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grief

Illustration of a school desk featuring a butterfly landing on an apple shaped like a skull. Below the apple is lined paper covered in school supplies intertwined with leaves, flowers and a caterpillar.
Education / May 2022

Death 101: Life Lessons from the Country’s Only Degree Devoted to the End

April 18, 2022May 9, 2022 - by David Swick

Some first-year arts students are asked to write papers about Plato or Jane Austen; thanatology students need an existential sensibility

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Two origami birds made out of paper with poetry on it against a blue background.
Environment

Early Warning Signals: How Poetry Helps Us Understand Our Impact on Ecology

April 13, 2022April 13, 2022 - by Madhur Anand

The environmental crisis is, in part, a crisis of the imagination. Poems can create a new form of knowing

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An illustration of Spanish books and lessons.
Uncategorized

Grief Struck Me Speechless. Learning a New Language Helped Me Open Up

April 7, 2022April 7, 2022 - by Shawn Hitchins

An impulsive decision to take Spanish classes became a turning point after the deaths of loved ones

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Illustration of a copper jug amidst yellow and white and purple flowers.
March/April 2021 / Memoir

Death in the Age of Facebook

February 23, 2021July 20, 2021 - by Sandy Pool

What it’s like to mourn a mother via social media

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Illustration of a woman lying in bed in a dark room, reaching out to touch the ghost of a man standing beside it and smiling down at her. His image is two translucent poses overlaid for a ghostly effect.
January/February 2021 / Society

Why Do We See Dead People?

October 27, 2020January 29, 2021 - by Patricia Pearson

Humans have always sensed the ghosts of loved ones. It’s only in the last century that we convinced ourselves this was a problem

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Health / Society

The Decade in Relationships

December 31, 2019February 21, 2020 - by The Walrus Staff

From the racism of online dating to mourning through technology, here are the relationship conversations that helped define Canada

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A wooden casket with flowers on top.
Uncategorized

Why a Grieving Mother Chose to Become a Funeral Director

May 29, 2019January 14, 2020 - by Celie Deagle

After the death of her young son, one woman decided to help other people through the worst moments of their lives

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Photo by X1klima
Books

Why We Find It So Hard to Describe Grief

August 15, 2017April 7, 2022 - by Gavin Andrew Thomson

Sometimes the best way for writers to express loss is to avoid it entirely

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Princeton University Press
Books

Why We Care For the Dead

November 23, 2016November 19, 2019 - by Erin Sylvester

An interview with Thomas W. Laqueur, winner of the Cundill Prize and author of The Work of the Dead

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Dog looking at projector
December 2015 / Technology

Digitizing the Dead

November 23, 2015April 8, 2020 - by Wanda Schmöckel

The Mormon mission to save souls—and Saskatchewan’s public archives

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