Search
-
May 29, 2022
Weird is the New Normal
“People are strange,” Jim Morrison of The Doors famously sang, “when you’re a stranger.” He would know. This is the man who, despite his reputation for wild antics on stage, sang some of his ...
-
June 13, 2022
Feel the Power of Indigenous Spoken Word in an Excerpt from Slam Coalkan Performance Poetry
Back in 2021, the Festival of the Peripheries (FLUP) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) came together to stage a spectacular poetry happening: 17 Indigenous ...
-
June 18, 2022
I Love it When a Plan Comes Together
I don't know what other writers' process is so I've no idea if this will be unique or interesting, but this would be mine. It's evolved over the years because I like to imagine that I've grown as an individual ...
-
July 12, 2022
Screenwriter Turned Novelist Claire Ross Dunn on Fire Phobia, Sleeping in a Coffin, & Her Drake Connection
After getting her start as an actor, screenwriter Claire Ross Dunn has written for Degrassi, Little Mosque on the Prairie, and numerous other acclaimed shows. This season, she's brought her witty, smart, ...
-
July 27, 2022
"This Incredible Period of Chaos and Change" Alexandra Mae Jones on Why She Loves Writing Young Adult Literature
In Alexandra Mae Jones' debut young adult novel, The Queen of Junk Island (Annick Press), 16-year old Dell is dealing with adult-sized challenges, both internal and external.In shock from the trauma ...
-
July 29, 2022
"Histories That are Buried Beneath the Mainstream" Sheila Murray on Telling the Stories of Two Mixed Race Men in Her New Novel
Nearly 100 years of history separate Cyril and Edward, two mixed race Black men who made Toronto their home in Sheila Murray's Finding Edward (Cormorant Books). When Cyril arrives from Jamaica in 2012, ...
-
August 04, 2022
"All the Good Stuff [is] Inevitable" Ray Robertson on First Sentences, Epigraphs, & Bookstore Love
There have been a lot of unexpected casualties of the pandemic. For Phil Cooper, the protagonist of acclaimed writer Ray Robertson's newest novel Estates Large and Small (Biblioasis), who has battled ...
-
August 05, 2022
Book Therapy: Help! I’m Alive
“Usually the isolation is a result of some life trauma. Does your brother have trauma?”“Fuck, I don’t know. Who doesn’t have trauma?”—Gurjinder Basran, Help! I’m Alive Lately I can’t ...
-
August 23, 2022
Michelle Kadarusman Brings Together Threatened Orangutans, Palm Oil Controversy, and Passionate Young Activists in Her New Novel
Humans and orangutans share 97% of our DNA, yet we have pushed these highly intelligent animals to the point of being endangered through habitat loss and human encroachment.Governor General's Literary ...
-
September 01, 2022
The Joy of Building a List
Early on, when I still thought I’d be a writer rather than work in publishing, I remember coming across a lovely quote from Toni Morrison saying something along the lines of “If you can’t find the ...