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March 28, 2019Writer at Work: “Identity is a pain in the arse” (On Zadie Smith)
Last month, Zadie Smith said: "identity is a pain in the arse." She said this at a festival in the context of a discussion about identity politics and her (white) partner, Nick Laird. Here's a snippet ...
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July 08, 2015
The Gift of Interacting with Readers
Many years ago I finished reading a book that resonated for me. The characters in it and their struggles felt real. I lived with them for a while, found pain in their sorrows, amusement in their foibles, ...
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September 14, 2023The Pull of Two Needles
My first version of this essay was about how my two obsessions, knitting and writing, don’t compete with each other. I wrote at length about how they spin together in my brain in complicated steps, ...
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June 13, 2016#WritingTips Mondays: Jonathan Franzen - "The Reader is Not a Spectator"
In 2010, England's The Guardian newspaper asked some of the most acclaimed writers in the world to offer their top ten writing tips, inspired by Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules of Writing (William Morrow).To ...
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March 03, 2016The Writers' Trust of Canada Reveals Shortlist for the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing
The Writers' Trust of Canada has named the five finalists for the $25,000 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing. The prize, now in its sixteenth year, is awarded annually to a work of literary ...
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June 06, 2017Hockey Stalking
I’m a big advocate of writers carrying notebooks. You can jot down thoughts, overheard conversations—I’m a terrible eavesdropper—sights you want to call up later.Yesterday, a father was trying ...
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September 11, 2024Writers' Trust Announces the 2024 Finalists for Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging Writers
The Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging Writers is unique in the landscape of Canadian literary prizes: It is presented annually to an emerging writer who identifies as (but is not limited to) ...
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March 24, 2026Read an Excerpt from SPRUCE TO CEDAR, the Debut Poetry Collection by Lasänmą
One unique life takes shape across northern and coastal landscapes in Spruce to Cedar (Brick Books), a debut collection that follows a young woman from childhood into early adulthood with a steady, unfiltered ...
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September 13, 2016At the Desk: Anna Humphrey
Clara has a secret, and it's a big one. She thinks she just might have superpowers. It's a lot for a fourth-grader to deal with, but Clara has already got a lot on her plate: her favourite neighbour, ...
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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 ...
