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February 23, 2017
Poetry vs Prose part 2 of 2
“But what does this have to do with poetry and prose?”What is poetry? What is prose? If the medium is the message, and the primary medium for most written poetry and prose is the page, why don't we ...
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May 08, 2017Tips from a Festival Director
One of the surprising things to happen when I moved to Yukon was that I became director of an annual writers’ conference. As part of my role, I secure authors, negotiating their fees, even signing their ...
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April 28, 2017
Test Driving the Poetry Exercises
Today’s post marks the conclusion of my series on poetry prompts and exercises. Huge thanks to all the poets who responded so generously to my questions and offered their unique approaches and experiences. ...
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April 30, 2017
Failed Dreams
In my new poetry book Beautiful Children with Pet Foxes, there’s a series of poems called “Dream Specimens,” based on actual dreams that I’ve had over the years. I had some fun with these poems, ...
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January 31, 2014
On Writing, with Dane Swan
By Open Book and Dane SwanDane Swan is Open Book's February 2014 Writer in Residence. In his On Writing interview, he tells us about his latest book, Bending the Continuum, his next project and his ideal ...
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November 22, 2018Getting to Know Acclaimed Poet & Novelist Katherena Vermette, Author of the New Collection river woman
A new book from Métis poet and novelist Katherena Vermette is a big event – both her poetry and her prose have resonated deeply with readers and critics alike (earning her numerous honours including ...
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June 11, 2019Confessions of an Uncertain Booklover
All my life, I’ve considered myself to be a booklover. Even my twitter handle has the word ‘literati’ in it (don’t judge me. I was a pretentious undergrad when I came up with it). English was ...
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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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August 09, 2016Doing My Song and Dance
I sent out my first godawful poem for publication when I was ten or eleven years old. I sent it to the Toronto Daily Star; I obviously hadn’t done my market research, since they didn’t publish poetry. ...
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June 09, 2015
On the Benefits of Not Writing (Surfing)
It isn’t (usually) wise to blame other people for things that happen to you, but I blame Dr. Kary Banks Mullis for everything.Dr. Mullis is a Novel Prize-winning biochemist who devised paradigm-shifting ...
