Search
-
June 16, 2017Writers Working With Actors
Prep for the audio book: it was fun for me to Skype about my characters’ accents with narrator Pascal Langdale before the recording sessions for my new novel. Few people are interested in such arcane ...
-
May 27, 20175 Tips to Stand Out in the Slush Pile
You’ve finished your manuscript. It’s been edited by a critique partner. You’ve assembled a pitch. Now what? The next step is securing literary representation to pitch your project to prospective ...
-
March 09, 2021
A love letter (to books)
The first quote-unquote serious novel I read was One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn. My eighth grade teacher set down a box at the front of the classroom and, in a seemingly ...
-
March 29, 2021
Writing/Not Writing
Some language cracks the shell of a thing open, so we can newly see what’s being described. And some language forms a perfect egg shell around what it aims to describe, obscuring more than it reveals. ...
-
May 04, 2021Governor General's Literary Award Shortlists Announced, Including Another Nomination for The Dyzgraphxst by Canisia Lubrin
This morning, the Canada Council for the Arts announced the Governor General's Literary Award shortlists. It's an exciting set of lists, with strong representation for independent publishers, including ...
-
June 14, 2021"Bison, Teeth, Talking Trees, Screaming Purses" The 2021 Griffin Prize Poets Tell Us the Images That Recur in Their Work & Share Recommended Reads
Every year, the poetry world turns its attention to Canada, to discover the winners of the Griffin Prize, the biggest poetry award in the country and one of the leading awards in the genre worldwide. ...
-
June 19, 2021On Writing Essentials
Much as I admire highly regimented and disciplined writers, that's simply not me. Believe me, I've tried! However, no matter how unstructured my writing day might be, there are five essentials that I ...
-
October 14, 2021Beating the Burnout
For those who were lucky enough to know someone in the book publishing industry before entering themselves, they might’ve heard the warnings: Don’t expect to be rich. In fact, don’t expect much ...
-
October 25, 2021WE MOVE
While doing life, Nigerians use the slang “we move” to capture the dogged determination needed to plow through difficult situations. It’s a clarion call for better.Over the years, I have come across ...
-
January 07, 2022A Writer’s Guide to Reading in 2022
I read a lot of books in 2021. More than I ever have, except for maybe the summers when I was eight and would clear out the chapter book section at Humber Bay library. I have always been an escapist, ...