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Literary arts

  • You Must Work Harder to Write Poetry of Excellence Craft Discourse and the Common Reader in Canadian Poetry Book Reviews
    Author:
    Mancini, Donato
    Summary:

    While Canadian poetic practices have steadily pluralised since the early 1960s, the poetry review has remained stubbornly constant. You Must Work Harder to Write Poetry of Excellence is a critical, and at times hilarious survey of reviews of innovative Canadian poetry in English since 1961. What is at stake in the reviewing of poetry? What fantasies are inherent to the practice? How is poetry itself produced in the reviewing of poetry? Why has the reviewing of poetry remained largely invisible to self-reflexive critique? These are some of the many questions You Must Work Harder to Write Poetry of Excellence dares to ask in its query to determine if poetry reviewers can claim to have the authority they imagine they have over their chosen subject. As a retort to the retrograde trend that is poetry reviewing in Canada, You Must Work Harder to Write Poetry of Excellence is the first book to detail the production and structure of an "aesthetic conscience" and demonstrate how this functions as the dynamic administrative apparatus of any aesthetic ideology. In short, this book opens for the first time a new and desperately needed channel in Canadian criticism.
  • Yoko Tawada's portrait of a tongue : an experimental translation by Chantal Wright
    Author:
    Tawada, Yoko, Wright, Chantal
    Summary:

    Yoko Tawada's Portrait of a Tongue: An Experimental Translation by Chantal Wright is a hybrid text, innovatively combining literary criticism, experimental translation, and scholarly commentary. This work centres on a German-language prose text by Yoko Tawada entitled ‘Portrait of a Tongue’ [‘Porträt einer Zunge’, 2002]. Yoko Tawada is a native speaker of Japanese who learned German as an adult. Portrait of a Tongue is a portrait of a German woman—referred to only as P—who has lived in the United States for many years and whose German has become inflected by English. The text is the first-person narrator’s declaration of love for P and for her language, a ‘thinking-out-loud’ about language(s), and a self-reflexive commentary. Chantal Wright offers a critical response and a new approach to the translation process by interweaving Tawada’s text and the translator’s dialogue, creating a side-by-side reading experience that encourages the reader to move seamlessly between the two parts. Chantal Wright’s technique models what happens when translators read and responds to calls within Translation Studies for translators to claim visibility, to practice “thick translation”, and to develop their own creative voices. This experimental translation addresses a readership within the academic disciplines of Translation Studies, Germanic Studies, and related fields.
  • Writings by Western Icelandic women
    Author:
    Summary:

    There are two Icelands. One is the island in the North Sea, settled since Viking times. The other is "Western Iceland," the communities throughout North America, settled by Icelanders in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and which still maintain strong ties to the "old country."" "This collection of short stories and poems spans seventy-five years of writing by Western Icelandic women writers. It includes translated work by little-known early writers, such as Undina, who wrote before the turn of the century, as well as work written in English by prominent writers such as Laura Goodman Salverson, twice a winner of the Governor-General's Award. These short stories and poems reflect a range of experiences common to immigrant women from many cultures.
  • Writing young adult fiction for dummies
    Author:
    Halverson, Deborah, Anderson, M. T.
    Summary:

    Your hands-on, friendly guide to writing young adult fiction With young adult book sales rising, and bestselling authors like J.K. Rowling and Stephenie Meyer exploding onto the scene, aspiring YA writers are more numerous than ever. Are you interested in writing a young adult novel, but aren't sure how to fit the style that appeals to young readers? Writing Young Adult Fiction For Dummies gives you tricks of the trade and proven tips on all the steps to write a YA book, from developing an idea to publication. * Unique writing exercises to help you find your own authentic teen voice * Tips to avoid when submitting manuscripts * How to break into the flourishing young adult market With the help of this step-by-step guide, you'll have all the skills to write an inspiring and marketable young adult novel.
  • Writing without bullshit : boost your career by saying what you mean
    Author:
    Bernoff, Josh
    Summary:

    Professional business writer Josh Bernoff presents the first comprehensive guide to writing for today's world: a noisy environment where everyone reads on a screen. In this practical and witty little book, you'll learn to front-load your writing with pithy titles, subject lines, and opening sentences. You'll acquire the courage and skill to purge weak and meaningless jargon, wimpy passive voice, and cowardly weasel words. And you'll get used to writing directly to the reader to make every word count.
  • Writing poetry to save your life
    Author:
    Mazziotti Gillian, Maria
    Summary:

