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May 01, 2022
The Writer (You Think) I am
The year before trying out for the Simon Fraser University basketball team, I trained in ways and at an intensity I never before had. I wanted to make that team so badly, so desirous was I to prove myself, ...
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April 30, 2022Artist's Books
For my last blog post as Open Book’s writer-in-residence and to close out poetry month I want to talk to you about one of my favourite things: Artist’s Books! I’ve shared some of my passion for ...
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April 29, 2022Book Therapy: Good Mom on Paper
“Children require their parents to search for small moments of peace or grace or dignity. Maybe we can treat creativity the same way: creating the one true thing within a project that is otherwise just ...
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April 29, 2022May Writer in Residence Mark David Smith on His Macbeth Inspired Witch-Detective Series for Kids
If you read Macbeth and thought (like us) "less political scheming and more of those fabulous witches, please", you're in luck because teacher and writer Mark David Smith's The Weird Sisters: A Note, ...
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April 27, 2022Keith Garebian on Reinventing Nature Poetry as Unsentimental & Giving the Suburbs Its Poetic Due
The western suburbs of Toronto might not seem like an obvious spot to inspire a poet, but Keith Garebian turns the Lakeshore Road area of Mississauga and Etobicoke into something meditative and striking ...
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April 26, 2022"This is the First Time I’ve Kissed a Girl" Meet Sophie Labelle's Nonbinary Teen Protagonist in an Excerpt from Wish Upon a Satellite
Sophie Labelle, creator of the popular web comic Assigned Male and an acclaimed writer, activist, and artist, has created a memorable, witty, and vibrant nonbinary protagonist in Ciel, the teenage ...
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April 21, 2022How to Start a Writers’ Group
I spent years working on a novel about a lifeguard who was terrified of drowning. Years, of sitting in the same corner of the same coffee shop bashing out draft after unreadable draft. And the only feedback ...
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April 21, 2022"If You Have a Deep Longing to Write, You Must" Indra Ramayan on Her Debut Novel Set in Edmonton's Dark Underbelly
In Indra Ramayan's Mud Lilies (Cormorant Books), we meet Chanie Nyrider who, at just 18, has already survived four years in the darkest corners of Edmonton. After escaping her abusive parents and with ...
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April 19, 2022"Only a Grandma Could" Shenaaz Nanji on Joyfully Celebrating Identity & Culture Against Bullying & Prejudice
Everyone can remember the dread of walking in to a new situation as a kid – especially if you're the only one who's new. For Alina, in Shenaaz Nanji's newest book Alina in a Pinch, moving to a new ...
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April 14, 2022Research (creation) in Writing
In my first post I mentioned my first chapbook of treaty poetry, and how it came about as part of a research-creation project during an undergraduate English course. A lot of writers might be currently ...