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Tara McGuire

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I Want To Tell You How This Feels

I Want To Tell You How This Feels

Last Tuesday, Prime Minister Trudeau sent 60 armed forces service members to Nova Scotia to assist with the record-breaking number of Covid-19 cases in the province. That day the number was … 96. Cases. Not…

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  • by Tara McGuire
  • Posted on May 5, 2021August 11, 2021
  • 6 Comments on I Want To Tell You How This Feels
How Many Greens

How Many Greens

trees being obvious, the two of you walked in the forest all the time when he was little, and later he did by himself, you saw the photos, on his phone, blue plus yellow, when…

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  • by Tara McGuire
  • Posted on July 19, 2020June 22, 2023
  • 16 Comments on How Many Greens
On Living in Captivity

On Living in Captivity

There was a day last week when I noticed many of our meals were purple. Purple wonton soup, purple rigatoni, purple scrambled eggs. Other than a handful of drooping spinach, the cabbage was pretty much…

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  • by Tara McGuire
  • Posted on May 16, 2020May 5, 2021
  • 34 Comments on On Living in Captivity

Recent Posts

  • San Miguel Writer’s Conference 2025
  • Chatelaine: Microdosing and Menopause Anxiety
  • New Essay in Montecristo Magazine
  • Words Can Lead the Way…
  • Holden After and Before
  • Celebrating Holden Through Art

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taramcguire

• writer • editor • voice-over •
📚 Holden After + Before 📚@theseferproject • probably went swimming today 🦦• she/her

Was kinda sad. Went for a walk. Not so sad any mor Was kinda sad. Went for a walk. Not so sad any more. Works every time. 🌲🌲🌲
Can’t think of a better way to celebrate 24 years Can’t think of a better way to celebrate 24 years of marriage with @l.ours_polaire than a beautiful loop road trip on the Coast which started at @scwrittenarts (I mean, isn’t that what everyone wants to do on their anniversary?) hosting discussions with @sarah_leav @by_teresawong #EvelynLau and hearing @off.carol talk about sacred journalism! Had so much fun in Mad Park with @tamarastanners & Lorne we didn’t take one photo. Not even of the pod of dolphins who came to say hello while we were paddle boarding! Swished through the rain in Powell River and over to Tofino where the sun came out and draped our shoulders with calm, warm, summer. The beach… ah, the beach. And hot saunas  and cold water and warm friends (Duncan & Tal thank you!) and slippery fish 🎣and a drink called White Lotus season 3. And books and more sunshine and sand and BC ferries and love love love. Big gracias to @nelsonairstreams for the generous gift! 💝 And home to see our sweet @lylamollard ❤️ it’s amazing to me that after so much sadness there can be this much happiness. ❤️
Some things about my friend Erin. She is smart, fu Some things about my friend Erin. She is smart, funny, thoughtful, and kind. She looks gorgeous in every photograph, which is honestly kind of annoying. She always brings a gift. Her smile comes from deep inside. She makes me laugh all the time. She loves with a big, open heart. Her puppies are a joy! She hates swimming in cold water. Actually, she just won’t don’t. She loves Olivia and Geoffrey with a fierce heart. She is a loyal and constant friend, even and especially, when times get rough. There is not a more graceful person. She’s really mad she can’t drive her car anymore. 
💜
Erin has early onset Alzheimer’s disease. The illness has taken so much from Erin and her family. Which doesn’t seem fair. And still, she is beautiful and funny and smart.  She knows what she likes and what she does not like. 
💜
Today Erin will cut the ribbon at the Vancouver Alzheimer’s walk with her husband Geoffrey and daughter Olivia by her side. Today’s walk raise his money for important research into the causes and treatments of Alzheimer’s disease. Please support if you can 💜@alzheimercanada @alzheimerbc 

#alzwalk2025
🎈 H A P P Y • B I R T H D A Y !!! 🎈 To the one wh 🎈 H A P P Y • B I R T H D A Y !!! 🎈 
To the one who seems to be in all of my selfies, who has been there every step of the way, and who I can’t imagine walking forward in this life without. I love you @l.ours_polaire ❤️
Saying adios to this magical festival and city tod Saying adios to this magical festival and city today. It’s been wonderful to meet so many new people and writers and talk about craft and life in this beautiful place, which is an obvious creative vortex. 🪅🪅🪅

Muchos gracias @sanmiguelwritersconference for hosting this tired Canadian writer and rejuvenating my faith in the power of the written word! ❤️

