The Landscape of Canadian Women's Crime Fiction

Tag: teaching

  • This Could Be the Day

    Photo: Robyn Hitchcock; used under a CC license I’m writing a book. Technically, two books. Piece of cake. “Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness.” George Orwell I love this, because my writing and my chronic illnesses are closely linked, including both taking place largely in…

  • On Teaching (and Not Teaching) True Crime in Creative Nonfiction

    My second CNF course is underway, and the class members are enthusiastic and engaged. We’ve just started the essay, both lyric and personal, and students are enjoying sharing their favourite David Sedaris pieces. But we’ve also just learned of a tragic death in our college community, and I’m feeling jolted back to last winter, when…

  • The Great Gatsby, Crime Fiction Tropes, and One of the “Crimes of the Century”

    The Great Gatsby was published on April 10, 1925. The reviews were lacklustre, and so were sales, failing to reach the acclaim of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s previous two novels. Then high school English teachers got their hands on it and . . . the rest is history. I’ve taught Gatsby several times, each time with…