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April 05, 2016How to Give Good Read
In a month, I will be hitting the road to tour my new book of poetry, even this page is white. In addition to trying to manage the general anxieties that arise when putting art into the world, I have ...
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May 25, 2016How to Get Your Book Published (No, Really)
When I asked friends what they would want to know about the literary world, the consistent response I received was: How does someone get published?A quick Google search reveals that many, many articles ...
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November 03, 2016The Art of Giving Feedback
In 2009, after I had finished an early draft of my first book, God Loves Hair, I gave some of my closest friends a copy of the manuscript for their feedback. It was a vulnerable experience, especially ...
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December 06, 2016Ask & Answer Post-Tour
In the spring of 2015, I became aware that fellow multi-disciplinary Toronto artist, Chase Joynt, was publishing his first book, You Only Live Twice. A long time admirer of Chase's work, I immediately ...
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October 05, 2016How To Make a Great Book Cover
The most important lesson I learned when I self-published my first book was that readers do judge a book by its cover. This is often framed as negative but as author and illustrator Annie Mok recently ...
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September 06, 2016September: My Season of Jealousy
September marks the beginning of award announcements and big fall book launches. In recent years, September has also marked the beginning of my season of jealousy. I feel apprehensive typing these words ...
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March 11, 2018
Escape from reality: Conventions, conferences and expos.
I haven’t spoken about it a whole lot, but just a few months before the The Bone Mother’s release, my mother died. While not unexpected, it was unpleasant, and of course brought a lot of memories ...
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March 14, 2018
How to hold a launch.
There comes a time in a writer’s life when, if you are very lucky, you will be published (frequently but not always a book) and you may feel the need to draw attention to it with some kind of hoohah. ...
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March 18, 2018
A picture prompts a thousand words.
Readers of The Bone Mother will know that a significant part of the book’s effectiveness lies in the beautiful, unsettling archival photographs that illustrate the sections that are sent in and around ...
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March 25, 2018
There's a lot to be said for not knowing what you're doing.
I’ve been writing professionally for nearly 40 years now, across a variety of media, and even now, every time I start a new project, it’s as if I’ve never written anything before in my life. I generally ...
