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Reviews and Writing Lessons

 Reviews and stuff on Leacock Medal Winners 

Lesson 1--Be careful how you judge a sixty-eight-year-old book


Lesson 2--Sometimes the packaging is everything


Lesson 3--They may think you’re funny for wrong reasons


1950--Turvey by Earle Birney
Lesson 4 -How one word can change a book


Lesson 5 -Finding your own “moveable feast”


Lesson 6--How to embrace uncertainty


Lesson 7--How the basics of politics never change


Lesson 8--The limits of self-deprecating humour


Lesson 9--When more words are better


Lesson 10--Why travel writers need a place to call home


Lesson 11--When home is not a place


Lesson 12--Why the best story is not always dramatic


Lesson 0 – How to create your own success


Lesson 13--Why someone would abandon humour writing


Lesson 14--The power of simple sentences and plain talk


Lesson 15--Why we like idealized images


Lesson 16--When it’s time to see the humour


Lesson 17--How to laugh in hard economic times


Lesson 18--How to keep sane amid the insanity of war


Lesson 19--Mixing Formats

 
Lesson 20--Breaking all the rules


Lesson 21--How to stay creative within a bureaucracy


Lesson 22--A formula for generic Canadian humour

Lesson 23--How to echo character in the setting


Lesson 24--Why writing is thinking


Lesson 25--How to persevere in a writing career
 

Lesson 26--How to write profiles of ordinary people


Lesson 27--What makes good dialogue


Lesson 28--How much description is enough


Lesson 29--How a tall tale can tell a truth


Lesson 30--Political satire and the real “Newfoundlander” jokes


Lesson 31--The appeal of silly


Lesson 32--Assuming another persona

 
Lesson 33--How to sustain a book series


Lesson 34--Domestic humour and keeping it simple

 
Lesson 35--Telling the story of a whole community


Lesson 36--Metaphors and similes


Lesson 37--How to tell a love story without making love


Lesson 38--The novella format and humour


Lesson 39--A humour-column checklist



Lesson 40--How writers find courage


Lesson 41--Flashbacks and fictional time


Lesson 42--Writing of young love


Lesson 43--Telling a story from two different perspectives


Lesson 44--Regional histories with national appeal


Lesson 45--The humour in unfettered truth


Lesson 46--The mystery of why I like John Levesque


1994--Bachelor Brothers’ Bed and Breakfast by Bill Richardson
Lesson 47--Finding time and space to read and write


Lesson 48--How to laugh at the fear of failure


Lesson 49--The caring yet practical perspective of farmers


Lesson 50--Why Google-era writers still collect trivia


Lesson 51--The role of an unreliable narrator

Lesson 52--Why we sometimes like “boring” stories

 
Lesson 53--Why humorists mix facts and fancy


Lesson 54--Why any Canadian would try to make a living from creative writing


Lesson 55--How to laugh in the book publishing business


Lesson 56--How to see the humour in our history


Lesson 57--How to create an effect by not saying things


Lesson 58--Humour in travel writing


Lesson 59--On the need for continuous curiosity


Lesson 60--The Secret to storytelling success


Lesson 61--Seeing the humour under your nose


Lesson 62--How to write the fish-out-of-water story 


Lesson 63--Plotting and plodding


Lesson 64--How a creative spark leads to a story

 
Lesson 65--The incongruous setting


Lesson 66--Caring about characters


Lesson 67--Community and humour



Lesson 68 - What's in a name

2016 - Republic of Dirt by Susan Juby

Lesson 69 - Different Perspectives 

2017 - Yiddish for Pirates by Gary Barwin 

Lesson 70  - Humorous History

2018 - Gone to Pot by Jennifer Craig

Lesson 71 - Humour at different ages 


2019 - Boy Wonders by Cathal Kelly

Lesson 72 - Finding meaning through humour


2020 - Molly of the Mall by Heidi L.M. Jacobs 

Lesson 73 - That first job 


2021 - Indians on Vacation by Thomas King

Lesson 74 - Looking at Travel through a different lens.