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April 25, 2014
A Poem Can Be About Anything
I came across a cat writing contest on the internet. At first I thought that the poems had to be written by cats and was sure that my Iris Belle had a stanza or two inside her just waiting to creep out ...
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August 30, 2016The Lucky Seven Interview, with Mike Barnes
The Adjustment League (Biblioasis) is the first instalment in a new noir trilogy by Mike Barnes. This first book sees the patients of a psychiatric hospital coming together to form the titular league, ...
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April 24, 2014
Poetic
Tell a classroom of wannabe writers to try their hands at a poem and the stilted, strangely wrought language that ensues can be alarming. It’s like they’re being told to write in some World War II ...
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August 24, 2016The Entitled Interview with Eric Beck Rubin
Eric Beck Rubin's School of Velocity (Doubleday Canada) marks the arrival of a talented new voice in CanLit.The novel follows Jan de Vries, whose virtuoso talent at the piano promised him a stunning career. ...
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April 23, 2014
More Revision
A friend confesses that he could spend the rest of his life revising a handful of the same poems. One change leads to another. It’s like a glassblower unsure whether to make a swan or a squirrel, the ...
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August 23, 2016The Lucky Seven Interview, with Amanda West Lewis
In The Pact (Red Deer Press), Amanda West Lewis tackles difficult historical subject matter in the context of a compelling story about a young boy.Peter Gruber is a War Child — a German child pulled ...
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April 22, 2014
Endurance
It was a minute-and-a-half since I finished toying with a poem that hadn’t been working for weeks; I had that submarine feeling that it was sinking out of sight. But I had no time to dither with the ...
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August 22, 2016Call for Submissions! Tiny Tales Short Story Competition, Sponsored by Hendrink's Gin, Accepting Entries Until Sept 5
Do you have three great sentences? If so, don't miss your chance to enter the Tiny Tales Short Story Competition, sponsored by Hendrick's Gin.Celebrating World Wide Web Day, which occurs on August 1 every ...
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April 21, 2014
Devoured
Some days I want to tear chunks off the alphabet, chop up syllables, sink my teeth into the gristle of grammar. I discovered a ferruginous hawk up a tree in my backyard the other day with the peeled pink ...
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August 22, 2016On Writing, with Hugh Segal
The question of exactly what role Canadian foreign policy should serve is a complex one. Should our focus be protecting our borders and citizens? Maintaining our international identity as a nation of ...