Columnists

How to Make Your Longest, Darkest Nights Shine

The Winter Solstice is happening as I write this column. It’s the shortest day of the year and the longest, darkest night of the year. But during this time, every night often feels like the longest, ...

Indigenous Identity and the Responsibilities of Telling Stories

Writing the stories of your people is the ultimate honour. It is also a privilege, and carries immense responsibilities. This is especially true of Indigenous communities in Canada, who continue to recover ...

I Wrote 100,000 Words in a Month: Or When Productivity is Really Crip Grief

(This is not a ‘How To’ article. This is also not an inspiring story about a disabled person doing an extraordinary thing. There is nothing extraordinary here. There is only a dispatch from a place ...

Soundwalking Through the Pandemic

Every year, there are a few times I think I’m free from the grip of depression. And every year, there are a few times I realize that I’m not. Years ago when I was diagnosed with major depressive disorder, ...

Book Therapy: The books that helped us through 2020

 “I wanted to start making things that made me and others feel hopeful—even when it felt like there isn’t much to hold onto, and even when we just didn’t feel good.”—Hana Shafi, Small, Broke, ...

When old ways, thoughts, beliefs, and people no longer serve you

“Every moment is a fresh beginning.” —T.S. EliotLately I have been thinking about the act of releasing the things in my life that no longer serve me. When I revise a piece of writing, the first ...

Children’s Book Gift Guide for Little (and Big) Bookworms

I love buying children’s books for my niece and nephew. They all have such different personalities and interests and it’s so fun for me to find books I think they’ll enjoy. And I also love buying ...

Writing Beyond the End of the World

We spend our days scrolling through countless words. Many of us are fixated on screens from the moment we awake until the moment we return to the same bed to sleep. And from day to day, not a whole lot ...

Book Therapy: Peter Counter’s Be Scared of Everything

 “Life is all we have and, because we can’t contrast our experience with its absence, its value is unknowable. That’s what makes life a horror show.”—Peter Counter, Be Scared of Everything Lately ...

On Listening to Your Gut Instinct When Editing Your Work

First, there’s that twisty churny feeling that crawls across your skin when something doesn't feel right. It’s similar to the feeling that can arise when you are walking home late at night and you ...