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November 15, 2016“You can't write fiction on a napkin,” an Interview with Eva H.D.
There is a strand of literature that aligns itself closer to the blue collar, working class values of general communication and accessible story telling than the “high-brow,” all encompassing grand ...
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September 20, 2024Farzana Doctor's New YA Novel is About Surviving Hardship, the Power of Friendship, and Growing Up
Acclaimed author and psychotherapist Farzana Doctor has explored the human condition in-depth through her adult fiction and non-fiction, and now her latest novel is a richly woven work for young adult ...
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January 16, 2017Canadian Melancholy
During the nineties, barely out of teenagehood, I walked up to the run-down apartment building in Cabbagetown where Seth lived. I rang the bell and when he answered, in shirt sleeves and suspenders naturally, ...
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April 12, 2018Mark Frutkin on Describing Characters and Writing a Literal Devil's Advocate
In Mark Frutkin's The Rising Tide (Porcupine's Quill), it's 1769 in Venice and things are getting pretty strange. From a man with a skeleton strapped to his back to a courtesan with odd stigmata marks, ...
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November 24, 2010Inside the University of Guelph Creative Writing MFA at Guelph-Humber, with Catherine Bush
Catherine Bush, novelist and associate program coordinator of the University of Guelph Creative Writing MFA at Guelph-Humber, talks to Open Book about their unique writing program, the award-winning mentoring ...
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February 09, 2022
I Miss You, Setsubun
ひさびさ ("it's been ages"), Open Book reader! Thanks for stopping by for another post. I hope things are going well for you these days. On my end, life has been wack. And yes, I'm aware of how old ...
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April 26, 2019Poet Ayaz Pirani on Oral Tradition, Literary Gatekeepers, and Writing Faithful Lines
Ayaz Pirani's work has been praised as "wise... surprising [and] sly" and his newest collection, Kabir’s Jacket Has a Thousand Pockets (Mawenzi House), builds on his characteristic insightful, elegant ...
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March 01, 2022Bill Richardson on Sharing Writing Space with Irving Layton and Robertson Davies
"In this last week, there are seven days."In Bill Richardson Last Week (Groundwood Books, illustrated by Emilie Leduc), a child knows they've got a week to spend with their grandmother. But unlike ...
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June 25, 2018
Mentors & Allies 3: Jónína Kirton
Everything happens for a reason. A person enters your life at a specific time, and specific place for a reason. When I met Jónína Kirton, her energy wrapped my body like a hug I had been so desperately ...
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July 05, 2012Filling in the Blanks: Photography, Inspiration and Max Dean’s Albums
I have an album. It isn’t mine, but I am taking care of it. For how long, I’m not sure. I’m not even sure for whom.The album tells a story, but the narrative is fragmented. It’s set in the US ...