A crossword puzzle, a packing list, a script for a play, a journal of writing prompts, real estate listings, a dictionary, a legal contract, a grimoire, and a tree atlas – all of these writing forms and more are included in the book Persephone’s Children, a Life in Fragments by Rowan McCandless. The best way…
I read this book in the dead of Canadian winter; it’s January, and the temperature is hovering around minus 40 (Celsius) with the windchill factored in. This is the temperature at which it literally stings to breathe in through your nose (my Canadian readers will know EXACTLY what I’m talking about). Luckily this is the…
Those of us who are lucky enough to have the luxury of living in peaceful countries may be asking themselves what we can do to help the refugee crisis; I would argue our first job is to listen to their stories in an attempt to understand what they are fleeing from and why. With the…
My latest segment for the CBC focused on memoirs, two in particular. You can listen to it here. Bleaker House by Nell Stevens (which Smokey has read and adored) and You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me by Sherman Alexie. After listening to the recording just now, I’ve realized how depressing these two books…
