Hey folks! I had a super conversation with Molly Peacock about her latest, A Friend Sails In On A Poem. Make sure you check it out!
Palimpsest Press
E314 with JOHN WALL BARGER and DAVID LY
GET LIT first aired exactly 6 years ago! Nov 24, 2016. My 47th birthday!
We celebrate this week talking to two great poets – John Wall Barger and David Ly. When I launched River, Diverted, both came to read at the event and it was wonderful. Check out their latest releases – John’s Smog Mother and David’s Dream of Me As Water
Ignore the dates on the link and possibly the filename, it’s E314 Nov 24.
E313 with KIM CONKLIN
Hey everyone!
Kim Conklin was a guest at my Oct 12 book launch for River, Diverted and I went down to Windsor to read with her at Biblioasis last week. Love meeting and getting to know new authors in person! On today’s show we discuss her debut novel, King of Hope.
E308 with GARY BARWIN
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!
E307 with JAMIE TENNANT & guest host MARK SAMPSON
Yes, today the guest is…me.
Self-serving? Maybe. Sometimes you gotta do it. A while back, author and excellent fellow Mark Sampson approached me to suggest he interview me when River, Diverted was released. The result was very kind, thoughtful, illuminating and entertaining – for me, at least! I hope you think so too.
River, Diverted was released Oct 1st!
If you’re in the Hamilton area, you can come on along to my launch party on Oct 12. Details below the sound file!

E274 with DANIEL SCOTT TYSDAL
Hey all! Things sound a little different today because cell reception was spotty and we switched to Zoom. I could see going that way permanently if I can afford a decent microphone…
It was nice to see my guest for a change, though! I had a great conversation with Daniel Scott Tysdal about his collection of short stories, Wave Forms and Doom Scrolls. Was a lot of fun and I hope you enjoy.
AND ALSO
The remarkable Aimee at Palimpsest Press has confirmed…River, Diverted will be published in fall ’22. I might even post the book jacket info soon. I’m thrilled and terrified at the same time. Like always, I guess 😀
E257 with NATHANIEL G MOORE
Hey folks! For much of the show’s run I’ve been corresponding with Nathaniel G Moore, who works in part as a literary publicist. Kinda cool, then, to have him on to talk about his writing – specifically the compilation Honorarium: Essays 2001 – 2021. Hope you enjoy the show.
E222 with GORD GRISENTHWAITE
Today’s show is a special one for me because G.A. Grisenthwaite (also known as Gord) is a friend. I first met him at the Pelee Island Book House retreat five years ago. Margaret Atwood gave the workshops, and I remember how enthusiastic she was about Gord’s work. Gord is NÅ‚eÊ”kepmx, a member of the Lytton First Nation, and Home Waltz focuses on an extraordinary weekend in the life of a NÅ‚eÊ”kepmx teenager in the 1970s.
Full disclosure: I was lucky enough to have done the substantive edit on this novel so I was extra excited to have Gord on the show. Enjoy!
E139 with NADJA LUBIW-HAZARD
It’s another greenhouse-hot day in Hamilton, Ontario. Hope you’re enjoying your summer so far, folks.
On a personal note, it’s looking like an interesting time for yours truly. I am about 50 pages of edit away from beta readers, a few weeks away from starting to narrate the audiobook of The Captain of Kinnoull Hill, and I’ve already started my first gig as a fiction editor. On top of that I’m helping to organize the Hamilton Literary Awards for 2019. It’s all pretty great. Now, if only it paid well enough for me to quit this day job.
The show, though! Today’s guest is author Nadja Lubiw-Hazard. The Nap-Away Motel is a great read, and I’m proud to say she’s with my publisher, Palimpsest. Enjoy the chat, buy the book!
-jt
A Review in the U of T Quarterly
My book isn’t a bestseller. Hell, at best, it’s a ‘seller.’ According to the pros in Episode 19 of GET LIT, I’m doing absolutely fine, but the numbers are modest.
What makes me happy, though, is that The Captain of Kinnoull Hill seems to have some legs. I still receive royalty cheques, however small. Apparently, I also still get reviews! The University of Toronto Quarterly recently published a wonderful review and I couldn’t be happier. The issue was supposed to come out last summer but for reasons I don’t know about, it was delayed until last week. Works for me.
As the Quarterly is not free, there’s no point posting a link, but author Brandon McFarlane has given me permission to cut and paste the text, as it’s part of a larger article on Emergent Fiction (trust me, it’s a copyright thing, and I’m in the clear). So read on, and if you haven’t picked up a copy yet, you can do so here.
“How do you help an aging hipster recover from decades of partying, snobbery, arrogance, and narcissism? In Jamie Tennant’s The Captain of Kinnoull Hill, the solution is to send the hipster to Scotland to hang out with a thousand-year-old goblin. Dennis Duckworth is a veteran of Chicago’s Wicker Park – the pre-eminent hipster district in 1990s America.
He owns an indie music label that is raking in cash due the success of The Random, an unexpected hit maker that has attracted the attention of Universal Music. Dennis is ready to sell out after years of plumping acclaimed, but commercially unviable, music. We meet Dennis in a Times Square pornographic booth as he tries to sneak in a quick, cheap nap. But a series of unfortunate events leaves Dennis beaten and passed out in Scotland. Stuck there with no cash, he has to save the deal with Universal despite alienating his staff, hiding his misadventure, and hating himself. Even though he is a misanthrope, he is also unexpectedly charming; Dennis befriends a pub owner (Margaret), two heritage workers, and
Eddie the Red Cap (goblin).
The Captain of Kinnoull Hill is a comedy about integrating two curmudgeons into society. Dennis is an amalgamation of everything people hate about hipster culture and his high-hipster tastes have left him isolated. Eddie the Red Cap is a recovering goblin; after years of murdering random victims and mopping up their blood with his cap, he is ready to
forfeit his magical powers and become a normal person. Dennis battles an overwhelming compulsion for condescension and narcissism, and Eddie, well, fights an instinctual craving for blood. Through a shared love of high culture, the two become fast friends and help one another
become sincere, caring humans. They also collaborate to rebuild the town’s crumbling castle – a tourist attraction vital to the economy – and to save Margaret’s pub that is threatened by her landlord McKee, who bullies the entire town with his posse of punks.
The Captain of Kinnoull Hill might be labelled a magical comedy. It combines self-loathing and dark humour with the ridiculous plot twists of classic comedy; Dennis’s drug abuse and Eddie’s magic integrate the archetypal twists and turns of Shakespearean comedy into a contemporary story. The challenges facing the characters are arbitrary due to the novel’s comedic structure; readers know that all of the problems will be solved, and happiness will reign. The strategy places the emphasis on witticisms and tomfoolery. Each scene becomes intrinsically rewarding because the plot is, more or less, irrelevant; Tennant transforms every moment into an opportunity for laughs. The Captain of Kinnoull Hill is an exceptional comedy due to its risk taking and novel application of contemporary and centuries-old comedy staples.”