Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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This Week in Lit Events: June 5-11th
Some launches and reading series hit your calendars this week, as well as the Griffin Poetry Prize Readings (fingers crossed for all of the excellent nominees!).Are you hosting an event featuring an author whose titles are available on All Lit Up? Send the event details, including author, book, date, time, and address to hello@alllitup.ca to be included…
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In Review: The Week of May 29th
This week we said goodbye to Short Story Month, gave aspiring authors some advice, and were reminded that Toronto’s landscape is more than just concrete and high rises.
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Under the Cover: Michelle Elrick’s then/again, or “Write Home”
Michelle Elrick’s latest, then/again (Nightwood Editions), is a poetic account of rediscovering the place or places that have been “home,” and likewise a rumination on what “home” means. In this Under the Cover, she talks about her multinational blanket fort project, Notes from the Fort, and how it inspired then/again.
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Where in Canada: An Enduring Wilderness
In An Enduring Wilderness (ECW Press), Robert Burley surveys Toronto, the city sometimes referred to as “The Big Smoke,” making the case for its extensive network of rivers, ravines, forested vales, and expansive shoreline, often overlooked. As David Suzuki tells us, “With three-quarters of Canadians now living in cities, I’m glad that our city planners, municipal politicians,…
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Short Story Month: Tumbleweed
In his latest collection Tumbleweed (Vehiculé Press), Josip Novakovich crafts short stories with a sharp eye, dry humour, and rhythmic prose. Included in the book are stories about the immigrant experience, seen in the title story in which a Croatian immigrant ends up in a small-town jail in the American Midwest after failing to secure a job;…
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LitRx: Do Writers Dream of Publishing Sheep?
Our advice column is back with a question about submitting books for publisher consideration: we give some tips to make the process as smooth as glass.
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This Week in Lit Events: May 29-June 4th
There are a lot of amazing group readings and events this week, as well as some stunningly singular launches and talks. Do. Not. Miss.Are you hosting an event featuring an author whose titles are available on All Lit Up? Send the event details, including author, book, date, time, and address to hello@alllitup.ca to be included in our…
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In Review: The Week of May 22nd
This week we cheered on ARP Books author Kaie Kellough (Accordéon) and Freehand Books author Catherine Cooper (White Elephant) at the Amazon First Novel Award ceremony, painted our nails to match some awesome book covers, and got our short story on.
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First Fiction Fridays: Sonja & Carl
Suzanne Hillier’s Sonja & Carl (Brindle & Glass Publishing) has all the elements of a great high school story: drama, vivid characters, an unlikely friendship, and a budding teen romance. The Winnipeg Review likens Hillier’s first novel to Anne of Green Gables, set at the turn of this millennium, describing it as “a Hollywood romantic…
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Do-Lit-Yourself: Literary #notd, the Sextupling
Nails-as-book-covers is now one of our oldest tropes (this is number six) and it’s still one of our favourites: a chance to step away from the computer screen, obsess (like, meticulously obsess) over new, beautiful books, and chat amongst ourselves. This time around, an author got in on the fun – though you’ll have to…
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Short Story Month: But When We Look Closer
Susan E. Lloy’s But When We Look Closer (Now or Never Publishing) is a collection of eighteen short stories that feature characters in search for buried treasure, for new homes, for escapes. Their struggles and obsessions allow us snapshots of strangers who live and walk beside us. Below we share an excerpt from “Playing Cards on…
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Cover Collage: In the Tentacled Deep
Today’s cover collage is all about books with covers featuring octopuses (and squid!) With the first strains of early summer weather hitting our troposphere, we can’t help but think about swimming. And when we think about swimming, we can’t help but think about the tentacled creatures of the deep grabbing our ankles and pulling us…
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This Week in Lit Events: May 22-28th
Tons going on in Western Canada this week – including a meet, greet, and read of the authors nominated for the Alberta Literary Awards.Are you hosting an event featuring an author whose titles are available on All Lit Up? Send the event details, including author, book, date, time, and address to hello@alllitup.ca to be included in our…
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In Review: The Week of May 15th
This week we celebrated Asian Heritage Month, learned about “sudden fiction,” and remembered our love of John Cusack circa High Fidelity.
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First Fiction Fridays: What We Once Believed
Andrea MacPherson’s What We Once Believed (Caitlin Press) takes readers to summer 1971 to a cul-de-sac community of Oak Bay on Vancouver Island, BC. There, we meet estranged mother Camille and her eleven-year-old daughter Maybe who’ve just reunited, becoming the talk of the town within their community. The novel speaks to questions surrounding motherhood and…
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