    Writing Poetry to Save Your Life combines Gillan's personal story about her journey as a writer with her suggestions for writers at all stages of development. The voice in this book is the voice of a friend who sits with you in a warm kitchen sipping espresso or a cup of herbal tea, while offering support and encouragement. It is designed to help you find the stories you have to tell and the words to tell them. It is based on the belief that when you find the courage to explore your memories, you will find the source for evocative writing. Writing Poetry to Save Your Life is a book about the writing process rather than about the craft of writing. It can be used in classrooms, by writer's groups, or by an individual while writing at home or in a coffee shop. This book will encourage you to write, and in the process, will give you confidence, help you overcome writer's block, and silence the critical voice of the being Gillan calls "The Crow." It will jumpstart your creativity, giving you permission to use the power of words to save your life.
  • Writing in the time of nationalism : from Two Solitudes to Blue Metropolis
    Author:
    Leith, Linda
    Summary:

    Montreal was the literary centre of Canada in the 1940s, a hotbed of literary activity in both English and French crowned by the international success of Hugh MacLennan's Two Solitudes and Gabrielle Roy's The Tin Flute. With the rise of nationalism in both English Canada and Quebec, Toronto emerged as the literary centre of English Canada, with Montreal the literary centre of Quebec. In literary terms, Canada and Quebec became two different countries, with two different languages and two different literatures. English Montreal went into decline and its once-great writers were marginalized. Writing in the Time of Nationalism: From Two Solitudes to Blue Metropolis is an insider's story of the writers who have been caught between these rival nationalisms. Herself a writer, Linda Leith was a leading figure in the creation of the Quebec Writers' Federation, and she is founder of Blue Metropolis Foundation. The story she tells is the story of a literary community that went missing from the map of Canada for a generation, and that has reemerged over the past ten years in a renaissance that has garnered international attention, winning some of the major book prizes such as Booker and Dublin IMPAC.
  • Writing grief : Margaret Laurence and the work of mourning
    Author:
    Riegel, Christian
    Summary:

    Margaret Laurence’s much admired Manawaka fiction — The Stone Angel, A Jest of God, The Fire-Dwellers, A Bird in the House, and The Diviners -– has achieved remarkable recognition for its compassionate portrayal of the attempt to find meaning and peace in ordinary life. In Writing Grief, Christian Riegel argues that the protagonists in these books achieve resolution through acts of mourning, placing this fiction within the larger tradition of writing that explores the nuances and strategies of mourning. Riegel’s analysis alludes to sociological and literary antecedants of the study of mourning, including the tradition of elegy, from Derrida and Lacan to Freud, van Gennep, and Milton. The “work” of mourning is necessary to move from a state of emotional paralysis to one of acceptance and active engagement. Laurence’s characters “perform the work of mourning … returning over and over again to the key issues relating to loss,” and, as Riegel’s close examination of the texts suggests, are changed thereafter fundamentally and significantly. As an important study of one aspect of Laurence’s oeuvre, Writing Grief not only illustrates how Laurence’s own preoccupations with mourning are figured, but also how different ways of working through grief result in renewed potential for consolation and connection, and “a renewed definition of self.”
  • Writing for success
    Author:
    McLean, Scott
    Summary:

    "Scott McLean's Writing for Success is a text that provides instruction in steps, builds writing, reading, and critical thinking, and combines comprehensive grammar review with an introduction to paragraph writing and composition. Beginning with the sentence and its essential elements, this book addresses each concept with clear, concise and effective examples that are immediately reinforced with exercises and opportunities to demonstrate, and reinforce, learning."--BCcampus website.

  • Writing for beginners : a step-by-step to do list guide for writing an outstanding fiction novel with proven easy steps
    Author:
    Smith, Helena
    Summary:

    If you've only just begun to develop your writing talent you'll find invaluable guidance on writing for beginners right here in this audiobook. Whether you want to write an intense crime novel, a fantasy adventure or a tragic romance, this audiobook can help equip you with all the literary tools needed to start writing your own fiction.
  • Writing fiction for dummies
    Author:
    Economy, Peter, Ingermanson, Randy
    Summary:

