How To Skip A Stone
How to Skip a Stone Thoughts on Writing & Teaching Creative Writing My family once spent a magical week at a cottage in Amberley Beach, doing almost nothing. It was springtime—the water too cold to swim. The two big kids were smaller, and our baby was a toddler. I say I did “almost nothing” because the one thing I did do was read voraciously, as though a day unfolded by turning pages. The other thing I did do was spend
Summer Hours
What is a summer for? This question is reminiscent of a series of questions Mary Oliver asks in her famous poem “The Summer Day”: “Tell me, what else should I have done?/ Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?/
The Thing With Teeth
What is it that’s biting into you? Covid, Covid is the thing that’s sunk its jaws into my flank, that’s shaking me like a rag doll and refusing to let go. The thing I want to bite into: new short
The House of Dreams
The House of Dreams The house of dreams is a place we seek that also seeks us. Once you step inside, you won’t want to leave—but know there is no returning. Fear is the main reason most people won’t arrive
The Word I Don’t Use Anymore
Published as an Op-ed in the Toronto Star, Saturday, February 24th, 2024: “One Commonly Used Word We Need to Release into the Abyss of History” https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/one-commonly-used-word-we-need-to-release-into-the-abyss-of-history/article_995dc748-d042-11ee-8cb5-df145c3cbe26.html Twenty years ago, the ‘R’ word (“retard”) was used prolifically on school playgrounds, on
