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January 31, 2022Meet Our February Writer in Residence, Sifton Tracey Anipare, Author of Yume, Her Knockout Debut Fantasy Novel
Yume (Rare Machines/Dundurn Press), the debut novel from Sifton Tracey Anipare, follows Cybelle, a young woman teaching in a Japanese city. Her love for her adopted culture is apparent, motivating her ...
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March 28, 2022What's Beyond: Writing as an Actor, Part 2
One of the important exercises we do in theatre is called “What’s Beyond.” It’s a Viola Spolin exercise to help actors understand the full, inner life of their characters. Viola Spolin is credited ...
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April 14, 2022"The List/ of Things I’ve Done/ for My Body is Too Long" Read an Excerpt from Nisa Malli’s Bold Poetry Debut, Allodynia
Allodynia, Nisa Malli’s follow up to her bpNichol Award winning chapbook, Remitting, is a tense, powerful collection that grabs the reader with razor-sharp, elegant forays into themes of pain and ...
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April 28, 2022How I look at a map (part two): found poetry
In previous posts you’ve seen some of the things I’m thinking through when I’m creating visual poetry. And in the last post we got started working on a new piece by looking through archival material. ...
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May 05, 2022
Nothing to do: Boredom and the Death of Imagination
“The World,” Wordsworth wrote, “is too much with us.” That was in the early nineteenth century, before television, before ubiquitous billboards along roadways, before social media. These days, ...
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May 18, 2022"There’s What You See and What You Don’t" Read an Excerpt from Didier Leclair's Trillium-Winning Novel, Toronto, I Love You
In Toronto, I Love You by Didier Leclair (Mawenzi House, translated by Elaine Kennedy) Raymond Dossougbé thinks, at first, that he's found a sanctuary in Toronto.After fleeing corruption and violence ...
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July 19, 2022Getting to Know Sara Flemington, Author of the Surprising and Brilliant Debut Novel Egg Island
Most kids had a daydream at some point about heading out on their own, finding a new and better home, preferably with a cool friend along for the adventure. But for Julia, the wary teenage lead in debut ...
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July 26, 2022The Trouble With Memoirs
A recent development in academic creative writing programs is the rise of “Creative Non-Fiction,” a genre supposed to be fundamentally journalistic but using the techniques of fiction. At its best, ...
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October 02, 2022
Let's Get Started
Hello Open Book ‘ers, My name is Lorrie and it’s my privilege to be the Writer in Residence for the month of October. I’m honoured and truly humbled. I’ll pass on a big introduction as it’s ...
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February 16, 2023Mudlarking, Unexpected TV Appearances, & More: Getting to Know Children's Writer Nancy Cooper
Meeting new people isn't easy. For Amik the beaver, the character at the heart of Nancy Cooper's picture book Biindigen! Amik Says Welcome (Owlkids Books, illustrated by Joshua Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley) ...