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September 13, 2024A Young Girl Looks to Family Stories and a Very Powerful Poem to Find her Place in I, Too, Am Here
A true sense of belonging may be taken for granted by some, but there are many who do not find it as easily. Whether due to social and cultural issues that marginalize immigrants and people of colour, ...
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May 05, 2025Chidori Tells the Story of a Young Person's Resilience in the Face of a Devastating Tsunami
Trying to honestly explore serious topics with young readers can be a challenge, so it is no surprise the Jennifer Maruno leans on her experience as a teacher to broach certain subjects with the respect ...
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October 16, 2017"What's Your Story?" 2017 Obpo Writing Contest Winners! Part Two: East York
We've got brand new original fiction and poetry today on Open Book as we present the second set of winners of the 2017 Ontario Book Publishers Organization's and East End Arts’ What's Your Story? writing ...
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August 15, 2018Art After Money, Money After Art author Max Haiven on a Post-Work Society, Tea Sandwichs, & Sh*t Disturbing
Making art is work, but within our capitalist system, the relationship between money and art is anything but straight forward (cue all those corporate clients looking to pay for your art in "experience" ...
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February 11, 2021"I Like Inhabiting One Character": Philipp Schott on Telling Family Stories, Building Character, & "Invisible Scaffolding"
Philipp Schott's The Willow Wren (ECW Press) follows the complex and harrowing story of Ludwig, a child growing up in Hilter's Germany. Sent against his will to a Hitler Youth Camp, shy and gentle Ludwig ...
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October 01, 2024A Young Woman in Pre-WWII Northern Ontario is Torn Between Her Hometown, Her Family, and Her Desire for More in The Donoghue Girl
Great historical fiction is a pillar of the literary world, with so many characters and places made present again on the page with a bearing on the world we live in right at this moment. But, there are ...
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October 30, 2020Erin Ruddy on Setting a Dark & Mysterious Thriller in the Bliss of Cottage Country
Cottage country — just the phrase conjures up enviably peaceful images of long sunny days and warm nights, a quaint retreat. But in Erin Ruddy's Tell Me My Name (Dundurn Press), a rustic cottage ...
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September 18, 2024Erin Silver Shares Cultural and Community-based Knowledge in I Am Jewish
One of the best ways to connect with diverse communities is to learn about their culture from someone who carries lived-in knowledge of it, and to explore the many beautiful elements that make a group ...
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March 10, 2021A "Book Behind Which No Part of Me Could Hide": Andrea Actis' Poetic Memoir of Grief & Loss is Stunning
Content warning: death in the family, grief. It's an unimaginable scene: returning home one night in 2007, Andrea Actis entered her Vancouver apartment to discover her father, lying dead. The aftermath ...
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June 13, 2019"What Does a Family Do When it Becomes Lost to Itself?" Caitlin Galway on Exploring Loss in her Compelling, Gothic Debut Novel
The French Quarter of New Orleans has captured the literary imagination in a way few neighbours can claim to have done. Packed with history and just a whiff of the Gothic, it's an atmospheric wonder that ...
