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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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July 19, 2015
At the Start of a New Creative Writing Class
I’m about to teach a new class, “Writing That Resonates,” starting tomorrow at Haliburton School of the Arts and, as happens each time, I pause.The students in the room will be diverse. Some will ...
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July 10, 2015On Sports and Writing
Years ago, when applying to MFA Programs, I was asked for a personal essay about my writing and writing influences. Without a shred of irony I stated that my earliest literary influences were televangelists ...
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September 10, 2019
On Reading
Writers need to read— I offered this advice earlier in the summer— and I sincerely hope it’s not news to any writer looking at this post that reading is a most instructive way to learn what does, ...
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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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December 20, 2016The Dirty Dozen, with Jen Sookfong Lee
Author and broadcaster Jen Sookfong Lee's newest novel The Conjoined (ECW Press) is being praised as both gorgeously written and compulsively readable. It opens with an unforgettable premise when Jessica ...
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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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July 20, 2022Joyce Grant on Helping Young People Spot Fake News & Dubious Claims in an Ever-Changing Online Landscape
There are plenty of things that never change when it comes to being a parent. Parents throughout history have probably been charmed by a baby giggle, excited to see their kids master skills, and worried ...
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September 02, 2018Show Me the (Writing-Grant) Money!
Hello, and Happy September! Thanks to the excellent folks at Open Book for inviting me here, and thanks to you for tuning in, lovely readers-who-I’m-guessing-are-mostly-also-writers.All right, let’s ...
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September 16, 2018Schmoozing for Introverts
It’s that time of year again, when students return to school, the leaves change colour, and Fall Book Season begins.The brilliant Sarah Selecky has already written this excellent antidote to those icky ...
