Book excerpt
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Learning to pay attention
Excerpt from Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott This is an excerpt from the book Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. Writing is about learning to pay attention and to communicate what is going on. Now, if you ask me, what’s going on is that we’re all up to here in it, and probably the…
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What is love of one’s country
Excerpt from The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin This is an excerpt from the book The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin. “The best food I’ve eaten on Gethen has always been in your company Estraven.” “Not at that banquet in Mishnory.” “No, that’s true…You hate Orgoreyn, don’t…
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Shame is something we can do without
Excerpt from Foster by Claire Keegan This is an excerpt from the book Foster by Claire Keegan. ‘Come down to the well with me,’ she says. ‘Now?’ ‘Does now not suit you?’ Something about the way she says this makes me wonder if it’s something we are not supposed to do. ‘Is this secret?’ ‘What?’…
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This Dialogue Fire
Excerpt from Truth Telling by Michelle Good This is an excerpt from the book Truth Telling: Seven Conversations about Indigenous Life in Canada by Michelle Good. Sit with Me, by This Dialogue Fire AT THE WATERSHED MOMENT IN CANADIAN history when the Truth and Reconciliation report was issued, the Honourable Justice Murray Sinclair positioned truth…
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Why didn’t we kill you off
Excerpt from The Inconvenient Indian by Thomas King This is an excerpt from the book The Inconvenient Indian by Thomas King. If North America doesn’t like Live Indians and it doesn’t like Legal Indians, why doesn’t the military-political-corporate complex just kill us off? I know this question sounds melodramatic and absurd, but I’ve been to…
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Principles of redemption
Excerpt from Peace and Good Order by Harold R. Johnson This is an excerpt from the book Peace and Good Order by Harold R. Johnson. The fundamental difference between how First Nations would maintain peace and good order and how Canada has administered it is that First Nations would apply principles of redemption, whereas Canada…
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Natural sweetness inside
Excerpt from Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor This is an excerpt from the book Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor. I just found out that Flannery O’Connor was quite blatantly racist. I don’t think it’s fair to simply say she’s a product of her times (she was alive and writing at the same time as James…
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Sacrificial canaries
Excerpt from The Membranes by Chi Ta-Wei This is an excerpt from the book The Membranes by Chi Ta-Wei, translated from the Chinese by Ari Larissa Heinrich. It was only years later as a young woman at boarding school studying hard to be a dermal care technician, that Momo finally stumbled upon some information about…