My guest on this episode is Michael Christie. Michael is the author of the 2012 story collection, The Beggar's Garden, which was longlisted for the Giller Prize, shortlisted for the Writers' Trust Prize for Fiction, and won the Vancouver Book Award. His 2015 novel If I Fall, If I Die was also longlisted for the Giller Prize, as well as the Kirkus Prize, and was selected as a New York Times Editors' Choice Pick, and was on numerous best-of-the-year lists. His essays and book reviews have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Globe & Mail. Michael’s most recent novel is Greenwood, which was published in 2019 by McClelland & Stewart. That books was a national bestseller and won the Le Prix du Livre de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines and the 2020 Arthur Ellis Award for Excellence in Canadian Crime Writing. It was also shortlisted for the 2020 Forest of Reading Evergreen Award, the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, and the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize, and longlisted for the Giller Prize, and was a 2023 Canada Reads Finalist. The New York Times Book Review called Greenwood “superb” and said it “penetrates to the core of things.”

Michael and I talk about how his writing career has been influenced by his previous semi-pro skateboarding career, about converting Greenwood into a TV series, and about how while working on his new novel, he had to resist the temptation to copy the narrative formula that had worked so well in Greenwood.

This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

My guest on this episode is Deborah Dundas. Deborah is a writer and journalist who has worked as a television producer and as the Books Editor for the Toronto Star, where she is currently an opinion editor. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including Maclean’s, the Globe and Mail, the National Post, Canadian Notes and Queries, the Belfast Telegraph, and the Sunday Independent. She also teaches Creative Non-Fiction at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies. Deborah’s first book is On Class, which was published by Biblioasis Books in 2023. That book was A Hamilton Review of Books Best Book of 2023 and was shortlisted for the 2024 Speaker’s Book Award. The Winnipeg Free Press called On Class “a nifty, provocative little book.”

Deborah and I talk about her work on the most picked-over and discussed literary story of the decade, which are the revelations about the late Alice Munro and her family, and about how she initially wanted to say no to working on that story. We talk about some of the progress and great conversations about class she has seen witnessed publishing her book, and how she feels just a little less like an outsider in Canada’s literary culture.

This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

My guest on this episode is... me. That’s because my most recent novel, Lump, was published exactly one year ago this week by the Rare Machines imprint of Dundurn Press, so I am officially in WHAT HAPPENED NEXT territory.

My guest interviewer on this episode is Julie S. Lalonde. Julie is an internationally recognized women’s rights advocate and public educator. Her book Resilience is Futile: The Life and Death and Life of Julie S. Lalonde was published by Between the Lines in 2020. It was named one of the best books of the year by CBC Books and the Hill Times and won the 2020 Ontario Speaker’s award. It also won an Independent Publisher Book Award in 2021. (In addition to all that, Julie was the very first guest I had on this podcast.)

Julie and I talk about the differences between publishing your first book and publishing your third, how to deal with other authors sucking up all the sales and attention, and the author I consider my dream-get for this podcast.

Julie S. Lalonde: yellowmanteau.com

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this episode is Laurie Petrou. Laurie is the author of four books, including the short story collection Between, and the novels Sister of Mine and Love, Heather. She is an Associate Professor at the RTA School of Media at Toronto Metropolitan University.

Laurie’s most recent book is Stargazer, published in 2022 by Verve Books. Author Marissa Stapley called Stargazer "a sinuous, captivating exploration of the mysterious depths of female friendship.”

Laurie and I talk about the lessons she has learned since her first book about what to say no to and what to yes to, about the skills she has acquired while collaborating with a TV writer for her next book, and how she handles getting identified as a writer by people in her neighbourhood.

Laurie Petrou: lauriepetrou.com

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this episode is Jordan Abel. Jordan is the author of The Place of Scraps (which won the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize), Un/inhabited, Injun (winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize) and NISHGA, which won the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize and the VMI Betsy Warland Between Genres award and was a finalist for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction, the Wilfrid Eggleston Award for Nonfiction, and the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize. Jordan is an Associate Professor in the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta where he teaches Indigenous Literatures, Research-Creation, and Creative Writing.

