#walkinthepark — Public Fediverse posts

A WALK WHERE SCHNEIDER CREEK MEETS THE GRAND WITH ERIKA LUI

Multidisciplinary circus and movement artist Erika Lui connected with nature in the area when they moved to Waterloo in 2009 to pursue a double degree in Psychology and Biology at Laurier, then completed a Master’s degree specializing in Neuroscience at the University of Waterloo. They moved back to Toronto briefly but missed having access to nature. When the opportunity arose to return […]

A WALK AROUND BECHTEL PARK WITH EMILY URQHART

It was author Emily Urquhart’s pup June that brought us out to the Bechtel Dog Park on a grey Saturday afternoon. We were greeted by a well-dressed poodle in boots and an orange jacket, and June and her new friend ran off while Urquhart and I opted for a slower pace.

“Walking is one hundred per cent part of my writing process,” Urquhart said as we followed the path on a loop around a cluster of trees. “[O]ften, when I’m walking, I’m working something out…something about the movement of walking forwards can sometimes shake things out in a way that, if I was sitting at a desk and trying to write, it just doesn’t work.”

Urquhart was born in Kitchener and lived in Waterloo until she was seven, when her family moved to Wellesley. After high school she studied art history and journalism, then ended up at Memorial University in Newfoundland where she completed a PhD in Folklore Studies and also met her future husband. It was his job at the University of Waterloo that brought them back to Ontario to settle with their family in Kitchener.

“I was always interested in folklore,” Urquhart said. “I had this huge Brothers Grimm silver-coloured book that I used to read as a kid a lot. And I was interested in my Irish culture and heritage, and that kind of naturally coincides with folklore.”

Urquhart’s understanding and exploration of folklore goes beyond the written stories of her youth, and includes visual art, gossip, rumours and even home decor and bumper stickers.

“[Folklore is] the way you’re signifying who you are to the world and the story you’re telling about yourself and your place in it,” Urquhart said. “Once you’ve got [folklore] under your belt, it kind of changes your worldview.”

Urquhart explored folklore in her third book, Ordinary Wonder Tales, published in 2022 and shortlisted for the 2023 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction. She drew on her journalism background for her second book, The Age Of Creativity, published in 2020, in which she examined late-in-life creativity using her father, acclaimed painter Tony Urquhart, as the subject and inspiration.

Her mother, award-winning novelist and poet Jane Urquhart, is also an artistic presence in Urquhart’s life. She was in high school when her mother gained wide-spread notoriety for her novel Away, and people became interested in her last name and family.

“There was a rumour at university that my mom was Jan Arden because there was a broken telephone situation…someone said ‘Jane Urquhart,’ but [someone else] heard Jan Arden,” Urquhart said. “So, I’ve always had a kind of kinship with Jan Arden.”

From an early age, Urquhart was an avid reader and was also drawn to writing.

“I had teachers who [said] ‘oh, you’re such a good writer’…But I’d feel like, is that because my mom’s a writer, or is it coming from an authentic place?” she said. “But I knew I liked to do it, and I also knew that it didn’t pay any money.”

Pursuing a PhD allowed Urquhart to continue reading and writing, and also to have some security in the form of teaching. In addition to being a published author and a non-fiction editor at The New Quarterly, Urquhart is also a Professor of Creative Writing at Laurier where she coordinates the Edna Staebler Awards.

It was through The New Quarterly that Urquhart connected with other writers in the area. At the Wild Writers’ Festival in 2019, Urquhart was approached by novelist Carrie Snyder about forming a writer’s group along with author Tasneem Jamal. Urquhart agreed, and they have been writing and workshopping ever since.

“It’s so wonderful to have that community,” Urquhart said. “We write together, which I’d never done…I’ve been through two books with them now.”

Urquhart’s experience of community is one done directly with other people as she is not on any social media. In 2016 she made the decision to leave Facebook when she found the platform to be full of vitriol and in-fighting. She left Twitter not long after.

“It was getting me down,” Urquhart said. “Finally, I was like, no one’s inviting you to this party. You have to stop showing up.”

While she reads poetry daily and cites short stories as a favourite genre, Urquhart is also drawn to some less-expected media.

“I like to watch really trashy documentaries,” Urquhart said. “When I say documentary, people think, ‘Oh, that sounds smart.’ No, I like anything to do with catfishing…I’m really into cults. I just find it fascinating.”

Urquhart’s dog June came over to say a quick hello before going to greet a new arrival. Before adopting June from the Humane Society a year ago, Urquhart and her family rescued a dog from another agency; however, they were unable to keep him because of an aggressive response to walks.

“He was sweet, actually, in the house, but…he wouldn’t go in our yard, so he had to be walked…whenever I walked him, he attacked me,” Urquhart said. “I had leather gloves, they were split open, my parka was split open. I was on the ground trying to shield my face and he had my hand and he didn’t let go.”

The experience did not deter Urquhart from dogs, however. 

“I just got obsessed or something after that,” Urquhart said. “I was thinking about dogs, I only watched things about dogs, and then I started writing about it.”

Part of that writing process included painting a watercolour of the destroyed gloves and using visual art as research. What started as memoir turned into a fairy tale.

“I don’t know if the stories I’ve been writing connect as one piece or if they’re connected stories,” Urquhart said. 

