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October 12, 2016
Norfolk, Murder Mysteries, Birds, and Mimesis
I spent the weekend in Norfolk visiting an old friend. I’ve never been to that part of England before, and because I see the world through a fictional lens, Steve Burrows’ birder mysteries, set in ...
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May 14, 2015Graphic Novel (On TV) Month: the Book vs. the Film, Part 1
Inspired by my conversation with Merril Collection librarian Lorna Toolis, I started thinking about how a shift from book into film can change the subtext of a graphic novel. I’m thinking generally ...
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June 30, 2014
A Month in the Life of the Launching Author
Today marks one month since May 31, the official publication date of my new novel The Oakdale Dinner Club, and one month since I started my residency here at Open Book Toronto.Within the month of June, ...
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June 04, 2014I'm so Hood: Toronto in Literature
The great and good Toronto Public Library recently introduced a cool new feature on their website.Toronto in Literature: Book Lists by Neighbourhood gives info – with a convenient map – on published ...
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September 04, 2016Interview with Megan Coles, on Writing, Feminism and Language
Megan Coles’ debut collection of short stories, Eating Habits of the Chronically Lonesome, is one of the most exciting books I’ve read this year. It has won multiple awards, including a Relit award. ...
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February 06, 2016Both Silly and Serious: Part Two of Desert Pets Press in Conversation
Yesterday I posted the first part of an interview with Emma Dolan and Catriona Wright, founders of Desert Pets Press. Catriona talked about their evolution from walkie-talkie using friends to chapbook-making ...
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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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May 08, 2015Graphic Novel Month: in the Stacks at the Merril Collection
It might be tucked away on the third floor of the Lillian H Smith Children's library branch of TPL, but the Merril Collection is not for kids. Of the 75,000 items in the science fiction, fantasy and horror ...
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May 04, 2015
Confessions of a TV Addict
I'll just say/ I started watching Frazier/ I'll just say/ Every single episode -David McGimpsey, Asbestos HeightsIt started in grad school. I had moved from Brooklyn to sleepy, manicured London, Ontario ...
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July 18, 2016Service Industry Hell (Part 3): Rats in the kitchen and drunk girls on the floor
A lot of the inspiration for my new book, Congratulations On Everything, came from the things I saw while working in bars, restaurants, and hotels, and from the experiences of friends who did the same. ...
