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Trauma Ethics—By Lindsay Nixon
Recently, I was lucky enough to sit on a panel with fellow writers Erín Moure and Will Aitken. During the question period, an audience member asked: Is it ethical to write, publish, and profit off books that include accounts of personal traumas? An interesting question, indeed, and one that Indigenous writers are often pressed to… Continue reading
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All Languages / Languages All—By Rachel McCrum
“Les langues sont toutes les mêmes lorsqu’elles tournent ensemble.” —Danny Plourde “All languages are the same when they’re in tune.” —translated by Antonio D’Alfonso “Languages all come together when they’re dancing.” —same line, translated by Martha Tremblay-Vilao What’s the point of going to see a poetry show if you can’t understand the text? And yet—there… Continue reading
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Us Impostors—By Caroline Vu
Header image: Letters sent to Caroline Vu by her Vietnamese friends in the 1970s. By some incredible stroke of good luck, I was invited last spring to Étonnants Voyageurs, France’s prestigious international literary festival. On top of a speaker fee, I would be reimbursed for my hotel, food and transportation. To my surprise, I was… Continue reading
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Writing about Not Writing—By Sivan Slapak
Is a writer who isn’t writing still a writer? And if so, for how long a stretch? These are the questions I’ve been asking myself—actually, tormenting myself with—for the last year or two. Even at my most active I’ve never had a writing routine. I wish I could say I’ve always woken up to meet… Continue reading
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What If Your Computer Listened to You?—By Mariam S. Pal
“New line numeral one period space cap that the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog bold lazy dog exclamation mark.” My telephone rings. “Go to sleep,” I say to my computer, and the cute little green mic on its screen turns blue and shuts off. I answer my phone: “Hello?” It’s a typical day… Continue reading
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Amazing Grace: A Literary Friendship—By S. Nadja Zajdman
I was sitting by the gas-lit fireplace in my local library when a book on the table caught my eye. It was the collected correspondence of the novelist Marjorie Rawlings and her editor, Maxwell Perkins. As I read their letters I could hear their long-stilled voices speaking to each other, and to me, across the… Continue reading
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Copyright: What’s the Big Deal?— By Julie Barlow
The Federal government is in the process of revising the Copyright Act. If you don’t think that matters to writers, think again. I’m always surprised to see blank stares on writers’ faces when I launch into a speech about copyright. Some of them aren’t clear why copyright really matters. Others aren’t sure what copyright even… Continue reading
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Dreadlines: Conquering the Fear of Submission—by Nicola Sibthorpe
I am bad at submitting my work. Too often I build up rejection in my mind to be a personal commentary on my writing and on my future as a writer. Yet rejection, as any writer can tell you, is anything but final. First there is the self-rejection. I find it difficult to tell when… Continue reading
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Coming to My Senses: The Healing Properties of Fiction—By April Ford
It was the start of my second year in the undergraduate creative writing program at Concordia University, and I was feeling refreshed. Ready to take my craft by the horns. I had spent the summer purging myself of all the problems my first-year fiction instructor had pointed out in my work: my habit of making… Continue reading
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What’s the refrain you keep circling back to?—by Jess Zimmerman
The last personal essay I wrote started out as a travel guide. I wanted to write about secret spaces in Berlin, just a list of interesting off-the-beaten-path options for tourists—the kind of thing you might find in an in-flight magazine. Instead it turned into a lyrical 3,000-word piece about love and literature. “I didn’t mean… Continue reading