Members Blog – Creative Nonfiction Collective

Interview with Adelle Purdham

November 5, 2024

Essay Collections, Guest Blog Posts, Interviews, Members, Members Blog, Publishing

Adelle Purdham’s new essay collection, I Don’t Do Disability and Other Lies I’ve Told Myself was just released with Durdurn Press and is a powerful and necessary examination of Adelle’s internalized ableism, which is brought to painful light when she find’s out she will be having a baby with Down syndrome. By interogating herself, she encourages us to examine our own prejudices and move beyond them. This book explores the unexamined stories we tell ourselves about ourselves. Adelle Purdham…

Interview with Lucy E.M. Black

September 25, 2024

Craft, Guest Blog Posts, Interviews, Members, Members Blog, Publishing, Resources

Author Lucy E.M. Black was a corporate trainer before becoming a career educator. She is the author of The Marzipan Fruit Basket, Eleanor Courtown, Stella’s Carpet, and The Brickworks. Her short stories have been published in Britain, Ireland, USA and Canada in literary journals and magazines. She lives with her partner in Port Perry, Ontario, the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of Scugog Island, First Nations. Lucy E.M. Black’s most recent publication, Class Lessons: Stories of Vulnerable Youth (Demeter Press,…

Making an Impact: Kim S. Kierans and a Life in Journalism

September 5, 2024

Guest Blog Posts, Interviews, Members, Members Blog

Nancy Dutra speaks to fellow CNFC member Kim S. Kierans about her book, Journalism for the Public Good: The Michener Awards at 50. Kim Kierans is a senior fellow and resident at Massey College, where she writes and produces The JCR: A Massey Podcast. She is an Inglis professor emerita in journalism at the University of King’s College, where she taught for 24 years. Nancy Dutra is a coffee snob who loves writing, reading, and occasionally singing about the human condition. Her…

Interview with George Lee

May 24, 2024

Guest Blog Posts, Interviews, Members, Members Blog, Publishing

Hollay Ghadery is a multi-genre writer living in Ontario on Anishinaabe land. She has her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph. Fuse, her memoir of mixed-race identity and mental health, was released by Guernica Editions in 2021 and won the 2023 Canadian Bookclub Award for Nonfiction/Memoir. Her collection of poetry, Rebellion Box was released by Radiant Press in 2023, and her collection of short fiction, Widow Fantasies, is scheduled for release with Gordon Hill Press in fall…

Interview with Robin Pacific

April 3, 2024

Guest Blog Posts, Interviews, Members, Members Blog, Publishing

Hollay Ghadery is a multi-genre writer living in Ontario on Anishinaabe land. She has her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph. Fuse, her memoir of mixed-race identity and mental health, was released by Guernica Editions in 2021 and won the 2023 Canadian Bookclub Award for Nonfiction/ Memoir. Her collection of poetry, Rebellion Box was released by Radiant Press in 2023 and her collection of short stories, Widow Fantasies, is forthcoming with Gordon Hill in September 2024. Hollay…

Why I Write: CNFC members reflect on why they write, and how they keep going

March 11, 2024

Guest Blog Posts, Members, Members Blog

Nancy Dutra loves writing, reading, and occasionally singing about the human condition. She is a contributing author to SOCAN Words and Music magazine and is a freelance writer and editor. Her album, “Time Will Tell,” charted on the Euro-Americana Roots Music List and received favourable reviews from CBC, Exclaim, NOW, and No Depression. ___ When I speak, I’m verbose and repetitive. When I write, however, I’m concise. With each successive draft, my point of view gets sharper, more straightforward, more precise.…

How winning the 2015 CNFC contest changed me

February 12, 2024

Contests, Guest Blog Posts, How to Be a Happy Writer, Members, Members Blog, Publishing, winners

Kirsten Fogg is a bilingual Australian-Canadian journalist, editor and award-winning essayist who has been shaped by living in four countries and by the suicide of her 16-year-old brother. Her essays have been published in journals including Creative Nonfiction and The Malahat Review and adapted by ABC Radio National Australia. Her journalism has appeared in various world media. She has an MFA in Creative Nonfiction (2022). Sign up to her newsletter here: Writer out of Residence and connect with her on…

Interview with Angus MacCaull about the new CNFC Memoir Book Club

February 8, 2024

Guest Blog Posts, Interviews, Members, Members Blog, Resources

Wanda Taylor, CNFC’s Vice-President, is an award-winning author, journalist, and college professor. She writes both fiction and nonfiction across children’s and adult markets. She has bylines in numerous publications, including Quill & Quire and the Globe and Mail. Additionally, her features, essays, and poems have been published across Canada, the US, and the UK. Her newest nonfiction book is set for release with Nimbus Publishing, Spring 2024. Angus MacCaull is a recent graduate of the King’s College MFA in creative…

Interview with Beth Kaplan

January 31, 2024

Guest Blog Posts, Interviews, Members, Members Blog, Publishing

Christopher Moore and Beth Kaplan have both served on the CNFC board and the conference committee. With the release of Beth’s new book Midlife Solo, a memoir-in-essays, they felt the membership might be interested in their conversation about the nuts and bolts of putting together an essay compilation. __ Christopher Moore: Beth Kaplan has taught nonfiction writing at two Toronto universities for decades and is the author of three previous memoirs as well as a number of other works. All…

Interview with 2024 CNFC Contest Judge, Lisa Bird-Wilson

January 9, 2024

Contests, Craft, General, Guest Blog Posts, Interviews, Members, Members Blog, Publishing

Interview with 2024 CNFC Contest Judge, Lisa Bird-Wilson Volunteer Margaret Lynch interviews 2024 CNFC/HLR Contest Judge, Lisa Bird-Wilson who shares her thoughts on writing, reading, and what she’s looking for in contest submissions. Lisa Bird-Wilson is a Saskatchewan Métis and Cree writer whose work appears in literary magazines, newspapers, and anthologies across Canada. Her most recent book, Probably Ruby (2021), is published internationally and was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, for the Amazon First Novel Award,…