“But they all have some sort of supernatural…element threaded through them.”

While the move to writing fiction might be new for Urquhart, her background in folklore and careful powers of observation honed through journalism will no doubt mean she is right at home navigating these creative waters.

A WALK AROUND BECHTEL PARK WITH EMILY URQHART

It was author Emily Urquhart’s pup June that brought us out to the Bechtel Dog Park on a grey Saturday afternoon. We were greeted by a well-dressed poodle in boots and an orange jacket, and June and her new friend ran off while Urquhart and I opted for a slower pace.

“Walking is one hundred per cent part of my writing process,” Urquhart said as we followed the path on a loop around a cluster of trees. “[O]ften, when I’m walking, I’m working something out…something about the movement of walking forwards can sometimes shake things out in a way that, if I was sitting at a desk and trying to write, it just doesn’t work.”

Urquhart was born in Kitchener and lived in Waterloo until she was seven, when her family moved to Wellesley. After high school she studied art history and journalism, then ended up at Memorial University in Newfoundland where she completed a PhD in Folklore Studies and also met her future husband. It was his job at the University of Waterloo that brought them back to Ontario to settle with their family in Kitchener.

“I was always interested in folklore,” Urquhart said. “I had this huge Brothers Grimm silver-coloured book that I used to read as a kid a lot. And I was interested in my Irish culture and heritage, and that kind of naturally coincides with folklore.”

Urquhart’s understanding and exploration of folklore goes beyond the written stories of her youth, and includes visual art, gossip, rumours and even home decor and bumper stickers.

“[Folklore is] the way you’re signifying who you are to the world and the story you’re telling about yourself and your place in it,” Urquhart said. “Once you’ve got [folklore] under your belt, it kind of changes your worldview.”

Urquhart explored folklore in her third book, Ordinary Wonder Tales, published in 2022 and shortlisted for the 2023 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction. She drew on her journalism background for her second book, The Age Of Creativity, published in 2020, in which she examined late-in-life creativity using her father, acclaimed painter Tony Urquhart, as the subject and inspiration.

Her mother, award-winning novelist and poet Jane Urquhart, is also an artistic presence in Urquhart’s life. She was in high school when her mother gained wide-spread notoriety for her novel Away, and people became interested in her last name and family.

“There was a rumour at university that my mom was Jan Arden because there was a broken telephone situation…someone said ‘Jane Urquhart,’ but [someone else] heard Jan Arden,” Urquhart said. “So, I’ve always had a kind of kinship with Jan Arden.”

From an early age, Urquhart was an avid reader and was also drawn to writing.

“I had teachers who [said] ‘oh, you’re such a good writer’…But I’d feel like, is that because my mom’s a writer, or is it coming from an authentic place?” she said. “But I knew I liked to do it, and I also knew that it didn’t pay any money.”

Pursuing a PhD allowed Urquhart to continue reading and writing, and also to have some security in the form of teaching. In addition to being a published author and a non-fiction editor at The New Quarterly, Urquhart is also a Professor of Creative Writing at Laurier where she coordinates the Edna Staebler Awards.

It was through The New Quarterly that Urquhart connected with other writers in the area. At the Wild Writers’ Festival in 2019, Urquhart was approached by novelist Carrie Snyder about forming a writer’s group along with author Tasneem Jamal. Urquhart agreed, and they have been writing and workshopping ever since.

“It’s so wonderful to have that community,” Urquhart said. “We write together, which I’d never done…I’ve been through two books with them now.”

Urquhart’s experience of community is one done directly with other people as she is not on any social media. In 2016 she made the decision to leave Facebook when she found the platform to be full of vitriol and in-fighting. She left Twitter not long after.

“It was getting me down,” Urquhart said. “Finally, I was like, no one’s inviting you to this party. You have to stop showing up.”

While she reads poetry daily and cites short stories as a favourite genre, Urquhart is also drawn to some less-expected media.

“I like to watch really trashy documentaries,” Urquhart said. “When I say documentary, people think, ‘Oh, that sounds smart.’ No, I like anything to do with catfishing…I’m really into cults. I just find it fascinating.”

Urquhart’s dog June came over to say a quick hello before going to greet a new arrival. Before adopting June from the Humane Society a year ago, Urquhart and her family rescued a dog from another agency; however, they were unable to keep him because of an aggressive response to walks.

“He was sweet, actually, in the house, but…he wouldn’t go in our yard, so he had to be walked…whenever I walked him, he attacked me,” Urquhart said. “I had leather gloves, they were split open, my parka was split open. I was on the ground trying to shield my face and he had my hand and he didn’t let go.”

The experience did not deter Urquhart from dogs, however. 

“I just got obsessed or something after that,” Urquhart said. “I was thinking about dogs, I only watched things about dogs, and then I started writing about it.”

Part of that writing process included painting a watercolour of the destroyed gloves and using visual art as research. What started as memoir turned into a fairy tale.

“I don’t know if the stories I’ve been writing connect as one piece or if they’re connected stories,” Urquhart said. 

“But they all have some sort of supernatural…element threaded through them.”

While the move to writing fiction might be new for Urquhart, her background in folklore and careful powers of observation honed through journalism will no doubt mean she is right at home navigating these creative waters.

