3 09, 2024

TYPE! Interview – Rixa Joy, Toronto Writers’ Centre

By | 2024-09-03T18:23:48+00:00 September 3rd, 2024|Uncategorized|0 Comments

We were very fortunate to have a visit from TYPE! where they lead us through a prompt-based writing workshop. After the workshop, Rixa, co-director of the Toronto Writers' Centre talked with George Hamilton from TYPE! about we we are and what we do! You can read the full interview here!

21 12, 2018

On a snowy afternoon, get lost in a good book…

By | 2019-02-08T11:43:11+00:00 December 21st, 2018|Books, General, Uncategorized, Writers|0 Comments

“Winter is the time for comfort…it is the time for home”.  Edith Sitwell. It’s happening – the days are getting shorter; the weather is getting colder and summer already feels like a distant memory.  Winter is here.  Sitting here at the Toronto Writers’ Centre I cannot really complain about winter.  Compared to the rest of Canada, Toronto has a relatively mild winter (remind me I said that when the driveway needs shoveling).  However, winter is also beautiful.  I must admit that I love the look of the fresh snow blanketing the ground and frosting the trees.  It’s a beautiful time to take a walk in a wintry wonderland Ever wonder [...]

26 10, 2018

All things frightening and spooky

By | 2018-10-26T01:36:12+00:00 October 26th, 2018|Books, General, Writers|0 Comments

October is here, and my mind turns to Hallowe’en and all things frightening and spooky. “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.”  H.P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft knew a thing or two about how to scare us as he became a prolific master of the horror genre.  His stories are among the foundation of modern horror.  However, the beginnings of the genre of horror can be traced back 250 years.  Horace Walpole wrote the first Gothic novel The Castle of Otranto in 1764, initiating a new literary genre, the Gothic novel.  Gothic literature rose in the 18th [...]

21 09, 2018

Fall into reading!

By | 2018-10-22T12:00:06+00:00 September 21st, 2018|Books, General, Writers|0 Comments

School is underway, the weather has finally turned cool, the air crisp and its officially Autumn.  So, let’s fall into reading. I am reading Michael Ondaatje’s Warlight, and I was struck by the quote from Olive: “There is the presence of others in us, even those we have known briefly”.  Think about that.  What Olive is saying is that we are all connected.  We carry a piece of everyone we meet, for whatever brief a time.  Our character is shaped both in large and small ways by our interactions with other human beings.  That resonates with me because I do believe that is true.  Aristotle famously wrote: “Man is by [...]

27 07, 2018

Why read?

By | 2018-07-30T21:46:30+00:00 July 27th, 2018|General|0 Comments

“The author and the reader ‘know’ each other; they meet on a bridge of words”: Madeleine L’Engle. I am not a Writer.  But I am a passionate reader, and I deeply enjoy meeting on that bridge.  So, let me offer some thoughts on that topic for my first Writers’ Block blog. Why Read? The first of many thoughts and impressions. I love to read.  No, let me rephrase that.  I live to read.  It was my first joy as a child and, perhaps, when old age has taken its’ toll, it may well be my last.  I cling to that idea: reading will be my lifelong companion.  Why do I [...]

15 06, 2018

Welcome!

By | 2018-07-30T21:43:40+00:00 June 15th, 2018|Books, General, Writers|0 Comments

Welcome! Welcome to the first post on our brand new, updated Toronto Writers’ Centre website. A new chapter is beginning for the TWC, and I, along with all our writers are very excited about it! What are we reading this summer, at the TWC? Ridley Walker by Russell Hoban The Unquiet Grave A Word Cycle by Palinurus by Cyril Connolly Less by Andrew Sean Greer The Hesitation Cut by Giles Blunt The Natural History of Selborne by Gilbert White (written in 1798, this book has never been out of print since its first publication). Bellevue Square by Michael Redhill Butcher by Nicolas Billon So, pick up a few books and [...]