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October 01, 2018Why Does It Take So Long to Make a Picture Book?: Or, How To Get Really Good at Waiting
I don’t know about you, but I wasn’t prepared for all the waiting I’d have to do in life. And when it comes to writing, you do a lot of waiting. Waiting for inspiration to strike. Realizing that ...
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March 29, 2021Speaking Your Story into Existence
Over the winter I was part of two separate online writing residencies through the Banff Centre. Each cohort involved wonderfully talented writers from across the land, sharing their stories, truths, and ...
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August 25, 2020Memoir is Not the Story of Your Life
The funny thing about memoir is that it is not the story of your life.It is true that memoir deals with and includes stories from the author’s life, but therein lies the distinction. For while autobiography ...
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December 06, 2016"What's Your Story?" OBPO Contest Winners Part 4: Scarborough
We've had a season of amazing original writing on Open Book through the Ontario Book Publishers Organization's inaugural What's Your Story? writing competition. Today is our fourth and final instalment: ...
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November 04, 2020"If Someone Feeds Me Wonder, They Have My Heart" Poet Sarah Venart on the Long Road to Her Powerful New Collection
Poet Sarah Venart dives deep into love, family, need, and grief in her powerful new collection I Am the Big Heart (Brick Books). But what is the big heart? In these poems, big-heartedness means being ...
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May 06, 2019Contest! Enter to Win Sinister Stories from Porcupine's Quill
If you're feeling sinister (shout out to our readers who are Belle & Sebastian fans), have we got the contest for you! The good people at Porcupine's Quill are greeting our long-awaited spring by ...
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June 11, 2019"I Love How Short Fiction’s DNA Embodies the Broken" Elise Levine on Her New Story Collection & the Craft of Short Fiction
So much has been said - or rather, raved - about Elise Levine's fiction that an introduction to her writing could nearly be a book in itself. To pick just a few: NOW Magazine called her "A cutting-edge ...
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June 30, 2020Alex Pugsley Gets to the Heart of Halifax in His Debut Novel
In certain stories, the setting itself becomes a character, containing all the rich history and moody dynamics of the people who occupy it. Such is the case with Alex Pugsley's debut novel Aubrey McKee ...
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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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December 20, 2023The Transition to Short Stories (as a poet)
I’ve spent years now honing my craft as a poet. I know how to edit individual poems, as well as to approach and rewrite entire manuscripts. Why did the need to do the same in fiction seem so daunting ...
