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April 20, 2023
"Conflict is the Engine that Drives Fiction" Leanne Lieberman on the Magic of Writing for Teens
When her dad hits rock bottom—again—Jess finds herself determined to change her stars and avoid going down the same dark path. She takes a job cleaning a beautiful country house, where part of her ...
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June 28, 2023
The Benefits of Being an Imposter
Like most writers, I’ve had a lot of rent jobs. When I was lucky, I worked in my chosen fields of editing and education. When I wasn’t so lucky, I worked in an institutional kitchen, as an ad mail ...
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July 15, 2019
"The More Fun I am Having, the Better the Writing" Novelist Susan Swan on Finding Joy in the Writing Process
In Susan Swan's newest novel, The Dead Celebrities Club (Cormorant Books), readers meet charismatic, high-flying financial conman Dale Paul. When Paul's empire is revealed to be an exploitative sham, ...
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August 16, 2018
J.E. Barnard on Her New Mystery Series, Julius Caesar, & How Floods Change People, Towns & Stories
Everyone in J.E. Barnard's When the Flood Falls (Dundurn Press) is having a tough time. From ex-RCMP corporal Lacey McCrae and her old university roommate, Dee, to even the Calgary foothills town they've ...
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June 14, 2022
"Even Staring Out the Window Has Changed" The 2022 Griffin Prize Poets Speak in Depth on Their Writing Lives
This year, there are ten writers and translators nominated for the Griffin Poetry Prizes. The two prizes—one open to collections authored by Canadian poets and one open to any international collection ...
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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 ...
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June 06, 2018
"What's Your Story?" Read the Winning Texts of the 2018 OBPO Writing Contest Winners! Part Two: North York
What's better than reading brand new stories from talented Toronto authors? How about reading them for free? We're excited to present, exclusive on Open Book, the second set of winning texts from the Ontario ...
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June 27, 2019
"I Wanted to Show What an Ongoing Juggling Act It All Is" Lisa de Nikolits on Her Writer for a Year Video Series
Plenty of writers, emerging and established, have questions about how to handle the professional aspects of the writing life. How to approach social media? Are festivals important? What about reviews? ...
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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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February 03, 2020
Blogpost #1: Meet Nadia L. Hohn, or selected musings of a Black-Canadian djeli
Here ye! Here ye! My name is Nadia L. Hohn and I am proud to be the February 2020 Open Book writer-in-residence. Not only do you get to read my posts about writing, #kidlit, and Canadian publishing ...