Writer | Journalist
Hey folks! I wanna take a second to say thanks to everyone who came to my book launch and who has supported me through this second novel experience.
One of those folks is this guy right here – the inestimable Gary Barwin, who joins me to talk about his latest collection of new poetry, The Most Charming Creatures. Enjoy the show!
Episode what now? We’re in the 300s? When did that happen? (Last week, I guess. Hah.)
Great chat with author Merilyn Simonds on this week’s show. We discuss her latest, Woman, Watching: Louise de Kiriline Lawrence and the Songbirds of Pimisi Bay. You don’t have to be a birder to find this one fascinating. Check it out!
Hey folks! Today we chat with amazing Terri Favro about her newest, The Sisters Sputnik!
As I’m away for a bit, I have scheduled everything instead of trying to do it from another country. However! I just learned that Soundcloud won’t allow me to embed the way I normally do, as the link won’t be live until the day of broadcast. So! Follow this link instead! Or search it up on podcasts. Enjoy!
https://soundcloud.com/jamestennant-1/get-lit-e292-terri-favro-june-23
Hey folks! I got to speak to the excellent Gurjinder Basran (it’s been a while!) about her latest “cheery” novel, Help! I’m Alive. We had a good time, the book is great, you should listen!
Michael Barclay and I came up in music journalism around the same time. He started with ID Magazine in Guelph, while I was writing a Spectator column and just beginning with View Weekly. Given our ages and interests, it was pretty clear I’d love his books, and so far, I absolutely have – from Have Not Been The Same to The Never-Ending Present (for which I got to interview him) to the newest, Hearts on Fire. This one hits me right in the musical feels, focusing on the first five years of the new millennium, which happen to coincide with my first five years working at 93.3 CFMU FM.
Barclay’s book is great and he’s a good dude. Tune in.
Hey folks! Had a great time last weekend with the return of live GritLit events. I was able to attend two of them, and everything felt all weirdly familiar and wonderful (and fairly anxiety-free…unlike the Judas Priest show I attended two weeks ago, but that’s another story). For me though, the highlight was probably hanging with the cool GritLit folks afterward, fine people I haven’t seen in a while. Oh, and demonstrating ska dancing for the table. I suppose, if nothing else, it will be easy to remind Heather O’Neill where she met me before.
ALSO
I have seen cover concepts for River, Diverted. I have my first blurb for it, too (holy hell is it a good one – but it’s too early to share). October 2022!
Today’s show features the remarkable Stuart Ross. His newest is The Book Of Grief And Hamburgers, and it’s excellent. Tune in!
Hey all,
If you know me you know I’ve worked in the music industry a long time, and I love having music-related shows. This one’s a good one. Mark Howard has worked with Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Neil Young and tons more (hell, I was kinda impressed with Luscious Jackson, but that might be going obscure). The Hamilton, ON-born engineer and producer did a lot of work with Daniel Lanois and then struck out on his own.
Howard was diagnosed with melanoma in 2017 and things got dicey. It progressed to stage 4, spread around his body (including his brain). He came to Toronto for treatment and, miraculously, is now cancer-free. During the time in-between, he wrote Listen Up! with assistance from his brother Chris Howard. If you’re a music fan (or a recording gear nerd, or even a motorcycle enthusiast) this book is for you.
If you’re in the Hamilton area this weekend, Mark is hosting the Mark Howard Cancer-Free Benefit for Princess Margaret Hospital. You can find details here.
Hope you dig the show!
Hey folks,
A bit of local content on the first half of today’s show. Noelle Allen from Wolsak & Wynn joins us, on behalf of the Hamilton Arts Council Literary Advisory Committee (I would rather call it HACLAC but it’s maybe too reminiscent of the Aflac duck). We talk about next week’s Hamilton Literary Awards.
Next up, someone else form the Wolsak family – senior editor and poet Paul Vermeersch. We talk about poetry and his latest collection, the excellent Self Defence for the Brave and Happy. Hope you enjoy our conversation!
“Canada, you are in the midst of an Indigenous renaissance,” said Jeremy Dutcher as he accepted the 2018 Polaris Music Prize for his album Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa. If you don’t agree, you haven’t been paying attention, at least not to the arts. Four out of the last five Polaris winners have been Indigenous (Dutcher, Buffy Ste Marie, Tanya Tagaq and Lido Pimienta, who is Colombian Canadian with Indigenous roots). In the lit world, Indigenous writers have been coming to the fore more often, too. Tanya Talaga, Bev Sellers, Eden Robinson (who GET LIT will interview in October), Tanya Tagaq (Split Tooth is long-listed for the Giller and it’s not even out yet), Richard Wagamese, Drew Hayden Taylor, Lee Maracle…that’s off the top of my head, there’s plenty more.
This leads us to another player in this renaissance, Waubgeshig Rice, whose Moon of the Crusted Snow comes out Oct 2. It’s an amazing story, but I don’t want to say too much about it, so tune in and hear us dance around the spoilers and mostly succeed. Enjoy!