    A complete guide to writing and selling your novel  So you want to write a novel? Great! That’s a worthy goal, no matter what your reason. But don’t settle for just writing a novel. Aim high. Write a novel that you intend to sell to a publisher. Writing Fiction For Dummies is a complete guide designed to coach you every step along the path from beginning writer to royalty-earning author. Here are some things you’ll learn in Writing Fiction For Dummies: * Strategic Planning: Pinpoint where you are on the roadmap to publication; discover what every reader desperately wants from a story; home in on a marketable category; choose from among the four most common creative styles; and learn the self-management methods of professional writers. * Writing Powerful Fiction: Construct a story world that rings true; create believable, unpredictable characters; build a strong plot with all six layers of complexity of a modern novel; and infuse it all with a strong theme. * Self-Editing Your Novel: Psychoanalyze your characters to bring them fully to life; edit your story structure from the top down; fix broken scenes; and polish your action and dialogue. * Finding An Agent and Getting Published: Write a query letter, a synopsis, and a proposal; pitch your work to agents and editors without fear. Writing Fiction For Dummies takes you from being a writer to being an author. It can happen—if you have the talent and persistence to do what you need to do.
  • Writing creative : writing essays from the field
    Author:
    Dunlop, Rishma, Scott Tysdal, Daniel Scott, Uppal, Priscila
    Summary:

    Essential and engaging essays about the joys and challenges of creative writing and teaching creative writing by a host of Canada’s leading writers. Writing Creative Writing is filled with thoughtful and entertaining essays on the joys and challenges of creative writing, the complexities of the creative writing classroom, the place of writing programs in the twenty-first century, and exciting strategies and exercises for writing and teaching different genres. Written by a host of Canada’s leading writers, including Christian Bök, Catherine Bush, Suzette Mayr, Yvette Nolan, Judith Thompson, and thom vernon, this book is the first of its kind and destined to be a milestone for every creative writing student, teacher, aspirant, and professional.
  • Writing copy for dummies
    Author:
    Krantz, Jonathan
    Summary:

    Tips on writing to consumers and business-to-business Create captivating, results-oriented, sales-generating copy Need to produce winning copy for your business? This fast, fun guide takes you through every step of a successful copy-writing project, from direct mail, print ads, and radio spots to Web sites, articles, and press releases. You'll see how to gather crucial information before you write, build awareness, land sales, and keep customers coming back for more. Discover How To: * Write compelling headlines and body copy * Turn your research into brilliant ideas * Create motivational materials for worthy causes * Fix projects when they go wrong * Land a job as a copywriter
  • Writing children's books for dummies
    Author:
    Buccieri, Lisa Rojany, Economy, Peter
    Summary:

    Everything aspiring authors need to write, publish, and sell a children's book  Everyone loves a children's book—and many dream about writing one. But is it actually possible for an unpublished writer—armed with a good story idea and a love of kids—to write, sell, publish and promote a book? Yes, it is! Clearly and concisely written with straightforward advice and a plethora of specific up-to-date recommendations, Writing Children's Books For Dummies provides step-by-step information on everything aspiring children's book authors need to know—from researching the current marketplace to developing story ideas, strengthening writing skills, dealing with editors and submitting proposals and manuscripts to agents and publishers. * Updated and improved writing exercises * All new content on social media and establishing an online presence as an author * Fresh, updated content on publishing via hard copy and all the e-platforms From setting down that first word on paper to doing a successful publicity tour, Writing Children's Books For Dummies gives you the confidence and the insiders' know-how to write and sell the story you've always wanted to write.
  • Writing beyond the end times? : the literatures of Canada and Quebec = Écrire au-delà de la fin des temps ? : les littératures au Canada et au Québec
    Author:
    Mathis-Moser, Ursula
    Summary:

    This collection of essays examines how the sense of crisis that occasionally seems to overwhelm us directs and transforms Canadian and Quebec writings in English and French, and conversely, how literature and criticism set out to counterbalance the social, economic, and ideological insecurities we live in.
  • Writing Alberta: building on a literary identity
    Author:
    Melnyk, George, Coates, Donna
    Summary:

    Alberta writing has a long tradition. Beginning with the pictographs of Writing-on-Stone, followed by Euro-Canadian exploration texts, the post-treaty writing of the agrarian colonization period, and into the present era, Alberta writing has come to be seen as a distinct literature. In this volume Melnyk and Coates continue the project of scholarly analysis of Alberta literature that they began with Wild Words: Essays on Alberta Literature (2009). They argue that the essays in their new book confirm that Alberta's literary identity is historically contingent with a diverse, changing content, that makes its definition a work-in-progress. The essays in this volume provide contemporary perspectives on major figures in poetry and fiction, such as Robert Kroetsch, Sheila Watson, Alice Major, and Fred Stenson. Other essays bring to light relatively unknown figures such as the Serbian Canadian writer David Albahari and the pioneer clergyman Nestor Dmytrow. Writing Alberta: Building on a Literary Identity offers a detailed discussion of contemporary Indigenous writers, an overview of Alberta historiography of the past century, and the fascinating autobiographical reflections of the novelist Katherine Govier on her literary career and its Alberta influences. This Collection demonstrates that Alberta writers, especially in the contemporary period, are not afraid to uncover, re-think, and re-imagine parts of Alberta history, thereby exposing what had been lain to rest as an unfinished business needing serious re-consideration.
  • Writing a romance novel for dummies
    Author:
    Waininger, Leslie
    Summary:

