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Gary Barwin

E166 with GARY BARWIN

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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!

GET LIT E54 with WARREN KINSELLA

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It is with great pride that I can tell you I did not win at this week’s 24th annual Hamilton Literary Awards.

Lemme explain that further: if you’ve gotta lose, lose to a Leacock Medal winner. It’s hard to feel like you lost anything when you are in such esteemed company. It’s surreal to even have my name on that finalists list, given the list included Caroline Stellings, Gary Barwin and Brent Van Staalduinen. Gary took the fiction prize, as he should have. I did what was probably the best reading of my new career so far, so I’m happy as hell about the whole thing. Plus I got to hang out with the amazing people I’ve been meeting on the Hamilton lit scene. Kudos to the other winners as well – Chris Pannell for poetry, Shawn Selway for non-fiction, and Andrew Baulcomb, winner of the Kerry Schooley Award. Way to clean up, Wolsak & Wynn!

Today’s show features an interview with lawyer, musician, political consultant, commentator and (of course) author, Warren Kinsella. His book Recipe for Hate has been receiving a lot of attention lately and its combination of politics and punk rock meant it was pretty much in my wheelhouse. Hope you enjoy the show.

GET LIT E53 – Our one-year anniversary! Hamilton Literary Awards!

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Hi folks! I’m back, I’m over the jet lag, I’m marginally together again. Just in time for our first anniversary! GET LIT E01 aired on my birthday, 2016. Our guest was the ever-generous and incredibly talented Gary Barwin. I had no idea the show would be sustainable, but here we are, a year later with no signs of stopping.

Speaking of Gary, I’m humbled to be mentioned in the same breath as him, let alone nominated alongside him, but…The Captain of Kinnoull Hill is a finalist for Best Fiction at the Hamilton Arts Council’s Literary Awards. The event happens Monday, November 27, 7 pm, at Theatre Aquarius’ Norman and Louise Haac Studio Theatre, in the Dofasco Centre for the Arts.

On this show we’re joined by Noelle Allen of Wolsak and Wynn, who is also a member of the Hamilton Arts Council’s Literary Advisory Committee and one of the event organizers. Also listen in as Hamilton Review of Books Editor-in-Chief Dana Hansen joins us to review Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. Hope you enjoy!

Get Lit E30 with Sally Cooper and Gary Barwin

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Hi folks,

The experiment in early rising in order to write seems to be working. By the end of the month, I should be finished a short story that is also the nexus of a new novel. Stay tuned.

This week I talked briefly to Gary Barwin about winning the Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour. We also plugged his performance as part of the Something Else festival, in which he and Stuart Ross will be performing (or performed, depending on when you’re reading this)  sound poetry together.

Our feature interview is with Hamilton author Sally Cooper, who talks about her great new collection Smells Like Heaven, available through ARP Books. Hope you enjoy!

E01 with GARY BARWIN

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Here it is, the first episode of Get Lit! It aired on my 47th birthday, 2016. I was lucky enough to have a superstar on the program, too – the one and only Gary Barwin, whose support and generosity floored me from the get-go. I think the second time I ever met him, he came to my book launch. Given I was (and am) a literary nobody, that was pretty great of him to do. He’s been there since, to bounce ideas off of and just generally chat. Wonderful guy and a wonderful writer. Here, in his funky living room, we discuss his breakthrough novel, Yiddish for Pirates. Enjoy!