Jordan’s most recent book is Empty Spaces, which was published by McClelland & Stewart in 2023, and was shortlisted for the Amazon First Novel Award. In its review of Empty Spaces, the Boston Globe called it “a singular, incantatory work.”

Jordan and I talk about how being in academia has enriched his creative work, and why, all the same, he doesn’t always feel he belongs there, and about how he was shocked that his agent and publisher would take a chance on a book as strange and difficult as Empty Spaces, and about how odd it is that his published work to date has been so dark and serious, when he doesn’t see himself that way at all. (We do a lot of laughing in this episode, FYI.)

Empty Spaces by Jordan Abel at Penguin Random House Canada.

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this episode is Andrew F Sullivan. Andrew is the author of the novel WASTE, a Globe & Mail Best Book of the Year, and the short story collection All We Want is Everything, also a Globe & Mail Best Book of the Year and finalist for the ReLit Award. Andrew’s most recent two books are the novels The Marigold, published by ECW Press in Spring 2023, a finalist for the Aurora Awards and the Locus Awards, and named a Best Book of the Year by Esquire, The Verge, Book Riot and the Winnipeg Free Press, and The Handyman Method, which he cowrote with Nick Cutter, and which was published by Simon & Schuster in Fall 2023.

Book List called The Handyman Method “a terrific horror novel, with a spellbinding story full of surprises and superb writing that is vivid, visceral, and, at times, darkly beautiful.” Publishers Weekly said about The Marigold that “this impressively bleak vision of the near future is as grotesquely amusing as it is grim.” 

Andrew and I talk about how grateful he is for the amount of attention The Marigold has received, but also how he worked his ass off and was very strategic about ensuring it had a chance to get that attention, also the enormous difference between publishing with an indie press like ECW and with a multinational like Simon & Schuster, and how nearly burnt himself out promoting two novels in one year.

Andrew F. Sullivan: andrewfsullivan.com

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this episode is Ken McGoogan. Ken is the author of sixteen books—most of them nonfiction narratives, but also a few novels. His books include Fatal Passage, Lady Franklin’s Revenge, and Canada’s Undeclared War: Fighting Words from the Literary Trenches. Ken has won the Pierre Berton Award for Popular History and the University of British Columbia Medal for Canadian Biography. A fellow of the Explorers Club and the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, McGoogan sails as a resource historian with Adventure Canada. Ken’s most recent book is Searching for Franklin: New Answers to the Great Arctic Mystery, which was published by Douglas & McIntyre in 2023. The Vancouver Sun wrote about that book, that “there's a raw immediacy, a forceful current of white-knuckle suspense, to McGoogan's recreation of events."

Ken and I talk about his brief time as a firewatcher and how that directly inspired at least one of his books, about whether Searching for Franklin really is his last book about the search for the Northwest Passage (short answer: probably, but it depends), and about his upcoming book, in which he shifts his subject from the Franklin expedition to fascism.

Ken McGoogan: kenmcgoogan.com

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this episode is Sheima Benembarek. Sheima is a journalist who’s written for The Walrus, Broadview, Maisonneuve, and the Literary Review of Canada. She has worked as special reports editor at Strategy, a senior editor for Toronto Life, an events manager for The Walrus, a business development and brand communications lead at Corporate Knights, and as an associate editor at Broadview. Currently, she is a contributing writer for The Walrus. In 2020, she was chosen as one of the five RBC Taylor Prize Emerging Writers of the year.

Sheima’s first book is Halal Sex: The Intimate Lives of Muslim Women in North America, published by Viking Canada in 2023. The book was shortlisted for the QWF Concordia University First Book Prize. Journalist Robyn Doolittle said about Halal Sex that it “pulls vital conversations into the open. I loved every minute I spent reading this book.”

Sheima and I talk about the why she chose to include intimate details about her own life in her book, about the reaction she had been anticipating to the book, and about her new work-in-progress, which extends the work she did in Halal Sex.

