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March 15, 2021Book Therapy: In Praise of Retreat
“Chosen solitude is about agency, self-reliance and gaining clarity.When the churning mind-waters settle, I can begin to dip into the wellspring of my life.If I stay quiet long enough, I begin to forget ...
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March 15, 2021A Behind the Scenes Glimpse of How Picture Books are Illustrated with Nathalie Dion
Have you ever dreamed of illustrating a children's book? Montreal-based artist Nathalie Dion has shared a fascinating glimpse of the work that goes into every element of every page of the books she illustrates. Groundwood ...
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March 13, 2021
Permission to dream
When I started writing, I didn’t understand the invisible work. The models of labour I was most familiar with—whether in a coffee shop, at a hotel, in a firehall, or at a construction site—were, ...
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March 12, 2021Zoom Class: Omar El Akkad and the Challenges of Writing Resistance
Sometimes there are Zoom meetings that can break you. Last week it took me five days to recover from the nausea, headaches, and light sensitivity caused by one single day of back-to-back virtual meetings. ...
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March 10, 2021A "Book Behind Which No Part of Me Could Hide": Andrea Actis' Poetic Memoir of Grief & Loss is Stunning
Content warning: death in the family, grief. It's an unimaginable scene: returning home one night in 2007, Andrea Actis entered her Vancouver apartment to discover her father, lying dead. The aftermath ...
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March 09, 2021
A love letter (to books)
The first quote-unquote serious novel I read was One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn. My eighth grade teacher set down a box at the front of the classroom and, in a seemingly ...
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March 08, 2021"I Was Completely Transported by Every Sentence" The CBC Canada Reads Panellists on Their Debate Strategies & Their Love for Their Chosen Books
Everyone's favourite literary smackdown returns today through Thursday: the 2021 edition of CBC Canada Reads will bring the same fiery debates from passionate panellists championing their chosen book ...
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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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March 05, 2021
Writing Time
When it comes to writing, I have a hard time wrapping my head around some of the basics—namely space and time. I find it easy to imagine myself into a character’s head—to project myself into a character’s ...
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April 29, 2021May 2021 Writer-in-Residence Wendy Orr Explores Love & Disability in Ancient Greece in Her Captivating New Novel
Children's author Wendy Orr knows how to capture the imagination of young readers in her many acclaimed books (including fan favourite Nim's Island, which was even adapted as a blockbuster film). ...
