Reflections on Creative Nonfiction, Memoir, (Auto)Biography, Life-Writing, and the Essay
15 Feb 2013 at 10:26
Julija Šukys
Blurbs, Canada, CanLit, Editing, Libraries, Marketing, Media, Publicity, Publishing, Research, Social Media, Uncategorized, Writing
OK, so as authors we are told constantly that we have to market our own books. The publishing industry, for better or worse, has largely washed its hands of promotion, except for the lucky and most commercial few. The rest of us are largely on our own. Authors must have a website (check), keep [...]
28 Dec 2012 at 12:14
Julija Šukys
Biography, Canada, CanLit, Creative Nonfiction, Epistolophilia, Essays, Ona Šimaitė, Publicity, Publishing, Quebec, Reviews, Uncategorized, Virginia Woolf
Maisonneuve Magazine is published out of Montreal and “has been described as a new New Yorker for a younger generation, or as Harper’s meets Vice, or as Vanity Fair without the vanity.” The quarterly offers “a diverse range of commentary across the arts, sciences, daily and social life.” When the publication asked its contributors to [...]
07 Dec 2012 at 19:56
Julija Šukys
Canada, CanLit, Contests and Prizes, Creative Nonfiction, Eastern Europe, Epistolophilia, Letters, Libraries, Ona Šimaitė, Vilna Ghetto, Vilnius, Writing
As I posted on Facebook, I will admit that my hands shook for a while after learning the news that my book, Epistolophilia: Writing the Life of Ona Šimaitė has been long-listed for the Charles Taylor Prize in Literary Non-Fiction. It’s an enormous honour. THE CHARLES TAYLOR PRIZE commemorates Charles Taylor’s pursuit of excellence in [...]
15 Oct 2012 at 11:01
Julija Šukys
Canada, CanLit, Contests and Prizes, Creative Nonfiction, Epistolophilia, Events, Ona Šimaitė, Quebec, Uncategorized
I keep wanting to sit down and write a thoughtful post for the blog, and then something happens that I realize I should share: a reading, a review, and so on. Mind you, I’m not complaining. I’m thrilled. So here’s this week’s announcement: my book has been shortlisted for a literary prize. The shortlist for [...]
20 Jul 2012 at 12:05
Julija Šukys
Canada, CanLit, Epistolophilia, Letters, Media, Mothering, Publicity, Reviews, Writing
Šukys’s great respect for her subject inspires respect for her own book. “When I read [the letters]” Šukys writes, “I feel as though she is speaking to me directly…” And that’s also how readers of Epistolophilia feel, as though Šukys is personally telling us the story of this incredible, and incredibly important, woman over a [...]
01 Sep 2011 at 02:19
Julija Šukys
Andrew Westoll, Biography, Canada, CanLit, Creative Nonfiction, Friendship, Uncategorized
Andrew Westoll. The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary: A Canadian Story of Resilience and Recovery. Harper Collins, 2011. Andrew Westoll’s The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary is a deeply humane account of chimpanzee lives, and a troubling testament to how monstrously we’ve treated our closest cousins on this planet. The book tells the story of thirteen former [...]
11 Jul 2011 at 10:19
Julija Šukys
Autobiography, Balkans, Biography, Byzantium, Canada, CanLit, Christianity, CNF Conversations, Creative Nonfiction, Eastern Europe, Feminism, Journeys, Language and Multilingualism, Matt Cohen, Memoir, Myrna Kostash, Orthodoxy, Publishing, Rejection, Research, Saints, Slavs, Translation, Ukraine, Uncategorized, Writing
Myrna Kostash, Prodigal Daughter: A Journey to Byzantium. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2010. * Born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta, Myrna Kostash is a fulltime writer, author of All of Baba’s Children (1978); Long Way From Home: The Story of the Sixties Generation in Canada (1980); No Kidding: Inside the World of Teenage Girls [...]
11 Jul 2011 at 10:18
Julija Šukys
Autobiography, Balkans, Biography, Byzantium, Canada, CanLit, Christianity, CNF Conversations, Creative Nonfiction, Eastern Europe, Feminism, Journeys, Language and Multilingualism, Matt Cohen, Memoir, Myrna Kostash, Orthodoxy, Publishing, Saints, Slavs, Ukraine, Uncategorized, Writing
Myrna Kostash, Prodigal Daughter: A Journey to Byzantium. Edmonton, AB: University of Alberta Press, 2010. * This is Part II of a two-part interview with Myrna Kostash about her book, Prodigal Daughter. Click here to read Part I. Julija Šukys: You are a writer who is very rooted in Western Canada and in the Ukrainian [...]
12 May 2011 at 21:23
Julija Šukys
Canada, CanLit, Contests and Prizes, Creative Nonfiction, Journalism, Uncategorized
The notoriously unrewarding business of writing non-fiction books in Canada gained a double dose of glamour and money yesterday with the announcement of the $60,000 Writers’ Trust Hilary Weston Prize. Billed as the richest award for factual writing in Canada, the prize and the autumn gala at which it will be announced are intended to [...]
