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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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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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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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January 02, 2019Best Canadian Stories Editor Russell Smith on Short Fiction & the Importance of Variety
For more than 45 years, the most interesting, innovative, and memorable short stories of the year have been collected in Best Canadian Stories, with a list of past contributors that includes the likes ...
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October 25, 2023Naben Ruthnum on His Delightfully Creepy YA Horror Debut, a Spooky Love Letter to the 90s
Behind the facade of small towns lurk many things – something high schooler Vish knows all too well in acclaimed author Naben Ruthnum's first foray into young adult fiction, The Grimmer (ECW Press).Vish's ...
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July 22, 2017Inspiration of Old Cree Stories
For years, I have been retranslating a book of old Cree stories. I am presently retranslating a story told by sâkêwêw: the story of opwâsimow kâ-kitimâkisit okimâwipayiw [a poor Stoney/ Nakota ...
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July 13, 2023Jean Rae Baxter on Bringing Canadian History to Life in a Captivating Coming of Age Tale
It's hard to imagine anyone asking a 14 year old to strike out on their own now, but in 1837, when Dory Dickson leaves his Niagara home, he's asked to shoulder all of his family's most desperate hopes. ...
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August 15, 2023Read an Excerpt from Epic Historical Novel Tropical Rose by Debbie Sands
Many families have their own lore and legends but Debbie Sands' family stories were particularly sensational, and she loved to hear them again and again as she grew up.The family's favourite narratives ...
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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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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. ...
