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June 09, 2015
On the Benefits of Not Writing (Surfing)
It isn’t (usually) wise to blame other people for things that happen to you, but I blame Dr. Kary Banks Mullis for everything.Dr. Mullis is a Novel Prize-winning biochemist who devised paradigm-shifting ...
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August 06, 2024Getting into Writing Book Reviews
Book reviews are a key part of the book ecosystem. Long after a book’s publication date, book reviews help keep titles in relevancy. They can be useful marketing tools for a writer’s arsenal. They’re ...
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August 23, 2024Breaking Down the Ontario Arts Council’s Literary Creation Projects Grant
For writers in Ontario, this is your reminder that the deadline for Literary Creation Projects (Works for Publication) is just around the corner. This grant gives $12,000 to work on your novel, poetry ...
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November 24, 2015On Writing Violence - An Addendum
I’ve been receiving a lot of positive feedback and some questions about one of my first posts for Open Book, “On Writing Violence.” One reader, Susan, asked me in the comments about how this all ...
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March 20, 2017
What I Wish Someone Had Told Me about Becoming a Writer #3: Russell Smith
Russell Smith is most recently the author of Confidence, but has written a total of ten books, and is a regular arts columnist for The Globe & Mail. Here's what he had to say for the Q&A series.What ...
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July 04, 2015
A Roadblock All Writers Set for Themselves Every Now and Then
When I teach classes in creative writing at U of T’s School of Continuing Studies and at Haliburton School of the Arts, I have on occasion faced this predicament: A bright, talented, energetic student ...
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October 11, 2023Vulnerability is a Writing Tool
My most reflexive apology is, “I went to theatre school.” Usually delivered with a shrug or a knowing smirk as if to say I can’t help it, it gets a laugh from the creative set about 82 percent of ...
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August 22, 2016On Writing, with Hugh Segal
The question of exactly what role Canadian foreign policy should serve is a complex one. Should our focus be protecting our borders and citizens? Maintaining our international identity as a nation of ...
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February 10, 2021Treaty Words Author Aimée Craft on Why She Wants Her Young Readers to Know They are "Part of Something Bigger Than Them"
At the heart of Anishinaabe/Métis lawyer Aimée Craft's wise and engaging Treaty Words: For As Long As the Rivers Flow (Annick Press, illustrated by Luke Swinson) is a question: Just what is a treaty? ...
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May 17, 2021
The Writer's Voice: It's Not What You Say but How You Say It
‘It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.’ As a child and teen I heard this simply as a parent’s retort to the self-righteous whine, ‘But I only said…’As a writer I realise it’s ...
