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April 13, 2017
Read an Excerpt from Noah Wareness' Real is the Word They Use to Contain Us
In a child's dream, a taximdermied rabbit argues with the gun that shot it. "You must never ask anyone if they are Real," the rabbit admonishes. Such is the surreal, dreamscape of a poetry collection ...
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February 05, 2016
It Began With Degrassi-Themed Walkie-Talkies: Part One of Desert Pets Press in Conversation
Desert Pets Press is a brand new chapbook press that launched their first season in Fall 2015. The press was instantly recognized for creating beautiful books with interesting new poetry, which comes ...
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September 08, 2020
Picture Book Magic
People are often surprised to learn that a picture book begins with the words. But every children’s book editor I’ve met has preferred to read a picture-book manuscript without any images. A good ...
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March 11, 2018
Escape from reality: Conventions, conferences and expos.
I haven’t spoken about it a whole lot, but just a few months before the The Bone Mother’s release, my mother died. While not unexpected, it was unpleasant, and of course brought a lot of memories ...
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June 21, 2017
Meritocracy in a Pale World
Inevitably, I find myself having this conversation:“Why does there always have to be preference or segregation? We should all be judged together and that the best literature will naturally rise to the ...
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July 30, 2015
Do Not Wait for Inspiration
Do not wait for inspiration; that bus is on an irregular schedule.I’ve been asked several times now what was the inspiration or vision for my recently published novel, and I often see disappointment ...
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February 14, 2016
Something Totally New: Part One of Stephen Thomas in Conversation
I first came across Stephen Thomas on Twitter. It was 2012 and I’d started doing this embarrassing YouTube show no one watched called A Chat With Jess. Steve was doing something similar while doing ...
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June 18, 2024
Read an Excerpt from On Canadian Democracy by Jonathan Manthorpe
With democracy creaking in various parts of the world, it seems apt that an exploration of Canada's democratic system, and it's strengths and weaknesses, should be represented by the tumbledown building ...
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April 06, 2017
Guest Column - So I Opened a Bookstore
So I opened a bookstore.Yes, yes, I know – “in this day and age?” “Bookstores are going under!” “What about digital books?” “No one reads paper books anymore!”But I had been reading ...
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February 11, 2016
Tearing Down The Walls: Jacqueline Valencia on The Toronto Poetry Talks
Jacqueline Valencia, a Toronto poet and critic, has been organizing the Toronto Poetry Talks on Racism and Sexism in poetry for about a year. This summer, the talks will be held at the Toronto Metro Hall ...