Resources

Interview with Angus MacCaull about the new CNFC Memoir Book Club

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…

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How to Write About Trauma in Memoir

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…

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Interview with Donna Morrissey

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…

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A Small Selection of Favourite Craft Books

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…

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CNF tip of the day: lyric essay

Lyric Essay A lyric essay uses the techniques of poetry, including compression, sound play, white space, formal innovation, non-linear narrative, and juxtaposition to explore an idea or an experience in the writer’s life. Lyric essays may be structured as collage or mosaic, as braided or woven narratives, as “flash” snapshots, or wedged within the carapace of other forms such as instruction manuals, rejection letters, lists, or maps, and they may also make use of images. They often rely on research…

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CNF tip of the day: memoir

Memoir A memoir is an attempt to make artful sense of some aspect or period of the author’s life. The facts may be unusual or traumatic, or they may be ordinary and unremarkable. “What happened” is less important in memoir than the clarity, grace, or originality of the writer’s style and the honest pursuit of self-knowledge. As V.S. Pritchett said, “It’s all in the art. You get no credit for living.” A few examples Joan Didion: “Goodbye to All That.”…

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