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May 04, 2015
Confessions of a TV Addict
I'll just say/ I started watching Frazier/ I'll just say/ Every single episode -David McGimpsey, Asbestos HeightsIt started in grad school. I had moved from Brooklyn to sleepy, manicured London, Ontario ...
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July 31, 2017An Interview with David O’Meara, organizer of the Plan 99 Reading Series
In the Manx Pub, a basement bar on Ottawa’s Elgin St., there’s a slim shelf of books – lots of poetry, but also some prose. The books are often browsed, often borrowed, and often returned. They’re ...
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September 27, 2022The Joy of Literary Festivals – And Dreams Coming True
It’s hard to believe we’ve come to the end of September and that the time I have been privileged to spend with you on this Open Book platform is almost over. Looking back at what I have shared with ...
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December 27, 2017Reading Books While Desperately Avoiding Loneliness
There was a tree surrounded by countless of its kind, but also all alone, as the only one alive. Its nearby kin debarked and digested, steamed into slop, robbed of their resin and lignin, cleaned, screened, ...
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February 24, 2017
On Racism 1 of 3
This three part piece is my final for the month. I hope that I've generated debate and sparked conversation. Thank you and take care.On RacismI live in a country that not long before my birth, had an ...
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February 28, 2017
On Racism 3 of 3
Part 3We must speak fearlessly. Hate resonates loudly because it savagely destroys language without concern. Silence is born from the fear of offending others. But we will no longer be silent. We will ...
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February 16, 2017
A series of questions
Today, instead of waking up with answers, or advice for members of the literary community, I awoke with a series of questions. I've wrestled throughout the day, wondering if a set of questions were worthy ...
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February 22, 2017
Poetry vs Prose part 1 of 2
”Why does Dane use words like poetry and prose yet refuse concepts like genre?”I've been accused of citing quotes unnecessarily, so I'll merely remind my readers of a very Canadian statement, “The ...
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October 26, 2016
Favourite Literary Podcasts
I spent much of the day preparing to record a podcast, the third episode of On the Line: Conversations About Poetry (http://www.therustytoque.com/on-the-line). It’s a podcast designed to operate like ...
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October 12, 2016
Norfolk, Murder Mysteries, Birds, and Mimesis
I spent the weekend in Norfolk visiting an old friend. I’ve never been to that part of England before, and because I see the world through a fictional lens, Steve Burrows’ birder mysteries, set in ...
