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May 12, 2022"Maybe Writing is Outside of Time" Lisa Moore on What She Learns from Every Book She Writes
Despite the input of well meaning people (and sometimes even ourselves), we cannot always choose who we love. The nature of love, whether you consider it a feeling, an act, an experience, or otherwise, ...
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April 22, 2017
Gary Barwin on Poetry Exercises
My latest installment in this series on poets' relationships to writing exercises features Gary Barwin. Gary is a writer, musician, and multimedia artist and the author of 21 books of poetry and fiction. ...
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April 13, 2017
Canisia Lubrin on Poetry Exercises
Next up in my interview series with poets on their relationships to poetry prompts and exercises is Canisia Lubrin. She was born in St. Lucia and serves on the editorial board of the Humber Literary Review ...
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April 11, 2017
Alice Burdick on Poetry Exercises
My next few posts as Writer in Residence here at Open Book will feature short interviews with Canadian poets discussing their relationship to poetry prompts and exercises. They'll talk about what they ...
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February 25, 2021"A Sustained Think... on Trauma" March 2021 Writer in Residence Anne Stone on Writing a Pandemic Novel Before COVID
Sometimes an author's imagination dovetails so perfectly, and unexpectedly, with the outside world that the prescience seems almost chilling. Such is the case with Girl Minus X (Wolsak & Wynn) by Anne ...
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January 15, 2018On Margaret Atwood and the new Canlit
It’s nine o’clock on a Sunday night and my son is asleep. This is a time reserved for me, a time when I usually don’t work or think about work, when I sometimes watch Stephen Colbert videos, or ...
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December 17, 2018"I Learned That Writing Could Be Hilarious" Naseem Hrab on the Books that Shaped Her Writing Life
Acclaimed picture book author (and beloved Open Book columnist!) Naseem Hrab knows a thing or two about friendship, and she captures that magic in her Ira Crumb series, the newest instalment of which ...
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June 07, 2022Getting Started the Long Way Around
I didn't always want to be a writer, mind you, I didn't learn to read or write until I was about 12. I have this auditory learning disability that makes learning things a challenge, most things I can ...
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June 18, 2020Sue Macartney on Loving Yourself, Funny Birds, and Her Favourite Writing Partner
Benjamin, the central character in author and illustrator Sue Macartney's new picture book Benjamin's Blue Feet (Pajama Press), is a blue-footed booby — a seabird native to the South Pacific. While ...
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July 31, 2023Managing a Writing Career and Mental Illness
As someone who's dealt with chronic depression and anxiety for most of my life, I know how difficult it can be to balance mental illness and writing. Sometimes, the thought of working on my latest book ...