Sheima Benembarek: sheimabenembarek.com

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this episode is Scott Chantler. Scott is the creator of multiple graphic novels for both adults and young readers, including Northwest Passage, Two Generals, which was voted by CBC's Canada Reads as one of the 40 best Canadian non-fiction books of all time, the Three Thieves series (winner of the Joe Shuster Award for Best Comic for Kids), and Bix. He has been the illustrator for many other graphic novels and comic books, and has served as Cartoonist-in-Residence at the University of Windsor, the first cartoonist to be appointed to such a position by a Canadian university. Scott’s most recent book is Squire & Knight, published by First Second in 2023. Kirkus Reviews said that Squire & Knight "subverts typical fairy-tale tropes with dry humour” and says the book is “compelling and full of adventure, with a plot as clever as its main character."

Scott and I talk about bringing Three Thieves back into print after falling out with that series’s original publisher, about how the upcoming sequel to Squire & Knight might be the end of that series, unless he changes his mind—he also talks about how he’s not great at longterm career planning—and about how he want to focus on work that is darker and more adult than what he is best known for.

Scott Chantler: scottchantler.com

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My very special guest on this one-year-anniversary episode is Meaghan Strimas. Meaghan is the author of three collections of poetry, including Junkman's Daughter and A Good Time Had By All, which was shortlisted for the 2011 ReLit Award. She the editor of The Selected Gwendolyn MacEwen and co-edited Another Dysfunctional Cancer Poem Anthology with the late Priscila Uppal. She is a professor in the Faculty of Media and Creative Arts at Humber College, where she runs the Bachelor of Creative and Professional Writing degree. (She is also married... to me.) Meaghan’s most recent book is Yes or Nope, which was published by Mansfield Press in 2016 and was awarded the Trillium Book Award for Poetry in the following year. Author Zoe Whittall said of that book that “the poetry in Yes or Nope is whip-smart and tenderhearted, funny and alive.”

Meaghan and I talk about the shift that happened in her writing that allowed her to write Yes Or Nope under some difficult circumstances and time constraints, about working on the final books by her friends Priscila Uppal and Teva Harrison, books that, in both cases, were published posthumously, and about her new work, which she says further develops the stylistic freedoms she discovered in Yes or Nope and which will pay tribute to some of the writers who have inspired her.

Meaghan Strimas: notesandqueries.ca/meaghan-strimas

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this episode is Rob Benvie. Rob is the author of three novels, including Safety of War and Maintenance, both published by Coach House Books. His writing has appeared in McSweeney’s, Dazed, Vice, Joyland, The Puritan, CNQ, and Best Canadian Essays. He also co-wrote the screenplay for the 2021 film Stanleyville. Rob was a founding member of the band Thrush Hermit, and performs and records solo as Tigre Benvie. Rob’s most recent novel, Bleeding Light, was published in 2021 by Invisible Press. Author Liz Harmer called Bleeding Light "bizarre, terrifying, and wise." Rob’s upcoming novel, Book of the Flock, will be published by Knopf Canada in 2025.

Rob and I talk about how doing novel revisions can be a little bit like a band reunion, how, despite having a successful career as a musician and songwriter, it might be the case that he was a writer all along, and how being published by a multinational is not quite the same as a band signing with a major label (he hopes).

Rob Benvie: robbenvie.com

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this episode is Lawrence Hill. Lawrence is the author of eleven books including the novels The Book of Negroes and The Illegal, and the memoir Black Berry Sweet Juice: On Being Black and White in Canada and Blood: The Stuff of Life, which was the CBC Massey Lecture in 2013. Lawrence is the winner of the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book, and both CBC Radio’s Canada Reads and Radio-Canada’s Combat des livres. Lawrence’s most recent book, his first YA novel, is Beatrice and Croc Harry, which was published in 2022 by HarperCollins Canada. The French version of Beatrice and Croc Harry is about to be published in Quebec by Mémoire d'encrier. It will come out in Europe in the fall. Author David Chariandy called Beatrice and Croc Harry “A modern fable of great beauty and sophistication.”

Lawrence and I talk about some peculiarities concerning his author name, about the grief that helped compel him to write his first book for children, and about the one disappointment he had when he met Queen Elizabeth II.

