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June 03, 2020
Hello From My Big Comfy Chair
I didn’t set out to be a kids’ writer. At first, I wrote parenting articles, travel pieces, government brochures, whatever I could get paid to write. It turned out my most successful efforts were ...
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August 19, 2015The Lucky Seven Interview, with Austin Clarke
There is only one Austin Clarke — a writer who, at this stage in his career, has gone beyond mere awards and honours (of which he holds many) to become part of the very fabric of Canadian culture.So ...
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July 06, 2016What is Literary Fiction? Ask a Romance Publisher
Years ago, I was the guest author at a summer camp for teen writers. The afternoon started well: I read a bit from my first novel, spoke in very general terms about how I became a writer, and outlined ...
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October 05, 2015
Why You Need a Creative Manifesto (And How to Write Your Own)
I wrote my first creative manifesto in 2011, inspired by author and blogger Justine Musk’s own efforts to do the same after she wrote about the competition for a writer’s attention these days.It isn’t ...
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February 02, 2017
My issue with social justice poetry
We need to have this discussion. As the world becomes a more unstable place, with more incompetent leaders, more writers will be driven to write and perform politically-driven poetry. But, most social ...
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February 08, 2017The Dirty Dozen, with Leanne Dunic
Artist and musician Leanne Dunic has proved she's got literary chops on top of her other artistic talents, with honours including first prize in the Alice Munro Short Story competition. So it's no surprise ...
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March 02, 2017The WAR Series: Writers as Readers, with Anne Fleming
The Kid thinks it might be a tiny white cloud. The rumours say it's a goat. All we know for sure is there is something up there on the roof of the NYC apartment building where the Kid has just moved with ...
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August 15, 2016You Pays Your Money & You Takes Your Chances
A ticker-tape parade broke out in my home the other day, when my basement excavations revealed a box of old paperbacks that contained my treasured copy of Robert Sheckley’s 1975 science-fiction novel ...
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April 29, 2009
Ten Questions with Pamela Mordecai
OBT:What was your first publication and where was it published?PM:It was either a poem in my high school paper, or an essay that won a competition and was published in the daily newspaper. I hope it was ...
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August 12, 2016Tokenism vs. Inclusion
Last month, I wrote a piece about my frustrations with the lack of diversity in Canada’s publishing industry. In the comments, it was mentioned that while some folks are trying to make improvements, ...
