Karen Press
@kipress.bsky.social
Mostly teach college writing and herd teenager. Four long-forgotten books of poetry including Types of Canadian Women (Gaspereau) and Exquisite Monsters (Turnstone). Originally Albertan, long time in Winnipeg.
Oof. Looks like I'm going to have to beef up my lessons on reliable news sources next year. www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-lif...
False information, misleading images rife in Manitoba-based AI-driven 'news' service
In a rapidly evolving media landscape, the rise of Boring News, an AI-generated news outlet, highlights the growing tension between technology and journalism. While it aims to fill local news gaps acr...
winnipegfreepress.com
It's been a long time coming. Canadian independent bookstores have banded together to create an online book buying source so you can avoid the behemoth in the room. (Here are the titles published by CMU Press, which I run.) Spread the word #booksky! www.booksellers.ca/publisher/cmu-press-18021
All books from CMU Press | booksellers.ca | Purchase print books and eBooks online
A network of over 100 bookstores, more than 500,000 print books or eBooks, unparalleled expertise. It is possible to buy local on the Web!
booksellers.ca
Every instance of "AI democratizes the arts, you're classist and ableist and a gatekeeper for trying to stop it" is a slap in the face to the literally centuries of poor, disabled people making art on the margins and a crass lie in service of a machine that strips down and regurgitates dreams
I will accept no moral high ground from a government that refuses to ban a platform that is actively, in real time, right in front of our faces, creating child sexual abuse materials. They're not banning it and there are still government departments with official Twitter accounts. Fuck Carney.
Canada not considering a ban on X over deepfake controversy, AI minister says
The platform, which is owned by Elon Musk, has been embroiled in controversy over sexualized deepfakes of women and children created by X’s chatbot Grok.
thestar.com
I made my annual blog post about books I read last year: kipress.wordpress.com/2026/01/01/m... I mean it, I usually only post on this blog once a year for this purpose...
My books of 2025 post
Hi my three readers! Here’s my annual roundup of books I read last year. Even if there are (generously) only three of you, I’ve decided to keep making this annual post so I have an ongo…
kipress.wordpress.com
“Carrots,” the handsome boy called Gilbert Blythe said. “Your hair is red, and therefore it is like carrots.” Anne shot Gilbert in the leg.
Anne Lived in Gables. They Were Green. by Ernest Hemingway
Matthew Cuthbert was a silent man. He drove a buggy. Mrs. Rachel Lynde, a loud, fat woman, watched him drive by. - - -Matthew saw an ugly girl with...
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The Alberta minister in the Globe this morning responding to whether or not he's read the four books that prompted the wide school book banning: "“I am struggling to find the time to read a quarter of any book, let alone four books." They're graphic novels.
“…beyond intentional attacks, drivers in cars, SUVs and trucks threaten the safety of our public spaces everyday but we treat the damage they do like the weather: something inevitable that just happens.”
Shawn Micallef: Vehicles have become weapons by design — and public space is in their crosshairs
A culture like ours weaponizes vehicles — from the way they are designed to the way the roads they run on are designed.
thestar.com
The seasonal market near my house just announced it's opening on Wednesday and I had to come somewhere to post this because the change that makes to my life for 5 months of the year is too big to not comment on.
Lots of great student writing posted recently at Working Draft magazine! Here are few - Georgia Dyck on her first season as a wildland firefighter: workingdraftmagazine.com/chasing-fire/
Soot-covered clothes, bruised legs, and tangled hair were physical proof of my first season as a wildland firefighter, but what left a lasting mark were the lessons I learned walking through the wilderness.
workingdraftmagazine.com
91 results. That's every book I've published since 1993, in multiple languages, scraped without permission to train AI. They're robbing us in hopes of replacing us.
I’m involved with a student magazine, Working Draft (out of Red River College Polytechnic in Winnipeg), and it’s in the middle of publishing its annual edition: workingdraftmagazine.com A sampling:
If you can see the difference between New York-based and New York–based, you may be a copy editor.
congratulations to poet, editor and lawyer [and VERSeFest 2024 performer] Chimwemwe Undi on her Appointment as Canada's 11th Parliamentary Poet Laureate! / @versefest-ottawa.bsky.social ; lop.parl.ca/About/Parlia...
The Parliamentary Poet Laureate - Current Poet Laureate
lop.parl.ca
I reviewed Jasmina Odor's The Harvesters in the December issue of Alberta Views. albertaviews.ca/the-harveste...
The Harvesters - Alberta Views
Jasmina Odor’s The Harvesters follows the wanderings of a Croatian–Canadian aunt and nephew on a short trip to Paris.
albertaviews.ca
"Marley was dead: to begin with." What's going on with that colon? #AChristmasCarol #Dickens #Grammar #Literature
In my house we just have to make contrarian craft projects. It’s a rule. (This one by the teenager.)
In my Catholic high school in the 90s, an official school-sanctioned frosh week tradition was the grade 11 girls dressing up the grade 10 boys for a drag show. Was this common, or just us? Once in a while I scratch my head about this memory. There’s… a lot to unpack.
Saw The Princess Bride on a big screen for the first time-in the 80s I missed it in theatres and saw it on VHS. The cult-movie-communal-experience was spot-on. Wish there were more rep cinemas, at which I spent a lot of time in my youth, but I guess those days are over. The cinemas. Also my youth.
Today marks 35 years since a gunman entered Polytechnique, separated the men from the women & shot 14 women to death. It is now Canada's National Day of Action and Remembrance on Violence against Women. Threads suck on this app but going to try and include my thoughts here as possible : 🧵
Untangling Christmas lights with the teenager while she educates me in the full Chappell Roan oeuvre. Actually quite a pleasant evening.
What is the working class? Many invoke it in this election, but no one defines it. How much is it economic, when a plumber can make 10x as much as adjunct professor? How much is it cultural/an identity, or the kind of labor? Why so many 1930s white-guy versions when so many are women and BIPOC?
An end-of-semester reminder of "The Cult of Done Manifesto" by Bre Pettis & Kio Stark (2009)
Complain about autocorrect, but a lot of the typos I make on my mobile device are because the autocorrect is not working correctly. Because it doesn’t know which language I’m using (I use the device for language learning and for emailing my kid’s school in bad French).
I'm still adding, but for folks looking for all the cool Indigenous folks to follow, here's my growing list! go.bsky.app/MEaiVa9
"If you want to crank out words at a high volume, dispel yourself of such quaint, artificial notions as 'morning' or 'days.' They are artificial constructs designed by those who want to slow down your writing."
How to Write 100,000 Words Per Day, Every Day
Most people don’t believe me when I tell them I write 100,000 words every day of my life. If I’m being totally honest, 100,000 is probably just a b...
buff.ly
