Search
-
October 30, 2019
"There's a Story Behind My Mom's Death That I Felt Had to Be Told" K.B. Thors on Digging Deep with Her New Memoir-In-Verse
In her new memoir-in-verse, Vulgar Mechanics (Coach House Books), poet K.B. Thors takes the reader on a dark, redemptive journey from heartbreaking loss to spiritual rebirth. Themes of grief, sex, and ...
-
August 27, 2020
EMWF: Leanne Betasamosake Simpson on Festival Memories, Pre-Event Rituals, and Her New Book
By Graham ChristianWhile this year's physical edition of the Eden Mills Writer's Festival may be cancelled, fans and creators alike were thrilled to hear that organizers had decided to make the experience ...
-
July 24, 2020
The Power of a Great Title
We all know about the power of a good cover, but what about the power of a great title?I’ve worked in publishing for nearly fifteen years now and attended upwards of seventy-five tradeshows across ...
-
May 14, 2015
Graphic Novel (On TV) Month: the Book vs. the Film, Part 1
Inspired by my conversation with Merril Collection librarian Lorna Toolis, I started thinking about how a shift from book into film can change the subtext of a graphic novel. I’m thinking generally ...
-
May 05, 2015
Writers on TV Survey: Kathryn Mockler
As part of our Books and TV theme, I invited Toronto authors, editors, agents and others to tell us a bit about their personal reading and viewing habits. First up, poet, screenwriter and The Rusty Toque ...
-
August 03, 2017
Improv Taught Me How to Craft a Story
I know a lot of people who want to write books who don’t actually do any writing. It’s a curious thing to want to do something you don’t do. I used to be one of those people, so I say that with ...
-
June 01, 2017
How to Find Your Material -- and Mike Babcock
So there I was last Friday, landing in Phoenix with my hockey team, heading for a recreational hockey tournament. Ice hockey, I should specify, since we’re talking Phoenix, temperature 34 degrees C ...
-
May 20, 2021
Toilets and the Research Iceberg : Bringing History to Life
The best and worst part of writing historical fiction is research. The best and worst part of research is that chasing every bright and shiny object – oops, I mean fact – can be so addictive that ...
-
April 28, 2022
How I look at a map (part two): found poetry
In previous posts you’ve seen some of the things I’m thinking through when I’m creating visual poetry. And in the last post we got started working on a new piece by looking through archival material. ...
-
February 26, 2023
2 dreams
The last dream I had about working at the coffee shop, I met one of my coworkers in a park that never existed. It was behind the Safeway up the street from our work. We talked a bit about how our lives ...