Lawrence Hill: lawrencehill.com

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this episode is Jackie Khalilieh. Jackie is a writer and former teacher whose first book, the YA novel Something More, was published by Tundra Books in 2023. That novel was shortlisted for the Ruth & Sylvia Shwartz Award, as well as the Snow Willow Award, and was selected for several Best of the year lists, including by the New York Public Library and Audible Books Canada. Publishers Weekly called Something More a “thought-provoking and thoroughly entertaining debut that centers questions of identity via a fresh lens."

Jackie and I talk about how her identities as a person with autism and a Palestinian-Canadian inform the kinds of stories she wants to tell, about some of the negative response her book has received from readers who perhaps wanted its autistic main character to conform to a particular ideal, and about how she can’t on GoodReads without stripmining the site for data and projections about her own writing career.

This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

My guest on this episode is Amber Cowie. Amber is the author of a number of bestselling novels, starting with Rapid Falls, which was published in 2018 by Lake Union Publishing, an imprint of Amazon Publishing and was a Whistler Book Awards nominee. Her essays have been published in the New York Times, Salon, the Globe and Mail, and Scary Mommy. Amber’s most recent novel, Last One Alive, was published here by Simon & Schuster Canada in 2022. The Globe and Mail said Last One Alive contains “as clever a twist as Agatha Christie ever envisioned.” Unusual for this podcast, Amber has a new book coming out very soon: The Off Season will be released by Simon and Schuster Canada in spring 2024. (We talk about that.)

Amber and I also talk about her love of TikTok, about selling a novel based on a one-sentence pitch – and why that ended up being way more stressful than if it had gone the usual way – and about why she feels she could easily be publishing a book a year.

Amber Cowie: ambercowie.com

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this episode is Joyce Grant. Joyce is an award-winning children’s author, a freelance journalist, an editor, and an educator. She is the author of a trio of picture books published by Fitzhenry & Whiteside, and a pair of middle-grade novels published by Lorimer. Joyce’s most recent book is Can You Believe It? How to Spot Fake News and Find the Facts, published by Kids Can Press in 2022. Can you Believe it? won two Hamilton Literary Awards, in the categories of children’s book and non-fiction, as well as a Press Freedom Teaching Award. The book was also nominated for Ontario Library Association’s Yellow Cedar Award and the Hackmatack Children’s Choice Book Award. Kirkus Reviews called Can You Believe It? “a valuable—and entertaining—guide to an important subject.”

Joyce and I talk about her writing process, which she admits is a little more chaotic than she’d like, about why it took her until her sixth book to write about a subject she has been working on and teaching for decades, and about the multiple books she has on the go—including one for which she has a contract from a publisher sitting unsigned in her email inbox, a situation I believe our conversation guilted her into remedying.

Joyce Grant: joycegrantauthor.com

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this episode is Liz Harmer. Liz is a writer, editor, and teacher whose first novel, The Amateurs was published in 2018 by Knopf Canada and was a finalist for the Amazon First Novel Award. In 2019, Liz was a Bread Loaf fellow and the runner-up to the Mitchell Prize in Poetry. She has won a National Magazine Award in Personal Journalism, was a finalist for the Journey Prize, and has been shortlisted for the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. Her work has also been included in the annual Best Canadian Stories anthology. She currently teaches Creative Writing at Chapman University in California. Her most recent novel, Strange Loops, was published by Knopf Canada in 2023. Author Iain Reid called Strange Loops "Lean and enthralling,” and "a story that burns with intensity and daring."

Liz and I talk about the strangeness of being a Canadian writer in the US, about the occasional conflicts between her literary life and her academic life—but also where those two nourish each other—and about the novel she wrote in the third grade.

Liz Harmer: lizharmer.com

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this episode is Mark Pupo. Mark is a writer and editor who was a senior editor at Toronto Life magazine, and was their food writer for many years. Mark has also served as a senior editor at Chatelaine magazine, the director of Special Projects at Macleans magazine, and was the editor in chief at Reader’s Digest Canada. Mark’s first book is Sundays: A Celebration of Breakfast and Family in 52 Essential Recipes, which is both a cookbook and a memoir about Mark’s life with his neurodivergent son, Sam. It was published in 2023 by the Appetite by Random House imprint of Penguin Random House of Canada. Author John Birdsall called Sundays ”a quietly powerful testament to the power of a chosen family.”

