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May 29, 2015What’s Your Vision: Publish or Perish?
Note to self: forget the zeitgeist. Trends are for dolts. What I mean is that when it comes to some writers and their embrace of social media, e-book culture and new audience development there seems to ...
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November 22, 2017
Literary noir – a look behind the scenes
Tonight we are joined by Kevin Hardcastle, award-winning author of the collection of short stories, Debris, and the recently released, highly-acclaimed novel, In the Cage (both Biblioasis).I loved Debris – ...
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March 30, 2021"To Write About My Feelings Without Guilt or Censorship Felt Redemptive" Phantompains by Therese Estacion Hailed as a Masterpiece
"I love its humour, clarity, irreverence, and rage," said poet Sara Peters about the stunning new collection, Phantompains (Book*hug Press) by Therese Estacion. And even that effusive list doesn't cover ...
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December 01, 2020"All of the Pieces are Aware of and Concerned With the Unknowable": Paige Cooper on Taking Up the Best Canadian Stories Mantle
Every year, one editor is tasked with finding the very best short stories from Canadian writers. It's a daunting challenge, given the wealth of great short fiction in Canada, but one that has turned out ...
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November 30, 20237 Ways to Develop Secondary Characters
Many authors do a good job at developing their protagonist or POV characters. After all, readers will be in these characters’ heads throughout an entire book. But as many readers can attest to, sometimes ...
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August 25, 2023Book Launch Season, Part One: Being an Author
In the book world, the arrival of fall usually means the arrival of a whole host of new books to look forward to. And with new books comes book launches, tours, and celebrations—and sometimes it can ...
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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 ...
