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June 28, 2024Read an Excerpt from Anomia by Jade Wallace
Mystery and missing-person stories are not a rarity in novel-length fiction, but, there are authors brave enough to bend form and invent new and exciting approaches that set their take on the genre apart ...
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April 22, 2020All of this listening
It was hard to write this column. Like everyone else, I’m all for trying to grasp at normalcy where I can, but I don’t have many writing tips to share right now. (Actually, I do have one writing tip: ...
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January 05, 2018"Poems are Like People When it Comes to Goodbyes": Talking with Debut Poet Margo LaPierre
If you've ever worn make up, you know what raccoon eyes are - the result of smearing dark eye make up across your face, the telltale sign of a night out that went either way too well or quite the opposite.The ...
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October 04, 2023Music, Automation, and Writing With a Satellite Mindset
Technology drained away my love of new music with the promise of access. That’s why I didn’t see it happening. Logging on to my subscription streaming service, I’m greeted with abundance—playlists ...
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June 23, 2020
The Male Default in Children's Literature - What It Is and Why It Matters
Perhaps you’ve heard of the Bechdel Test for movies. A film that passes the Bechdel Test must have at least one scene in which two female characters are talking to each other – and not about a man. ...
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March 13, 2017My final two columns: Part One
After nearly a decade, my time as a columnist for Open Book comes to a close. According to my email folder, it was May 2009 when Amy Logan Holmes first approached me with the idea of submitting pieces ...
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November 22, 2018Calling All Aspiring Authors: Never Ask an Illustrator to Illustrate Your Picture Book for Free
A few weeks ago, I was in a local tavern with some friends—a few of them are professional illustrators. They were drinking overpriced mocktails and commiserating about the emails they get from aspiring ...
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March 12, 2019Excerpt! From Michael McCreary's Witty & Educational Debut About Life on the Spectrum: Funny, You Don't Look Autistic
Comedian Michael McCreary's Funny, You Don’t Look Autistic: A Comedian’s Guide to Life on the Spectrum (Annick Press) takes on stereotypes about autism with wit and heart. Explaining how Autism Spectrum ...
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November 25, 2019Offstage Magic
Festival season is over, and I’m still reeling from all the conversations and questions that have arisen offstage. What it is about the magic of writers without microphones, with cups of coffee and ...
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May 10, 2023Eva Tihanyi's "3-Layer" Poetry Collection Cicle Tour is a Tour de Force
Eva Tihanyi's Circle Tour (Inanna Publications) has a simple but fascinating structure of three sections: the Outer Circle, Inner Circle, and the Centre. Each section has its own power – the outward-facing ...