    In love with romance novels? You’re not alone! Romance is today’s most popular fiction genre, accounting for more than half of all mass market fiction sold. If you’re looking to make a serious effort at writing a romance and getting it published in today’s multifaceted markets, you need to learn as much as you can about this highly successful field—especially how to create the perfect heroes and heroines. Now, in this easy, step-by-step guide, a top romance editor gives you the know-how you need to succeed as a romance novelist!  Writing A Romance Novel For Dummies is perfect for both beginning and more accomplished writers who are looking to get the leading edge on writing a romance novel and get it published. Leslie Wainger, Executive Editor at Harlequin Books, explains what it takes to become the next Nora Roberts, providing the techniques you need to: * Select a pseudonym * Write a compelling, heartfelt story * Find the right agent and publisher * Submit a manuscript * Market your novel * Join clubs and associations Packed with insider advice, this plain-English guide helps you grasp the building blocks of a great romance, providing practical tips on the craft of writing as well as savvy pointers on how to hook your reader from page one, write with passion, and shape a proposal that will wow agents and editors. You get lots of expert tips on analyzing the marketplace, creating compelling characters and finding your own voice. Wainger also: * Demystifies the sub-genres of the romance world, from historical, contemporary, and multicultural to paranormal, romantic suspense, and Christian/inspirational * Explains plotting, pacing and writing those crucial love scenes * Discusses how to conduct research, assign credits and get permissions * Helps you decide whether it’s best to write alone or with a partner Complete with a manuscript preparation checklist, tips for revising your work smoothly and successfully, guidance in understanding and negotiating a contract, and a list of romance writing resources, Writing A Romance Novel For Dummies is your one-stop guide to becoming a published novelist!
  • Writer to writer : from think to ink
    Author:
    Levine, Gail Carson
    Summary:

    Newbery Honor author Gail Carson Levine offers a behind-the-scenes take on writing and teaches you how to become a world-class author. Drawing from her popular blog, Gail answers readers' fiction- and poetry-writing questions and dives into how to make a story come alive.
  • Workbook: Memos & Dispatches On Writing
    Author:
    Heighton, Steven
    Summary:

    Since selections first appeared in the New Quarterly and the National Post as part of “The Afterword,” Steven Heighton’s memos and dispatches to himself — a writer’s pointed, cutting take on his own work and the work of writing — have been tweeted and retweeted, discussed and tacked to bulletin boards everywhere. Coalesced, completed, and collected here for the first time, a wholly new kind of book has emerged, one that’s as much about creative process as it is about created product, at once about living life and the writing life.

    "I stick to a form that bluntly admits its own limitation and partiality and makes a virtue of both things,” Heighton writes in his foreword, “a form that lodges no claim to encyclopedic completeness, balance, or conclusive truth. At times, this form (I’m going to call it the memo) is a hybrid of the epigram and the précis, or of the aphorism and the abstract, the maxim and the debater’s initial be-it-resolved. At other times it’s a meditation in the Aurelian sense, a dispatch-to-self that aspires to address other selves — readers — as well.”

    It’s in these very aspirations, reaching both back into and forward in time — and, ultimately, outside of the pages of the book itself — that Heighton offers perhaps the freshest, most provocative picture of what it means to create the literature of the modern world.
  • Words and images : a French rendez-vous
    Author:
    Summary:

    Words and images interact with each other in art and everyday life and do so in many different ways. Building on recent trends in linguistic analysis and visual semiotics, a vibrant interdisciplinary field of inquiry called “word-and-image studies” has developed over the past few decades. Much of this new scholarship, however, has originated in the French-speaking world and thus has not been available in English – until now. Words and Images: A French Rendez-vous features six new essays translated from the French by Anthony Wall. These explorations spin an adventurous web through time – from the very beginnings of human language on prehistoric cave walls, to the textual background of early modern and Enlightenment art, to the coexistence of a poem and a coloured drawing on an exterior wall in contemporary Paris – and through interdisciplinary space, from archaeology and anthropology to art history, literary and communications theory, and philosophy of mind. The volume concludes with a bibliographical essay that provides an extensive summary of the most recent critical studies undertaken in France, Belgium, and Canada.

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