Category Archives: On Writing

Murder in the Morning

Posted on February 2, 2017 by Brenton Dickieson

Crows mock the coming of the dayheckling every suggestion of lightfilling every inch of naked twigon bare poplar flung dangerously to the skyand on leafless maples which, in summer or fallare watercolour forms of things children call trees,but in winter are … Continue reading →

Posted in On Writing, Reflections | Tagged Charlottetown, crows, On Writing, Poetry, Prince Edward Island, research, writing | 9 Comments

New Approaches to Academic Writing: An Unusual Marking Note for a Good Student

Posted on December 8, 2016 by Brenton Dickieson

I am at that time of year when the marking pile on my desk is higher than my laptop screen. Like a fool, each year, I go into the marking expecting great things. So far, I have never had a … Continue reading →

Posted in On Writing, Thoughtful Essays | Tagged academic, Alice Walker, autoethnography, B.R. Myers, Christopher Hitchens, Corey Olsen, Dorothy L. Sayers, Flannery O'Connor, George Orwell, Harold Bloom, John Updike, literary criticism, Margaret Atwood, Marilynne Robinson, research, Roxane Gay, Slavoj Žižek, Stanley Fish, Teaching, Terry Eagleton, theology, Ursula K. Le Guin, Virginia Woolf, writing | 15 Comments

The Canon of Fantasy Literature (An Impossiblog)

Posted on July 18, 2016 by Brenton Dickieson

This is an impossible blog–an impossiblog, if you will. I have been thinking a lot about the literary canon lately. We have a pretty good sense of who to read to capture the breadth of literary fiction in the West … Continue reading →

Posted in Fictional Worlds, News & Links, On Writing, Thoughtful Essays | Tagged books, canon, fantasy, literature, Science Fiction, SF, The Western Canon | 67 Comments

The Shocking Reason Tolkien Finished The Lord of the Rings

Posted on April 20, 2016 by Brenton Dickieson

J.R.R. Tolkien was a notoriously difficult writer to get to print. That The Hobbit found its way to store shelves was something of a publishing miracle, and it took Tolkien 15 years to write part two, “the new Hobbit,” which we … Continue reading →

Posted in Fictional Worlds, On Writing, Original Research, Thoughtful Essays | Tagged Bandersnatch, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, Christopher Tolkien, Diana Pavlac Glyer, fictional worlds, J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, Middle Earth, mythopoiea, speculative fiction, The Company They Keep, The Hobbit, The Silmarilion, writing | 58 Comments

Is Narnia an Allegory?

Posted on January 18, 2016 by Brenton Dickieson

No. It’s not. While tempted to leave it at that and produce the shortest blog of history, I think it is important to let the Narnian himself address the question. C.S. Lewis was, after all, a literary scholar who had … Continue reading →