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September 27, 2017How I Learned to Write What Scares Me
Three years ago, I wrote a poem.Back then, a few very big things happened in my life. My marriage died. I found a new publisher. And, perhaps most importantly, I started teaching.For my entire publishing ...
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April 22, 2022How I look at a map (part one)
Art is all about process. Community spurs us on and the practice of creation is an active one. There is of course the cliché about art never being finished, merely abandoned, but in my opinion, neither ...
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April 29, 2022How I look at a map (part three): software
In my two previous posts I’ve been detailing my process for creating a new piece of visual poetry. In part one, I talked about what I’m looking for when I look in the archives at maps and talked a ...
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April 28, 2022How I look at a map (part two): found poetry
In previous posts you’ve seen some of the things I’m thinking through when I’m creating visual poetry. And in the last post we got started working on a new piece by looking through archival material. ...
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October 17, 2024How I’m Adjusting My Writing Routine for Autumn & Winter
Many of us in the Northern Hemisphere are now well into autumn coolness. As I write this I have all the windows open and I actually feel chilly—an unfamiliar, almost exciting feeling.To me, fall feels ...
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October 28, 2015
How Spending Time with Your Influences Helps Overcome Creative Blocks
It happens to everyone: Everything is humming along nicely with a project and then, bam! You have no idea where to go next. The words aren’t coming anymore, the ideas have stalled, and your confidence ...
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October 20, 2015How Tarot Can Help You with Your Writing
I was 13 the first time I tried to see the future in a playing card.I’d been at the grocery store with my parents, and in the checkout line was a small rack of books. I was immediately drawn to one ...
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April 11, 2022How The Guernica Prize Became One of CanLit's Most Unique Literary Awards
For many emerging writers, winning a literary prize is a dream that is perhaps only second is holding a copy of one's own, published book. In Canada, there's a young but exciting prize that offers a two-for-one ...
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March 28, 2016How the Light Gets Through
When the going gets tough sometimes it’s just tough to get going, and maybe when life throws you lemons, you don’t feel like making lemonade. So when things get tough and the world looks like it’s ...
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August 31, 2020How to Be Exceptionally Editable
When I first started writing children’s books, I possessed the strength and virility of a thousand strong and virile men. I believed in my ideas and held fast to them. While I was open to the editorial ...
