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HOW DON GOT STARTED
Don began writing in 1987 during his M.Ed. program when an instructor, Lynn Bloom, encouraged educators to write along with their students so they would better understand the challenges young people experience when facing a blank page. While subsequently teaching a short fiction unit to his grade 12s, he assigned the writing of a short story as each student's culminating project with the intention that all of them--himself included--would enter their final drafts in that year's Atlantic Writing Competition sponsored by the Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia. During their work on the unit, Don offered feedback to his students' stories in progress and they, in turn, responded to his. "Clearly," he said, "their feedback was far more effective than the response I gave them because my story won the competition." That story, "The Invitation", went on to be published three times and was the beginning of Don's writing career.
WHAT DON WRITES ABOUT
Because he taught hundreds of teenagers during his teaching career, it isn’t surprising that young adults are the focus of most of his work. What subjects does he choose to write about? “Things that bother me, that don’t go away,” he says. For example, Don wrote his first novel after a student shared with him that she was being physically abused by her father. Of Things Not Seen tells the story of sixteen-year-old Ben Corbett, who, along with his mother, is frequently beaten by his domineering stepfather. Besides domestic violence, Don’s novels have focused on peer pressure, bullying, youth crime, suicide, sexuality, teen gambling, and a variety of other social issues. However, he is quick to point out that the strongest stories are never about issues or events—“They’re about how characters are affected by those issues and events.”
Besides writing novels, Don has also had articles and fiction published in The International Journal of Reading, Quill & Quire, Books in Canada, Canadian Living, The Toronto Star, Our Family Magazine, The Pottersfield Portfolio, Dandelion Magazine, The Chronicle Herald, and various anthologies.
iNTERVIEWS
Check out these links to interviews in which Don answers questions about his writing and writing process.
An Interview by heritage regional high school students at saint-hubert, quebec
PARTNERSHIPS
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