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March 01, 2021
Writing violence (again)
On violence and trauma and repetition...When I was nineteen, I went to dinner at a friend’s, and afterwards, her father invited us all upstairs to see his attic art studio.There were so many canvasses ...
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April 15, 2017
Kathryn Mockler on Poetry Exercises
Today in my series on poetry prompts and exercises, I'm featuring writer Kathryn Mockler. She teaches creative writing, poetry, and screenwriting at Western University, and runs private workshops through ...
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October 11, 2021
PECULIAR TIMES
Write at the edges of the day.― Toni MorrisonI was a thirty-four old woman with three children under the age of eight when I got the bright idea to write my first novel. I was also working outside the ...
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June 15, 2021
Rahela Nayebzadah, Author of the Powerful New Novel Monster Child, on Being Nicknamed "Revenge", Dream Trips, & Spike Lee
Rahela Nayebzadah's darkly magical new novel, Monster Child (Wolsak & Wynn), mixes the fantastical with the grimly real as siblings Beh, Shabnam, and Alif navigate a new world together. The children ...
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July 30, 2018
The Part of It You Don't See
If you’ve been reading my dispatches over the last month, you might have inferred that making a go of it as a writer is hard. Bending reality, memory, knowledge and experience into believable fiction, ...
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October 15, 2021
MUSE ON THE LAM
Today’s post is about what to do when your muse goes AWOL. When your muse is a contrarian like mine is, getting them to show up for work often requires lengthy debates. Who has that extra time?The ...
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April 30, 2024
Building a Writing Routine When You’re Bad at Routines
I’ve written before about my bad luck in developing a structured writing routine. I’m happy to report that in the time since I wrote that, I still haven’t developed a structured writing routine—but ...
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November 29, 2022
Ann Lambert Shares the Inspiration for Her Irresistible New Climate-Centric Mystery, Whale Fall
Ann Lambert's Whale Fall (Second Story Press) brings readers back to her series heroes, Marie Russell and Detective Roméo Leduc, at a happy time; the two are just about to marry, following their adventures ...
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February 27, 2024
Johanna Skibsrud shares the lives and perspectives of women who biologically, physically, or spiritually shaped the course of history, in Medium
How do we truly transmit experience, while remaining open to transmissions from others; physically, biologically, intellectually, spirituallly, or culturally? This is one of the central questions in the ...
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April 19, 2022
"Only a Grandma Could" Shenaaz Nanji on Joyfully Celebrating Identity & Culture Against Bullying & Prejudice
Everyone can remember the dread of walking in to a new situation as a kid – especially if you're the only one who's new. For Alina, in Shenaaz Nanji's newest book Alina in a Pinch, moving to a new ...