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June 14, 2016Special Feature: Adrian Wootton on Shakespeare Adaptation Festival at TIFF
No writer has inspired more film adaptations than Shakespeare — from faithful-to-the-word classics to wildly creative re-imaginings, adapting the Bard's work has fascinated and challenged filmmakers ...
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April 29, 2022May Writer in Residence Mark David Smith on His Macbeth Inspired Witch-Detective Series for Kids
If you read Macbeth and thought (like us) "less political scheming and more of those fabulous witches, please", you're in luck because teacher and writer Mark David Smith's The Weird Sisters: A Note, ...
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October 20, 2025Writing Protagonists Who Don’t Care If You Like Them
As writers, we want our readers to connect with our protagonists, to root for them and relate to them. It makes sense – human connection is at the heart of storytelling. If a reader just utterly hates ...
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October 03, 2016Contest for Young Writers - Enter the Write Across Ontario Competition!
As book lovers, it's exciting to us to see the next generation of literary talent begin to flex their writerly muscles. To that end, Open Book is proud to partner with the International Festival of Authors’s ...
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March 24, 2016Writing Tips (Tips Also Appreciated)
1. It’s now or never or you’ll have to wait for the sublime to hit you, which might take centuries, or seconds, so might as well start now.2. Write for no other place than heart—and not only out ...
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September 01, 2015Everyone Loves Differently - Loving Science from a Safe Distance
I heard a story about Richard Feynman, the Nobel Prize winning physicist. Or maybe I read it. I can’t remember, and I can’t track it down now, but I love the story a great deal, and I think that it’s ...
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June 03, 2021Read an Excerpt from Every City is Every Other City by CanLit Mystery Master John McFetridge
John McFetridge's gritty Canadian mysteries and thrillers have earned him comparisons to Elmore Leonard for their smart, tight action, witty dialogue, and battered, reluctant heroes. His newest book, Every ...
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March 12, 2021Zoom Class: Omar El Akkad and the Challenges of Writing Resistance
Sometimes there are Zoom meetings that can break you. Last week it took me five days to recover from the nausea, headaches, and light sensitivity caused by one single day of back-to-back virtual meetings. ...
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May 06, 2021"Poetry Changes the Way I Think" Sarah Burgoyne on Exit Poems, Trashing Drafts, & Why Humour Belongs in Poetry
Sometimes an unexpected combination can create a perfect, alchemical kind of reaction. Sarah Burgoyne, whose out-of-the-box literary creativity was beautifully displayed in her acclaimed debut collection Saint ...
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June 15, 2022For Father's Day, Read an Excerpt from Dad Bod: Portraits of Pop Culture Papas by Cian Cruise
From Mommy Dearest and Psycho to Sally Field's saintly mother in Forrest Gump and Terminator's Sarah Connor, moms and their impact hold a lot of storytelling significance in our culture. But what ...