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March 14, 2014
The Reading Rulebook
I used to go to a lot of public readings of poetry and fiction. Then I had kids, and rarely went, but recently, due to changing circumstances, I've been out to a few more, and what hasn't changed are ...
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January 15, 2019Read an Excerpt of Leon Rooke's The House on Major Street
Leon Rooke has been an important part of the Toronto literary scene for decades, so it is perfectly fitting that his newest novel, The House on Major Street (Porcupine's Quill) has an unapologetically ...
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January 24, 2018Poet & Artist Judy Lowry on Her Reading Life, from Wordsworth Woes to Beat Poet Surprises
Judy Lowry's unforgotten dream (The Brucedale Press) is a poetry collection informed by the stark beauty of Grey County, where Lowry (who is also an artist) lives. The poems range freely, living up to ...
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March 02, 2017
Your Book Doesn't Belong to You
You can never control how your work is going to be read, and that's part of the lovely participatory nature of the writer-reader relationship. But it can sometimes be jarring. I spent seven years writing ...
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October 11, 2019
Daddy Writer To Be – Writing for Children
For many years, I had a dream to write a children’s book. My passion of becoming a father inspired me to write a children’s book. As a child who questioned their own gender identity, I wanted ...
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February 02, 2016Poets in Profile: Majlinda Bashllari
Majlinda Bashllari published her first poetry collection in Albania in 2007. Less than ten years later the Toronto-based poet has released her first English language collection, Love is a very long word ...
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May 21, 2025A Missing, Celebrity Feline is at the Centre of Another Case in Mystery at the Biltmore #2: The Classified Catnapping
Our featured title today is the second book in the ongoing, acclaimed Mystery at the Biltmore series (Pajama Press), which has been enticingly billed as "Only Murders in the Building meets Harriet ...
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June 06, 2015Could We Can the Cover Copy?
I’m going to tell you something about my fiction-reading habits: I always skip the cover copy. The publisher-penned description printed on the cover and used everywhere from retailers’ websites to ...
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June 14, 2018Father's Day at Open Book: Six Unforgettable Fathers in Literature
Just as in real life, there are no two dads exactly alike in literature. From the terrifying to the brave, the disinterested to the inspiring, father characters have been some of the most interesting ...
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November 04, 2020"If Someone Feeds Me Wonder, They Have My Heart" Poet Sarah Venart on the Long Road to Her Powerful New Collection
Poet Sarah Venart dives deep into love, family, need, and grief in her powerful new collection I Am the Big Heart (Brick Books). But what is the big heart? In these poems, big-heartedness means being ...