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March 05, 2020Book Therapy: Shani Mootoo’s Polar Vortex
“The body is always in the moment. It doesn’t care if it was warmer or colder any other time. It’s concerned—a matter of survival, naturally—only with how it is in the present.”—Shani Mootoo, ...
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December 12, 2019Book Therapy: Christy Ann Conlin’s Watermark
“It can always be worse.”-Christy Ann Conlin, Watermark When my grandmother’s memory started to go, she would occasionally become belligerent. The sweet woman I had grown up knowing, the one ...
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March 21, 2020Trips Down Memory Lane: On Inhaling Old Notebooks
I’ve always envisioned Fall as the best season for fresh starts and rebirth, while Spring has always been a reflective season where I look back at previous months and years while documenting and acknowledging ...
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April 06, 2020Love Letter to a Stranger in Saint Petersburg
I’ve been thinking since my last post about how to write a communal poetics while in isolation, while I can’t reach out and physically connect with the poetry community that’s been so dear to me ...
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April 16, 2020Poets in Profile: Conyer Clayton on John Berryman, Seeing the Big Picture, and Finding Acceptance
Originally from Kentucky, poet, multi-disciplinary artist, and gymnastics coach Conyer Clayton is a freshly-minted Canadian citizen who now calls Ottawa home. Her debut full-length collection, We Shed ...
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March 27, 2020On Emergency Landings
A few years ago, I boarded a crowded plane to Asia. As I reached my aisle seat, I was dismayed to notice that the guy next to me had his arm all over our shared armrest, spilling over to my side. He was ...
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February 26, 2020My Story: Prudence Emery On Writing Her Memoir, Making New Discoveries, and Looking Back
Saying Prudence Emery has had a unique ride through life would be an understatement. Born in Nanaimo, British Columbia, she left behind her family and their expectations to attend art school in London, ...
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May 07, 2020Keep It Short: Faye Guenther on Outsider Characters, Moving Past Barriers, and Bryan Washington's 'Lot'
The often-unnoticed, inner lives of women occupy author Faye Guenther's short fiction collection Swimmers in Winter (Invisible Publishing).Uniquely told through a trio of paired stories, Guenther's debut ...
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August 26, 2020Dane Swan on Diversity, Good Editing, and His New Anthology
While there is surely a lot of work still to be done, Canadian literature is enjoying a pretty exciting time at the moment. With both large and indie publishers paying greater attention to work by authors ...
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April 26, 2020Love Letter to the Fearless Dr. Up
Well, it’s somehow the end of April and that brings me to just about the end of my time here as Writer in Residence for Open Book. At the end of the month I’m going to post a quick wrap up of everything ...
