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July 31, 2019The Ultimate Writing Tips Post: We Asked Talented Canadian Writers for Their Best Piece of Literary Advice
There is no shortage of advice for writers out there. You can find endless lists about the importance (or irrelevance) of outlines, writing everyday, having a writing group, and myriad other strategies ...
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January 07, 2022A Writer’s Guide to Reading in 2022
I read a lot of books in 2021. More than I ever have, except for maybe the summers when I was eight and would clear out the chapter book section at Humber Bay library. I have always been an escapist, ...
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December 14, 2016Madeleine Thien on Language, Music, and Asking the Unaskable
2016 has been Madeleine Thien's year. It's not often that the world of writing and publishing can agree so enthusiastically on a writer's achievements, but Thien's breathtaking Do Not Say We Have Nothing (Knopf ...
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July 12, 2016Service Industry Hell (Part 2): Sinatra's Wake and a Cup of Vomit
A lot of the inspiration for my new book, Congratulations On Everything, came from the things I saw while working in bars, restaurants, and hotels, and from the experiences of friends who did the same. ...
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October 07, 2025Jumoke Verissimo's New Poetry Collection CIRCUMTRAUMA is a Haunting Poetic Reckoning
In the fascinating new collection Circumtrauma (Coach House Books), one of Africa’s most celebrated literary voices turns to poetry to reckon with one of the continent’s most haunting histories. ...
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February 10, 2014Writer's Block Does Not Exist (Part 1)
Or it does. But for the sake of this blog it does not. What is writer's block? I don't know, because it does not exist. Here's the thing, whether you are a professional creative writer, a skilled hobbyist, ...
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June 30, 2013Are You Spending More Time on Pinterest Than on Your Prose?
As a card-carrying member of this newer generation of entrepreneurs who believe in thoroughly cultivating all sides of our hybridized identities, I spend an equal amount of time working as a communications ...
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October 11, 2016The In Character Interview, with Monica Arnaldo
Worry worms its way in with all of us at times, but what if our worries become a little bit over the top? This is the problem Margo encounters in Monica Arnaldo's sweetly funny Margo Thinks Twice (Owl ...
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December 17, 2019How to Make and Keep Writing Resolutions
Resolutions. I’ve made them. You’ve made them. We’ve broken them the next day, the next week, a few months into the new year. We’ve even forgotten about them. A resolution involves making a decision ...
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October 18, 2019Novelist Brenda Brooks on Smoking Like Woolf, Setting Fire to Her Publisher's House, & the Inevitability of Mom Wisdom
In Brenda Brooks' new novel Honey (ECW Press), it's been six long years since the titular Honey disappeared from Nicole's life. When her vanished best friend returns unexpectedly, Nicole is forced to ...