Mark and I talk about how the book that he, his agent, and his publisher thought he was going to write was not a memoir at all, about how he, a lifelong words-on-a-page person, found he kind of enjoyed doing the rounds of morning TV, and about the oddest promotion he did for the book, which involved Wonder bread and the set of the show Reacher.

Mark Pupo: markpupo.com

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this episode is Terry Fallis. Terry’s first novel, The Best Laid Plans, which began as a podcast and was initially self-published, won the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour and was re-published by McClelland & Stewart in 2008. That book went on to win the 2011 edition of Canada Reads and was adapted as a CBC Television series and a stage musical. His next two novels, The High Road and Up and Down, were finalists for the Leacock Medal. And In 2015, he won the prize a second time, for his fourth book, No Relation. His other novels include Poles Apart, One Brother Shy, Albatross, and Operation Angus, and were all national bestsellers. Terry’s most recent novel is A New Season, which was published by McClelland & Stewart in 2023. In its review of A New Season, The Winnipeg Free Press said, “It’s about grief, friendship, family and, most of all, love, with humour taking a backseat for a change.”

Terry and I talk about those early days of podcasting, about why, given all his success, he only recently retired from his day job to focus on writing full time, and about how readers and critics very often mistake comic novels for frivolous ones.

Terry Fallis: terryfallis.com

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this episode is Denise Da Costa. Denise is an author and visual artist who studied Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia and is an alumna of the Humber School of Writers and the Diaspora Dialogues mentorship program. Her debut novel, And the Walls Came Down, was published in 2023 by Dundurn Press. Author Zalika Reid-Benta called And the Walls Came Down  “a beautiful exploration of memory and perception and will linger in the minds of readers long after they’ve finished."

Denise and I talk about how she learned the public side of being a writer reciting poetry in church as a child, how her colleagues in the corporate sales world reacted to the launch of her first book, and how she is looking forward to having written and published enough books that she starts to forget what’s in each of them.

Denise Da Costa: denisedacostaauthor.com

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this episode is Omar El Akkad. Omar is an author and celebrated journalist whose debut novel, American War, was published in 2017. It was an international bestseller, was translated into thirteen languages, and won the Pacific Northwest Booksellers’ Award, the Oregon Book Award for fiction, the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize as well as being nominated for nearly a dozen other awards. It was also a finalist on Canada Reads. His second and most recent novel, What Strange Paradise, was published in 2021 by McClelland & Stewart in Canada. It won the Giller Prize, The Pacific Northwest Book Award, and landed on the shortlist for many other awards. It, too, was a finalist on Canada Reads. In its review, which Omar mentions in our conversation, the New York Times Book Review said that What Strange Paradise “deserves to be an instant classic.”

Omar and I talk about the three unpublished novels he wrote before American War, about the fact that, though he is very grateful for the success he has had so far, he still feels some nostalgic for the years he spent writing those unpublished novels, and about a recent creative writing retreat, his first, that was a disaster of nearly novelistic proportions.

Omar El Akkad: omarelakkad.com

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this episode is Amy Jones. Amy is the author of What Boys Like, a collection of stories published in 2009 by Biblioasis, and the novels We're All in This Together and Every Little Piece of Me, published in 2016 and 2019, respectively, by McClelland & Stewart. A film version of We’re All In this Together, directed by and starring Kate Boland, was released in 2021. Amy’s most recent book, Pebble and Dove, was published by McClelland and Stewart in 2023. The Toronto Star called Pebble and Dove “a rollicking read” and said that “as we bid goodbye to Jones’ vividly imagined creatures, their weirdly endearing humanity lingers in our minds long after the final page.”

Amy and I talk about how her parallel life as a dancer connects with her writing, about the writing career she thought she was going to have after the success of her first novel, and about the fake reality show that keeps making cameos in her novels and that she might one day write a whole book about.

