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August 10, 2011Ten Questions, with Michael Bliss
Michael Bliss has been hailed as one of Canada's leading intellectuals and is often approached for his opinion on political, cultural and historical issues. His achievements have earned him an Order of ...
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July 31, 2018Tanis MacDonald on How We Can Expand Our Idea of the Writing Life to Include Smaller Communities
The stereotype of the artist and writer tends to be an urban one - tiny apartments; cigarettes and whisky; gritty, loud, and busy streets outside the window. But where do these pictures come from and, ...
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February 19, 2019On Burnout
I’ve finished my first book. I’ve done the writing, the rewriting, the editing, more rewriting, the copy editing, the fact checking… I think you get the point. It was a lot of work. But now I’m ...
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June 07, 2023When Readers Write
Whenever I do a book event, people tell me things. Sometimes they tell me a bit about themselves or their families. At other times, they disclose traumatic experiences. I respond by holding the moment, ...
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September 18, 2023The Places I Write, Rated
I’ll write anywhere but not all writeable spaces are equal. My latest novel was written all over the place (see: How to Write a Novel in a Month) and if I learned anything from that experience it’s ...
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May 22, 2017
Gotta read
The way it was, shapes of letters in the alphabet were like suggestions of different parts of insects. That was in the beginning when I first became aware of them, how different they were—the construction ...
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June 20, 2019"The Downton Abbey of India" Sohan S. Koonar on His Powerful Historical Novel Paper Lions, Sikh Representation in Literature, & More
The years from 1939, the beginning of the Second World War, into the 1960s were a time of enormous change. And that change was by no means limited to the war and its aftermath in Europe. In his new novel Paper ...
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June 24, 2015
Why I Read Obituaries
To get out of a dry writing spell several years ago, I had to take drastic measures. To take drastic measures meant calling my writer friend. In Ontario.She was shocked but not surprised when I called ...
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March 03, 2014
The Dirty Dozen, with Brian Panhuyzen
By Open Book and Brian PanhuyzenBrian Panhuyzen is a short story writer and novelist and is Open Book: Toronto's March 2014 Writer-in-Residence.Stay tuned throughout the month to hear from Brian on subject ...
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January 22, 2020Rugged Beauty, Stolen Horses and Tragic Circuses: Nick Tooke Takes a Trip to BC's Great Depression in his Debut Novel
Set in the ragged B.C. interior during the Great Depression, British-Canadian author Nick Tooke's debut novel The Ballad of Samuel Hewitt (Porcupine's Quill) tells the story of a teenage boy who, fueled ...
