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February 22, 2022Monique Polak on Helping Kids Find Themselves While Exploring Parental Alienation in Her New Middle Grade Book
Everything in Justine's world has changed since her parents got divorced. She and her little sister Bea travel across Montreal from one house to the other, living two lives. But when Justine's mother ...
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September 07, 2016Interview with Amy Jones: Ideas, Characters and the Importance of Representing Northern Ontario in Literature
Amy Jones’ We’re All In This Together (M&S, 2016) is a remarkable debut novel. Featuring an idiosyncratic family of characters who are vulnerable, at times hilarious, and always completely believable, ...
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September 11, 2015
Don’t Think About It All at Once
Here’s something that I’ve been thinking about a lot recently. A friend recently advised me what a friend had advised her: don’t think about it all at once. She was referring to the world after ...
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June 30, 2014
A Month in the Life of the Launching Author
Today marks one month since May 31, the official publication date of my new novel The Oakdale Dinner Club, and one month since I started my residency here at Open Book Toronto.Within the month of June, ...
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June 08, 2014Comfort Food, Comfort Reading, Comfort Movie
My new novel The Oakdale Dinner Club is very food-centric – it’s about a group of suburbanites who get together once a month to eat good food, drink good wine, and do other wicked things.One of the ...
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March 17, 2023An Unconventional Interview: The Paintings of Jeffery Donaldson's Ode to Art Galleries, Momento, Speak Out
A plain white room with some squares hanging on the walls fills with people, many of whom stay and stare. Maybe some are even weeping, or laughing, or huddled in deep discussion about what they see. An ...
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March 30, 2019Writer at Work: The Steadfastness of Beauty
Last fall, a few days after my book, Port of Being, was sent to the printer, I met with Juliane Okot Bitek, whom I had asked for a blurb. During that rainy day at a pub, Juliane and I shared our parallel ...
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February 15, 2023Lorna Schultz Nicholson on Writing a Picture Book That Encourages Kids to Think About What They Most Value
If you had only a few minutes to gather the things you love most from your home before fleeing, what would you take?This difficult decision is at the centre of Lorna Schultz Nicholson's powerful picture ...
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June 27, 2014Forget Cottage Country: 8 Reasons to Summer in the City of Toronto
School’s out and the Canada Day weekend is nigh, but that’s no reason to get out of town. Stay here, and enjoy these only-in-Toronto good things instead:1. Toronto IslandBike down to the ferry docks ...
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October 29, 2015
The Problem with Working for Free
When I first started writing, I took any opportunities I could.First, I interned at a magazine for a high co-op program. Later, I wrote CD reviews for free, got a few poems published in some zines, and ...