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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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July 16, 2018Why It’s Okay If You Haven’t Finished Your First Book Yet
I thought I would finish my first novel by the time I turned 25.I laugh at the absurdity of that now. But in my early 20s, I believed it when people told me that anything was possible with hard work and ...
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January 15, 2020The Craft of Reading: How Reading 260 Books This Year Made Me a Better Writer
I was making a care package for a writer friend recently and wanted to include a book in it.“What have you been dying to read?” I asked her before heading out to the bookstore.“Fever Dream by Samanta ...
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January 15, 2019On Re-Fusing CanLit--Or Why We Need Integrity, Community, and Roses
In a lot of the trauma memoirs I’ve been reading lately, I see the same metaphor used to describe the process of healing. You’ve likely heard it too. It compares healing from trauma to the Japanese ...
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June 14, 2021Character Development Tips from Dungeons & Dragons
Full disclosure: I don't play Dungeons & Dragons, much as I'd like to. However, I've read a few D&D-based novels and enjoy watching others play the game, so I was pleased to stumble upon a fun ...
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January 05, 2021Erin Silver's What Kids Did Shares Inspiring Stories of Kids Fighting the Pandemic in Big and Small Ways
The COVID-19 pandemic has wrecked worldwide havoc. Even for those lucky enough to stay healthy, the economic, personal, and emotional repercussions have been huge. It's incredibly heartening, amidst all ...
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December 05, 2023Mike Barnes on the Big Books in His Life, Including One Important "Thundering Masterpiece"
Mike Barnes is one of those rare writers who can do it all – in poetry, short fiction, novels, and memoir, he takes readers on nuanced, brainy, powerfully moving journeys. Fiercely intelligent yet consistently ...
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September 23, 2021"It’s All About Having a Laugh and Experimenting" Poet MLA Chernoff on Affect Apocalypses, the Meaning of Squelch, and More
MLA Chernoff's debut full length poetry collection, the delightfully titled [SQUELCH PROCEDURES] (Gordon Hill Press) explores childhood and identity, touching on gender norms, trauma, poverty, and more ...
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January 11, 2018"Writing is Like Learning Where to Look for Lost Things": Talking with Debut Author Marc Labriola
In Marc Labriola's Dying Behaviour of Cats (Quattro Books), Theo hasn't set foot outside in seven years. On the night of a violent hurricane, he swears he sees a leopard climb onto his roof. It turns ...
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November 29, 2016The WAR Series: Writers as Readers, with Mat Laporte
Mat Laporte's Rats Nest (BookThug) has a pretty unique protagonist - "The Kid" is self-reproducing and 3D-printed, but no less compelling for his strange origins. With him, we explore the bizarre and ...
