Sylvia McNicoll

This is a photo of my students (aged 12-17) at the Mississauga Living Arts Centre on the last night of our Creative Writing Lab.  It’s always been a dream of mine to host a teen writing club and somehow, through a lucky twist of fate, I became the teacher of this…

Recently in writing an article on what libraries can do for writers, I encountered an attitude that’s increasingly popular in the service, entertainment and information industries and that is “we want to give the client what they ask for.” So let me…

Sharon Siamon was the editor who “discovered” me, the first friendly voice at the other end of the phone who told me she loved my work. This would have been Blueberries and Whipped Cream.  She couldn’t use it but suggested I send it to her husband…

  So many highlights to a great day! Discovering a new bookstore: Epic Books on Locke Street in Hamilton. Meeting a poet, Ariel Gordon, and buying a collection of hers: The Stowaway.  (See her poem in the bottle.) Chatting with young potential readers   Enjoying…

For four years, ending last Friday, I served on the Access Copyright board and it felt like I was learning up a cliff, reading documents for which I should have had a law degree and voting on complex issues where every decision was both wrong and right for different…

 The Oakville librarians were very kind and concerned that my young readers would mob me, their guest author, the reward for a day of a book trivia contest known as Battle of the Books. Let me say I LOVE Battle of the Books.  I’ve sat in as a guest timer and…