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May 15, 2017The Dirty Dozen, with Catherine Hernandez
Catherine Hernandez's Scarborough (Arsenal Pulp Press) is a force to be reckoned with. Filled with the vibrant voices of a struggling but tight-knit community in the titular city, the story immerses ...
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June 01, 2022Excerpt: Merilyn Simonds Explores the Spectacular Life of Louise de Kiriline Lawrence, a Woman Ahead of Her Time, in a Meditative New Biography
There are some lives that are so fantastical, so packed with passion and strange turns and reinventions, that they are hard to summarize. Such is the life of Louise de Kiriline Lawrence, a Swedish aristocrat ...
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April 24, 2019What a Poem Does, Not what it Means
In an earlier post, I wrote that both writer and reader should focus more on how a poem comes to be.We seem to spend a disproportionate amount of time trying to understand what a poem means as opposed ...
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April 12, 2022Read an Excerpt from Caroline van Rooyen's Any Girl, About a Teen Survivor Hunting Down a Predator
Content warning: sexual violenceCaroline van Rooyen's Any Girl (Mawenzi House) is the harrowing, fiery story of July, the unlikely 15-year old heroine who wages war on a rapist terrorizing her community ...
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April 12, 2019A Map of Reading From Zero to Infinity
“Modern reading is a silent and solitary activity. Ancient reading was usually oral, either aloud, in groups, or individually.” (Paul Saenger’s Space Between Words: The Origins of Silent Reading)Around ...
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January 29, 2017Prizewinner / Prizefighter
I don't know how many people you personally know that have won more than one Governor General's Literary Award, but I know only one. His name is Lazer Lederhendler. A celebrated and much sought after ...
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October 19, 2023Glimpse into the Wealth of Filipino-Canadian Writing Talent in this Excerpt from Magdaragat
Magdaragat: An Anthology of Filipino-Canadian Writing (Cormorant Books) opens with the line "Magdaragat is Filipino for 'seafarer' or 'mariner'". It's a first line that heralds the expansiveness of the ...
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October 12, 2023"I Simply Wanted to Fly" Read an Excerpt from Moez Surani's The Legend of Baraffo
During times of revolution, there is one tension that consistently emerges: when change is necessary, should progressives work within an existing structure or seek to dismantle it and begin anew? This ...
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November 05, 2024Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley's Wonderful Woodland Art Leaps Off the Page in Boozhoo!/Hello!
Teaching young people about wildlife and nature is a crucial part of storytelling, and a great picture book can achieve this with art and language. There are many examples of these titles, but the new ...
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January 28, 2025Grant Writing 101: Support Material
When I’m not writing books, I write grants for artists and non-profits and if my inbox is any indication, nothing says the new year like applying for grants! Let’s start 2025 with some grant funding!!!For ...