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...
Most writing careers could be described as roller coaster rides. In the beginning, circa 2010, I gaily announced on my blog that I intended to document my path from creation to publication and assured my potential followers thus: “Come along. It’ll be fun.” Well,...
Steady rain silvers the green river. The parched earth opens like a lover. A text I received a couple of weeks ago was to my worry like this rain is to the land. We worry that food will become scarce, that terror will keep us in lockdown, that we will burn in our...
Today I read a wonderful blog piece by Jo Eberhardt about how men and women are perceived differently in the same situations. It was quite stunning for instance, to discover that research shows although men talk significantly more in groups than women, women are...
Reprinted from Humber College’s News website: http://creativearts.humber.ca/programs/school-writers/news I spent the summer I turned seventeen handwriting my first novel, Revival of a Dead Widowed, in a stuffy pension attic in old Quebec. Luckily, that book...
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...
