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June 17, 2016Revenge of the Indie Bookstore
In 2014, when I began booking my Crushes and Mountains US book tour with fellow Toronto-based writer Elisha Lim, I Googled “gay bookstore” or “independent bookstore” in cities we were planning ...
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May 29, 2023
Bringing It All Back Home
As I write this, I am sitting outside in the backyard of a rowhouse in Toronto’s East End. The wind is stirring the leaves of a big maple tree spreading its branches high above me, and stirring the ...
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May 30, 2023Feed Your Brain, Read Widely
Writers are often advised to read within their genre to better understand it. And when it comes to readers, it can be tempting to stick to their favourite genre too⎯it’s a favourite for a reason!I'm ...
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January 18, 2017Get Thee to a Library
You might be forgiven for thinking that Chester Brown immigrated to Toronto from J. R. R. Tolkien's Lothlórien. There is an enigmatic, ethereal quality to his presence. A deep and patient thinker, Chester ...
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May 30, 2016#WritingTips Mondays: Toni Morrison on How Plot is Like Melody
Toni Morrison is a writer who needs no introduction. Her epic, revolutionary novels include The Bluest Eye, Sula, and Beloved. In 1993, she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.The website Open ...
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April 02, 2019Poetry Intelligence and the Intelligence of Poetry
In fifty years, poetry will no longer resemble what we read today. Let’s riff a bit on some serious, playful, and radical thinking about how poetry, language and reading are changing, as well as ...
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October 04, 2023Tips for Writing in a Hybrid Genre
Hybrid genres are on the rise, but many writers feel unsure about how to manage expectations of the different genres while writing, and how to market their finished product. As a reader and a writer, ...
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August 28, 2023How Much Do Book Tropes and Aesthetics Matter?
If you’ve spent time on Twitter or Instagram recently, you may have noticed authors and readers sharing graphics that outline a book’s major tropes, or the aesthetics of a book through mood boards.I’ll ...
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September 20, 2019
Humour and Coping
We’re living in a discombobulating era to put it mildly. Recently my son sent me a text that read, we didn’t eat the rich soon enough. My children regularly make flip comments about the end of the ...
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September 06, 2019
I Joined a Writing Group and I Liked It
When I moved to Kingston two years ago I was transitioning to the happy stage of life after raising kids that I’d been anticipating for a few years—tidy house! Lower grocery bills! The reality of ...
