Since completing the first draft of my current novel in Banff this spring my focus has been on editing and revising, I haven’t done a lot of wild fresh writing. This weekend when I visited my friend Sue Reynolds we sat down to write together. She shared her...
I was thrilled when Elaine Rodaro invited me to host a writing retreat at her lovely Muskoka Rose Guest House , so we eagerly set about to co-create a rich weekend getaway. Esana Lotfy and I have been facilitating retreats and workshops since 1998 in Canada, Costa...
The other night my heart twisted as I listened to an interview with Joseph Boyden about the most recent attack on his authenticity. He’s had his feet held to the fire over his heritage being suspect, a sticky situation about the suspension of a colleague, and...
I took it “out on the dance floor” last night. All of it – the feelings of helplessness, rage, terror, and joy, too. Joy in community, in my body’s ability to move so many parts in pleasure and discomfort, in the sweet cold outside air and in the blasts of heat from...
In a wonderful two-day workshop with the poet, Ellen Bass, I learned about a poetry form she called “The long-armed poem.” About Frank Gaspar, the inspiration for this form, she wrote: “(Frank Gaspar) reaches out a long arm and scoops so much disparate, seemingly...
The word surrender, somewhat like the word pleasure, can be understood in two distinct and opposing ways. On one hand the former can indicate defeat and the latter, something unsavoury. On the other hand, they can point to enlightenment and delight. It is like that...
