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April 16, 2019A Poem is a Rhetoric of Substance and Selection
We shape and are shaped by language. It orients who and where we are.The operational shape of a poem’s plan is always emergent; its layering is a rhetoric of substance and selection:POETIC LAYERINGdiscovery ...
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June 09, 2016A Poet, a Novelist and a Toddler Enter a Room
Do you ever wonder what it’s like to be one of those literary power couples, talent just oozing from their pores, words pouring from their pens, seemingly effortlessly? Meaghan Strimas & Nathan ...
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October 24, 2016
A Poetry Bookshop in Toronto
An exciting thing happened in Toronto while I was away. Jeff Kirby opened a poetry bookshop, knife|fork|book, in Rick’s Café in Kensington Market. Having missed the October 6th grand opening, I raced ...
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July 22, 2020a quick aside on breaks, interpretations, and momentum
i realized two things after my last post. first, that i was missing video games more than i’d probably like to admit. and second, that after three months of online teaching and attempts at book promo ...
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August 08, 2020A sentence & a breath
You want to write a book. Terrific! You've thought about this for years. In fact, whenever you tell your stories, people always say, you should write a book. And they’re right! You should. There’s ...
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February 16, 2017
A series of questions
Today, instead of waking up with answers, or advice for members of the literary community, I awoke with a series of questions. I've wrestled throughout the day, wondering if a set of questions were worthy ...
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November 12, 2024A Small Ontario Town is Filled With Mystery and Danger in As We Forgive Others
Cobourg-based author Shane Peacock has been widely read for years now. His work has won the Junior Library Guild of America Selection seven times, the Arthur Ellis Award twice, and he has been shortlisted ...
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September 18, 2025A Snowstorm Sets Upon a Small Town and Reveals the Powerful Bonds of Community in THE UPENDING OF WENDALL FORBES
In his latest novel, David Giuliano delivers a warm, funny, and deeply human story about aging, resilience, and the surprising ways life can be renewed. Wendall and Ruby Forbes are grappling with sleepless ...
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May 23, 2013
A Tale of Two Marys
Colm Tóibin recently spoke to Eleanor Wachtel on CBC’s “Writers and Company” about his new novel, The Testament of Mary. I tuned a close ear since I have for a while been meaning to write something ...
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November 08, 2014A Terribly Inexpensive Friend
If you buy a second-hand book, it has a price and some degree of wear. This book was 48 cents.Many books, second-hand books, are crusty. That’s how come some people won’t buy them. People eat pizza ...