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September 14, 2020Short is Beautiful
Don’t get me wrong, I like to lose myself in a big, fat novel. My first and still-favourite author is Charles Dickens. Not long ago I managed to get through Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch and a couple ...
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June 16, 2014Got Any Good Lit Jokes?
Several years ago, I spoke at a gala dinner at a writers’ festival in Thunder Bay. Picture a hotel ballroom filled with about a hundred people seated at tables for ten. I had tried to inject some humourous ...
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October 02, 2022
Let's Get Started
Hello Open Book ‘ers, My name is Lorrie and it’s my privilege to be the Writer in Residence for the month of October. I’m honoured and truly humbled. I’ll pass on a big introduction as it’s ...
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April 13, 2021"I Had Internalized the Belief That the Stories I Could Tell Had No Audience" FOLD Guest Authors on Progress & Process
If you haven't already marked May 1-15 on your calendar, now's the time. The Festival of Literary Diversity (FOLD), the brainchild of author Jael Richardson, is now in its sixth year and returns again ...
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September 29, 2016Interview With Vivek Shraya
Vivek Shraya is one of the most inspiring writers I’ve ever met. I was lucky enough to share the stage with her last year. She read from her beautiful novel, She of the Mountains, and I was moved by ...
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June 24, 2014Icym These: Some Interesting Ish from Around the Net.
1) A fascinating piece by celebrated novelist/writer Karl Ove Knausgaard about the self-loathing that has driven his lifelong desire for fame:http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes...2) Submissions Only is a ...
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September 17, 2020To Pandemic or not to Pandemic
Surely any period of upheaval and uncertainty is a difficult one to start a novel. And here we are, seven months into the pandemic and with no end in sight. Let’s say that you’re a novelist ...
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July 23, 2019Excerpt: Glimpse into Audrée Wilhelmy's Stunning and Mysterious Novel The Body of the Beasts
The strange, dark, and beautiful world of Audrée Wilhelmy's The Body of the Beasts (House of Anansi Press, translated by Susan Ouriou) is an utterly captivating one. In the novel, the Borya family ...
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September 26, 2022“I Choose My Country Over My Personal Needs" Feature Interview with Acclaimed Ukrainian Novelist Ivan Baidak
In just his early thirties, Ivan Baidak has already established himself as a literary superstar in Ukraine, with his novels and short stories winning critical acclaim while at the same time topping bestseller ...
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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 ...