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Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Poetry in Motion: James Yรฉkรบ + A Phial of Passing Memories
James Yรฉkรบโs second collection A Phial of Passing Memories (Mawenzi House) moves through sceneries that blend the strange and the familiar into a poetic study on memory, journeys, and the nature of things. James tells us about his influences and poetic style, and reads from his book.
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Under the Cover with Jason Purcell, author of Crohnic
Jason Purcell writes about the slow and difficult rhythms of living with chronic illness and how those experiences shaped the poems in Crohnic (Arsenal Pulp Press), a meditation on what it means to live a medicalized life. Charting two years of their treatment for Crohn’s disease, the collection moves between hospital rooms and the river…
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Writer’s Block: Marilyn Bowering
In her new novel The Unfinished World (Linda Leith Publishing), award-winning writer and poet Marilyn Bowering traces family lineage and memory through a collection of inherited dolls, passed down from grandmother to granddaughter. We chat with Marilyn about inheriting story and storytelling, the writers she most admires, and what she hopes readers take away from…
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Two Poems: Notes from the Ward
In her new collection Notes from the Ward (Gordon Hill Press), poet Steffi Tad-y delves into the raw realities of bipolar disorder and psychotic break shaped by lived experience and sharpened by a poetโs eye. These poems cut through the medicalized and sensationalized narratives that too often surround mental health, revealing a voice that is…
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Poetry in Motion: Joanna Streetly + All of Us Hidden
Joanna Streetly’s new collection All of Us Hidden (Caitlin Press) begins from a place of deep personal loss when her two stepsons and their boat disappeared into the ocean on an eerily calm night on the west coast of Vancouver Island, BC. Joanna’s poems ripple out to explore how time continually changes communities, the land,…
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Under the Cover with Jen Winsor, author of Ship Moms
Jen Winsor’s Ship Moms (Breakwater Books) takes on a fascinating subject: true stories about the relationships between cruise ship crew members and the women who became pregnant while working at sea (Jen herself among them). In this feature, Jen reflects on how journaling helped her find her voice, ultimately leading to Ship Moms, and to…
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Writer’s Block: Gail Sidonie ล obat
We chat with Gail Sidonie ล obat about her new book Songs From This and That Country (Great Plains Press), the teacher who first called her a writer, and which Canadian literary icon she’d like to collaborate with most.
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Excerpted: The Seaside Cafรฉ Metropolis
In Antanas Sileika’s comic Cold War novelThe Seaside Cafรฉ Metropolis (Cormorant Books) Canadian restaurateur Emmet Argentine finds himself running a Soviet cafรฉ in 1959 Vilnius, where humour and absurdity go hand in hand with the pressures of life under the regime. Read an excerpt from the book that drops us right into the chaos of…
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Poetry in Motion: Guy Elston + The Character Actor Convention
In his debut collection The Character Actor Convention (The Porcupine’s Quill), Guy Elston offers a playful, surreal chorus of voicesโfrom a pumpkin that pens a letter to a sheep recalls a revolutionโto explore shifting identities and the fluidity of authenticity. Guy tells us more about his poetic style, with a nod to Emily Dickinson, and…
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Under the Cover with Bradley Somer, author of We Are All of Us Left Behind
Bradley Somer, author of the queer coming-of-age novel We Are All of Us Left Behind (Freehand Books), reflects on the making of his book and the representation of queer life in literature. Drawing on the Vito Russo Test, he considers how his novel resists reducing characters to their sexuality, instead presenting a story where queerness…
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Mixtape: Mad Dog and the Sea Dragon
Author Lisa de Nikolits shares the songs that define the characters and moments of her latest novel Mad Dog and the Sea Dragon (Inanna Publications), a mob novel from the moll’s perspective. Read on (and add Lisa’s selected tunes to your playlists)!
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Poetry in Motion: Paul Vermeersch + NMLCT
In his eighth book of poems, NMLCT (ECW Press), Paul Vermeersch creates a multimedia experience that responds to our “post-truth” society; one that is rampant with misinformation, facsimiles, and artificial intelligence. Precisely 16 lines long each, identically formed as though mass-produced, these poems explore our relationship with what’s real and what’s brought to us by…
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On Persistence and the Courage to Lie Down: Under the Cover with Ann Cavlovic
In this very personal Under the Cover, writer Ann Cavlovic shares the painful and fraught journey to publishing her book Count On Me (Guernica Editions), a gripping novel of sibling rivalry, elder abuse, and the ways entitlement and money can distort family bonds.
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In House with Breakwater Books: A Storied History and a New Home
Since 1973, Breakwater Books been filling the gap in representation for writers from Newfoundland and Labrador, growing into a publisher of award-winning books across many genres. Today, Rebecca Roberts at the press shares the storied and vibrant history of Breakwater Books and their recent move back to Downtown St. John’s, which now doubles as a…
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Writer’s Block: M.S. Berry
M.S. Berry โ the new pen name for Michelle Berry’s thriller writing โ is launching this new phase of her career with The Tenant (Turnstone Press), a fast-paced, heart-thumping story with some writing inside-baseball (which we always love to see!). We talk with Michelle about the book, how her writing habits have changed, and more…
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