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May 11, 2016Posthumous Lit: How Do You Capture a Dead Author’s Voice and Intentions?
You all know the saying. It goes something like this. The only three things guaranteed in life are death, taxes, and the Toronto Maple Leafs not making the playoffs. Okay, so I tacked on the latter Leafs ...
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March 27, 2014
The Proust Questionnaire, with Barry Dempster
Barry Dempster is a poet, novelist, short fiction writer, children's writer and an editor, and is Open Book: Toronto's April 2014 Writer-in-Residence.Stay tuned throughout the month to hear from Barry ...
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June 21, 2017Meritocracy 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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June 24, 2017Lincoln in the Bardo
While I admire many, many books, very seldom do I wish I’d written the one I’m reading.I wish I’d written George Saunders’s new novel, Lincoln in the Bardo, It’s his first novel, but of course ...
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June 15, 2017Combatting Oppression With Community
Two months ago, I attended Fuel for Fire, a professional development conference for writers of colour, organized by the Ontario Arts Council. The event provided a venue for discussions about writing and ...
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May 30, 2017
Ayelet Tsabari's photographs
Hello,Long time no see (well, a few days but that's eons in Open-Book time). I'm reading a really great book of short stories called Lemons by Kasia Jaronczyk and you should all run out and get it. The ...
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June 05, 2017The Proust Questionnaire, with Kate Cayley
Kate Cayley slips easily from genre to genre, gathering accolades in poetry, young adult and adult fiction (including scooping a prestigious Trillium Prize for her story collection How You Were Born), ...
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June 26, 2020
Five Reasons Why Children’s Science Books are THE Must-read Books of the 21st Century. For Kids and Adults.
I have been a fan of the scientific method since I first learned what it was (It's only the single most powerful tool humans have ever created, but that’s another post ).I was terrible at doing science ...
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October 08, 2020I cannot not write
“If you wait for inspiration to write you’re not a writer, you’re a waiter.” — Dan PoynterI have this morning routine that involves the perfect cup of coffee, the right music, and showing up ...
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October 13, 2020Cookin' the books
“It ain’t whatcha write, it’s the way atcha write it.” – Jack KerouacThe desire to write had followed me from my teen years. And many decades later I could ignore it no longer; I had stories ...