A WALK AROUND BECHTEL PARK WITH EMILY URQUHART

It was author Emily Urquhart’s pup June that brought us out to the Bechtel Dog Park on a grey Saturday afternoon. We were greeted by a well-dressed poodle in boots and an orange jacket, and June and her new friend ran off while Urquhart and I opted for a slower pace.

“Walking is one hundred per cent part of my writing process,” Urquhart said as we followed the path on a loop around a cluster of trees. “[O]ften, when I’m walking, I’m working something out…something about the movement of walking forwards can sometimes shake things out in a way that, if I was sitting at a desk and trying to write, it just doesn’t work.”

Urquhart was born in Kitchener and lived in Waterloo until she was seven, when her family moved to Wellesley. After high school she studied art history and journalism, then ended up at Memorial University in Newfoundland where she completed a PhD in Folklore Studies and also met her future husband. It was his job at the University of Waterloo that brought them back to Ontario to settle with their family in Kitchener.

“I was always interested in folklore,” Urquhart said. “I had this huge Brothers Grimm silver-coloured book that I used to read as a kid a lot. And I was interested in my Irish culture and heritage, and that kind of naturally coincides with folklore.”

Urquhart’s understanding and exploration of folklore goes beyond the written stories of her youth, and includes visual art, gossip, rumours and even home decor and bumper stickers.

“[Folklore is] the way you’re signifying who you are to the world and the story you’re telling about yourself and your place in it,” Urquhart said. “Once you’ve got [folklore] under your belt, it kind of changes your worldview.”

Urquhart explored folklore in her third book, Ordinary Wonder Tales, published in 2022 and shortlisted for the 2023 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction. She drew on her journalism background for her second book, The Age Of Creativity, published in 2020, in which she examined late-in-life creativity using her father, acclaimed painter Tony Urquhart, as the subject and inspiration.

Her mother, award-winning novelist and poet Jane Urquhart, is also an artistic presence in Urquhart’s life. She was in high school when her mother gained wide-spread notoriety for her novel Away, and people became interested in her last name and family.

“There was a rumour at university that my mom was Jan Arden because there was a broken telephone situation…someone said ‘Jane Urquhart,’ but [someone else] heard Jan Arden,” Urquhart said. “So, I’ve always had a kind of kinship with Jan Arden.”

From an early age, Urquhart was an avid reader and was also drawn to writing.

“I had teachers who [said] ‘oh, you’re such a good writer’…But I’d feel like, is that because my mom’s a writer, or is it coming from an authentic place?” she said. “But I knew I liked to do it, and I also knew that it didn’t pay any money.”

Pursuing a PhD allowed Urquhart to continue reading and writing, and also to have some security in the form of teaching. In addition to being a published author and a non-fiction editor at The New Quarterly, Urquhart is also a Professor of Creative Writing at Laurier where she coordinates the Edna Staebler Awards.

It was through The New Quarterly that Urquhart connected with other writers in the area. At the Wild Writers’ Festival in 2019, Urquhart was approached by novelist Carrie Snyder about forming a writer’s group along with author Tasneem Jamal. Urquhart agreed, and they have been writing and workshopping ever since.

“It’s so wonderful to have that community,” Urquhart said. “We write together, which I’d never done…I’ve been through two books with them now.”

Urquhart’s experience of community is one done directly with other people as she is not on any social media. In 2016 she made the decision to leave Facebook when she found the platform to be full of vitriol and in-fighting. She left Twitter not long after.

“It was getting me down,” Urquhart said. “Finally, I was like, no one’s inviting you to this party. You have to stop showing up.”

While she reads poetry daily and cites short stories as a favourite genre, Urquhart is also drawn to some less-expected media.

“I like to watch really trashy documentaries,” Urquhart said. “When I say documentary, people think, ‘Oh, that sounds smart.’ No, I like anything to do with catfishing…I’m really into cults. I just find it fascinating.”

Urquhart’s dog June came over to say a quick hello before going to greet a new arrival. Before adopting June from the Humane Society a year ago, Urquhart and her family rescued a dog from another agency; however, they were unable to keep him because of an aggressive response to walks.

“He was sweet, actually, in the house, but…he wouldn’t go in our yard, so he had to be walked…whenever I walked him, he attacked me,” Urquhart said. “I had leather gloves, they were split open, my parka was split open. I was on the ground trying to shield my face and he had my hand and he didn’t let go.”

The experience did not deter Urquhart from dogs, however. 

“I just got obsessed or something after that,” Urquhart said. “I was thinking about dogs, I only watched things about dogs, and then I started writing about it.”

Part of that writing process included painting a watercolour of the destroyed gloves and using visual art as research. What started as memoir turned into a fairy tale.

“I don’t know if the stories I’ve been writing connect as one piece or if they’re connected stories,” Urquhart said. 

“But they all have some sort of supernatural…element threaded through them.”

While the move to writing fiction might be new for Urquhart, her background in folklore and careful powers of observation honed through journalism will no doubt mean she is right at home navigating these creative waters.

A WALK AROUND BECHTEL PARK WITH EMILY URQHART

It was author Emily Urquhart’s pup June that brought us out to the Bechtel Dog Park on a grey Saturday afternoon. We were greeted by a well-dressed poodle in boots and an orange jacket, and June and her new friend ran off while Urquhart and I opted for a slower pace.

