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June 25, 2021A daydreamer’s guide to the world outside
How children’s stories can cultivate connection to nature, and why I look wistfully out of windows I’ve spent most spare moments I’ve had during the recent time blob staring out of windows. Between ...
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September 10, 2021What Big Open Spaces Taught Me About Finishing a Draft
Who doesn’t like writing at home, with the comfort of Maltesers, a perfect sound setup, and being able to write naked? Writing outside of your comfy space is much harder than it seems.In June this year, ...
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January 31, 2022Meet Our February Writer in Residence, Sifton Tracey Anipare, Author of Yume, Her Knockout Debut Fantasy Novel
Yume (Rare Machines/Dundurn Press), the debut novel from Sifton Tracey Anipare, follows Cybelle, a young woman teaching in a Japanese city. Her love for her adopted culture is apparent, motivating her ...
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February 02, 2022
Hajimemashite
Hello, Open Book reader. Welcome to my first post! I had big, overachieving plans to create a perfect post, then realized how weird it will sound without any context about myself and who I am as a writer. ...
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May 19, 2022Frances Koncan on How Playwrighting Gets Her "Closest to the Truth"
Frances Koncan's play, Women of the Fur Trade (Playwrights Canada Press) is the antidote to dull historical renditions of early Canada. Set in "eighteen hundred and something something", it follows three ...
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October 18, 2023Getting to Know Aley Waterman, the Newfoundland Author Whose Debut Novel is Destined to Become a Toronto Classic
In Aley Waterman's debut novel Mudflowers (Rare Machines/Dundurn Press), Sophie's life seems like an indie movie dream from the outside – in her cramped but cool apartment in Toronto's west end, she ...
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January 05, 2024An Ode to Writing Research
I have realized that second only to holding a bound book in my hands, my favourite part of writing a book is the research. I love choosing worlds that I don’t know much about—rare books libraries, ...
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April 03, 2025How to Avoid Blank Page Syndrome: The Jar Method
When I’m editing, there are specific problems to tackle, and I find I have a clear to-do list. Even if there’s a lot to do, I have a road map, but at the beginning of a project, I get so easily daunted ...
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September 06, 2017Contest! Win a Huge Fiction Prize Pack from The Word on the Street PLUS Author Cruise Tickets!
Who wouldn't love the chance to fill their bookshelf with tons of amazing fiction?We're kicking off a month-long series of contests with The Word on the Street with a HUGE and varied fiction prize pack. ...
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August 31, 2017
Characters. Emotions. Relationships. Action.
In junior high, my grade seven English teacher taught us about conflict in narrative: man against man; man against nature; man against self; and man against society. To be honest, I never really found ...
