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October 09, 2018Aparna Kaji Shah on Writing Strong Women, the Importance of Writer Friends, & the Timeless Value of Middlemarch
The title of Aparna Kaji Shah's The Scent of Mogra (Inanna Publications) refers to species of flowering jasmine, a beautiful and fragrant plant cultivated in South and Southeast Asia. It gives a nod ...
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December 05, 2018Robin Blackburn McBride on the Child Protagonist of Her Novel: "He Said Take My Hand, Which I Did, and He Led Me"
Robin Blackburn McBride's debut novel The Shining Fragments (Guernica Editions) explores late 19th century and turn of the century Toronto through the eyes of Joseph Conlon, a young orphan abandoned ...
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July 31, 2018Tanis MacDonald on How We Can Expand Our Idea of the Writing Life to Include Smaller Communities
The stereotype of the artist and writer tends to be an urban one - tiny apartments; cigarettes and whisky; gritty, loud, and busy streets outside the window. But where do these pictures come from and, ...
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February 06, 2019"From the First Word, it Flowed" Debut Novelist David Albertyn on his Gritty Las Vegas Pageturner, Undercard
When three childhood friends are unexpectedly reunited in David Albertyn's debut novel Undercard (House of Anansi), the wild consequences are far beyond what any of them could have foreseen. Tyron Shaw ...
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January 02, 2019Best Canadian Stories Editor Russell Smith on Short Fiction & the Importance of Variety
For more than 45 years, the most interesting, innovative, and memorable short stories of the year have been collected in Best Canadian Stories, with a list of past contributors that includes the likes ...
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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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May 14, 2019"Like a Marilynne Robinson Book in a Spangly Jumpsuit" Missy Marston on Her Fabulous New Daredevil Novel, Bad Ideas
Ottawa-based author Missy Marston's second novel Bad Ideas (ECW Presss), is all heart, packed with humour, vivid and memorable writing, and unforgettable characters. Not to mention it has a rocket ...
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August 23, 2019Go Back to School with CanLit: 10 "School Books" to Take You into September
There's nothing like back to school season - warm days, cool nights, crisp new school supplies ready to get dog-eared with use. Even long after we're past school age, the start of September can still ...
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September 23, 2019Read an Excerpt from Pauline Holdstock's Here I Am!, featuring an Unforgettable Six-Year Old Narrator
Giller-nominated novelist Pauline Holdstock returns this fall with her eighth novel, Here I Am! (Biblioasis), the spellbinding story of six-year-old Frankie, who runs away to France to find his father ...
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May 10, 2018Artist and Children's Author Lori Joy Smith on Her Cross-Canada Workspace Evolution
"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways." Ever since Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote those lines, starry eyed lovers everywhere have had a verse to describe their feelings. Riffing on the same idea ...
