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December 22, 2017The Art of Xmas
Christmas is stage and spectacle—lighting, costumes, song, set and dance. It features hammy acting (Oh I just love this pair of candy cane stockings! Or, ooh, this freebie library card—I’ve always ...
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June 28, 2023The Benefits of Being an Imposter
Like most writers, I’ve had a lot of rent jobs. When I was lucky, I worked in my chosen fields of editing and education. When I wasn’t so lucky, I worked in an institutional kitchen, as an ad mail ...
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March 31, 2022The Best of Both Worlds
Humber College’s new undergrad in creative and professional writing strives to nurture skilled creative professionals.I always wanted to be a writer. Or maybe it’s that I always wrote. I took the ...
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April 15, 2014
The Best Words
Sometimes I’m haunted by Coleridge’s nifty definition of a poem as the best words in their best order. If I try to say it quickly several times in a row, “order” starts to sound like “odour.” ...
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May 08, 2023The Big Contest! Enter to Win 10 Books from The Word on the Street
Toronto's favourite literary gathering, The Word on the Street, takes over Queen's Park on May 27 and 28 this year, and to celebrate, the good folks at WOTS are giving one lucky reader the chance to win ...
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July 28, 2017the book of ayâs: the importance of nêhiyawêwin (Cree)
kinêhiyawêwininaw tâpiskôc kakîkêkamik[our creeness is like a forever house]itê kaki-kakîkê-pawâtayahk[where we can forever dream] I wrote this today, thinking about old stories, and old places. ...
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September 08, 2021
The Books on My Desk, Time, Habits, Children, and Orderliness
I feel like I need to mention that I just found out this morning that Glorious Frazzled Beings has been long listed for the Scotiabank Giller Prize because it has taken up most of my morning with a hullaballoo ...
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May 30, 2016The Burden of Positivity
As a writer, reader and reality TV watcher, Canada Reads masterfully combines some of my favourite practices and past-times in a nation-wide, televised battle of the books. And while I enjoyed the 2016 ...
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December 29, 2017The Canlit Year in Review: 2017 Can Suck It
I remember the moment when I realized that 2017 was going to irrevocably change Canlit. It was early in June, and I was sitting on a stage, speaking at a panel on diversity and the appropriation of voice. ...
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October 21, 2020The casting call
“Each writer is born with a repertory company in his head and … as you get older, you become more skillful in casting them.” — Gore VidalThe characters who show up in my stories are truly a mixed ...
