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April 24, 2014
Poetic
Tell a classroom of wannabe writers to try their hands at a poem and the stilted, strangely wrought language that ensues can be alarming. It’s like they’re being told to write in some World War II ...
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December 05, 2023Mike Barnes on the Big Books in His Life, Including One Important "Thundering Masterpiece"
Mike Barnes is one of those rare writers who can do it all – in poetry, short fiction, novels, and memoir, he takes readers on nuanced, brainy, powerfully moving journeys. Fiercely intelligent yet consistently ...
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December 15, 2020Excerpt: Ann Burke's The Seventh Shot: On the Trail of Canada's .22-Calibre Killer Digs into a Killer Cop's Horrific Crimes
Ann Burke's The Seventh Shot: On the Trail of Canada's .22-Calibre Killer (Latitude 46 Publishing) goes back in time over thirty years to two horrific crimes that wouldn't be solved for decades to come. ...
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October 26, 2016
Favourite Literary Podcasts
I spent much of the day preparing to record a podcast, the third episode of On the Line: Conversations About Poetry (http://www.therustytoque.com/on-the-line). It’s a podcast designed to operate like ...
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February 18, 2021Fired Up About Consent Author Sarah Ratchford on the Books That Brought Them Tears, Lessons, & Laughter
The rallying cry often heard in conversations about consent is the simple truth: consent isn't just sexy—it's mandatory.And it's a topic that we're finally discussing with young people, with the hope ...
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May 14, 2009
Should Professors of Poetry at Oxford Be Without Sin?
A friend of mine, a Jamaican man, told me many years ago that he disliked going to bars in England, where he’d been a student. Why? Because if a man put his hand up under a woman’s skirt, he was likely ...
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March 11, 2019Writing and illustrating children’s books: All the surprises
The process of writing, illustrating and publishing a children’s book can be filled with surprises—good and bad! For example, I’m always surprised by how much my heart explodes when a friend sends ...
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October 03, 2017The Writer in the World: Introduction
The reader became the book; and summer night was like the conscious being of the book— Wallace StevensI became a book a long time ago. Or perhaps I am possessed by the memory of the experience of ...
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October 22, 2016
Beautiful Chapbooks
Chapbooks are versatile. They can take a multitude of forms and serve a multitude of functions. It’s generally a lengthy process for a regular book to make its way into print, but a chapbook can enter ...
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December 17, 2025Read an Excerpt from HIDE AND SIKH, the New Memoir from Sunny Dhillon
After leaving his job at The Globe and Mail in 2018, Sunny Dhillon published a blog post explaining his decision. It struck a nerve, circulating widely and inspiring conversation about race, belonging, ...
