Search
-
June 06, 2017On Writing, with paulo da costa
The idiom "small is beautiful" is often true in fiction - from short stories to microfiction, sometimes the briefest glimpses into an imagined world are the most arresting. The Midwife of Torment & ...
-
November 04, 2015What’s the Future of the Future?
Is the future now? Is it tomorrow, as it should be? Or is the future just an accelerated version of the past and present? Uhhh, have you heard the rapper Future’s new What a Time to Be Alive mixtape ...
-
May 07, 2018
In Praise of … Book Reviewing
I still remember where and when I got into the book-reviewing racket. It was the late 1990s in Halifax, about a year after I graduated with my journalism degree from the University of King’s College. ...
-
August 23, 2019Go Back to School with CanLit: 10 "School Books" to Take You into September
There's nothing like back to school season - warm days, cool nights, crisp new school supplies ready to get dog-eared with use. Even long after we're past school age, the start of September can still ...
-
October 28, 2020In good company
So, you finished your novel and sent it off anticipating it’s publication. Bravo! If you get a “No thanks, this isn’t for us” note, then consider yourself in good company. Many an author’s ...
-
May 10, 2022Genres You Didn’t Learn About in Kidlit 101
One of the most formative experiences in my development as a writer was working in a bookstore. For four glorious years I was the manager of the award-winning, much beloved Flying Dragon Bookshop in Toronto. ...
-
September 14, 2023The Pull of Two Needles
My first version of this essay was about how my two obsessions, knitting and writing, don’t compete with each other. I wrote at length about how they spin together in my brain in complicated steps, ...
-
February 07, 2017
Kid Lit Can: Spotlight on Middle Grade Fiction - Part 1
Happy 2017! This month and next, I’m spotlighting middle-grade (MG) novels -- stories written for readers who are generally within the 7 to 12-year-old age range. I’ve written one MG novel (Island ...
-
March 06, 2017Special Feature: The RBC Taylor Prize Finalists on Non-Fiction
Today in Toronto, the 2017 RBC Taylor Prize for Non-Fiction will be presented to one of five shortlisted authors. This year's list is focused on personal stories, with memoirs from a Holocaust survivor, ...
