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February 24, 2019
Poetry School: Getting specific with Amiri Baraka
Writing is reading, teaching is learning. As I said in my invitation for readers to join me this month-long online Poetry School, I expected to benefit the most from these researches into the craft and ...
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May 31, 2016
Writing What’s Closest to Home
Last year, when I turned in the first draft of a memoir on rape trauma, my editor had a pretty reasonable observation. Despite divulging various details of violation, illness, and the path to getting ...
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January 19, 2017
On Writing, with Johanna Skibsrud
Poet, short fiction writer, and novelist Johanna Skibsrud's timely and fascinating new collection The Description of the World (Wolsak & Wynn) delves into the documentarian's dilemma: in witnessing ...
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September 16, 2016
Interview with Zoe Whittall: a Conversation About Writing, Characterization and Empathy with One of My Literary Heroes
Zoe Whittall is one of my literary heroes. I remember the day that I discovered her first book, the feeling of relief and excitement as I read each page. I was studying Creative Writing, and feeling depressed ...
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September 01, 2016
Hello Open Book Readers!
I’m incredibly happy to be this month’s Writer in Residence.I’m so honoured to join the list of writers whose work I love, who’ve been writers in residence in the past.The timing is perfect because ...
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September 12, 2016
Excerpt from for All the Men (And Some of the Women) I've Known
Hi Open Book Readers,I want to share one of the short stories from For All the Men (and Some of the Women) I've Known.The book is divided into sections: Meeting, Falling In, Falling Out, Friendship and ...
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September 29, 2016
Interview With Vivek Shraya
Vivek Shraya is one of the most inspiring writers I’ve ever met. I was lucky enough to share the stage with her last year. She read from her beautiful novel, She of the Mountains, and I was moved by ...
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June 07, 2017
The Dirty Dozen, with Pasha Malla
Trillium Prize winner Pasha Malla's new novel Fugue States (Knopf Canada) tells the story of Ash, an intellectual, anxious radio host, and his uncouth, entitled nightmare-bro of a friend, Matt, who shows ...
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January 23, 2018
"What Keeps Me Going is the Element of Discovery": Debut Author Djamila Ibrahim on Building Unforgettable Characters
Djamila Ibrahim's Things are Good Now (House of Anansi) is the kind of debut that can't be ignored. A vibrant, gutsy, thoughtful short fiction collection, it was called "an insightful and imaginative ...
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January 17, 2017
On Writing, with Richard Harrison
What do you do with a grief so complex it's impossible to write? If you're Richard Harrison, you write it anyway, and create something beautiful in the process. Harrison's On Not Losing My Father's ...