Originally written for hobby blog on 16 March 2018 When reading the “about the author” section, I was struck by how Nora Gould mentions very little of her writing. This is because I see my love more clearly from a distance was her debut collection, and she chooses instead to talk about her life as a rancher …
Poetry: Nora Gould’s I see my love more clearly from a distance Read More »
I’ve talked loosely on the advantages and disadvantages to using personification while trying to relate to nature while writing. To iterate, describing plants, animals, and places through a human frame makes them instantly relatable and understandable to readers. If we can imagine a solitary black bear on the hunt for berries in the woods, we …
Personifying Nature: Should You or Shouldn’t You? Read More »
Originally published on hobby blog on 18 May 2018 Spoilers be ahead When you are known as a bookworm in the family, you can generally expect well-meaning family members to buy you books, even if they don’t know what books you actually like. As was the case when my aunt when she went out east …
Prose: Richard G. Eagles Sr.’s Terror in the Highlands Read More »
Sure, before when I’ve talked about poetry, I touched on figurative language and imagery, but what if you’re experiencing a plant or animal for the first time? Maybe you don’t have a huge reference book to gloss through to pinpoint the name of a specific tree you pass or don’t have enough time to take …
In May 2017, Molly Peacock’s poetry collection The Analyst and Terry Griggs’ short story collection The Discovery of Honey were launched from the used bookstore Attic Books and I was there. I bought a copy of each work after enjoying readings from both Peacock and Griggs. Both writers were very warm and encouraging to a writer trying to get …
The term “nature writing” is a pretty nebulous one. As we saw here, we can barely give a concise definition to what nature itself is, let alone how we go writing about it. Barry Lopez acknowledges the difficulty to refine a definition, but suggests that its most significant traits are threefold: “1) an assumption that …
Originally written for hobby blog on 27 July 2018 If my review of Nora Gould‘s work was any indication, there is a special place in my heart for regional poets. Like the Albertan plains, I have never visited the Lake of Two Mountains region, but by putting a name to a place and discussing not only its …
I don’t believe performance to be my strong suit, but below are things I’ve learned from my time in the spoken word scene and I will be forever grateful for the vast improvements I achieved in my poetry and (dare I say) in my confidence from working with members of the spoken word community, even …
Ways to Change up or Improve Your Poetry Performance Read More »
Originally written for hobby blog on 9 March 2018 lullabies for little criminals was one of many books I had to read for a Canadian lit class that was focusing heavily on trauma, trials, and tribulations. This course, along with my Canadian Drama course, went a long way towards me believing that us Canadian writers are …
Prose: Heather O’Neill’s lullabies for little criminals Read More »
Prose, poetry, and experimental writing are not simply genres or writing, but feel like entirely different mediums and constructs. While you may go about writing a space opera differently from a harlequin romance, just as you use different aspects of poetry depending on if you’re writing lyrical poetry or spoken word, they all hold the …
Hopping Genres: My Personal Experiences Writing Prose, Poetry, and Experimental Writing Read More »