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March 12, 2016Happy Birthday, Jack
I would be beside myself if I didn't take a moment to write a birthday note to the late Jack Kerouac, who was born on this day (March 12, 1922–October 21, 1969) and to whom I owe much praise.Yes of ...
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March 12, 2016Writing as a Way "In"
I think many writers would agree that, in the beginning stages when we first pick up the pen, writing is a "way out" for us. It offers something therapeutic, or in more dramatic cases, the promise of ...
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March 09, 2016Kid Lit Can, with Susan Hughes: Sex, and Drugs, and Rock and Roll: Writing Edgy Ya (Part 2)
They’ve written about it all: drugs, gambling, sexual harassment, suicide, sexual abuse, physical abuse, cutting, death, sex, drugs, body image issues, bullying, STDs, abduction...Today I continue my ...
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March 08, 2016Nuance vs. Notoriety
For the longest time, I’ve been of the strong belief of the writerly life as associated with an either/or mentality: concision and painstaking precision, or, as writer Jack Kerouac would put it in his ...
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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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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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February 29, 2016Job Shadowing: Writer, Editor, and Artist Malcolm Sutton in Conversation About His Novel and Many Types of Work
I first met Malcolm Sutton as the fiction editor at BookThug. We worked closely on my book of short stories, and I admired how much Malcolm strove to understand my worldview and the thinking that went ...
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February 28, 2016
Why Some of the Best Writers I Know Aren't Publishing
Some of the best writers I know are relatively unpublished. They might have a story out here or there, or maybe write professionally in another genre, but they aren’t actively trying to pursue a publisher ...
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February 26, 2016Writing 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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February 25, 2016Tiny Rooms of One's Own: Part 1 of Four New Writers to Watch - Faith Arkorful, Sofia Mostaghimi, Noor Naga, and Kristel Jax.
As I developed my writing over the years, I had many teachers and people in the community support my work and offer me encouragement. It’s always been important for me to give back and encourage talent ...