“Walking is one hundred per cent part of my writing process,” Urquhart said as we followed the path on a loop around a cluster of trees. “[O]ften, when I’m walking, I’m working something out…something about the movement of walking forwards can sometimes shake things out in a way that, if I was sitting at a desk and trying to write, it just doesn’t work.”

Urquhart was born in Kitchener and lived in Waterloo until she was seven, when her family moved to Wellesley. After high school she studied art history and journalism, then ended up at Memorial University in Newfoundland where she completed a PhD in Folklore Studies and also met her future husband. It was his job at the University of Waterloo that brought them back to Ontario to settle with their family in Kitchener.

“I was always interested in folklore,” Urquhart said. “I had this huge Brothers Grimm silver-coloured book that I used to read as a kid a lot. And I was interested in my Irish culture and heritage, and that kind of naturally coincides with folklore.”

Urquhart’s understanding and exploration of folklore goes beyond the written stories of her youth, and includes visual art, gossip, rumours and even home decor and bumper stickers.

“[Folklore is] the way you’re signifying who you are to the world and the story you’re telling about yourself and your place in it,” Urquhart said. “Once you’ve got [folklore] under your belt, it kind of changes your worldview.”

Urquhart explored folklore in her third book, Ordinary Wonder Tales, published in 2022 and shortlisted for the 2023 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction. She drew on her journalism background for her second book, The Age Of Creativity, published in 2020, in which she examined late-in-life creativity using her father, acclaimed painter Tony Urquhart, as the subject and inspiration.

Her mother, award-winning novelist and poet Jane Urquhart, is also an artistic presence in Urquhart’s life. She was in high school when her mother gained wide-spread notoriety for her novel Away, and people became interested in her last name and family.

“There was a rumour at university that my mom was Jan Arden because there was a broken telephone situation…someone said ‘Jane Urquhart,’ but [someone else] heard Jan Arden,” Urquhart said. “So, I’ve always had a kind of kinship with Jan Arden.”

From an early age, Urquhart was an avid reader and was also drawn to writing.

“I had teachers who [said] ‘oh, you’re such a good writer’…But I’d feel like, is that because my mom’s a writer, or is it coming from an authentic place?” she said. “But I knew I liked to do it, and I also knew that it didn’t pay any money.”

Pursuing a PhD allowed Urquhart to continue reading and writing, and also to have some security in the form of teaching. In addition to being a published author and a non-fiction editor at The New Quarterly, Urquhart is also a Professor of Creative Writing at Laurier where she coordinates the Edna Staebler Awards.

It was through The New Quarterly that Urquhart connected with other writers in the area. At the Wild Writers’ Festival in 2019, Urquhart was approached by novelist Carrie Snyder about forming a writer’s group along with author Tasneem Jamal. Urquhart agreed, and they have been writing and workshopping ever since.

“It’s so wonderful to have that community,” Urquhart said. “We write together, which I’d never done…I’ve been through two books with them now.”

Urquhart’s experience of community is one done directly with other people as she is not on any social media. In 2016 she made the decision to leave Facebook when she found the platform to be full of vitriol and in-fighting. She left Twitter not long after.

“It was getting me down,” Urquhart said. “Finally, I was like, no one’s inviting you to this party. You have to stop showing up.”

While she reads poetry daily and cites short stories as a favourite genre, Urquhart is also drawn to some less-expected media.

“I like to watch really trashy documentaries,” Urquhart said. “When I say documentary, people think, ‘Oh, that sounds smart.’ No, I like anything to do with catfishing…I’m really into cults. I just find it fascinating.”

Urquhart’s dog June came over to say a quick hello before going to greet a new arrival. Before adopting June from the Humane Society a year ago, Urquhart and her family rescued a dog from another agency; however, they were unable to keep him because of an aggressive response to walks.

“He was sweet, actually, in the house, but…he wouldn’t go in our yard, so he had to be walked…whenever I walked him, he attacked me,” Urquhart said. “I had leather gloves, they were split open, my parka was split open. I was on the ground trying to shield my face and he had my hand and he didn’t let go.”

The experience did not deter Urquhart from dogs, however. 

“I just got obsessed or something after that,” Urquhart said. “I was thinking about dogs, I only watched things about dogs, and then I started writing about it.”

Part of that writing process included painting a watercolour of the destroyed gloves and using visual art as research. What started as memoir turned into a fairy tale.

“I don’t know if the stories I’ve been writing connect as one piece or if they’re connected stories,” Urquhart said. 

“But they all have some sort of supernatural…element threaded through them.”

While the move to writing fiction might be new for Urquhart, her background in folklore and careful powers of observation honed through journalism will no doubt mean she is right at home navigating these creative waters.

A WALK AROUND BECHTEL PARK WITH EMILY URQHART

It was author Emily Urquhart’s pup June that brought us out to the Bechtel Dog Park on a grey Saturday afternoon. We were greeted by a well-dressed poodle in boots and an orange jacket, and June and her new friend ran off while Urquhart and I opted for a slower pace.

“Walking is one hundred per cent part of my writing process,” Urquhart said as we followed the path on a loop around a cluster of trees. “[O]ften, when I’m walking, I’m working something out…something about the movement of walking forwards can sometimes shake things out in a way that, if I was sitting at a desk and trying to write, it just doesn’t work.”

