Search
-
December 20, 2023Get Cozy with Open Book: The Open Book Team on Our All-Time Coziest Reads
As the end of a busy year full of ups and downs approaches, we decided to focus on cozy comfort for our 2023 holiday feature – to share the books that bring us calm, comfort, and peace. We hope this ...
-
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 ...
-
June 27, 2018
Mentors & Allies 5: David Chariandy
When I think about writers whose words have influenced me, those powerful words are usually nothing more than a short line, phrase or fragment that embeds itself in my mind. Writers who have lodged their ...
-
June 03, 2019I Promise You, It's Fiction.
Full disclosure, I had another post planned to kick off my Writer in Residency here on Open Book but I decided to change topics after seeing a write-up/review of my forthcoming short story collection. ...
-
July 31, 2019Why you should re-read books
I am a big reader, but I am an even bigger re-reader. Yes, I have a mountainous stack of to be read books, but I believe that it’s important to my writing practice—and to my basic existence—to dive ...
-
March 02, 2017
Your Book Doesn't Belong to You
You can never control how your work is going to be read, and that's part of the lovely participatory nature of the writer-reader relationship. But it can sometimes be jarring. I spent seven years writing ...
-
July 13, 2021Read an Excerpt from Rob Benvie's Darkly Brilliant New Novel, Bleeding Light
Writer and musician Rob Benvie's newest book, Bleeding Light (Invisible Publishing) defies easy description. It follows four people, seemingly unconnected to one another, through wild journeys both physical ...
-
January 24, 2017Teaching Teens to Write
Nora Ohanjanians is a retired high school English teacher who taught the Grade 12 Writer's Craft course at the school where I teach. One of my favourite people, Nora is a very warm, giving person. She ...
-
June 24, 2019Advice From Mentors Past
One of the most surprising things I’ve encountered since starting to talk publicly about my writing and my first book is how many people appreciate the fact that I mention the positive influence of ...
-
July 08, 2024The Magic of Letter Writing
Summer challenge: Write a letter to your favourite authorWhen I was in Grade 3, I loved Jean Little’s books. So I did what I always do: I wrote her a letter. I told her all of my favourite things about ...
