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August 26, 2021
The Writing Moment with SHORT FILMS
As writers, we draw inspiration and learn from other arts, whether painting, music, comics, or videogames. By offering inspiration beyond the written word, these arts can provide new experiences for us ...
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October 18, 2016
Poetic Inspiration II
This is the second in a series of posts highlighting poems that have made my synapses crackle, broadened my sense of what poems can be and do, and sparked me to stretch further in my own work. The first ...
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October 28, 2020
In good company
So, you finished your novel and sent it off anticipating it’s publication. Bravo! If you get a “No thanks, this isn’t for us” note, then consider yourself in good company. Many an author’s ...
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October 17, 2020
Fertile ground
Sometimes story ideas seem to come from out of the blue.“I don't know myself where the ideas really come from, what makes them come, or whether one day they'll stop. I used to tell people the not very ...
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October 09, 2018
"How do you find time to write?"
Like many authors, I have a full-time job that’s my primary source of income. It’s a wonderfully fulfilling gig in a truly enjoyable and engaging profession that’s been my primary career for the ...
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January 03, 2024
"A Paradigm Shift That Has Become Entirely Normalized" Read an Excerpt from Gary Barwin's Essay Collection, Imagining Imagining
Renaissance man Gary Barwin has exhibited art, written music, and published in virtually every literary genre, to acclaim that has included nominations for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and Governor General's ...
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June 03, 2019
I Promise You, It's Fiction.
Full disclosure, I had another post planned to kick off my Writer in Residency here on Open Book but I decided to change topics after seeing a write-up/review of my forthcoming short story collection. ...
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October 05, 2018
Telling and Writing the End of the World
My grandmother, Aileen Rice, was the strongest connection I had to a pre-contact world. She used to tell me stories about how her great-grandparents’ generation used to migrate up and down the eastern ...
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January 30, 2020
February 2020 Writer-in-Residence Nadia Hohn on Recommended Books, Overlooked Gems, and Charming Tropes
Critically-acclaimed Jamaican-Canadian children's author Nadia Hohn has spent her career celebrating Black stories, from her award-winning debut picture book Malaika's Costume (House of Anansi) to her ...
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October 11, 2023
Vulnerability is a Writing Tool
My most reflexive apology is, “I went to theatre school.” Usually delivered with a shrug or a knowing smirk as if to say I can’t help it, it gets a laugh from the creative set about 82 percent of ...