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September 15, 2014
On the Idea of a Secret—a Conversation with Jennifer Londry
Part 3: Q&A with Jennifer LondrySandra Ridley: How do you integrate the direct and personal ‘I’ into your poetry? Or does the ‘I’ tend to be an ‘other’?Jennifer Londry: For me the ‘I’ ...
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September 15, 2014
On the Idea of a Secret—a Conversation with Rhonda Douglas
Part 2: Q&A with Rhonda DouglasSandra Ridley: How do you integrate the direct and personal ‘I’ into your poetry? Or does the ‘I’ tend to be an ‘other’?Rhonda Douglas: I have used “I” ...
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February 21, 2020
On Trying Not To Fly By the Seat of My Pants
I’m a writer who regularly finishes projects, but I wouldn’t describe myself as a writer with a regular practice. This is something I feel I should be able to correct and yet somehow writing continues ...
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September 04, 2021
On Walking with my Dead Dogs as Writing Practice
How should we think about the torrents of interaction that occur between organisms underground? How should we understand these spheres of more-than-human communication? Perhaps running after a dog hot ...
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July 31, 2018
On writers, politics, and when to just stop talking
Once upon a time, before the age of social media, Canlit was inclusive and kind, and political differences were settled amicably over whisky in private festival hospitality suites and the kind of dark ...
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June 19, 2021
On Writing Essentials
Much as I admire highly regimented and disciplined writers, that's simply not me. Believe me, I've tried! However, no matter how unstructured my writing day might be, there are five essentials that I ...
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March 21, 2018
On writing politically, or how not to make your fiction sound like a lecture
When I started writing my most recent novel, The Conjoined, I began with the idea of subverting classic crime fiction, something that I thought would be a fun bookish game. What if I could write a literary ...
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February 21, 2024
On Writing the Same Book Over and Over
In a 2015 webchat on The Guardian’s site, Kazuo Ishiguro was asked about his varied subject matter. He replied:“My subject matter doesn't vary so much from book to book. Just the surface does. The ...
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November 04, 2015
On Writing Violence
Like all writers, I’m often asked what my writing is about. Especially with regards to my recently published collection of stories, Debris, and the novel that I am revising for publication next year ...
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November 24, 2015
On Writing Violence - An Addendum
I’ve been receiving a lot of positive feedback and some questions about one of my first posts for Open Book, “On Writing Violence.” One reader, Susan, asked me in the comments about how this all ...