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Bright Fragments
I decided to slam together a new book consisting almost entirely of essays that had already, by being published, proven their worth. How easy this will be, I thought. The content was already written. There’d just be compiling and a bit of tweaking. Ha!
Featured in Brevity Blog
Correspondence
Barbara, my childhood pen pal, died in June 1966, at the age of 16. I calculated: it was now February 11, 2008, so I’d been carrying her letters around for nearly 42 years.
Featured in Queen’s Quarterly
Portrait of the Artist: My Visit with Alice Neel
Nervously dialling the number Dad had given me, I was relieved to find Alice friendly and welcoming. I told her I was Gordin Kaplan’s daughter, an actress on a brief visit to New York. “Kappy’s daughter? An actress?” she boomed. “Come on over—have tea!”
Featured in The New Quarterly
Learning to Speak
So I’m pacing about the room in my respectable suit from Goodwill, incredibly nervous, thinking, Who do you think you are? You’re a fake. This will be a disaster. They’ll hate … And then I stop. I just stop.
Secret
My friend leaned closer and told me softly that her mother had recently died. “After the funeral,” she said, her face expressionless, “Dad finally apologized to me for what happened during my childhood.” As she took a breath to go on, I knew. I knew what she was going to say.
Greater density in the city
Premier Doug Ford, stuff your archaic, environmentally destructive plan. Focus on providing family housing and amenities in this neglected, underfunded, vibrant metropolis.
The romance of silver
Deep in my handbag was my mother’s special antique spoon, wrapped in a soft blue cloth.
The vaccine is a gift
The issue of vaccine skepticism is personal for me. Because my father, first of all, was a scientist who believed with all his heart in the efficacy and power of rigorous scientific exploration and discovery. But also because, just after my first birthday, he nearly died of polio.
Telling your story
Here are seven tips on how to unearth significant memories and turn them into compelling stories.
Featured in Zoomer