your side hustle rocking like your neighbour next door. (Newsflash, ...
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October 02, 2019
"Delight & Surprise Have to Carry Through a Whole Poem" Chris Banks on His Process, the Poem He Reads Daily, & His Beautiful Losers
Waterloo-based poet Chris Banks' fifth collection, Midlife Action Figure (ECW Press) is uncommonly fun, with Banks' playfulness on full display in lines like his comparison of time and memory to "a ...
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March 02, 2022
Carl Watts on Why Poetry's So-Called Shortcomings Might Be Its Greatest Strengths
It's easy to imagine the scene: at a poetry reading (pre-pandemic), an open mic-er ascends to the stage, taps the microphone, and announces with aplomb, "I just wrote this five minutes ago." Cue the ...
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November 01, 2022
"[He Was] Lacking None of the Graces Except a Core of Essential Decency" Read an Excerpt from This Time, That Place by Clark Blaise
Clark Blaise has been described as "the greatest living Canadian writer most Canadians have never heard of." Now 82, with more than 20 books of fiction and nonfiction to his name and a staggering c.v. ...
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February 25, 2016
Tiny Rooms of One's Own: Part 1 of Four New Writers to Watch - Faith Arkorful, Sofia Mostaghimi, Noor Naga, and Kristel Jax.
As I developed my writing over the years, I had many teachers and people in the community support my work and offer me encouragement. It’s always been important for me to give back and encourage talent ...
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August 30, 2016
The Lucky Seven Interview, with Mike Barnes
The Adjustment League (Biblioasis) is the first instalment in a new noir trilogy by Mike Barnes. This first book sees the patients of a psychiatric hospital coming together to form the titular league, ...
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December 18, 2018
December Spotlight on Excerpts: Read a Section of Marina L. Reed's Primrose Street
How well do you know your neighbours? On Primrose Street, everyone knows each other, but no one is truly known. From neighbourhood patriarchs and matriarchs to mysterious newcomers, each character in Marina ...
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October 14, 2015
Kid Lit Can, with Susan Hughes: Q and A with 2015 Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction Nominees, Part II
Welcome! Today I continue my chat with the three terrific authors whose five books have been nominated for the CCBC Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People: Patrick Bowman, Marsha ...
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June 07, 2015
Chopsticks
Last summer, I made chilled noodle soup.Why? I was writing a short story that took place in North Korea, and I was stuck. The plot, for some reason, had twisted into a Gordian knot (if you know what I’m ...