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June 01, 2018On Middles
Recently I sat at the booksellers’ table during a poetry reading. This is best-case scenario seating. You might feel a little nervous that you’ll spill your drink on hundreds of dollars of merch, ...
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August 16, 2017Considering the Incomplete
I love to buy something then cut it in half. I did this recently with a product called the World’s Best Dishcloth and felt like a genius. Now I had two dishcloths and they were both the best dishcloth ...
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December 08, 2024Low-Stress Yearly Reading Challenge Ideas
If you’re a reader with internet access, you’ve likely encountered yearly reading challenges and goals. The most common type of reading challenge is the “Read X Number of Books This Year” type, ...
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August 31, 2018On the future of Canlit
You guys, this is my last Open Book column.I have been writing this column for a year now and I’ll admit I didn’t know what I was going to write about when Holly Kent and Kevin Hardcastle asked me ...
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January 30, 2018Behind Every Story, A Less Interesting Story
Lillian is trying to write a good play. When progress alludes her, she tears the false starts out of her typewriter, scrunches them up into balls, and kicks over the wastebasket that brims with bad drafts. ...
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June 13, 2019Dream Casting Frying Plantain
I know, it's super brave of me to make a post right after the Raptors won the championship (!!!!) but I'm going to do it anyway. The other day I did a talk at the Toronto Public Library (the Annette branch) ...
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October 03, 2019Read an Excerpt from Deborah Ellis' My Story Starts Here, where Young Offenders are Given Space to Speak
For many younger offenders, the first step off the accepted path represents a turning point; a crossroads where their futures hang in the balance. With intersectional pressures often including poverty, ...
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December 02, 2024The New Novel from Priya Ramsingh is an Entertaining, Hopeful Look at Modern Love in the City
Author Priya Ramsingh has won critical acclaim for her previous work, and has seen her fiction shortlisted for best story of the year by The Caribbean Writer. With her latest novel, she returns with a ...
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December 14, 2017Dear UBC Accountable
Dear UBC Accountable,It’s been one year since you released your open letter to UBC, and Canada, and the world. I don’t want to wish you a happy birthday, because it’s not happy. Not for me, and ...
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September 16, 2025Read an Excerpt from A Precarious Enterprise: Making a Life in Canadian Publishing by Scott McIntyre
Canadian publishing has always been full of fascinating characters and transformative moments, and few people know that story more intimately than Scott McIntyre. With wit, warmth, and a lifetime of experience, ...
