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September 10, 2018On Kindness, and Generosity
The Toronto literary community has recently lost two very bright lights, mourning the deaths of Priscila Uppal and Ann Ireland.Though I didn’t know either Ann or Priscila all that well, I feel fortunate ...
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September 06, 2018Anatomy of a Short Story, or Where I Get (Some of) My Ideas
I’m not one of those writers who makes everything up completely from scratch. And seriously, do those writers even exist? (If they do, I am jealous of them.)In my fiction, almost everything comes from ...
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September 02, 2018Show Me the (Writing-Grant) Money!
Hello, and Happy September! Thanks to the excellent folks at Open Book for inviting me here, and thanks to you for tuning in, lovely readers-who-I’m-guessing-are-mostly-also-writers.All right, let’s ...
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August 30, 2018Meet our September 2018 writer in residence, short fiction wizard Jessica Westhead!
A Jessica Westhead short story is a magical thing. Her darkly funny, heartfelt stories of misfits, loners, and compelling weirdos have racked up numerous honours, including nominations for the ReLit ...
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August 17, 2018Form as Home
Every time I sit down to write, I find myself exasperated by the considerations. The considerations of who will be reading it, how it’ll be interpreted, if it’ll hurt someone within or outside my ...
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July 31, 2018Tanis MacDonald on How We Can Expand Our Idea of the Writing Life to Include Smaller Communities
The stereotype of the artist and writer tends to be an urban one - tiny apartments; cigarettes and whisky; gritty, loud, and busy streets outside the window. But where do these pictures come from and, ...
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July 04, 2018Dayne Ogilvie Winner Ben Ladouceur on the Intense Craving to Read beyond His Own Intersections
In June, Ben Ladouceur added the Dayne Ogilvie Prize for Emerging LGBTQ+ Writers to his list of honours (which already included the Earle Birney Poetry Prize and a Lambda nomination). The 12-year old ...
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June 27, 2018
Mentors & Allies 5: David Chariandy
When I think about writers whose words have influenced me, those powerful words are usually nothing more than a short line, phrase or fragment that embeds itself in my mind. Writers who have lodged their ...
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June 26, 2018
Mentors & Allies 4: Hazel Millar
I cannot tell you how many times I have emailed Hazel Millar at Book*hug. Whether it was a question about my contract, a reminder about an event, festival, or reading, or just me blathering on about something, ...
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June 25, 2018
Mentors & Allies 3: Jónína Kirton
Everything happens for a reason. A person enters your life at a specific time, and specific place for a reason. When I met Jónína Kirton, her energy wrapped my body like a hug I had been so desperately ...