Urquhart was born in Kitchener and lived in Waterloo until she was seven, when her family moved to Wellesley. After high school she studied art history and journalism, then ended up at Memorial University in Newfoundland where she completed a PhD in Folklore Studies and also met her future husband. It was his job at the University of Waterloo that brought them back to Ontario to settle with their family in Kitchener.

“I was always interested in folklore,” Urquhart said. “I had this huge Brothers Grimm silver-coloured book that I used to read as a kid a lot. And I was interested in my Irish culture and heritage, and that kind of naturally coincides with folklore.”

Urquhart’s understanding and exploration of folklore goes beyond the written stories of her youth, and includes visual art, gossip, rumours and even home decor and bumper stickers.

“[Folklore is] the way you’re signifying who you are to the world and the story you’re telling about yourself and your place in it,” Urquhart said. “Once you’ve got [folklore] under your belt, it kind of changes your worldview.”

Urquhart explored folklore in her third book, Ordinary Wonder Tales, published in 2022 and shortlisted for the 2023 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction. She drew on her journalism background for her second book, The Age Of Creativity, published in 2020, in which she examined late-in-life creativity using her father, acclaimed painter Tony Urquhart, as the subject and inspiration.

Her mother, award-winning novelist and poet Jane Urquhart, is also an artistic presence in Urquhart’s life. She was in high school when her mother gained wide-spread notoriety for her novel Away, and people became interested in her last name and family.

“There was a rumour at university that my mom was Jan Arden because there was a broken telephone situation…someone said ‘Jane Urquhart,’ but [someone else] heard Jan Arden,” Urquhart said. “So, I’ve always had a kind of kinship with Jan Arden.”

From an early age, Urquhart was an avid reader and was also drawn to writing.

“I had teachers who [said] ‘oh, you’re such a good writer’…But I’d feel like, is that because my mom’s a writer, or is it coming from an authentic place?” she said. “But I knew I liked to do it, and I also knew that it didn’t pay any money.”

Pursuing a PhD allowed Urquhart to continue reading and writing, and also to have some security in the form of teaching. In addition to being a published author and a non-fiction editor at The New Quarterly, Urquhart is also a Professor of Creative Writing at Laurier where she coordinates the Edna Staebler Awards.

It was through The New Quarterly that Urquhart connected with other writers in the area. At the Wild Writers’ Festival in 2019, Urquhart was approached by novelist Carrie Snyder about forming a writer’s group along with author Tasneem Jamal. Urquhart agreed, and they have been writing and workshopping ever since.

“It’s so wonderful to have that community,” Urquhart said. “We write together, which I’d never done…I’ve been through two books with them now.”

Urquhart’s experience of community is one done directly with other people as she is not on any social media. In 2016 she made the decision to leave Facebook when she found the platform to be full of vitriol and in-fighting. She left Twitter not long after.

“It was getting me down,” Urquhart said. “Finally, I was like, no one’s inviting you to this party. You have to stop showing up.”

While she reads poetry daily and cites short stories as a favourite genre, Urquhart is also drawn to some less-expected media.

“I like to watch really trashy documentaries,” Urquhart said. “When I say documentary, people think, ‘Oh, that sounds smart.’ No, I like anything to do with catfishing…I’m really into cults. I just find it fascinating.”

Urquhart’s dog June came over to say a quick hello before going to greet a new arrival. Before adopting June from the Humane Society a year ago, Urquhart and her family rescued a dog from another agency; however, they were unable to keep him because of an aggressive response to walks.

“He was sweet, actually, in the house, but…he wouldn’t go in our yard, so he had to be walked…whenever I walked him, he attacked me,” Urquhart said. “I had leather gloves, they were split open, my parka was split open. I was on the ground trying to shield my face and he had my hand and he didn’t let go.”

The experience did not deter Urquhart from dogs, however. 

“I just got obsessed or something after that,” Urquhart said. “I was thinking about dogs, I only watched things about dogs, and then I started writing about it.”

Part of that writing process included painting a watercolour of the destroyed gloves and using visual art as research. What started as memoir turned into a fairy tale.

“I don’t know if the stories I’ve been writing connect as one piece or if they’re connected stories,” Urquhart said. 

“But they all have some sort of supernatural…element threaded through them.”

While the move to writing fiction might be new for Urquhart, her background in folklore and careful powers of observation honed through journalism will no doubt mean she is right at home navigating these creative waters.

A Walk on the Benjamin Park Trans Canada Trail with Tanis MacDonald 

My walk with poet, essayist and newly retired English professor Tanis MacDonald was a masterclass in paying attention to details and place. When I arrived at the Benjamin Park section of the Trans Canada Trail, MacDonald already had something to show me.

“Look,” MacDonald said. “Bug sex. I thought it was one, but it’s two.”

On the green leaf attached to a fence were indeed two beetles with red markings, working to ensure the propagation of their species.

Setting out on this trail where MacDonald promised to show me all the “weird bits,” we spotted bees, the elegant curl of a vine and an unexpected cluster of mushrooms worthy of photographing.

“I like to get outside and walk around and look at shit,” MacDonald said. “[Walking is] a good art practice. Because you have to practice noticing.”

