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September 10, 2019
On Reading
Writers need to read— I offered this advice earlier in the summer— and I sincerely hope it’s not news to any writer looking at this post that reading is a most instructive way to learn what does, ...
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August 31, 2018
On the future of Canlit
You guys, this is my last Open Book column.I have been writing this column for a year now and I’ll admit I didn’t know what I was going to write about when Holly Kent and Kevin Hardcastle asked me ...
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September 12, 2018
How to Finish Your Damn Book - For Beginners!
I often joke that writing a novel is like running a marathon---only no one bothers to tell you what the route is. When the gun goes off, you’re just supposed to head off in whatever direction you think ...
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June 20, 2019
"The Downton Abbey of India" Sohan S. Koonar on His Powerful Historical Novel Paper Lions, Sikh Representation in Literature, & More
The years from 1939, the beginning of the Second World War, into the 1960s were a time of enormous change. And that change was by no means limited to the war and its aftermath in Europe. In his new novel Paper ...
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October 24, 2019
"If Anything Can Repair Our World, it is Stories" 2019 Vine Awards Honour Canadian Jewish Authors & Storytelling
Yesterday at a luncheon at Toronto's Windsor Arms Hotel, five authors were presented with the 2019 Vine Awards for Canadian Jewish Literature. The awards celebrate both Jewish writers in Canada and non-Jewish ...
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January 29, 2020
Read an Excerpt From Teva Harrison's Gorgeously Devastating 'Not One of These Poems Is About You'
In April of last year, the Canadian literary community suffered a profound loss at the passing of celebrated author and illustrator Teva Harrison after a lengthy battle with metastatic breast cancer. ...
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July 08, 2020
EMWF: Souvankham Thammavongsa on What Makes for a Great Event
While this year's physical edition of the Eden Mills Writer's Festival may be cancelled, fans and creators alike were thrilled to hear that organizers had decided to make the experience virtual, presenting ...
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May 05, 2020
Writers As Readers: May 2020 Writer-in-Residence Derek Mascarenhas on His Favourite Books
Told through seventeen linked short stories, Toronto author Derek Mascarenhas' debut Coconut Dreams (Book*hug) traces the lives of a South Asian family through a series of shifting voices and timelines, ...
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August 27, 2020
EMWF: Leanne Betasamosake Simpson on Festival Memories, Pre-Event Rituals, and Her New Book
By Graham ChristianWhile this year's physical edition of the Eden Mills Writer's Festival may be cancelled, fans and creators alike were thrilled to hear that organizers had decided to make the experience ...
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July 15, 2020
The Most Important Books in the World
If you pick up Octavia Butler’s 1998 novel Parable of the Talents for the first time right now, you’ll share a moment with everyone else who’s only read it recently. It happens early in the book. ...