My beloved Paul McCartney was on the British Music Awards last night, getting a Lifetime Achievement Award and then playing a few songs. He was wearing tight black pant, a mod little jacket and Beatle

I love documentaries, another form of creative non-fiction – true stories, moving, informative, well told. I watched one the other night on happiness, on CBC-TV. The filmmakers took four ordinary people and gave them a

First of all, Happy Valentine’s Day to you all. For those of us currently between relationships – and I have spent much of my adult life currently between relationships – it’s a bit of a

Well, it’s official – we have a record-breaking snow fall this year, more than has ever been recorded in Toronto history, how about that??? We are all just thrilled; nothing Toronto likes more than breaking

Wayson Choy, my dear friend and mentor, came to the Autobiography II class yesterday, and spoke with his usual passion and insight about the writing process. He suggested that we all imagine for ourselves “the

The great French novelist Colette wrote in bed. So did that great Yankee Edith Wharton. (Why do only women writers write in bed? It’s hard to imagine Ernest Hemingway under the covers, tapping away at

The dead of winter – mountains of snow, a muffled city in the slushy cold. But there’s lots of life at my bird-feeder, and every morning, little raccoon tracks weave through the garden. This is