Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Writer’s Block: Bruce Meyer
In his latest book Portraits of Canadian Writers (Porcupine’s Quill), author and photographer Bruce Meyer talks about shooting famous authors – with a camera, that is. From Dorothy Livesay to Patrick Lane to the recently gone but deeply missed Leonard Cohen, he generously shares his experiences photographing some of CanLit’s most storied storytellers, and a…
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Poetry in Motion: the Prairie Honesty of Jim McLean
Jim McLean’s latest collection, Nineteen Fifty-Seven (Coteau Books), is thirty years in the making. Three decades after his debut collection, he comes back with this book, a meditation on prairie life from a lifetime of experience working and travelling on the CPR. Learn more about this collection, read a snippet, and listen to Jim read “Doctor My…
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Chappy Hour: The Undertaker + Heaven’s Thieves
ALU resident mixologist Tan Light comes up with a one-two punch of espresso and Kahlua, echoing the punches of “Come in. Nothing There. / Come in. Nothing.” of Tan’s favourite poem in Sue Sinclair’s latest collection, Heaven’s Thieves (Brick Books).
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This Week in Lit Events: November 21-27th
Just two events this week, but they’re doozies: the Second Edition of the AELAQ Holiday Pop-up Book Fair in Montreal, and a joint launch of Tim Bowling and Gregory Scofield poetry in Vancouver.Are you hosting an event featuring an author whose titles are available on All Lit Up? Send the event details, including author, book,…
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In Review: The Week of November 14th
As you’ll soon see, we’re not over the election – we won’t be over it as long as terrible things keep happening. See how that and other literary happenings played out this week.
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First Fiction Fridays: Never, Again
Poet and playwright Endre Farkas flexes his prowess for language and dialogue in his debut novel, Never, Again (Signature Editions). Following a young boy beginning school at the dawn of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, the novel deals with devastating civil unrest but also the compassion that can come from unexpected places, all through the eyes of…
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Beautiful Books: The Description of the World
When you publish a book about a hat or a frog, the cover just kind of follows. But what to do when you’re publishing a poetry book about “the very moment of perception”? Wolsak & Wynn publisher Noelle Allen joins us to talk about the design decisions that went into Johanna Skibsrud’s latest book of…
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Where in Canada: The Woods of Protection Island
When forfeiting the trappings of city life for an island one, Amber McMillan’s young family in her memoir, The Woods (Nightwood Editions), expect the idealism of a life closer to nature. Instead, they confront a different reality: a loss of anonymity in the micro-community of Protection Island.
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Under the Cover: How to Draw a Rhinoceros, from Porcelain to Poetry
“At first I fancied I was actually learning about rhinoceroses, but before long I realized that, particularly from the historical material, I was learning about Western perceptions of the rhinoceros over the centuries. I began to look to images as well as texts, to explore the representations by which those perceptions were shaped and spread.”Poet…
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This Week in Lit Events: November 14-20th
In the Prairies this week? Don’t miss a Rudy Wiebe double-header. Then swing by Toronto on Saturday for the Indie Literary Market! All this and more, this week in lit events.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,…
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In Review: The Week of November 7th
It’s not been our week, idealists, allies, and lovers of literature. But we see you. We’ll keep rallying behind LGBTQ, women, POC, immigrant, Indigenous, Muslim, and other diverse voices. Our hearts are broken but they still glow.
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First Fiction Fridays: The Weather Inside
Emily Saso’s debut novel The Weather Inside (Freehand Books) is deliciously surreal: a young, recently married woman witnesses ice and snow – both when outside and inside her tiny Toronto apartment – when everyone else complains of the heat. Learn more about this novel that Bradley Somer calls “gritty and gorgeous, with an underlying raw humour…
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Cover Collage: Text-Only
They say you can’t judge a book by its cover…but in the instances of these text-only book covers, maybe you can? Many in today’s collage are poetry collections, and no surprises there: we don’t envy any designer the difficult task of boiling down a collection of words to an image. It’s far from a cop-out,…
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Literary Awards Hangover: 2016 Edition
We said we wouldn’t do it this year. We said we’d read the odd nominee and then call it a night. WE WERE WRONG. Proving that lessons are harder to learn than ever imaginable, we emerge from a heap of eggs, hash browns, and coffee to bring you our third-annual Literary Awards Hangover, where we…
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If You Liked x, Read Y: Geriatric French Canadian Edition
We loved reading Jocelyne Saucier’s poignant reflection on aging, love, and self-determination in And the Birds Rained Down (Coach House Books) when it was a finalist in Canada Reads last year. We humbly present it’s perfect follow-up: the tragicomic, multi-storylined I Am a Truck by Michelle Winters (Invisible Publishing).
Got any book recommendations?