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June 11, 2015
Why I Am in Love with Margaret Atwood
I wanted to do something different, so midway through last term, I wrote a proposal for Mutants and Monsters, a new science fiction course.Since I teach biochemistry for a living and have been reading ...
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March 19, 2019Writer at Work: Where I’m Writing From (On Dionne Brand, Black Earth Rising, and Writing with “Love”)
Books that change us challenge us and console us. They break our hearts, they make us think, but most of all, they make us see people as people. Aside from being a generalized and sentimental statement ...
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April 19, 2021Play to your strengths: a short guide to arts admin for emerging artists
And we're back! As promised, these last two weeks of Careful Inventory are a bit lighter, more directly applicable in the pandemic—thanks for sticking with me so far! We’ve covered online safety, ...
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April 09, 2017My final two columns: Part Two
As rob has mentioned, this is the second part of his final column for Open Book. The staff at Open Book would like to share our appreciation for a decade of columns, and for rob's contributions to the ...
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January 14, 2021Achievable, Artistic Resolutions for Authors and Illustrators
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I love coming up with new year’s resolutions. I love committing to some kind of regular creative activity … no matter the outcome! Last year, I said ...
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April 26, 2010Canadians in New York: The Chelsea Hotel
Despite parboiling myself in the shower a few times I began to like the hotel, or at least some of the residents, or denizens as some liked to call themselves. You could get high in the elevators on the ...
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February 27, 2020Making Time: How Ondaatje Taught Me To Show Up For Myself, or Plotting vs. Pantsing
There are some books whose images stay with us long after we’ve read them, far more than the stories or the characters themselves. An image that has stayed with me over the years is from The English ...
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September 22, 2021"I Learned How to be Human from Writing This Novel" Nic Brewer on Her Unforgettable and Fantastical Debut Novel, Suture
Nic Brewer's hotly anticipated debut novel, Suture (Book*hug Press), asks pointed questions about the cost of art—on artists, on their loved ones, and more—through fantastical storytelling that pushes ...
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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) ...
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April 13, 2018"I Write to Make Sense of Worries" David James Brock on Finding the Calm in Poetry
Poet, librettist, and playwright David James Brock's second collection Ten-Headed Alien (Wolsak & Wynn), is making an impact as big and bold as its title. Poet Linda Besner called it "a sophisticated ...