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December 29, 2022
Book Therapy: Favourites From My Favourites
“It was the book I was always meant to read. It spoke directly to me, braiding so many currents of my own life—messy motherhood, literary research, poetry—into a rich river of language and rhythm ...
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December 12, 2019
Book 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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October 22, 2023
Writing For Ghouls
It’s spooky season, and here in Atlantic Canada the ambiance is that of a flooded crypt. The smell of wet fallen leaves, rainy days that feel heavy and dark as night, smoke on the air indicating warmth ...
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May 31, 2014
So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye
This marks my last post as Open Book Toronto's writer-in-residence, and I want to thank everyone for their support this past month. Everyone has been extremely kind – both those authors, artists, and ...
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October 04, 2023
Music, Automation, and Writing With a Satellite Mindset
Technology drained away my love of new music with the promise of access. That’s why I didn’t see it happening. Logging on to my subscription streaming service, I’m greeted with abundance—playlists ...
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December 22, 2020
Beyond the Claus: Winter & Holiday Reading Recommendations That Go Beyond Just Christmas
While Christmas stories are a ton of fun, at this time of year it's easy for other holidays, traditions, and narratives to get overlooked.To highlight the wealth of wintry and holiday reading out there ...
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August 12, 2016
Pleasant Days … with Stu and Crad
My basement excavations — the chaotic and ecstatic unpacking of dozens of boxes of cryogenically preserved books — recently produced a copy of a chapbook I haven’t thought about in decades. Pleasant ...
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August 12, 2021
ECW Creates New Speculative Novel Contest, with a Book Contract for the Winner
Speculative fiction writers, take note: ECW Press is doing something unique and interesting in the form of a new contest, called the ECW Press Best New Speculative Novel Contest, and the prize is a biggie: ...
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May 20, 2009
More About Knowing Where We’re Coming from
Funny. In the last post, talking about the need to preserve our cultural creations, I said that we have to know where we’re coming from or we won’t know where we’re going. Today, by accident, I ...
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August 03, 2021
In Praise of Editors
I believe the most important relationship in publishing is between the author and the editor. It’s a fundamental partnership that turns ideas into prose and drafts into polished works. When the editing ...