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September 01, 2016
Hello Open Book Readers!
I’m incredibly happy to be this month’s Writer in Residence.I’m so honoured to join the list of writers whose work I love, who’ve been writers in residence in the past.The timing is perfect because ...
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September 01, 2014
Hello, My Name Is Diane!
Well, no. It’s not. But this is what happens when I get nervous—the wrong words leave my mouth. I blurt statements I don’t believe. I say things that are incredibly, obviously erroneous and false. ...
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July 10, 2014
His Gravity
We shun those who bear the mark of death, and this is a form of baseness to which even I succumbed. Quite deliberately, out of a base instinct for self-preservation, I shunned my friend in the last months ...
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February 10, 2025
Historian Steven High Unpacks the Surprising Early-Nineties Triumph and Collapse of Bob Rae's NDP
As the current political climate in North America continues to shift and evolve, there have been clear signs that the dominant forms of conservatism and liberalism from the late 20th century are finding ...
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June 13, 2024
Ho Ka Kei (Jeff Ho) Tells a Story of Survival and Being in cockroach (曱甴)
After inspiration struck, Ho Ka Kei (Jeff Ho) took to his phone in the night and spoke the monologue for what would become cockroach (曱甴) (Playwrights Canada Press). The result was a thought-provoking ...
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January 03, 2023
How to Get Published in Canada Today: A Conversation with Patricia Westerhof
With three decades of experience teaching creative writing under her belt as well as three acclaimed books, Patricia Westerhof is a very good person to talk to about how to get started (or move forward) ...
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March 14, 2018
How to hold a launch.
There comes a time in a writer’s life when, if you are very lucky, you will be published (frequently but not always a book) and you may feel the need to draw attention to it with some kind of hoohah. ...
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October 07, 2016
How to keep a small chapbook press alive for twenty-three years (a primer)
By the time you read this, above/ground press will most likely be two or three items away from an accumulated eight hundred publications. How does that happen? Even I find it strange and remarkable that ...
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March 25, 2019
How to Secure a Literary Agent
With spring just around the corner (we hope), there’s a renewed sense of optimism in the air. Writers are slowly emerging from the depths of their hobbit holes, and some have manuscripts ready to be ...
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April 21, 2022
How to Start a Writers’ Group
I spent years working on a novel about a lifeguard who was terrified of drowning. Years, of sitting in the same corner of the same coffee shop bashing out draft after unreadable draft. And the only feedback ...