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March 11, 2019Writing and illustrating children’s books: All the surprises
The process of writing, illustrating and publishing a children’s book can be filled with surprises—good and bad! For example, I’m always surprised by how much my heart explodes when a friend sends ...
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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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March 09, 2023Artist & Poet Amy Ching-Yan Lam on Stories, Healing, and a Cheese-Based Universe
Stories are more than simply tales we tell ourselves and each other. They are lessons, conversations, cultural landscapes both collective and deeply personal – and in celebrated multi-discipline artist Amy ...
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October 22, 2016
Beautiful Chapbooks
Chapbooks are versatile. They can take a multitude of forms and serve a multitude of functions. It’s generally a lengthy process for a regular book to make its way into print, but a chapbook can enter ...
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August 14, 2020Portrait of a Woman Flying
María was seven years old on her first day of work, the morning her father left her in Mexico City at a large house with tall ceilings and walls that were covered in tiles. Whenever she got homesick, ...
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September 14, 2021Read an Excerpt from The Shaytan Bride, Sumaiya Matin's Powerful True Story of Escaping Forced Marriage
As a small child, Sumaiya Matin had heard about the Shaytan Bride. A woman with something wrong with her. Maybe she was crazy, or defiant. Or maybe she was possessed, trapped or seduced by an evil spirit ...
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July 21, 2022Camels with Botox, Lizard Overlords, & Salinger as Inspiration: Rod Carley on His Hilarious & Fresh Story Collection, Grin Reaping
CanLit doesn't have a reputation for hilarity, but the third book from North Bay based writer Rod Carley, Grin Reaping (Latitude 46 Publishing), is more evidence that our supposedly serious rep needs ...
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October 13, 2022"Suddenly All the Stories in My Head Made Sense" Heather Camlot on the Books that Guide Her Life and Her Writing
What would you risk to go to school? In Secret Schools: True Stories of the Determination to Learn (Owlkids, illustrated by Erin Taniguchi), Heather Camlot shares the amazing, and at times astonishing, ...
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September 15, 2021Aaron Schneider's Debut Story Collection Plays with Genre Constraints & Brings Readers Into the Experiment
Aaron Schneider's debut story collection What We Think We Know (Gordon Hill Press) asks readers to consider the genre through the lens of the title. What do we know about the short story? Schneider plays ...
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May 17, 2022Alex Pugsley on How the Title Story of His Striking New Collection Went from Multiple Rejections to Award-Nominated
Journey Prize winner and filmmaker Alex Pugsley's debut novel, Aubrey McKee was hailed as whip-smart and funny, with comparisons drawn to the likes of Robertson Davies, John Irving, and J. D. Salinger. ...