Writers as ReadersTag

Decoder ring

In Girl Minus X, there are choices made by the main character, Dany, that seem more legible and logical to people who’ve experienced trauma and understand the way, afterwards, a person is forever scanning ...

A love letter (to books)

The first quote-unquote serious novel I read was One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn. My eighth grade teacher set down a box at the front of the classroom and, in a seemingly ...

Fired Up About Consent Author Sarah Ratchford on the Books That Brought Them Tears, Lessons, & Laughter

The rallying cry often heard in conversations about consent is the simple truth: consent isn't just sexy—it's mandatory.And it's a topic that we're finally discussing with young people, with the hope ...

Adan Jerreat-Poole on Comfort Reads, Finding Identity in Fairy Tales, & One Fabulous L'Engle Quote

As readers enter Adan Jerreat-Poole's The Girl of Hawthorn and Glass (Dundurn Press), they sink into a richly rendered fantasy world at war, where witches' assassin are the most deadly of weapons. Like Eli, ...

The lost art of rereading

There was a trail I used to walk when I was broken, decades ago, after I'd scooped my heart from my chest and passed it to a man, who'd winced, shrugged, and said, ummmm, no thanks.We’ve all been there.It ...

Writers As Readers: May 2020 Writer-in-Residence Derek Mascarenhas on His Favourite Books

Told through seventeen linked short stories, Toronto author Derek Mascarenhas' debut Coconut Dreams (Book*hug) traces the lives of a South Asian family through a series of shifting voices and timelines, ...

Writes as Readers: Sherry J. Lee On Her Favourite Books

Sophie, the young protagonist of author Sherry J. Lee's debut picture book, Going Up! (Kids Can Press), lives in a tall apartment building in the city. On the day of her friend Olive's birthday party, ...

On Book Collecting

My favourite place to write is lying on an overstuffed grey sofa, in what was once our attic. My propped-up knees, with a firm cushion over top, form a kind of makeshift desk, on which my notebook perches. ...

February 2020 Writer-in-Residence Nadia Hohn on Recommended Books, Overlooked Gems, and Charming Tropes

Critically-acclaimed Jamaican-Canadian children's author Nadia Hohn has spent her career celebrating Black stories, from her award-winning debut picture book Malaika's Costume (House of Anansi) to her ...

September 2019 Writer-in-Residence Nancy Jo Cullen on Library Love, Recommended Reads, and Bronwen Wallace

Fans of Nancy Jo Cullen know that she is the rare writer who can do it all; her writing is smart, sharp, and memorable in poetry, short fiction, and now, in a novel: Western Alienation Merit Badge (Wolsak ...