Search
-
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 ...
-
March 10, 2017
What I Wish Someone Had Told Me about Becoming a Writer #2: Elisabeth de Mariaffi
In my early 30s I went back to school to do my MFA at the University of Guelph-Humber. I was afraid I'd be older than everyone else in my cohort, and thus I was happy to meet a contemporary in Ken Babstock's ...
-
October 06, 2020"There is Something Universal in How Children Connect with Stories" Bahram Rahman on Literacy, Equality, & Collective Memory
It's easy to forget how powerful reading can be, but when the right to literacy is denied, it is a chilling reminder. The children in Bahram Rahman's The Library Bus (Pajama Press, illustrated by Gabrielle ...
-
December 18, 201617 for 2017: Lauren Berlant recommends Long Division and How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America
7. Long Division and How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America by Kiese Laymon recommended by Lauren BerlantThroughout my tenure as the December Writer-In-Residence, I will be assembling a list ...
-
March 19, 2024Writing a Love Poem
I’m writing this column on Valentine’s Day, which is important to note because the column will be published well after Valentine’s Day. Writing a love poem isn’t limited to a specific day, however, ...
-
April 02, 2017
Happy National Poetry Month!
It’s April, so happy National Poetry Month. I’m honoured to be featured as Open Book’s Writers in Residence this month, and I’m looking forward to blogging about writing and books and publishing ...
-
May 27, 2020Brad Casey on Honouring Your Space, Writing From the Heart, and Handling Rejection
The linked short stories that comprise Toronto author Brad Casey's debut collection The Handsome Man (Book*hug) follow a young man as he travels through North America and Europe, falling in with a series ...
-
January 23, 2018"What Keeps Me Going is the Element of Discovery": Debut Author Djamila Ibrahim on Building Unforgettable Characters
Djamila Ibrahim's Things are Good Now (House of Anansi) is the kind of debut that can't be ignored. A vibrant, gutsy, thoughtful short fiction collection, it was called "an insightful and imaginative ...
-
June 10, 2016On Writing, with James Laxer
Three men shaped one of the most influential decades of North American history. John A. Macdonald, Abraham Lincoln, and Thomas Jefferson, each an icon in his own right, all contributed in ways that are ...
-
October 23, 2019
An Open Letter To Vickery Bowles
To Vickery Bowles, the chief Librarian at Toronto Public LibraryMy name is Hasan Namir. I moved to Canada in 1998 and during the first week that I arrived here, my parents took me to the Coquitlam Public ...