A safer space for writers of all kinds and experience, both as a place to work & a place to share.


The Latest


poetry

Reminders

I’m reminded of Jace…
At the crosswalk by the hockey rink I first saw him play
Barely able to stay standing on his own two feet
Creating distance from his old self to his new
Dominating on the ice today, making us proud

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fiction

The Clandestine Room

The first time I heard about the Clandestine room I was a child. We spoke of it in reverent whispers during sleepovers and what the room might hold. “Treasure!” said one boy who’s name I’ve long forgotten. “Or a monster!” Another piped up “Don’t be stupid, its probably videogames and candy and stuff”

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poetry

In Another Life (Daisy Chain)

You and I
were once the two separate sides
of the same electrical cord;
often tangled between each other,
building knots and kneading bundles of bridges
on top cedar, oak and birch floorboards.

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poetry

Poem in Progress

There are old journals on my bookshelf
blank pages at the back
filled with unfinished poetry
similes with no synonyms
metaphors with no meaning

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poetry

Awaiting The Bumpy Ice Road

Snow forts built of packed wet flour
in a big orange plastic bowl,
S q i u s h
and unfold like an origami fortune
of milky dough and chocolate chips.

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fiction

Carmen Callaghan and the Terrifying Tablecloth Tourists

When Carmen Callaghan finally woke up, she felt as though the world was spinning. Probably because she was actually spinning. Suspended by thick mariner’s rope, Carmen faced a bleak, concrete wall, then part of another bleak, concrete wall, a man standing right in front of her, and back to the walls again. Her head hurt. It wasn’t the usual cerebral grudge against all the cheap booze and cheap skunk Carmen used to blot out the realities of living, but this was sharp and boiling.

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nonfiction

Killarney: Land, Locks, and Spirit

In the winter, the prairie sky is elongated. The tilt of the earth stretches the end-of-the-day into a perpetual blue hour. Shadows lengthen early, harbouring the past. The wooded creek behind my childhood home, just a few blocks away from where I live now, darkens to a chocolate dim before the sun even nears the horizon. When I first moved to Calgary, I ended up in the neighbourhood of Killarney, a block away from 17th Avenue.

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Spotlight


educational

My Writing Process

The craft of writing, detailing how exactly to go from a simple and disorderly idea to a completed and coherent piece. here are many steps to this process — from brainstorms to an outline, from drafting to revisions, until you have something publishable. Writing is a mysterious and elusive artform. Whether it’s technical, creative, or copy — good writing contains something that cannot be taught.

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