Search
-
March 01, 2021
Writing violence (again)
On violence and trauma and repetition...When I was nineteen, I went to dinner at a friend’s, and afterwards, her father invited us all upstairs to see his attic art studio.There were so many canvasses ...
-
April 14, 2021
Ross Breithaupt on Weaving Together Music, Mourning, and the Gritty Reality of Tree Planting in His Moving First Novel
Anyone who's ever tried their hand at tree-planting in Canada knows it's an intense undertaking. For 20-year old Rory Fleck, the intensity is just what he's looking for—a place to forget himself and ...
-
March 08, 2022
"As He Watched, Envy Stirred in His Heart" Read an Excerpt from A Bend in the Breeze by Valerie Sherrard
After decades of prophecy, the residents of a remote island have finally found what has been foretold: the Long Awaited, who will tell them their fate 17 days after appearing, has arrived in a boat drifting ...
-
March 18, 2022
Making the Leap: Why Writing Programs Matter Right Now
I’ve been on campus exactly once since March 2020, during the height of one of the province’s lockdowns, to pack up my old office at Humber College’s Lakeshore Campus. I was leaving my post as the ...
-
April 21, 2022
"If You Have a Deep Longing to Write, You Must" Indra Ramayan on Her Debut Novel Set in Edmonton's Dark Underbelly
In Indra Ramayan's Mud Lilies (Cormorant Books), we meet Chanie Nyrider who, at just 18, has already survived four years in the darkest corners of Edmonton. After escaping her abusive parents and with ...
-
September 11, 2017
Unsung Heroes of Literature: A "Great" Interview with Quotes
I was leaving for my interview with Blurb when I got the text message, apologizing for the short notice but that, “our interview, that would redefine the modern interview,” would have to be rescheduled. ...
-
September 21, 2017
The Word on the Street interview with Shannon Bramer
Shannon Bramer understands the strange intersection between the sad and the funny, the strange and the precious. Hence the title of her fourth collection of poetry, Precious Energy (BookThug), which ...
-
April 05, 2017
Special Feature! Talking Hamilton's gritLIT festival with Shari Lapena
Hamilton occupies a unique niche in Canada - it's a small city with a vibrant arts scene and a fascinating history. One of the mainstays of the thriving literary community in Hamilton is gritLIT, the ...
-
May 07, 2017
Madness
I have a lot of neuroses and phobias when it comes to being a writer. We started with the case of WB but that’s only the tip of iceberg (how to avoid clichés is right below the tip of the iceberg).There ...
-
April 17, 2018
Laurel Croza on Tasty Book Snacks, Finding the Romance, & the Book She Holds as a "Model of What a Kid’s Book Can Be"
Laurel Croza has become a beloved name in picture books through I Know Here (illustrated by Matt James), which won the prestigious Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award (amongst many other honours), and ...