Search
-
June 04, 2017Finding Your Material -- and This Time, Billie Holiday
The question is, how does a writer recognize what is uniquely her material? Save herself from wrong turns, dead ends, dead writing?The subject has always been central to me—an obsession—and years ...
-
May 03, 2021
Mental Health Awareness for Writers - not such a crazy idea.
The night I started planning my posts for this residency, I dreamed I was at a writers’ festival. A poet told me she wished she could tell stories – I said, ‘Every poem you write tells a story!’ ...
-
March 29, 2022The challenges (and joys) of receiving feedback
I am not proud of it, but my initial response to feedback on my writing is an instant NOPE. No way! ABSOLUTELY NOT. “What if you switched the point of view to third person?”NOPE. No way! ABSOLUTELY ...
-
July 13, 2022"An Act of Freedom and a Precarious Practice" Tanis MacDonald on the Politics and Culture of Taking a Walk
Taking a walk is a deceptively simple thing. To walk around outside can do wonders for our mental and physical health, sense of community, and stress levels. And yet "taking a walk" also exists at a fascinating ...
-
March 31, 2023April Writer in Residence Manahil Bandukwala Explores the Woman Behind the Taj Mahal in Her Masterful Debut Poetry Collection
One of the most iconic landmarks in world history, the spectacular Taj Mahal, was famously built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan to house the tomb of his favourite wife. A romantic story; a favourite tourist ...
-
May 12, 2023Read an Excerpt from Discipline n.v by Concetta Principe, a Wry Lyric Memoir of Navigating Academia's Prejudices
The academic world's nickname—the Ivory Tower—is meant to communicate that it's an environment where scholars can be cut off from everyday concerns while they pursue deep knowledge. But that removal ...
-
October 03, 2023Bradley Peters' Debut Poetry Collection Takes Readers into the Prison Experience & the Systemic Problems Within
One of the poems in Bradley Peters' Sonnets from a Cell (Brick Books) closes with the musing "A sonnet is not memory. More so/ It is a room the shape of my own face." This lyrical creativity and exploration ...
-
April 01, 2024Jody Chan's New Poetry Collection Challenges Systemic Failings in Community Care
Writer and therapist Jody Chan has had plenty of experience with systems of mental health treatment in Canada, and the ongoing shortcomings in care for citizens who are ill and look to these entities ...
-
April 04, 2024Ellen Chang-Richardson Confronts the Past and Perseveres in Their Debut Poetry Collection
While an author may carry scars from the past, and from wrongs done to their family and ancestors, they are not always visible or clear. Sometimes, they even become so familiar that the author finds them ...
-
August 12, 2024Rajinderpal S. Pal Explores Family Secrets, Painful Compromises, and the Promises We Break in However Far Away
Already a critically acclaimed stage performer and poet, Rajinderpal S. Pal has distilled a secret love affair, cultural complexities, and family drama into his new novel. It's a stunning debut by the ...