She grew up on the prairies in Manitoba, where she walked regularly with her mother.
The habit continued when MacDonald was a student in Toronto as she often saved the transit fare and chose to walk instead. Walking provided cheap entertainment and became a tool to get to know a place and inspire creativity.

“I didn’t do a degree in Creative Writing,” MacDonald said. “There was no such thing when I was an undergrad.”

She found her way to writing through a poet’s workshop run by Susan Ioannou out of the University of Toronto, a workshop that was revelatory for MacDonald. She took the workshop three times, then sought out guidance and community in other writing classes.

When MacDonald moved to Victoria for school a few years later, she connected with the poetry scene there and began going to regular readings, eventually landing a feature performance spot. In 1996, she won a chapbook competition, and her first full-length book of poetry, Holding Ground, was published in 2000.

In 2006, MacDonald joined the Department of English and Film Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University as a professor and taught academic courses.

“In about 2013…the department said that they wanted to offer more creative writing courses,” MacDonald said. “I said I would design a creative writing minor and concentration.”

Although MacDonald began her writing career as a poet, eventually she felt the pull of another form of written expression, creative nonfiction.

“I had a very long apprenticeship in poetry,” MacDonald said. “Then in scholarly writing. And…the creative nonfiction came together when I thought, ‘Isn’t there some place that these two discourses meet in the middle?’”

The place they met provided material for two books of essays: Out Of Line: Daring to Be an Artist Outside the Big City, published in 2018, and Straggle: Adventures in Walking While Female, published in 2022.

“I think a lot about my place in the world,” MacDonald said. “My literal space that I take up, and what happens when you pass through a space and do it repeatedly.”

For MacDonald, community is at the core of her writing practice. From the beginning MacDonald has sought out the company

of other writers, joining and forming writing groups with diverse memberships to give and receive feedback.

“It’s not enough to say it’s good,” MacDonald said. “You have to
say what you like, because that’s how people know what to keep and what to change…what can I pull off…how can we break this apart…what’s risky and what isn’t.”

The trail offered us community as well, signs of the people nearby that MacDonald was quick to notice. A birdhouse in the tree. A bridge made from slabs of stone to allow for a dry crossing. And the community art project Squeak the Sneak; a serpent made of painted rocks that anyone could contribute to.

Walking has provided more than inspiration and a sense of place for MacDonald. It also provided healing assistance when she struggled with mental health challenges during the pandemic.

“[My doctor] prescribed me some medication, and she
also prescribed me a walk,” MacDonald said. “It was mainly to understand that I was not living in a bubble where I would die. I was living in a much broader universe.”

This September, MacDonald will not be heading back to the university classroom to teach. She retired on July 1, and in addition to multiple writing projects, including a full-length book of poetry titled Tall, Grass, Girl, coming out next year, MacDonald is branching out artistically.

She has been taking classes at the Button Factory in painting and linocut. She is looking to expand her bird watching and

is working on ideas for a new podcast. And she will continue to walk the trails of Waterloo Region, paying careful attention to the weird bits.

#birdhouseInTheTree #ButtonFactory #Column #linocut #LocalArt #LocalArtist #manitoba #outOfLineDaringToBeAnArtistOutsideTheBigCity #serpantPaintedRocks #squeakTheSneak #StraggleAdventuresInWalkingWhileFemale #tallGrassGirl #TanisMacDonald #transCanadaTrail #walkInThePark #waterlooRegion

A Walk on the Benjamin Park Trans Canada Trail with Tanis MacDonald 

My walk with poet, essayist and newly retired English professor Tanis MacDonald was a masterclass in paying attention to details and place. When I arrived at the Benjamin Park section of the Trans Canada Trail, MacDonald already had something to show me.

“Look,” MacDonald said. “Bug sex. I thought it was one, but it’s two.”

On the green leaf attached to a fence were indeed two beetles with red markings, working to ensure the propagation of their species.

Setting out on this trail where MacDonald promised to show me all the “weird bits,” we spotted bees, the elegant curl of a vine and an unexpected cluster of mushrooms worthy of photographing.

“I like to get outside and walk around and look at shit,” MacDonald said. “[Walking is] a good art practice. Because you have to practice noticing.”

She grew up on the prairies in Manitoba, where she walked regularly with her mother.
The habit continued when MacDonald was a student in Toronto as she often saved the transit fare and chose to walk instead. Walking provided cheap entertainment and became a tool to get to know a place and inspire creativity.

“I didn’t do a degree in Creative Writing,” MacDonald said. “There was no such thing when I was an undergrad.”

She found her way to writing through a poet’s workshop run by Susan Ioannou out of the University of Toronto, a workshop that was revelatory for MacDonald. She took the workshop three times, then sought out guidance and community in other writing classes.

When MacDonald moved to Victoria for school a few years later, she connected with the poetry scene there and began going to regular readings, eventually landing a feature performance spot. In 1996, she won a chapbook competition, and her first full-length book of poetry, Holding Ground, was published in 2000.

In 2006, MacDonald joined the Department of English and Film Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University as a professor and taught academic courses.

“In about 2013…the department said that they wanted to offer more creative writing courses,” MacDonald said. “I said I would design a creative writing minor and concentration.”

Although MacDonald began her writing career as a poet, eventually she felt the pull of another form of written expression, creative nonfiction.

