Today we’re talking with author Shekhar Paleja. An Extraordinary Destiny is a multi-generational tale and “an intricate narrative that reveals, in layers, how decades-old grief rooted in the trauma of history, and couched in familial duty and custom, threaten to sever the sacred connection between ancestors and descendants.” Enjoy the show!
fiction
E87 with Klara du Plessis and Linda Frank
Hey folks! I’m off on another run down to Windsor doing a reading for the ChiZine folks at Phog Lounge. By the time this posts, I’m probably on a via train on the way home. Maybe I saw you?
Today’s program features two interviews with fabulous poets. Klara du Plessis joins us to talk about her collection Ekke. After that, we chat with Linda Frank about her newest collection, Divided.
Hope you enjoy….!
E86 with CLAIRE TACON
I haven’t made as many personal blogs as I originally intended to, but hopefully no one minds (or cares!). It seems that whenever the time comes to post the new show, I’m just too busy or exhausted to bother saying much. As such, I’ll keep it to interesting news and self-serving information.
Work continues on the new novel. I’ve been struggling with it. Writers, has this ever happened to you? You’ve really, really needed an opinion on a draft…but the draft is so unfinished that there’s no one anyone should read it (let alone form an opinion based on it). What do you do? Personally, I’m doing two things. The first is doing the work. No matter how long it will take, it’s important to just do it, to rewrite and touch up no matter how long it takes. Eventually, there will be a readable draft.
The second is learning to trust yourself. When that little voices pipes up to tell you that you have no idea what you’re doing and you need a second opinion…you learn to ignore it, trust your talents, and keep going.
There will be plenty of time for second opinions.
Speaking of opinions, my opinion on today’s guest is that she seems super cool and has written a wonderful book. In Search of the Perfect Singing Flamingo is a very enjoyable read and I hope you enjoy the conversation with author Claire Tacon. Dig.
E80 with MELISSA KUIPERS
Hey everyone! Lots happening here in Hamilton with Arts Week on the way. Hope to update you on the Arts Awards when they’re done.
Keeping it local with our author again this week. We speak with Melissa Kuipers about her collection of short stories, The Whole Beautiful World. Hope you enjoy!
(P.S. Don’t forget to check out Wolsak & Wynn’s spring launch next week!)
GET LIT 73 with MICHAEL REDHILL
The ReLit Awards are awards that celebrate Canada’s independent presses. They’re pleased to have announced this year’s shortlists, and I’m pleased to say I’m on one of them! The Captain of Kinnoull Hill was “long shortlisted” for best novel (other categories include short fiction and poetry). What the hell am I doing on a shortlist with Zoe Whittall? So strange. Very happy and touched by this…huge thanks to my publisher, Palimpsest Press.
Our guest this week was also shortlisted for a little prize, and he won it, too. We talk with Michael Redhill about his Scotiabank Giller Prize-winning novel Bellevue Square. He’ll be in Hamilton on April 14 as part of this year’s Grit Lit Festival. See you there – and until then, hope you enjoy the show.
GET LIT E67 with PATRICK LANE
Hey all,
Today’s show features a lengthy and fascinating interview with poet Patrick Lane. Words like “pre-eminent” and “distinguished” always seem a bit fussy to me, but they apply to Lane, who has been awarded the Governor General’s Award for Poetry, the Canadian Authors Association Award, the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence and three National Magazine Awards. He didn’t come to talk about poetry, though. Instead we talk about his fantastic new novel, Deep River Night.
Hope you dig.
GET LIT 65 with TIMOTHY TAYLOR
No personal updates this week except to say: the work continues…
GET LIT this week features a few notes about local events – John Terpstra and Kit Dobson at the Staircase and Karl Subban (a GritLit presentation at the Hamilton Plaza)
Our feature interview is with author and creative writing professor Timothy Taylor. We chat about his newest novel, The Rule of Stephens. Hope you enjoy the conversation!
GET LIT 63 with BEN ROBINSON
Hey all!
Pretty excited about some upcoming things, including this weekend. I’m off to Toronto to do research for the novel-in-progress. Wish me luck.
In the meantime, this week’s show featuring an interview with poet Ben Robinson, author of the (now sold-out) chapbook, Mayami. Listen for some local lit news and a book recommendation from author and explorer Kate Harris as well. Enjoy!
GET LIT E57 with DOMENICO CAPILONGO (with special guests Pasha Malla and Olga Kwak)
Hey everyone!
I want to take this moment to say I’m super excited about my own book-related things at the moment. First of all, I have finally been reviewed! The Captain of Kinnoull Hill was reviewed by the excellent Mark Sampson in the newest issue of Hamilton Arts and Letters. READ THE REVIEW HERE!!!
I also want to thank my new best friends at the Ontario Arts Council, as well as my publisher Palimpsest Press, for the Recommender’s Grant I just received. It’s my first-ever arts grant. Not sure if that makes me part of a club but it sure helps pay the bills and allows me more time to write, which is the point!
Today on the show, poet Domenico Capilongo talks about his latest, Send, out with Guernica Editions. We also hear Pasha Malla read from Fugue States, while my pal Olga Kwak reviews the latest from Jan Wong, Apron Strings: Navigating Food and Family in France, Italy and China. Hope you enjoy!
GET LIT 45 with CHRIS PANNELL (LitLive) and SHANE NEILSON
A few weeks ago I took to the Hivemind (read: Facebook) to ask peoples’ advice on how I should proceed on writing the new novel (which I now have under the working title “River, Diverted” but I dunno…”Diverted” is a weird word and the comma is possibly pretentious)(River is my main character, BTW). Everyone and their dogs agreed, write all of the words and sort it out later. I grudgingly agree – “grudgingly” because it means a rough draft could be years in the making.
Structure is a difficult thing. Unless you’re starting at A and going to B, with little backstory, it’s easy to get bogged down. My story takes place in the present but the past is a huge element of the plot, to the point where it is almost a separate timeline – but this was a surefire way to end up with a 1,000 page (read: unpublishable) novel.
Enter this here radio show/podcast. I read about a book a week in order to stay on top of interviews, and recently I read This Side of Sad (Goose Lane) by Karen Smythe. It’s a book with no present tense to speak of, and no traditional plot to speak of…and it works incredibly well. The narrator remembers her past in short sections, paragraphs a half-page long or less, presented in an order that seems random but, of course, was probably painstakingly assembled (I’ll find out when I interview her). Her structure may have cracked this story open for me, giving me a way to illuminate important moments without dedicating entire chapters to them.
The takeaway is, writers – keep reading!
Two guests today. First up, Chris Pannell, a Hamilton writer who is part of the LitLive committee. We discuss LitLive, a long-standing reading series in Hamilton (and I’ll be making my LitLive debut this coming Sunday, Oct 1, so if you’re around, come on by! 7:30 pm at the Staircase Theatre.
We also speak with poet Shane Neilson about writing, his career, and his remarkable collection Dysphoria. Hope you enjoy the conversations.