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November 20, 2023
Getting to Know Marion Agnew, Author of the Witty & Poignant New Novel Making Up the Gods
Simone, a widow, lives a quiet life in her cottage by a lake – until one day, when a man named Martin shows up on her doorstep, claiming to be a cousin. He is potentially Simone's only living relative, ...
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November 30, 2023
Zain Bandali Uses Mehndi to Talk About Gender, Creativity, and Being Your True Self in His Delightful Debut
In Zain Bandali's Mehndi Boy (Annick Press), Tehzeeb loves to draw. He practices his clouds, patterns, stars, and more, as whole galaxies of beautiful and intricate designs swirl across his notebooks. ...
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September 27, 2017
Unsung Heroes of Literature: The Dash Brothers Are F— — — ing Nuts
The only appropriate adjective to describe the bar where the Dashes agreed to meet me for this interview is ‘dive.’ We met in the middle of the afternoon, at The Maple Leaf Tavern, a bar in the east-end ...
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March 09, 2022
Rejection
No one likes rejection. I’ve been told that some people handle it better than others. It depends on your baggage.I had my first official manuscript rejection when I was nine years old. I received a ...
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December 04, 2018
“I want my poem to embody this poem-like feeling.” - An Interview with Mark Truscott
For years Mark Truscott has digging out his own unique niche in Canadian poetry, one with intense focuses on language, minimalism, and abstract inquiry. Branches, his latest collection, is something of ...
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July 30, 2024
Read 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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February 26, 2016
Writing Hangovers Are Denim on Denim: Part 2 of Four New Writers to Watch
I posted the first half of my interview with four exciting writers-to-watch, Noor Naga, Sofia Mostaghimi, Kristel Jax, and Faith Arkorful, earlier today. We talked about writing into dark places, what ...
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April 09, 2014
Madness
Catching up on the frippery of “Downton Abbey,” I enjoyed Maggie Smith’s trenchant Dowager Countess of Grantham listening to her son wax a mite lyrically about land and history and then exclaiming ...
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March 23, 2020
On Road Maps
Before beginning a project, is it worthwhile to do a detailed outline? Or is it preferable just to dive in? I’ve tried both approaches. In writing my first novel, After the Bloom, I outlined extensively. ...
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September 04, 2015
A Literary Will
There have been many articles written lately about literature’s power to improve empathy, to lead us to happiness, and there have even been essays that suggest that reading can make us better people. ...