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August 04, 2020My Attraction to Gritty Stories
Not all stories are romantic or are tied up neatly at the end. Sometimes characters do not have a redeeming quality, and sometimes their experiences have made them hard and difficult to “save.” Gritty ...
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March 13, 2017My final two columns: Part One
After nearly a decade, my time as a columnist for Open Book comes to a close. According to my email folder, it was May 2009 when Amy Logan Holmes first approached me with the idea of submitting pieces ...
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April 09, 2017My final two columns: Part Two
As rob has mentioned, this is the second part of his final column for Open Book. The staff at Open Book would like to share our appreciation for a decade of columns, and for rob's contributions to the ...
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October 18, 2018
My friend Richard
In my last post I talked about some of the influential writers and books that inspired me to seriously pursue my own creative writing. My list is much longer than that, and there are many more storytellers ...
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January 30, 2019My Reading Year: What I Learned from Reading 275 Books in 365 Days
The other day I told a friend that I'd read 275 books in 2018 and he responded by laughing and declaring emphatically, "That's a reading year!"I think that's an excellent way to describe my past year. ...
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August 15, 2017Naben Ruthnum on Titles, Curry, and What's Next
Coach House Books' unique Exploded Views series publishes short and sweet non-fiction books that offer fresh perspectives on complex issues. Their newest offering is Journey Prize winner Naben Ruthnum's ...
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May 16, 2024Naseem Hrab and Kelly Collier Share a Conversation About Otis and Peanut Forever and Ever
Collaborating on a series of picture books or graphic novels is quite the task, but some of the finest KidLit out there comes from these fruitful partnerships between talented authors and illustrators.This ...
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June 28, 2019Navigating Microaggressions as a Black Writer in CanLit
Story time! Yesterday evening, I had the pleasure of doing a talk with the wonderful and talented Olive Senior and I was excited because it was held in the same neighbourhood where my protagonist, Kara, ...
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June 28, 2021Necessary Residential School Reading
As more and more mass graves at former residential school sites are brought to light, many Canadians are finally realizing the extent of genocide in this country, while many Indigenous people are reliving ...
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February 12, 2018New faces at Annick Press
The last few months have seen some major personnel changes at Annick Press, with the retirement of creative director Sheryl Shapiro and longtime marketing manager Brigitte Waisberg in December. Their ...
