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May 31, 2016Writing What’s Closest to Home
Last year, when I turned in the first draft of a memoir on rape trauma, my editor had a pretty reasonable observation. Despite divulging various details of violation, illness, and the path to getting ...
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July 10, 2015On Sports and Writing
Years ago, when applying to MFA Programs, I was asked for a personal essay about my writing and writing influences. Without a shred of irony I stated that my earliest literary influences were televangelists ...
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November 26, 2025Charlie Petch's INFINITE AUDITION is an Unpredictable, Theatrical Poetic Tour de Force
Our featured title today comes from Charlie Petch, a celebrated artist who explores transmasculine and disabled perspectives in their writing. Their work invites readers to engage with art that refuses ...
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May 03, 2009
Our Town, 2009 Edition
Come the goodweather folks inthis Portuguese-Italian neighbourhoodhang their clothesout to dryso stirring linesof laundryin the breezeare a sure signit’s warming up.Come fill the cupthe poet said…Of ...
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April 28, 2014
Shake It Up
Range is something to aim for – a poet’s ability to go multiple, whistle one minute, moan the next. Sound like a basset hound, then go for a high-pitched squawk of geese. Try tender, then bold; try ...
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February 22, 2022Monique Polak on Helping Kids Find Themselves While Exploring Parental Alienation in Her New Middle Grade Book
Everything in Justine's world has changed since her parents got divorced. She and her little sister Bea travel across Montreal from one house to the other, living two lives. But when Justine's mother ...
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February 14, 2022
Valentine's Day! (and one or two other things I don't really like)
Hello, Open Book reader. Glad to have you back. So…remember that promise I made early on to curb the sass mouth? Well, apologies in advance because I’m breaking that promise today. Originally, I wasn’t ...
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October 11, 2017On Pseudoscience, Wrestling, and Finding Storytelling in the Unconventional
When I was in university I had to take a science course to complete my undergraduate degree. I decided on “Science and Pseudoscience” – mostly because the title reminded me of the sort of conspiracy ...
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June 30, 2025Read an Excerpt From Shane Neilson's Moving Collection of Essays, What to Feel, How to Feel
Today we're featuring a fascinating collection of lyric essays from poet and physician Shane Neilson, a neurodivergent artist and academic whose unique work has been published widely, and to great acclaim. In What ...
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November 04, 2019
Music, Writing, and the Practice of Art
Like many people in the arts, I have a number of jobs. For me, that includes writing, teaching writing, transcribing music notation, and teaching music.Teaching music came first. For the last fifteen ...
