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November 29, 2019
Fiction, Memory, and Family
I reread books, often because a story or scene moved me and I want to know how the writer engineered it. It’s exciting to flip back to the first page and say, “of course! Of course the story ends ...
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December 06, 2018D. Nandi Odhiambo on Writing Violence, Authentic Choices, & Radical Doubt in His New Novel
In D. Nandi Odhiambo's Smells Like Stars (Book*hug), a diverse and vibrant cast of characters struggles with change, each in their own way. Journalist Kerstin Ostheim and freelance photographer P.J. ...
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April 14, 2022"The List/ of Things I’ve Done/ for My Body is Too Long" Read an Excerpt from Nisa Malli’s Bold Poetry Debut, Allodynia
Allodynia, Nisa Malli’s follow up to her bpNichol Award winning chapbook, Remitting, is a tense, powerful collection that grabs the reader with razor-sharp, elegant forays into themes of pain and ...
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January 10, 2017Found in Translation
Kumar Sivasubramanian has lived stretches of his life on at least three different continents. We met through a closed Facebook group (before I was kicked off by a sour-faced Dubliner) that effectively ...
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May 01, 2023Class, History, Fiction, and Form Part 1
It’s Monday, May 1st. If you’re reading this in Canada or the United States, you are most likely working today. I know I am. At this very moment I am probably guiding a group of adult learners through ...
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December 14, 2018Earthrise Author James Gladstone on The Good, Bad, & Surprising Moments in Writing Picture Books
December 21, 2018 will mark the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 8 mission, the first manned mission to fully orbit the moon and return safely. During the mission, on Christmas Eve, astronaut William Anders ...
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January 05, 2017Spider-Man, Spider-Man, Does Whatever a Writer Says He Can
Holy Christmas miracle, Spider-Man! A true miracle from the Ghost of Jack Kirby! I don't believe in God but I do believe in the cigar smoking Ghost of Jack Kirby. Around Christmas, Facebook suggested ...
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June 14, 2021"Bison, Teeth, Talking Trees, Screaming Purses" The 2021 Griffin Prize Poets Tell Us the Images That Recur in Their Work & Share Recommended Reads
Every year, the poetry world turns its attention to Canada, to discover the winners of the Griffin Prize, the biggest poetry award in the country and one of the leading awards in the genre worldwide. ...
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September 06, 2016"What's Your Story?" Obpo Writing Contest Winners! Part One: Etobicoke
The Ontario Book Publishers Organization's What's Your Story? writing contest asked authors across the city to draw inspiration from their local neighbourhoods, translating the vibrancy, diversity, and ...
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February 26, 2016Writing Hangovers Are Denim on Denim: Part 2 of Four New Writers to Watch
I posted the first half of my interview with four exciting writers-to-watch, Noor Naga, Sofia Mostaghimi, Kristel Jax, and Faith Arkorful, earlier today. We talked about writing into dark places, what ...