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March 16, 2021"Our Shared Past and Future" James Gladstone's Halley's Comet Picture Book Offers Historical Perspective
Halley's Comet, possibly the most famous celestial event in existence, and one which happens just once every 75 years, is a unique phenomenon. It has been dazzling onlookers for centuries, and its story ...
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October 31, 2018
We've always been here
My time here is drawing to a close and I’d like to express great thanks to the Open Book team for inviting me to this space for the past month. It’s been a real pleasure and an immense honour to have ...
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April 17, 2019Creative Life
I was asked to give a keynote address at the launch of the student literary journal, Scarborough Fair at the University of Toronto Scarborough. The theme was “The Creative Life”. As their Writer in ...
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October 26, 2020"Say what?"
“All the information you need can be given in dialogue.” — Elmore LeonardAnytime dialogue carries the story it’s pure joy. Sometimes it’s straight up, other times it’s slippery with manipulation. ...
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July 09, 2020John Sobol on Being an 'Existential' Kids Writer, Appreciating Life, and Connecting With His Audience
Born (Groundwood), author, poet, and musician John Sobol's newest picture book, dives into an experience that bonds us all yet is discussed relatively rarely: that of our own birth. Told through a lyrical ...
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February 08, 2018Debut Poet Mallory Tater on Dionne Brand, Her "Almost" File, & How Poems End
Mallory Tater's debut collection of poetry This Will be Good (Book*hug) delves into the push and pull between the feminine body and disordered eating - not only the tension and pain of that experience, ...
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December 06, 2017The Striped Scrapper
When I was fifteen, Dad moved my sibs and I from the chilly West Coast to the hurricane belt—Grand Cayman Island. We spent six months living by the Caribbean Sea where Dad, bewigged and robed, practiced ...
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September 06, 2019
I Joined a Writing Group and I Liked It
When I moved to Kingston two years ago I was transitioning to the happy stage of life after raising kids that I’d been anticipating for a few years—tidy house! Lower grocery bills! The reality of ...
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February 26, 2021
LOVE IN THE TIME OF COVID: The writing process Part 8 of 9
What happens when the unexpected occurs. As a writer, I like to throw unexpected elements in when things seem to be progressing smoothly. The same way I don’t conceive of a beginning or middle before ...
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September 03, 2019
On Beginning and Emerging
This is the first of my posts as September’s Writer-in-Residence for Open Book, and I’m thrilled to have been given this opportunity to share some of my thoughts on writing and the writing life. I ...
