Being in a relationship means sharing the load. That doesn’t mean laying down your dreams to die.
Merve Emre: working on a book about the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator helped illuminate the test’s seduction
“I discovered that the more Myers-Briggs Type Indicator questions I read, the harder it became to resist answering.”
Lezlie Lowe: Why public bathrooms are actually highly politicized and exclusionary spaces
Once I started writing about public toilets (a reporting beat I fell into when my kids were small and I realized I could no longer navigate my city the way I once did), I saw bathroom deficiencies everywhere.
Tanis MacDonald: surviving as an “out-of-line” artist in a smaller community
Do you live in a major urban centre? Take this short test. You are giving a reading from your latest book at your local bookstore, and you invite a friend who lives an hour’s travel away. If your friend says instantly, “Awesome, I’ll be there,” chances are you live in a Big City. If your friend says, “What? Come all that way? On the highway?” then you probably live in a smaller city or town and belong to a group I call “out-of-line” artists.
Agony Editor: How to handle a deteriorating author/agent partnership, without burning bridges
At the end of the day, author/agent relationships can peter out for a variety of reasons, none of which may be personal.
Joshua Whitehead: “I created the character of Jonny Appleseed because he would not let me be”
Jonny is the embodiment of the type of world I want to see: one that has no qualms with 2SQness; one that has elders, mothers, grandmothers, aunties, and kin that are able to push beyond their westernized understandings of binaries; and one where Indigenous femmes, women, and 2SQ (including bisexual) are centred.
Agony Editor: A flop at a big publisher doesn’t mean an author won’t shine at a small press
The people who will buy your book don’t care who published it. So if it makes no difference to them, why should it make a difference to you?
Agony Editor: Is it in poor taste for an author to charge a book club an appearance fee?
If your writer relies on writing for her livelihood, I think it’s perfectly reasonable for her to ask for compensation. Remember: it’s work for her. The time she spends with your book club is time away from writing.
Agony Editor: If you’re going to have a contact page on your author website, you should probably respond to your fans
For better or worse, being a writer means putting yourself out there.
Ann Hansen: “I thought my parole after seven years of a life sentence made me lucky; now I see it as white privilege at work”
Despite being classified as a “terrorist,” I was paroled after serving approximately seven years of a life sentence. However, many Indigenous women I knew who had committed less sensational crimes were not given similar consideration.
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