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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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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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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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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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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 ...
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October 26, 2020"Say what?"
“All the information you need can be given in dialogue.” — Elmore LeonardAnytime dialogue carries the story it’s pure joy. Sometimes it’s straight up, other times it’s slippery with manipulation. ...
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October 22, 2018
Uncomfortable Questions
One of the most common questions any writer from a marginalized background gets is “who did you write this for?” A variation of that is “what audience did you have in mind when you wrote this?” ...
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October 01, 2020The sweet spot
First off, it’s an honor to be here. Thank you to Graham and Grace and all the good folks at Open Book for inviting me to sit in this month. I thought I’d start by telling you how I came to writing, ...
