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February 20, 2024Make-believe and Melodrama Create Comedy in the New Picture Book, The Only Lonely Fairy
Make-believe and melodrama collide to create a heartfelt comedy in The Only Lonely Fairy (Pajama Press), the new picture book by Lana Button, illustrated by Peggy Collins. A story about emotional ...
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November 24, 2016
Book Club Talk and Margaret Atwood's Double Persephone
By Bianca Lakoseljac: OB Writer in Residence One of the highlights of being a writer is chatting with readers. Whether it’s about the setting for my novel, the characters’ triumphs and heartbreaks, ...
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March 07, 2023Artist & Poet Matthew Hollett on Optic Nerve, His Witty, Poetic Love Letter to the Act of Looking
What doing writing and photography have in common? Certainly both can be records, both necessarily show the creator's perspective – and both can crack open new worlds, crystallized stories, or spectacular ...
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December 21, 2021"I Did Not Choose to Become a Poet" Nduka Otiono on Ghost Writing Love Letters, Negotiating with Poems, & More
DisPlace: The Poetry of Nduka Otiono (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, edited by Peter Midgley with an afterword by Chris Dunton) gathers powerhouse poems from one of Canada's most insightful and timely ...
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November 28, 2022Scott Griffin on The Griffin Prize's Evolution into the World's Largest Poetry Prize
In September, the Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry announced a major change to the prestigious Griffin Poetry Prizes: the two annual prizes, one awarded to a book of Canadian poetry and the other ...
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June 07, 2019CBC Host Amanda Parris' New Play Celebrates Black Women Working for Change in a Biased Society
How do you change a society that seems stuck in its biases and ignorance? This is one of the urgent questions at the centre of CBC host Amanda Parris' powerful new play Other Side of the Game (Playwright ...
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March 26, 2013Kid Lit Can, with Susan Hughes: Classic Canadian Children's Books, Old and New (Part Two)
Welcome back to the kick-off of my monthly blog on Open Book: Toronto, which will be celebrating Canadian children's books, their creators and the kid lit biz in general!In Part One of this blog, I asked ...
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August 12, 2021"There is Power in Sharing Ideas" Bree Galbraith's Hold That Thought Encourages Kids to Let Their Ideas Shine
In the middle of the night, Finn feels something strange and exciting. Something forming slowly, getting sharper and clearer each moment: it's an idea. And the idea fills Finn with a thrilling kind of ...
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July 22, 2021Alma Fullerton Uses Literal Plastic Trash to Advocate for a Plastic-Free Future in Her Inspiring New Picture Book
Alma Fullerton's No More Plastic (Pajama Press) goes beyond simply communicating its titular message in words. Instead, Fullerton got down to the nitty gritty and created her illustrations out of literal ...
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June 16, 2021Playwrights Team Andrea Mapili & Byron Abalos on Creating a Magical Adventure Story Where Filipinx-Canadian Kids Can Feel Seen
What book loving kid didn't dream of being literally transported into the pages of their favourite adventure? For 12-year old Philly, that dream becomes a reality when opening a mysterious old book whisks ...