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September 19, 2018Talk to Me
My little sunroom office at home (which is also our dining room) faces a fairly busy street, so when the weather’s good and our windows are open, bits and pieces of random conversations drift up to ...
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January 30, 20233 Writers Named as 2023 Residents at Writers' Trust Berton House Retreat in Dawson City, Yukon
Writing retreats are always a sought after space for authors, providing focus, isolation, time, and motivation. Canada boasts a number of well-known retreats, including the Banff Centre for Creativity, ...
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November 08, 2018Writers' Trust Honours Hay, Bhat, Page & Others with More Than $260,000 in Literary Prizes
Last night in Toronto, the Glenn Gould Studio at CBC was packed full of writers, readers, and members of the Canadian literary community, all waiting on tenterhooks to hear the names of writers whose ...
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November 01, 2016The 2016 Weston Prize Finalists on Inspiration & Non-fiction: "Your Books Choose You"
From life as an Israeli soldier to the surprising story behind one of the world's most famous paintings, the fascinating books on this year's Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction shortlist ...
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May 11, 2020Goals from another time.
I found this piece of paper recently. I’d made it many years back and stuck it to my wall when I was trying to get organized with my linked short story collection, Coconut Dreams.Some observations:I’d ...
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July 05, 2012Filling in the Blanks: Photography, Inspiration and Max Dean’s Albums
I have an album. It isn’t mine, but I am taking care of it. For how long, I’m not sure. I’m not even sure for whom.The album tells a story, but the narrative is fragmented. It’s set in the US ...
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August 03, 2021In Praise of Editors
I believe the most important relationship in publishing is between the author and the editor. It’s a fundamental partnership that turns ideas into prose and drafts into polished works. When the editing ...
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October 21, 2020The casting call
“Each writer is born with a repertory company in his head and … as you get older, you become more skillful in casting them.” — Gore VidalThe characters who show up in my stories are truly a mixed ...
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February 26, 2021Grinding Out a New Novel
Writing a novel is a grind. It’s an arduous, meticulous, and often repetitive process that can take years. There’s the actual typing of words onto the page, and then come the edits and rewrites, which ...
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May 16, 2020Readings...that feeling never goes away.
I always get that feeling right before reading my work in public. You may know it: the urge to simultaneously faint, throw up, and run out of the room. My first few readings were terrifying. I was fortunate ...