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May 29, 2023Philipp Schott on Weaving Together Iceland, Ostriches, and ASD in His Newest Mystery Romp
After a long period of dominance by dark and gory Scandi-style titles, the mystery genre seems to be spreading some love to less grim aesthetics, as book lovers twig to the pleasure of reading tightly ...
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April 23, 2017
Phoebe Wang on Poetry Exercises
Today's post on poets and poetry prompts features Toronto-based writer and educator Phoebe Wang. She was the 2015 Grand Prize winner of the Prism International Poetry Prize and her debut collection of ...
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May 22, 2019Picture Book Author & Paper Artist Thao Lam on the Books that Shaped Her & the Canadian Illustrator Whose Work Taught Her to Draw
When you read the title of My Cat Looks Like My Dad (Owlkids Books), the latest picture book from acclaimed writer/illustrator Thao Lam, you immediately know you're in for something funny, charming, ...
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September 08, 2020Picture Book Magic
People are often surprised to learn that a picture book begins with the words. But every children’s book editor I’ve met has preferred to read a picture-book manuscript without any images. A good ...
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August 18, 2023Picture Book Trends
Picture books, like all art forms, are subject to trends and shifts in theme, style and format. I don’t necessarily recommend writing to trend, but it’s always good to be familiar with what’s working ...
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February 21, 2024Playwright Jeff D'Hondt On Facing the Truth About a Life Quietly Falling Apart, and Learning How to Heal
After being revived from a coma, Megan lives with traumatic injuries that spur her on to violence. Her physician seeks outside help, finding an Indigenous clinician to treat Megan and to seek innovative ...
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April 01, 2026Playwright Keith Barker Reflects on Love, Loss, and Laughter After a Life RAISED BY WOMEN
Memory and family are brought into sharp focus in Raised by Women (Playwrights Canada Press), a new play in which a son looks back after suffering significant loss and finds that the story he needs to ...
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June 21, 2021Playwright Makambe K Simamba on Fearlessly Exploring "How Far Characters are Willing to Go in Order to Live Their Truths"
CW: discussion of anti-Black violenceIt's a gutting image: a seventeen-year old Black boy, a child in a hoodie, dead far too soon because of hateful and unchecked anti-Black racism. Makambe K Simamba's Our ...
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August 12, 2016Pleasant Days … with Stu and Crad
My basement excavations — the chaotic and ecstatic unpacking of dozens of boxes of cryogenically preserved books — recently produced a copy of a chapbook I haven’t thought about in decades. Pleasant ...
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January 09, 2019Poet Susan Gillis on Landscapes, Ecologies of the Heart, and Czeslaw Milosz
Partly inspired by a memorable line in a Czeslaw Milosz poem, Susan Gillis' new collection Yellow Crane (Brick Books) is sharply observed and lovingly rendered, casting an observant and incisive eye ...
