Guest Blog Posts – Creative Nonfiction Collective

Not Just Mine To Tell

September 21, 2023

Mary Fairhurst Breen is the author of the memoir Any Kind of Luck at All and the children’s books Pride and Persistence: Stories of Queer Activism and Awesome Andie’s Best of the Block. As a queer feminist author, writing is Mary’s current form of activism after decades spent working for social change and protesting for equal rights. She lives in Toronto. __ In 2021 I published a memoir, after years of revisions necessitated by both life events and intense consultations with interested parties. The people whose…

How to Write About Trauma in Memoir

April 6, 2023

Craft, Guest Blog Posts, Members Blog, Resources

Brittany Foster is a freelance writer and editor living in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She holds a Graduate Certificate in Publishing from Toronto Metropolitan University and is a student in the MFA in Creative Nonfiction program at the University of King’s College. She’s also writing her first book — a memoir titled You, Me, and the Tree. You’ll find her writing or editing bylines in a wide variety of publications, including a short story anthology, a Canadian historical fiction trilogy, the…

Interview with Donna Morrissey

January 3, 2023

Contests, Craft, Guest Blog Posts, Interviews, Resources

Interview with CNFC Contest Judge, Donna Morrissey In December 2022, CNFC volunteer, Nancy O’Rourke, interviewed the 2023 CNFC Contest Judge, Donna Morrissey. Read about Donna’s thoughts on writing, reading, and advice for CNFC contest writers. – Donna Morrissey has published seven national best-selling novels. She has received awards in Canada, the U.S. and England and her novel, Sylvanus Now, was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize. Donna’s fiction has been translated into several different languages. She was nominated for a Gemini for her script, The Clothesline…

A Small Selection of Favourite Craft Books

December 10, 2022

Craft, Guest Blog Posts, How to Be a Happy Writer, Members Blog, Resources

AnnMarie MacKinnon is a CNFC member and board member. She shares a thoughtful list of books on the craft of writing creative nonfiction, for yourself or as a gift for another writer in your life. _ In just a week, winter will be upon us. The short days and long evenings of the season practically beg us to embrace the hygge mood and curl up with a book. And what better way to spend a few of those darker hours…

Getting Your CNF Writing into the Winner’s Circle

September 28, 2022

Contests, Guest Blog Posts, Interviews, Members, winners

Nancy O’Rourke, for the CNFC Blog CNFC member and volunteer, Nancy O’Rourke, a former CNFC contest winner and jury reader, interviewed two jury readers from the 2022 contest, Allyson Latta and Becky Blake. The interview explores how potential contest writers can best prepare their submissions to improve their chances of winning. BECKY BLAKE is a two-time winner of the CBC Literary Prize (for non-fiction in 2017 and short fiction in 2013). More recently, she was the 2021 winner of the CNFC/Humber…

Help Run CNFC, for the fun of it

March 23, 2022

General, General News, Guest Blog Posts, Members

By Christopher Moore I’ll tell you a secret. Some of the board members and committee members at CNFC don’t have any serious credentials in finance, tech, marketing and promotion, administration, or any of those skills often thought useful for boards and committees. On the other hand, we have some who do have experience in those fields — and it’s very good to have them. But what mainly brings together those who volunteer to help run CNFC is a shared commitment…

The Canada Council “Doesn’t Like Fact”?

December 27, 2021

General News, Guest Blog Posts, Members, Uncategorized

Christopher Moore, for the CNFC Blog Ken Whyte runs Sutherland House, a newish publisher dedicated to Canadian nonfiction. And he is worried about Canadian nonfiction. Memoir is doing fine, he acknowledges, and it is part of his publishing program. His concern is the decline in Canadian publishing of what he calls “works of history, biography, natural science, philosophy, religion, politics, criticism, and any other researched non-fiction that intends something other than personal reflection.” He’s concerned that part of the problem…

A Mentor, a Mentee, and a Beautiful Residency

September 8, 2021

General, Guest Blog Posts, Members, Uncategorized

In our latest blog post, CNCF member, Sandra Phinney, and Board Member, Darryl Whetter discuss the importance of mentorship.

Book Review: Betsy Warland, Lost Lagoon/ lost in thought

March 31, 2021

General, Guest Blog Posts, Poetry, Promotions

Betsy Warland, Lost Lagoon/ lost in thought (Halfmoon Bay, BC: Caitlin Press, 2020). Paperbound, 86 pp., $20.00 By Susan Olding In February, 2020, a month before the pandemic upended the ordinary patterns of many people’s lives, Betsy Warland took me for a stroll around Lost Lagoon, in Vancouver’s Stanley Park. I had walked there before, alone and with other friends. I knew where the herons liked to stand and wait for their prey. I’d seen the mallards and Canada Geese…

The Road to a Book, Part Three

January 30, 2021

General, Guest Blog Posts, Publishing

The third and final part of Beth Kaplan’s three-part series of essays focused on the writing and publishing of her new memoir, Loose Woman: my odyssey from lost to found