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August 10, 2017
Writing 101 as Inspired by Improv and Life
I’m hoping the tips in this post will be really helpful to beginner writers—people who have always wanted to write but just don’t sit down to write consistently for whatever reason. People who don’t ...
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November 16, 2023Michael V. Smith on the Unexpected Journey of His Spectacular Seventh Book, Queers Like Me
Michael V. Smith's seventh book, the poetry collection Queers Like Me (Book*hug Press) was a surprise to him – it wasn't a book he expected to or even set out to write, but it's a gift to readers: ...
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October 06, 2017The Writer in the World: Defiance, Imagination and the Future with Kaie Kellough
A Conversation with Kaie KelloughCanisia Lubrin: Many writers over time have expressed the sentiment that the writer, in order to write, is always at odds with their society. I’m keen for your insights ...
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August 21, 2020Why Bother Writing?
A few nights ago, I woke up to the sound of a wolf howling into the bowl of the sky. We all know the sound, I’d heard versions of it my whole life, but I’d never actually heard one in the flesh like ...
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October 28, 2015
How Spending Time with Your Influences Helps Overcome Creative Blocks
It happens to everyone: Everything is humming along nicely with a project and then, bam! You have no idea where to go next. The words aren’t coming anymore, the ideas have stalled, and your confidence ...
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July 31, 2018On 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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March 10, 2021A "Book Behind Which No Part of Me Could Hide": Andrea Actis' Poetic Memoir of Grief & Loss is Stunning
Content warning: death in the family, grief. It's an unimaginable scene: returning home one night in 2007, Andrea Actis entered her Vancouver apartment to discover her father, lying dead. The aftermath ...
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March 08, 2018
Write well, write better, write often.
In my introductory Q&A I gave an abbreviated account of how I write, and in particular how I wrote my first novel. I always find other writers’ processes interesting, so I thought I’d talk about ...
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October 18, 2017The Writer in the World: The Mismanagement of Mystery with Vladimir Lucien
A Conversation with Vladimir LucienPoetry's so-called "resurgence" as a form of public/social capital seems to reveal today something new of the role of the artist in the world. This new thing, to me, ...
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August 31, 2017
Characters. Emotions. Relationships. Action.
In junior high, my grade seven English teacher taught us about conflict in narrative: man against man; man against nature; man against self; and man against society. To be honest, I never really found ...