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April 08, 2016Food for Thought: Hungry for #Diversecanlit
There was a homeless man standing on the side of the road the other day with a sign that read “Lost my job. Spare a bit of change.” I didn’t have change – I rarely do – but I had a banana, so ...
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May 15, 2017The Dirty Dozen, with Catherine Hernandez
Catherine Hernandez's Scarborough (Arsenal Pulp Press) is a force to be reckoned with. Filled with the vibrant voices of a struggling but tight-knit community in the titular city, the story immerses ...
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February 18, 2014
If One Can Argue Against Traditional Non-Academic Literary Schools, Then One Can Reason Against a Purely Academic Model (part1)
Whoo! I'm exhausted writing that title. As stated in my first entry this month, all my posts are my opinion and are not necessarily shared by any members or staff of Open Book Toronto. Before we start, ...
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February 15, 2014
Creative Writing as Martial Art? Part 2 (Final)
Step one is acknowledging that writing is a martial art. Words have power. To this day, in many countries the first people executed in times of war are poets. In the West this may be lost, but we have ...
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October 04, 2016Governor General's Literary Award Nominees Announced with More Good News for Madeleine Thien!
2016 marks the staggering 80th anniversary of the Governor General's Literary Awards. The shortlists, announced today, are interesting ones this year, with the fiction list especially notable for its ...
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September 22, 2014Under Surveillance at the Word on the Street, Toronto
Yesterday I participated in a panel called Under Surveillance at the New Narratives Tent, alongside Emily Horne, co-author of The Inspection House: An Impertinent Field Guide to Modern Surveillance (with ...
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March 29, 2018CBC Canada Reads Crowns 2018 Champion
(The 2018 winner of CBC Canada Reads is revealed below!)Today in front of a studio audience in Toronto, CBC Canada Reads panelist Mozhdah Jamalzadah, host of The Mozhdah Show, hesitated before revealing ...
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October 12, 2018Writing the Truth: the 2018 Vine Awards for Canadian Jewish Literature
The Vine Awards for Canadian Jewish Literature are a unique set of book prizes; not only do they reward excellence in writing by Jewish authors, they also reward non-Jewish writers who cover Jewish themes ...
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October 18, 2018
My friend Richard
In my last post I talked about some of the influential writers and books that inspired me to seriously pursue my own creative writing. My list is much longer than that, and there are many more storytellers ...
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October 30, 2018SK Dyment on Crafting Characters in Steel Animals, a Smart, Hilarious New Book of Queer Magic Realism
Jackie is a quiet loner who happens to secretly be a badass bank robber. Vespa is a artist who rides motorbikes and obsessively plans her revenge on an ex-partner. Together, they find love and a heap ...