“I had a very long apprenticeship in poetry,” MacDonald said. “Then in scholarly writing. And…the creative nonfiction came together when I thought, ‘Isn’t there some place that these two discourses meet in the middle?’”

The place they met provided material for two books of essays: Out Of Line: Daring to Be an Artist Outside the Big City, published in 2018, and Straggle: Adventures in Walking While Female, published in 2022.

“I think a lot about my place in the world,” MacDonald said. “My literal space that I take up, and what happens when you pass through a space and do it repeatedly.”

For MacDonald, community is at the core of her writing practice. From the beginning MacDonald has sought out the company

of other writers, joining and forming writing groups with diverse memberships to give and receive feedback.

“It’s not enough to say it’s good,” MacDonald said. “You have to
say what you like, because that’s how people know what to keep and what to change…what can I pull off…how can we break this apart…what’s risky and what isn’t.”

The trail offered us community as well, signs of the people nearby that MacDonald was quick to notice. A birdhouse in the tree. A bridge made from slabs of stone to allow for a dry crossing. And the community art project Squeak the Sneak; a serpent made of painted rocks that anyone could contribute to.

Walking has provided more than inspiration and a sense of place for MacDonald. It also provided healing assistance when she struggled with mental health challenges during the pandemic.

“[My doctor] prescribed me some medication, and she
also prescribed me a walk,” MacDonald said. “It was mainly to understand that I was not living in a bubble where I would die. I was living in a much broader universe.”

This September, MacDonald will not be heading back to the university classroom to teach. She retired on July 1, and in addition to multiple writing projects, including a full-length book of poetry titled Tall, Grass, Girl, coming out next year, MacDonald is branching out artistically.

She has been taking classes at the Button Factory in painting and linocut. She is looking to expand her bird watching and

is working on ideas for a new podcast. And she will continue to walk the trails of Waterloo Region, paying careful attention to the weird bits.

#birdhouseInTheTree #ButtonFactory #Column #linocut #LocalArt #LocalArtist #manitoba #outOfLineDaringToBeAnArtistOutsideTheBigCity #serpantPaintedRocks #squeakTheSneak #StraggleAdventuresInWalkingWhileFemale #tallGrassGirl #TanisMacDonald #transCanadaTrail #walkInThePark #waterlooRegion

A Walk on the Benjamin Park Trans Canada Trail with Tanis MacDonald 

My walk with poet, essayist and newly retired English professor Tanis MacDonald was a masterclass in paying attention to details and place. When I arrived at the Benjamin Park section of the Trans Canada Trail, MacDonald already had something to show me.

“Look,” MacDonald said. “Bug sex. I thought it was one, but it’s two.”

On the green leaf attached to a fence were indeed two beetles with red markings, working to ensure the propagation of their species.

Setting out on this trail where MacDonald promised to show me all the “weird bits,” we spotted bees, the elegant curl of a vine and an unexpected cluster of mushrooms worthy of photographing.

“I like to get outside and walk around and look at shit,” MacDonald said. “[Walking is] a good art practice. Because you have to practice noticing.”

She grew up on the prairies in Manitoba, where she walked regularly with her mother.
The habit continued when MacDonald was a student in Toronto as she often saved the transit fare and chose to walk instead. Walking provided cheap entertainment and became a tool to get to know a place and inspire creativity.

“I didn’t do a degree in Creative Writing,” MacDonald said. “There was no such thing when I was an undergrad.”

She found her way to writing through a poet’s workshop run by Susan Ioannou out of the University of Toronto, a workshop that was revelatory for MacDonald. She took the workshop three times, then sought out guidance and community in other writing classes.

When MacDonald moved to Victoria for school a few years later, she connected with the poetry scene there and began going to regular readings, eventually landing a feature performance spot. In 1996, she won a chapbook competition, and her first full-length book of poetry, Holding Ground, was published in 2000.

In 2006, MacDonald joined the Department of English and Film Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University as a professor and taught academic courses.

“In about 2013…the department said that they wanted to offer more creative writing courses,” MacDonald said. “I said I would design a creative writing minor and concentration.”

Although MacDonald began her writing career as a poet, eventually she felt the pull of another form of written expression, creative nonfiction.

“I had a very long apprenticeship in poetry,” MacDonald said. “Then in scholarly writing. And…the creative nonfiction came together when I thought, ‘Isn’t there some place that these two discourses meet in the middle?’”

The place they met provided material for two books of essays: Out Of Line: Daring to Be an Artist Outside the Big City, published in 2018, and Straggle: Adventures in Walking While Female, published in 2022.

“I think a lot about my place in the world,” MacDonald said. “My literal space that I take up, and what happens when you pass through a space and do it repeatedly.”

For MacDonald, community is at the core of her writing practice. From the beginning MacDonald has sought out the company

of other writers, joining and forming writing groups with diverse memberships to give and receive feedback.

“It’s not enough to say it’s good,” MacDonald said. “You have to
say what you like, because that’s how people know what to keep and what to change…what can I pull off…how can we break this apart…what’s risky and what isn’t.”

The trail offered us community as well, signs of the people nearby that MacDonald was quick to notice. A birdhouse in the tree. A bridge made from slabs of stone to allow for a dry crossing. And the community art project Squeak the Sneak; a serpent made of painted rocks that anyone could contribute to.

