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October 23, 2016
Poetic Inspiration III
This is the third in a series of posts highlighting inventive poems that have broadened my sense of what poems can be and do, and sparked me to stretch further in my own work. (The previous instalments ...
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June 28, 2023The Benefits of Being an Imposter
Like most writers, I’ve had a lot of rent jobs. When I was lucky, I worked in my chosen fields of editing and education. When I wasn’t so lucky, I worked in an institutional kitchen, as an ad mail ...
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November 26, 2020Children’s Book Gift Guide for Little (and Big) Bookworms
I love buying children’s books for my niece and nephew. They all have such different personalities and interests and it’s so fun for me to find books I think they’ll enjoy. And I also love buying ...
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April 27, 2021"I Didn’t Have a Word for it Back Then" Acclaimed Writer & Poet Laureate Louise B. Halfe – Sky Dancer on Her Writing Journey
Over storied her career, Louise B. Halfe – Sky Dancer (who was recently appointed Canada's parliamentary poet laureate), has proved she can do it all: her writing is powerful, raw, and wise. But ...
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August 22, 2023Marie-Louise Gay on Getting Personal about Tough Childhood Moments in Her Magical New Picture Book
For a kid, moving to a new house and finding friends in a new school can be extremely tough. In iconic KidLit creator Marie-Louise Gay's new picture book, Hopscotch (Groundwood Books), Ophelia uses ...
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May 05, 2020Writers As Readers: May 2020 Writer-in-Residence Derek Mascarenhas on His Favourite Books
Told through seventeen linked short stories, Toronto author Derek Mascarenhas' debut Coconut Dreams (Book*hug) traces the lives of a South Asian family through a series of shifting voices and timelines, ...
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February 12, 2025Tea Gerbeza Challenges Ableist Perceptions of Normalcy in How I Bend Into More
Among the many complex themes in Tea Gerbeza's work, reclaiming disabled identity, disability justice, and disabled and queer joy are just a sampling. These concerns and more find their way onto the ...
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April 08, 2014
Touch of Class
The other day, I agreed to read one of my own poems at a sixtieth wedding anniversary. There were fewer trees on the main street of the small town just north of Toronto than the last time I’d been there, ...
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December 05, 2022Get Some Chocolate Ready for When You Read Sandra Bradley's Cocoa Magic, a Perfectly Cozy Picture Book
Sandra Bradley's Cocoa Magic (Pajama Press, illustrated by Gabrielle Grimard) is coming out at just the right time: combining a story of kindness and generosity with a fragrant chocolate shop as its homey ...
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June 30, 2023Adapting an Adult Book Into a Book for Young Readers
I know that young people are reading my 2019 book, because they’ve written me e-mails and messaged me on various social media platforms to tell me where they got it (thank you, libraries) and who they’re ...
