If I could choose between a curt "no" and a lengthy rejection, it wouldn't be an easy choice. With no information, I can make up my own explanation for why something was rejected. When it's laid out in great detail, there's no way to avoid the occasionally baffling or infuriating [...]
Reneé Bibby is the director of The Writers Studio Tucson, where she teaches advanced and beginner creative writing workshops. Her work has appeared in PRISM International, Thin Air, Third Point Press, The Worcester Review, and Wildness. She is contributing editor at the Wilds. www.reneebibby.com OM: While other creative writing schools [...]
Photo credit: Michelle Fleming, skylightimages.com Richard Kelly Kemick's poetry and prose have been published in magazines and journals across Canada and the United States. His debut collection of poetry, Caribou Run, was published March 2016 and selected by CBC as one of the season’s Must Read Collections. He [...]
Photo Credit: Crystal Chowdroy Traci Skuce lives in Cumberland, BC. Her work has appeared in The New Quarterly, Prairie Fire, Grain, Little Fiction, Event and The Dalhousie Review. Also, she won the 2016 Sheldon Currie prize for fiction, and was a finalist in the 2015 CBC Nonfiction Prize. [...]
On June 11, 2015, I submitted twelve queries for my collection of short stories titled No Call Too Small. Seven publishers responded within six months, one took over a year, three included extensive comments after serious consideration, and four have not responded at all. The last number is the most [...]
Nadine McInnis is the author of nine books of poetry, short fiction and literary criticism. She has twice been awarded the Ottawa Book Award, most recently in 2016 for her collection of poems, Delirium for Solo Harp. Her most recent book of fiction, Blood Secrets, was long-listed for the international [...]
Stephanie Yorke is a poet, fiction writer, and librettist. She has published her work in Canada and in other countries. She is Canadian, and has lived in Oxford and Johannesburg. OM: When you've established yourself in the writing scene in one area (city/country), can any of that social momentum transfer [...]
When I was invited to contribute to The Malahat Review's Publishing Tips guest column, I chose to write about the gatekeeper function. Traditionally, writers only publish and develop a following by dealing with gatekeepers such as journal editors, book publishers, and agents. Bypassing the gatekeeper by self-publishing seems like an [...]
For those who haven't been following the latest Canlit scandal, I'll see if I can summarize this in one paragraph. Steven Galloway, the former chair of UBC's creative writing program, was suspended last November over "serious allegations". UBC provided no further explanation, creating a climate of gossip, speculation, and rumours. [...]
Should you go to creative writing school to learn how to write? Digging into Antanas Sileika's study on Who Publishes When, we see the answer isn't clear. A full 51% of writers had no specific training in this area and didn't seem to miss it. Among the 294 comments contained [...]
In 2010 I received an email from Antanas Sileika, a novelist and the director of the Humber School for Writers. Back in 1987, he read a New York Times Book Review essay which stated that the average age of a first-time published writer in the USA was 47. Antanas wanted [...]
Elizabeth Philips is the author of four books of poetry, most recently, A Blue with Blood in it (Coteau Books: 2000) and Torch River (Brick Books: 2007). Among other awards, she has won two Saskatchewan Book Awards, a National Magazine Award, an Alberta Magazine Award, and Torch River was a [...]