Walking has provided more than inspiration and a sense of place for MacDonald. It also provided healing assistance when she struggled with mental health challenges during the pandemic.

“[My doctor] prescribed me some medication, and she
also prescribed me a walk,” MacDonald said. “It was mainly to understand that I was not living in a bubble where I would die. I was living in a much broader universe.”

This September, MacDonald will not be heading back to the university classroom to teach. She retired on July 1, and in addition to multiple writing projects, including a full-length book of poetry titled Tall, Grass, Girl, coming out next year, MacDonald is branching out artistically.

She has been taking classes at the Button Factory in painting and linocut. She is looking to expand her bird watching and

is working on ideas for a new podcast. And she will continue to walk the trails of Waterloo Region, paying careful attention to the weird bits.

#birdhouseInTheTree #ButtonFactory #Column #linocut #LocalArt #LocalArtist #manitoba #outOfLineDaringToBeAnArtistOutsideTheBigCity #serpantPaintedRocks #squeakTheSneak #StraggleAdventuresInWalkingWhileFemale #tallGrassGirl #TanisMacDonald #transCanadaTrail #walkInThePark #waterlooRegion

A Walk on the Benjamin Park Trans Canada Trail with Tanis MacDonald 

My walk with poet, essayist and newly retired English professor Tanis MacDonald was a masterclass in paying attention to details and place. When I arrived at the Benjamin Park section of the Trans Canada Trail, MacDonald already had something to show me.

“Look,” MacDonald said. “Bug sex. I thought it was one, but it’s two.”

On the green leaf attached to a fence were indeed two beetles with red markings, working to ensure the propagation of their species.

Setting out on this trail where MacDonald promised to show me all the “weird bits,” we spotted bees, the elegant curl of a vine and an unexpected cluster of mushrooms worthy of photographing.

“I like to get outside and walk around and look at shit,” MacDonald said. “[Walking is] a good art practice. Because you have to practice noticing.”

She grew up on the prairies in Manitoba, where she walked regularly with her mother.
The habit continued when MacDonald was a student in Toronto as she often saved the transit fare and chose to walk instead. Walking provided cheap entertainment and became a tool to get to know a place and inspire creativity.

“I didn’t do a degree in Creative Writing,” MacDonald said. “There was no such thing when I was an undergrad.”

She found her way to writing through a poet’s workshop run by Susan Ioannou out of the University of Toronto, a workshop that was revelatory for MacDonald. She took the workshop three times, then sought out guidance and community in other writing classes.

When MacDonald moved to Victoria for school a few years later, she connected with the poetry scene there and began going to regular readings, eventually landing a feature performance spot. In 1996, she won a chapbook competition, and her first full-length book of poetry, Holding Ground, was published in 2000.

In 2006, MacDonald joined the Department of English and Film Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University as a professor and taught academic courses.

“In about 2013…the department said that they wanted to offer more creative writing courses,” MacDonald said. “I said I would design a creative writing minor and concentration.”

Although MacDonald began her writing career as a poet, eventually she felt the pull of another form of written expression, creative nonfiction.

“I had a very long apprenticeship in poetry,” MacDonald said. “Then in scholarly writing. And…the creative nonfiction came together when I thought, ‘Isn’t there some place that these two discourses meet in the middle?’”

The place they met provided material for two books of essays: Out Of Line: Daring to Be an Artist Outside the Big City, published in 2018, and Straggle: Adventures in Walking While Female, published in 2022.

“I think a lot about my place in the world,” MacDonald said. “My literal space that I take up, and what happens when you pass through a space and do it repeatedly.”

For MacDonald, community is at the core of her writing practice. From the beginning MacDonald has sought out the company

of other writers, joining and forming writing groups with diverse memberships to give and receive feedback.

“It’s not enough to say it’s good,” MacDonald said. “You have to
say what you like, because that’s how people know what to keep and what to change…what can I pull off…how can we break this apart…what’s risky and what isn’t.”

The trail offered us community as well, signs of the people nearby that MacDonald was quick to notice. A birdhouse in the tree. A bridge made from slabs of stone to allow for a dry crossing. And the community art project Squeak the Sneak; a serpent made of painted rocks that anyone could contribute to.

Walking has provided more than inspiration and a sense of place for MacDonald. It also provided healing assistance when she struggled with mental health challenges during the pandemic.

“[My doctor] prescribed me some medication, and she
also prescribed me a walk,” MacDonald said. “It was mainly to understand that I was not living in a bubble where I would die. I was living in a much broader universe.”

This September, MacDonald will not be heading back to the university classroom to teach. She retired on July 1, and in addition to multiple writing projects, including a full-length book of poetry titled Tall, Grass, Girl, coming out next year, MacDonald is branching out artistically.

She has been taking classes at the Button Factory in painting and linocut. She is looking to expand her bird watching and

is working on ideas for a new podcast. And she will continue to walk the trails of Waterloo Region, paying careful attention to the weird bits.

#birdhouseInTheTree #ButtonFactory #Column #linocut #LocalArt #LocalArtist #manitoba #outOfLineDaringToBeAnArtistOutsideTheBigCity #serpantPaintedRocks #squeakTheSneak #StraggleAdventuresInWalkingWhileFemale #tallGrassGirl #TanisMacDonald #transCanadaTrail #walkInThePark #waterlooRegion