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Slow Writing by Chris Galvin
Like bread dough, my writing seems to require time to rise in a warm, draft-free place. The long proofing period is necessary; turn up the heat to hurry the rising, or don’t leave it long enough, and I get a stodgy, dense loaf. Under ideal conditions – solitude, free time and excitement about what I’m writing – the words Continue reading
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Writing Tragedy by Jack Todd
In any life, there are events that shake us to the core. Some occur when we are very young, and they remain the reach of memory. Others persist in detail so heightened that it verges on the surreal, as if painted onto our retinas by a Salvador Dalí employing a tiny brush. When I was Continue reading
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Writing Post-Partum by Darrah Teitel
I have this memory that I can’t shake. It is from a time of rebellion. I was in university, a baby feminist, aspiring playwright and general know-it-all. I was listening to Tori Amos’s latest album, Scarlet’s Walk, written post-partum. It stank, I declared to my roommate. Tori had lost her edge. She was writing about Continue reading
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Why I Teach Brand-New CanLit by Natalee Caple
This year, Natalee will teach Sharanpal Ruprai’s “Seva” and Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer’s “All The Broken Things.” I have my dream job. I write, review and teach Canadian literature and creative writing. When I think about why I am so happy teaching new CanLit I recall when, a few years back, my friend, writer Andrew Continue reading
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Writing About Ukraine by Alexandra Hawryluk
Seeing the images on my television screen, I froze in shock and anguish. People running for cover behind piles of rubber tires, a man being struck down by sniper fire. This was Maidan – Independence Square in the centre of Kiev, a place where I had talked to the book vendors, met friends, watched a busker do Continue reading
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The Creative Power of Memory by Shelagh Plunkett
“– but there’s one great advantage in it, that one’s memory works both ways.” – the White Queen, Through the Looking-Glass I’m a writer of literary non-fiction and my first book is a memoir. Seems likely that memory would be important to my work. It is. But it’s of equal value to writers of all stripes – poets, Continue reading
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Trading Places with Yourself by Sean Michaels
For as long as I can remember I’ve been telling musicians, “I’m a fiction writer.” And for just as many years I’ve been telling other writers, “I’m a music critic.” As a writer, it’s not unusual to cultivate a handful of different identities but it feels strange when these identities begin to reorganize themselves. I Continue reading
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A Tale of Two Meetings by Lori Schubert
Two hundred and fifty buzzing literati from across Canada – writers, storytellers, translators, booksellers, publishers, and directors of literary organizations – settled in at tables of ten in an underground conference room at the McGill New Residence. Around the perimeter were the impresarios of this unprecedented two-day extravaganza: the team from the Canada Council for the Arts. The ambitious Continue reading
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I Do Not Write Alone by Gina Roitman
Some people maintain that writing is a lonely business. In my experience, that’s not necessarily true. When I sit down to write, I am joined by a crowd of internal negative voices: the infernal censor, the cranky critic, and the whiner who keeps reminding me of all the other things I could or should be Continue reading