#smwc2025 #sanmigueldeallende
Oh heart, oh brain, oh sad liver. 🌮 📕 🌮📕🌮 Today I Oh heart, oh brain, oh sad liver. 
🌮 📕 🌮📕🌮
Today I am grateful for: teaching workshops to beautifully engaged writers, reading from Holden After & Before in the scented garden with brilliant Canadian writers, morning yoga, complex lunch conversations, fascinating keynotes, this transfixing city, my sister, my love, flowers, horse bar crawls — gracias sweet 🐴 Heman! , food food food, learning learning, and  many, many new friends. Especially the American ones who are all saying variations of… “sorry.” 
❤️@sanmiguelwritersconference #smwc2025 #sanmigueldeallende #sanmiguelwritersconference
A flying start on Day #1 at @sanmiguelwritersconfe A flying start on Day #1 at @sanmiguelwritersconference! 
❤️
What a gorgeous city and writing/reading community! We were treated to a snazzy faculty lunch at the astonishing Hyder private residence. 
❤️
Already making new friends and nursing headaches. Our eyes & ears & brains are dazzled! 
❤️
#smwc2025
Congratulations to our dear friend @geoffrey_bird Congratulations to our dear friend @geoffrey_bird on his astonishing photography show “The Light We Hold Onto.” This collection of still captures of projected imagery is the culmination of Geoffrey’s masters in photography @falmouthphotographyonline. The show, honouring his beautiful wife and my BFF, Erin, took my breath away. With this work, Geoffrey manages to close the distance between then and now, between love and loss, between fear and joy, between friendship and devastation. This work is beautiful and powerful and full of respect. More than a subject, Erin is an active participant in the project, which is how, with their daughter @olivia__bird, their family has approached Erin’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis for years. Be here, be now, be kind, have fun, learn, do the best you can. It is a visual testament of resilience and surrender and grace and shows with great technical skill what love can look like on paper. It is making something beautiful when there are so many other alternatives. It’s opening and sharing when closing down might feel easiest. I couldn’t be more honoured to call you my friends. ❤️ 

@alzheimerbc @alzheimercanada
This year‘s Vancouver Writers Festival has me feel This year‘s Vancouver Writers Festival has me feeling inspired, troubled, and grateful. So many exciting writers to listen to and beautiful work to learn from, old and new friends to meet, and panels to host! I feel like I’m at the best kind of buffet!

Congratulations to @hurtigleslie and your wonderful team including 450 !!! volunteers for creating such an expansive, diverse, and welcoming festival. 

My mind and heart are saturated and my bookshelf is full! Then, a little Sunday morning rinse to lock it all in. ❤️ 📕
Hello from a windy day in The Soo! A very quick tr Hello from a windy day in The Soo! A very quick trip to Sault Ste Marie to present a keynote at The 10th Annual @anishinabeknation Health Conference. I spoke about integrating joy with grief to  create some kind of meaningful life. I met many lovely people doing meaningful work in health literacy and Indigenous health agency. And, of course, I also met several other women who have lost children to overdose. ❤️ Then I had a chance to walk down to the St. Mary’s River boardwalk. I was only here for 16 hours, but more people stopped and smiled and said hello than has happened in Vancouver in the last year. ❤️
Thank you @stan_wesley for your bright fashion and warm energy. I give you a 5 ⭐️ yelp review!
Twenty-three years ago we got married on the beach Twenty-three years ago we got married on the beach and here we are… chips and beer on the beach! 🍻 Happy anniversary, Babe! 
@l.ours_polaire! 
❤️
Yes, we had to take the ditch witch out of your van and pressure wash the inside before we could go camping. And yes, it rained most of the time, and yes, our air mattress had a hole in it. Just a slow leak, which wasn’t too bad … as long as we were both in the bed our asses didn’t bottom out and  freeze. ⛺️But yes, you did mix tarp water with your rum and yes, we played crib by candlelight on the same red-checkered table cloth where Holden ate his floatmeal and Lyla first tried birthday cake. And yes, I got to enjoy a cheeky tiki 🧉@florasbamfield and yes a huge humpback 🐋 jumped right in front of us, flashing her enormous tail!! And yes, we did take shelter from the deluge in a treehouse outhouse, which honestly did not smell so fresh. But yes, a young woman named Tory loaned me her homemade sweater and put my jacket in the dryer while we listen to a man named Matthew sing in the Wreckage (which I mostly am, but who isn’t). And then! … the sun came out, as it eventually does, and for a few splendid hours Pachena Bay took our breath away! 
❤️
And yes, everything is a metaphor.
Happy long weekend! Had a lovely (rare solo) day. Happy long weekend! Had a lovely (rare solo) day. Reading, hiking, swimming, gardening, sewing, watching human specks fly over the house & hearing them hoot! 
☀️ 🌸 🏊 🌊 🐕 📕 🌱 
And now, on the 100th anniversary of James Baldwin’s birth, watching “I Am Not Your Negro,” on Disney+. Fascinating &  brutal.
Putting the rain back in rainforest. Can almost he Putting the rain back in rainforest. Can almost hear the plants smiling. Wish you could smell it. 🌱🍃
**EDITED** July 9/2024. In light of the recent rev **EDITED** July 9/2024. In light of the recent revelations by Andrea Skinner, Munro’s daughter,  documenting the horrible abuse she suffered at the hands of her stepfather. And the subsequent denial of this abuse and rejection by her mother, Alice Munro. I’ve had to reconsider my opinions about the context of her writing. I don’t think I can read her anymore. ****

Kind of wild. I was contacted by Al Jazeera to talk about Alice Munro’s impact on writers. Her work made being a writer seem important and more importantly, possible.
A damp and sparkling day. ❤️🎄🌟 A damp and sparkling day. ❤️🎄🌟
It’s HERE!! It’s been a long journey to today. Tha It’s HERE!! It’s been a long journey to today. Thank you @arsenalpulp @blam700 @fleckcreative @gingermonkeycat @marilynbidermanlitagent @transatlantic_agency @alixohlin and so many more!!! 💜 Having a little cry. So happy and so sad colliding.
Lovely neighborhood concert 🎼starring the talented Lovely neighborhood concert 🎼starring the talented @lolostitched 🎺
#bachyard. Also, Jo is a big opera lover. 🎶💜
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