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October 17, 2022
My Abuser Died
Trigger Warning – Sexual Violence, Childhood Sexual Abuse, Trauma.I have pondered the title of this thread for weeks now, wondering if I should lead with a softer opening. Something like, ‘the ...
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August 04, 2020My Attraction to Gritty Stories
Not all stories are romantic or are tied up neatly at the end. Sometimes characters do not have a redeeming quality, and sometimes their experiences have made them hard and difficult to “save.” Gritty ...
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March 13, 2017My final two columns: Part One
After nearly a decade, my time as a columnist for Open Book comes to a close. According to my email folder, it was May 2009 when Amy Logan Holmes first approached me with the idea of submitting pieces ...
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April 09, 2017My final two columns: Part Two
As rob has mentioned, this is the second part of his final column for Open Book. The staff at Open Book would like to share our appreciation for a decade of columns, and for rob's contributions to the ...
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October 18, 2018
My friend Richard
In my last post I talked about some of the influential writers and books that inspired me to seriously pursue my own creative writing. My list is much longer than that, and there are many more storytellers ...
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November 11, 2016
My Inspiration--"...look at me Leonard"
By Bianca Lakoseljac: Writer in Residence A poet, a musician, a novelist, a philosopher in his own way—a Canadian icon! A man. Yet, why do I think of Leonard Cohen as more than a man—as an immortal? ...
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January 30, 2019My Reading Year: What I Learned from Reading 275 Books in 365 Days
The other day I told a friend that I'd read 275 books in 2018 and he responded by laughing and declaring emphatically, "That's a reading year!"I think that's an excellent way to describe my past year. ...
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February 26, 2020My Story: Prudence Emery On Writing Her Memoir, Making New Discoveries, and Looking Back
Saying Prudence Emery has had a unique ride through life would be an understatement. Born in Nanaimo, British Columbia, she left behind her family and their expectations to attend art school in London, ...
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September 16, 2019
My Teenaged Reading Secret
When I was six my mom started to take me with her on her weekly visits to the public library. Mom was a fan of Dorothy L. Sayers; I was a fan of Raggedy Ann and Andy books. Around the age of thirteen ...
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March 26, 2024Mylène Goupil Explores the Difficulties that Come With Change in Taming Papa
What does a young girl do when a parent comes into her life suddenly, and everything changes?This question is at the heart of Taming Papa (Groundwood Books) by Mylène Goupil (translated from French ...
