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March 14, 2014
The Reading Rulebook
I used to go to a lot of public readings of poetry and fiction. Then I had kids, and rarely went, but recently, due to changing circumstances, I've been out to a few more, and what hasn't changed are ...
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October 30, 2018SK Dyment on Crafting Characters in Steel Animals, a Smart, Hilarious New Book of Queer Magic Realism
Jackie is a quiet loner who happens to secretly be a badass bank robber. Vespa is a artist who rides motorbikes and obsessively plans her revenge on an ex-partner. Together, they find love and a heap ...
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March 07, 2025Michaela Jeffery's The Extractionist is a Razor-Sharp, Neon-Noir Thriller
Calgary-based playwright Michaela Jeffery has been winning accolades and awards for her work for some time now, and has been exciting audiences with her stunning works that lean into themes of feminist ...
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February 02, 2016Poets in Profile: Majlinda Bashllari
Majlinda Bashllari published her first poetry collection in Albania in 2007. Less than ten years later the Toronto-based poet has released her first English language collection, Love is a very long word ...
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July 04, 2023Read an Excerpt from The Loneliness in Lydia Erneman's Life by Norwegian Literary Star Rune Christiansen
In an increasingly connected but paradoxically lonelier world, the idea of true solitude is a complex one. Finding contentment in a quiet life seems both dreamlike and untenably isolating to many, and ...
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September 27, 2022The Joy of Literary Festivals – And Dreams Coming True
It’s hard to believe we’ve come to the end of September and that the time I have been privileged to spend with you on this Open Book platform is almost over. Looking back at what I have shared with ...
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October 27, 2018
Characters like family
One of my favourite parts of the writing process is creating and developing characters. I’ve always believed a story is only as strongly crafted as the people in it. Characters are the pillars of and ...
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September 01, 2016Hello Open Book Readers!
I’m incredibly happy to be this month’s Writer in Residence.I’m so honoured to join the list of writers whose work I love, who’ve been writers in residence in the past.The timing is perfect because ...
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January 31, 2019A Title Should Be a "Dream in Which the Work Lives": Talking with our February 2019 writer-in-residence Deanna Young
Ottawa poet Deanna Young is the author of four collections of poetry, which have earned her praise and nominations for numerous prizes including the Trillium Book Award for Poetry, the Ottawa Book Award, ...
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September 25, 2019"Intimacy Was a Lost Country" Billy-Ray Belcourt on His Origin Story & Reading Like His Life Depends on It
In 2017, Billy-Ray Belcourt took the poetry world by storm with his debut collection, This World is a Wound. It went on to win the 2018 Griffin Prize (amongst many other honours), making Belcourt the ...
