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March 07, 2016Rethinking a Room of One’s Own
A room of one’s own, Virginia Woolf once famously wrote, is a necessary part of being able to write successfully for women, who could often not find such a thing, being loyal to a certain level of constant ...
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September 02, 2015On the Sensory Pleasures of Putting Pen to Paper
A few months ago, I lost a pen. A beautiful fountain pen with one of those squeezy ink chambers that you fill from an old-school inkpot. The pen had been a university graduation gift from my parents and ...
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June 16, 2014Got Any Good Lit Jokes?
Several years ago, I spoke at a gala dinner at a writers’ festival in Thunder Bay. Picture a hotel ballroom filled with about a hundred people seated at tables for ten. I had tried to inject some humourous ...
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April 05, 2017Special Feature! Talking Hamilton's gritLIT festival with Shari Lapena
Hamilton occupies a unique niche in Canada - it's a small city with a vibrant arts scene and a fascinating history. One of the mainstays of the thriving literary community in Hamilton is gritLIT, the ...
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April 28, 2017
Test Driving the Poetry Exercises
Today’s post marks the conclusion of my series on poetry prompts and exercises. Huge thanks to all the poets who responded so generously to my questions and offered their unique approaches and experiences. ...
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April 13, 2017Poetry in Yukon
“The next unit is Poetry.”Was there any phrase that could make me less popular as a teacher?I was teaching Grade 8 English in Dawson City, an historic Gold Rush town of 1,500, just 5 hours from the ...
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April 21, 2017The Entitled Interview, with Jamie Sharpe
Jamie Sharpe's Dazzle Ships (ECW Press) uses as its title one of the most interesting historical examples of art and design being used creatively. Dazzle Ships, used mostly during the First World War, ...
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December 06, 2016Ask & Answer Post-Tour
In the spring of 2015, I became aware that fellow multi-disciplinary Toronto artist, Chase Joynt, was publishing his first book, You Only Live Twice. A long time admirer of Chase's work, I immediately ...
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December 29, 201617 for 2017: Yasmin Nair recommends Against Equality: Queer Revolution, Not Mere Inclusion
12. Against Equality: Queer Revolution, Not Mere Inclusion edited by Ryan Conrad recommended by Yasmin NairThroughout my tenure as the December Writer-In-Residence, I will be assembling a list of 17 ...
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February 15, 2014
Creative Writing as Martial Art? Part 2 (Final)
Step one is acknowledging that writing is a martial art. Words have power. To this day, in many countries the first people executed in times of war are poets. In the West this may be lost, but we have ...
