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April 15, 2017
Kathryn Mockler on Poetry Exercises
Today in my series on poetry prompts and exercises, I'm featuring writer Kathryn Mockler. She teaches creative writing, poetry, and screenwriting at Western University, and runs private workshops through ...
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July 08, 2015
The Gift of Interacting with Readers
Many years ago I finished reading a book that resonated for me. The characters in it and their struggles felt real. I lived with them for a while, found pain in their sorrows, amusement in their foibles, ...
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March 16, 2021
A love letter (to libraries)
(—and other public places I once wrote to escape violence.)My life is very different from what it was when I began writing. While working on my latest novel, Girl Minus X, I often wrote in public ...
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July 06, 2015
“…Writing Was a Nasty Habit or Addiction That I Would Have to Support.”
This quote, which comes at 2:35 of the attached interview with Guy Vanderhaeghe, sums up a pragmatic approach to the early years of a writing life, years that for many of us can stretch for decades, or ...
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July 17, 2015
Storylines
“All kinds of storylines are playing out here.” Question: This quote is most likely to be heard from...(a) A TV journalist reporting on a political or legal case?(b) A football commentator?(c) A book ...
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October 19, 2014
On Writing, with Aisha Sasha John
Aisha Sasha John, our November 2014 writer-in-residence, has been called "a poet of centrifugal energy, of reverberant intimacy" (Michael Nardone).She's back this spring with her second book, the follow ...
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June 25, 2019
A Few Key Things Every Newly Published Children’s Book Authors and Illustrators Should Know!
The title says it all, guys! Here’s a roundup of a bunch of things that newly published authors and illustrators should know. Whether it’s resources on negotiating contracts or where to do research ...
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September 30, 2015
Writing Through Life Change
I used to think that writing was an all-alone endeavor: I thought that all you need is a laptop and some time. I don’t know why I thought that. It’s not true, it turns out. I’ve had help. This help ...
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July 23, 2019
Why I Don’t Announce My Social Media Breaks
Over the past couple of years, I’ve watched several writers announce that they’re taking a break from social media. Sometimes they edit their profile so that their status, “on hiatus,” is added ...
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March 23, 2021
Decoder ring
In Girl Minus X, there are choices made by the main character, Dany, that seem more legible and logical to people who’ve experienced trauma and understand the way, afterwards, a person is forever scanning ...