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March 15, 2021Book Therapy: In Praise of Retreat
“Chosen solitude is about agency, self-reliance and gaining clarity.When the churning mind-waters settle, I can begin to dip into the wellspring of my life.If I stay quiet long enough, I begin to forget ...
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March 13, 2021
Permission to dream
When I started writing, I didn’t understand the invisible work. The models of labour I was most familiar with—whether in a coffee shop, at a hotel, in a firehall, or at a construction site—were, ...
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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 09, 2021CBC Canada Reads 2021: Two Down, Two to Go (Spoilers)
*This post contains spoilers about which books were voted off Canada Reads on days one and two*After a lively first day in which (final spoiler alert!) Jessica J. Lee's Two Trees Make a Forest was voted ...
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March 08, 2021On Giving Myself Permission Not to Write
I know I have to write it. The essay I’ve been trying to write for a year and a half.I will be in the grocery store or out in the muck of a hike dripping with sweat and a sentence of it will come to ...
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March 05, 2021
Writing Time
When it comes to writing, I have a hard time wrapping my head around some of the basics—namely space and time. I find it easy to imagine myself into a character’s head—to project myself into a character’s ...
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April 29, 2021May 2021 Writer-in-Residence Wendy Orr Explores Love & Disability in Ancient Greece in Her Captivating New Novel
Children's author Wendy Orr knows how to capture the imagination of young readers in her many acclaimed books (including fan favourite Nim's Island, which was even adapted as a blockbuster film). ...
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March 02, 2021BookTok: Shaping a Generation of Readers
Open Book and Word on the Street have partnered this year to bring new and innovative content to our readers and patrons. In an effort to share the ideas and experiences of a wider range of people in ...
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March 02, 2021Maria Birmingham's Snooze-O-Rama Introduces Young Readers to the Fun of STEM with Wonderfully Weird Animal Facts
Every parent has a bedtime routine for their little ones. But what about their animal friends? What is bedtime like for them?It's a question Maria Birmingham answers in her charming and funny Snooze-O-Rama: ...
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March 01, 2021
Writing violence (again)
On violence and trauma and repetition...When I was nineteen, I went to dinner at a friend’s, and afterwards, her father invited us all upstairs to see his attic art studio.There were so many canvasses ...
