Hey all! Last night I had the pleasure of attending the launch for Amanda Leduc‘s new book, Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space. This is the second incredible book about disability that I’ve read lately. The first was the extremely passionate and eye-opening Falling For Myself by Dorothy Ellen Palmer. A must-read, in my opinion. Check out today’s show for our conversation.
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E168 with RICHARD KELLY KEMICK
Happy February! We’re kicking the month off with Richard Kelly Kemick, talking about his book I Am Herod. Lots of interesting stuff about the book, the experience he lived through, the nature of faith itself. Dig it!
E167 with AMI MCKAY
Hey all! Hope everything is super. I’m back into the swing of doing new interviews (as well as starting to shop my new novel, but that’s another story). This week is the last of the interviews I had to do on different gear.
Our guest is Ami McKay, author of several works of fiction and, now, memoir. Daughter of Family G is a “genetic memoir.” Trust me, that makes sense if you’re read it. If you haven’t read it, you should! Enjoy our chat.
E166 with GARY BARWIN
Hey folks! Things are finally coalescing after a rough start in 2020. I think of January 2020 as no more than a 2019 hangover. It’s cleared up now. (I hope).
Today’s show features the very first guest we ever had, the esteemed and yet inestimable Gary Barwin. We talk about…well, plenty of things. Collaboration. His new collected works. The crow in the corner. Traffic islands. Check it all out for yourself (and check out the aforementioned collection, For It Is A Pleasure And A Surprise To Breathe). Cheers!
E165 with J.R. McCONVEY
For those who don’t know, this program/podcast is recorded at 93.3 CFMU FM in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. I gleefully pilfer company time to pre-record interviews and piece shows together in our production room. Alas, our production computer has collapsed, so I’ve been duct-taping shows together with speakerphones and microphones and, for the first time every, broadcasting live on FM just so I can capture the web download after.
Good times.
All that to say: apologies for a few tech problems (such as our voices being at different levels) but the show must go on! Today we talk to J.R. McConvey about his excellent short story collection, Different Beasts. Dig!
E164 with MICHAEL CHRISTIE
Hey folks!
Today’s show features author Michael Christie. Greenwood has been getting a great response – as it should! Check out this week’s show to hear our conversation (and also, read the book).
E163 with LAISHA ROSNAU
Happy 2020!
Like many people, I’m wary of “resolutions.” However I can say two big things are going to happen in 2020. First, I’m going to find a home for this finished novel. Second, I’m going to start writing the “new” new novel (well, it’s already started, but you know what I mean). Hope you have some goals, and that you achieve all of them!
Today’s guest is Laisha Rosnau. We discuss her book Little Fortress, which I enjoyed a lot. Dig it!
E162 with JOAN THOMAS
Happy Boxing Day! (If you’re listening on release day)
Thrilled to have Joan Thomas on the show today! We discuss her novel Five Wives, which won the 2019 Governor General’s Award for Fiction.
Enjoy!
E161 with LESLIE SHIMOTAKAHARA
It amazes me, quite honestly, that GET LIT is in its fourth season. The first episode aired on my 47th birthday, and now we’re here, on the cusp of 2020, with the one hundred sixty-first episode. How’d that happen?
What this means is I’m starting to get more and more repeat authors, who have new books available (what a kick in the pants for me to make MY next book happen!) (it’s finished, I just need to shop it).
Today’s guest, back for a second time, is the fantastic Leslie Shimotakahara. We talk about her newest, Red Oblivion. Check it out and if you like it, you can hear her talk about her last novel, After the Bloom, in Episode 24.
Merry merry and happy happy, all!
E160 with DAVE KURUC of KING WEST BOOKS
Hi everyone! Taking a break from authors this week to make it local. We talk with Dave Kuruc, owner of King West Books, about…well, books, among other things!
Also: the 26th Annual Hamilton Arts Council Literary Awards were held this week, hosted by CBC personality Jeff Goodes. It was the culmination of much effort on the part of the HAC as well as the Literary Committee, of which I am privileged to be a part. I even got to step in on behalf of absent sponsor PV&V Insurance and present this year’s Kerry Schooley Award.
The Schooley award goes to the book that best encapsulates the spirit of Hamilton. This year’s winner was author and poet John Terpstra. It’s possible a collective “oof” was heard at City Hall over the news, as his winning title is Daylighting Chedoke, a work that “weaves the history of the creek with the lyrical observations of nature and humankind’s connections to nature that he is celebrated for, while also examining the reality of our contaminated waterways.” As he pointed out at the podium, it was a timely win, though perhaps not for the greatest reasons, given this is the year of Sewergate. If you don’t know what that means, read this and weep.
(You can listen to John and I chat about the book here!)
Darrell Epp won the poetry award for his collection Sinner’s Dance, the fiction award went to Sylvia McNicoll for her book Body Swap, and the non-fiction award went to legendary playwright Sky Gilbert for small things: a random selection of anti-essays.
Hope you dig this week’s show.