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August 21, 2018THREAD! The Role of the Twitter Essay in CanLit
When most people think of Twitter, they think of the short and pithy 280-character messages that the platform is best known for. But perhaps the most interesting content on the social network is shared ...
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October 10, 2018A Tribute to Literary Friendships
“Are you a writer?” I asked the girl standing on the other side of the table.I was manning a booth for a writing program at an outdoor literary festival. It was cold and attendance was down. Most ...
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May 09, 2019A Letter to Writers Who Are Not Writing (Right Now)
Dear Fellow Writer,My life is paused right now. It stutters like a record in a too-worn groove. Morning comes and then night. I’m able to colour in the basics of my day. I go to work. I write my freelance ...
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September 12, 2018How to Finish Your Damn Book - For Beginners!
I often joke that writing a novel is like running a marathon---only no one bothers to tell you what the route is. When the gun goes off, you’re just supposed to head off in whatever direction you think ...
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January 15, 2019On Re-Fusing CanLit--Or Why We Need Integrity, Community, and Roses
In a lot of the trauma memoirs I’ve been reading lately, I see the same metaphor used to describe the process of healing. You’ve likely heard it too. It compares healing from trauma to the Japanese ...
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June 06, 2019Interdependence as Disabled Poetics and Praxis: Or Why My Novel is Dedicated to My Disabled Friend Maddy
People often say that they couldn’t have written their books without the help and support of friends and family. This is particularly true for disabled writers. Finishing my novel required many hours ...
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November 29, 2019What Does Work/Life Balance Look Like for Writers?
“What do you want to be when you grow up?”This is a question children are often asked with a bemused smile by teachers, family, or friends. They expect that you’ll reply with some fantastical thing: ...
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April 24, 2020A Crip Writer’s Advice for Surviving a Pandemic
“Write a book!”“Finish your memoir!”“Turn all this fear and grief into brilliant poetry!”As we have all now found out, the cultural imperative to be as productive as possible doesn’t disappear ...
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March 08, 2021On Giving Myself Permission Not to Write
I know I have to write it. The essay I’ve been trying to write for a year and a half.I will be in the grocery store or out in the muck of a hike dripping with sweat and a sentence of it will come to ...
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July 08, 2021James A. Onusko on the Complex Legacy of the Baby Boomers' Suburban Youths
Both urban and rural settings abound in literature, but the manufactured homogeneity of suburban areas is less frequently deemed worthy of literary exploration. Academic James A. Onusko challenges that ...