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February 14, 2014
Creative Writing as Martial Art? Part 1
I have always tried to define the ethos that guides my writing. Until recently, the closest I could come to a complete answer was the idea of writing as craft. I was taking literature out of the world ...
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December 10, 2017
The Moth
I do not nominate the moth, pallid creature of night, to be any sort of talisman or totem. Moths are vandals, eating your heirloom woolens. These Visigoths deserve summary execution. No last meal of tartan ...
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August 08, 2018
Beloved Kids' Books Author Maureen Fergus on the Awkwardness, Excitement, & Unexpected Delights of Publishing
Maureen Fergus' Buddy and Earl Meet the Neighbours (Groundwood Books, illustrated by Carey Sookocheff) is the newest addition to the beloved Buddy and Earl series, which follows the titular friends, a ...
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May 08, 2015
Graphic Novel Month: in the Stacks at the Merril Collection
It might be tucked away on the third floor of the Lillian H Smith Children's library branch of TPL, but the Merril Collection is not for kids. Of the 75,000 items in the science fiction, fantasy and horror ...
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May 03, 2009
Our Town, 2009 Edition
Come the goodweather folks inthis Portuguese-Italian neighbourhoodhang their clothesout to dryso stirring linesof laundryin the breezeare a sure signit’s warming up.Come fill the cupthe poet said…Of ...
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March 03, 2014
Standing in the Light
Well hi. This is me standing nervously in the spotlight, governing my nerves. The light is blinding, I cannot see you out there, but in this bath of white energy I see dust motes floating, falling slowly, ...
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June 07, 2017
The Dirty Dozen, with Pasha Malla
Trillium Prize winner Pasha Malla's new novel Fugue States (Knopf Canada) tells the story of Ash, an intellectual, anxious radio host, and his uncouth, entitled nightmare-bro of a friend, Matt, who shows ...
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October 26, 2020
"Say what?"
“All the information you need can be given in dialogue.” — Elmore LeonardAnytime dialogue carries the story it’s pure joy. Sometimes it’s straight up, other times it’s slippery with manipulation. ...
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March 12, 2021
Zoom 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 18, 2021
Sink into a Dark, Tense, & Brilliantly Crafted Family Mystery with an Excerpt from The Good Son by Carolyn Huizinga Mills
For three decades, Zoe has harboured a secret about her brother. By now, she's almost forgotten, assuming that life has moved on. But when the investigation into the death of her family's erstwhile neighbour, ...