There is an old joke about a confession. “Father, I must confess that I’ve sinned,” a man tells the priest, “I’m guilty of stealing.” The priest asks, “What did you steal?” “Well, a ham,” says the man. “What did you do with it?” Confusedly, the man responds, “I hid it under the bridge outside town.”…

When I was 12 or 13, I read a book called The Other Side of Dark by Joan Lowery Nixon. There wasn’t a ton of YA in those days (this was before cell phones and streaming music, back when we had to look up information in encyclopedias and dinosaurs roamed the earth) so whenever a…

This week on The Maris Review, K-Ming Chang joins Maris Kreizman to discuss Organ Meats, out now from One World. Subscribe and download the episode, wherever you get your podcasts. * from the episode: Maris Kreizman: Your previous books are described as magical realism, but Organ Meats feels entirely surreal. I’m wondering if you could…

For tens of thousands of years, human beings have been using fictional devices to shape their worlds and communicate with one another. Four thousand years ago they began writing down these stories, and a great flourishing of human achievement began. We know it today as literature, a term broad enough to encompass everything from ancient…

Figured I’d get one more of these in here before the end of the year. Just to remind you, this series is primarily focused on adult titles that have some connection to the world of children’s literature in some way. It could be the focus of the book. It could be the author. It’s wide…

The 2023 Writers’ Trust Award winners, from left to right: Kai Thomas, Anuja Varghese, Laisha Rosnau, Canisia Lubrin (representing Christina Sharpe), Kyo Maclear, Helen Humphreys and Anosh Irani. (Tom Sandler/Writers’ Trust of Canada) Ottawa writer Kai Thomas and Toronto academic Christina Sharpe were among the honourees at the 2023 Writers’ Trust of Canada Awards, an…

WRITING ON THE FLYBy George Liset     When it comes to fly fishing, there are a myriad of rabbit holes to go down. Whether it is tying flies, making or collecting fly rods and other paraphernalia or just visiting and fishing exotic waters; the possibilities are endless. I have a touch of the above, but…

1 / 4 In this undated photo, Mattison Hingano, left, and Dawan Coombs, right, collaborate together to implement research strategies in Hingano’s seventh grade reading class to help struggling adolescent readers. Courtesy Nate Edwards, BYU Photo 2 / 4 In this undated photo, Mattison Hingano, left, and Dawan Coombs, right, collaborate together to implement research…