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May 21, 2018On racialized motherhood, writing, and sleep deprivation
The day before my son’s due date, I sent what I thought was the final draft of The Better Mother to my editor. The baby’s bedroom was finished: yellow walls, penguin stencil, gingham curtains. My ...
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October 03, 2018Understanding the Eternal Appeal of Anne Frank's Story With All About Anne Author Menno Metselaar
It's hard to name a cultural figure who has had the impact Anne Frank has. Her eponymous diary and the museum created in the house where she and her family lived in hiding are known around the world, ...
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May 20, 2019Stay Healthy, My (Writer) Friends...
Writing can be an actual pain in the butt. I suffer from random attacks of spasming glutes and when they flare, it’s downright debilitating. Like, my husband has to carry me up and down the stairs, ...
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March 28, 2019Max Eisen's Harrowing Holocaust Memoir By Chance Alone Captures 2019 Canada Reads Crown
Ziya Tong and Chuck ComeauIt was an emotional day at CBC as the final Canada Reads debates got underway to see what book would be the 2019 victor: Homes by Abu Bakr al Rabeeah and Winnie Yeung (Freehand ...
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March 12, 2020On Family Secrets
Why does my writing tend to focus on family secrets? In particular, on children trying to unearth secrets tied to their parents’ pasts? I’m often asked these questions during interviews. The first ...
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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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April 15, 2020It's A Long Story: Sharon Johnston on Family Connections, Confronting the Past, and Writing Her New Novel
Patchwork Society (Dundurn), the newest novel by author Sharon Johnston and the second in her Bread and Roses trilogy, takes place against the backdrop of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario during the Depression ...
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December 11, 2019A note to future book creators from a friendly book publicist
It has recently come to my attention that not everybody is familiar with what a book publicist does. On paper, a book publicist’s main responsibilities include, but are not limited to securing earned ...
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May 29, 2020Making Time: Why Now is the Perfect Time for Tarot
I don’t want to pretend that I know the history of the Tarot or how it should be used, but I’ve been using it for the last three years because it’s been immensely helpful. I’m not an “expert,” ...
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April 22, 2020All of this listening
It was hard to write this column. Like everyone else, I’m all for trying to grasp at normalcy where I can, but I don’t have many writing tips to share right now. (Actually, I do have one writing tip: ...
