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May 25, 2021"I Felt Like I Had Found a Place" Poet Vanessa Shields on the High Highs and Low Lows of a Life Spent Writing & Publishing
Every family story contains at least one unforgettable character. A person who inspires those who come after with his or her strength, struggles, and legacy. For poet Vanessa Shields, it was her grandmother, ...
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May 27, 2022Reminders on the Path - Sheniz Janmohamed in Conversation with Natasha Ramoutar
When my first poetry collection Bittersweet was released in 2020, my mentor Sheniz Janmohamed published our conversation about full circles and first books with Open Book.Sheniz has been so instrumental ...
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July 30, 2024Read an Excerpt from The Education of Aubrey McKee by Alex Pugsley
Award-winning writer and filmmaker Alex Pugsley has reached the middle of his recent trilogy of novels, with the author bringing the reader back into the world of Aubrey Mckee, who is winding his way ...
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March 25, 2019How to Secure a Literary Agent
With spring just around the corner (we hope), there’s a renewed sense of optimism in the air. Writers are slowly emerging from the depths of their hobbit holes, and some have manuscripts ready to be ...
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July 02, 2020The Dirty Dozen with July Writer-in-Residence Irfan Ali
Meet our July 2020 writer-in-residence, Irfan Ali!A Toronto-born poet, essayist, and educator, Ali's previous book of short poetry Who I Think About When I Think About You found him shortlisted for the ...
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February 28, 2019Poetry School: Dana Gioia on the matter of poetry
Twenty-eight years ago US poet Dana Gioia’s essay “Can Poetry Matter?” was published in the Atlantic, sparking “a firestorm of debate and discussion” over the role of the poet in contemporary ...
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February 16, 2019Poetry School: Denise Levertov on form as a revelation
After reading poet Denise Levertov’s 1965 essay “Some Notes on Organic Form,” I had a revelation: I write poetry mainly in organic form. Given that the notion of the work of art as a self-germinating ...
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August 05, 2016Debby Florence on Canadian Poetry
As someone who was crazy about a lot of American poets from a very young age, I'm still caught off-balance when an American turns out to be a big fan of Canadian poetry. debby florence is one such American. ...
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February 04, 2019Poetry School: An invitation
Over the next month I invite you to join me at Poetry School. I will not be the teacher, but merely the messenger, a fellow student. Though the balance may one day shift, for me writing poetry is about ...
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February 08, 2019Poetry School: Keeping it real with Wordsworth
Lyric poetry. We say it casually, but what does it mean? The musical connotation is there, even if we don’t accompany our lyric poems with music. An inherent music, then. The lifts and falls. Rhythm. ...