Amy Jones: amyjonesauthor.com

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this episode is Natalie MacLean. Natalie is a journalist and wine writer whose first book, Red, White and Drunk All Over, was published in 2006. Her second, Unquenchable, was published by in 2011. Her most recent book, the memoir Wine Witch on Fire: Rising from the Ashes of Divorce, Defamation, and Drinking Too Much, was published in 2023 by Dundurn Press and was a national bestseller. Natalie is the wine expert on CTV's The Social, has been named the World's Best Drinks Writer at the World Food Media Awards, and won four James Beard Foundation Journalism Awards. She is also the host of the Unreserved Wine Talk Podcast.

Natalie and I talk about her knack for self-promotion and the team that helps keep her many, many projects going, about her fundamental shyness, and how that contrasts with the fact that she is hardly ever not speaking publicly about wine in one format or another, and about how, despite being very proud of Wine Witch on Fire and all its success, she has no interest in writing something so raw and personal again.

Natalie MacLean: nataliemaclean.com

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this episode us Meg Remy. Meg is a multi-disciplinary artist and performer, primarily known as the creative force behind U.S. Girls. Her most recent album as U.S. Girls was Lives, a live record released in November 2023. Her first book, Begin By Telling, a kind of fragmentary and poetic memoir about abuse and trauma and sexual politics, was published by Book*Hug Press in 2021. In its review of Begin By Telling, Quill & Quire said the book “reminds us that the very act of telling one’s story can change one’s life.”

Meg and I talk about her love of collaboration, even in writing, about how, unlike with her albums as U.S. Girls, she wanted her book to go into the world on its own, and how the best reader response she got to the book was, by far, from her own mother.

Begin by Telling by Meg Remy (Book*Hug Press)

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this episode is Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer. Kathryn is the author of the novels All the Broken Things, Perfecting, and The Nettle Spinner, as well as the story collection, Way Up, which won the Danuta Gleed Award. Her work has been published in Granta Magazine, Maclean’s Magazine, The Walrus, Joyland, This Magazine, and elsewhere. Her fiction has won a Danuta Gleed Award and been nominated for The Amazon First Novel Award, the Toronto Book Award, CBC Canada Reads, and the Relit Award. 

Kathryn’s most recent book is Wait Softly Brother, which was published by Wolsak & Wynn in 2023 and was longlisted for the Giller Prize. The Toronto Star said that Wait Softly Brother is “rich with the true stuff of imagined lives, and the imagined stuff of true lives,” and “is a glorious enchantment indeed.”

Kathryn and I talk about how the enormous emotional, existential, and even geographic changes she has gone through in past decade have impacted her writing—for the better—about how Wait Softly Brother came out of a very public writing experiment after she started to think her career was over, and about her compulsive need to transform every experience into the seed for more writing.

This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

My guest on this episode Kamal Al-Solaylee. Kamal is the author of the bestselling memoir Intolerable: A Memoir of Extremes, published in 2012 by HarperCollins Canada, which has published all of his books to date. His second book, Brown: What Being Brown in the World Today Means (to Everyone) was published in 2016. His most recent book, Return: Why We Go Back to Where We Come From, was published in 2021, and was a Book of the year for the Globe and Mail, the Hill Times and the CBC.  Author Esi Edugyan called Return “an urgent, thought-provoking read with much to say about our future." Kamal is currently the Director of the School of Journalism, Writing, and Media at the University of British Columbia.

Kamal and I talk about how his career as a journalist and theatre critic informs his books, how he feels both privileged and compelled to write books that address difficult and serious topics, and how he owes much of his career success to a chance encounter with me about a decade and a half ago. (That’s a joke.)

Kamal Al-Solaylee's Return: Why We Go Back to Where We Come From (HarperCollins Canada).

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this episode is Anita Lahey. Anita is the author of six books, including The Mystery Shopping Cart: Essays on Poetry and Culture and two poetry collections: Spinning Side Kick and Out to Dry in Cape Breton and a the memoir The Last Goldfish, which was a finalist for the Ottawa Book Award. She is also an award-winning magazine journalist, and she serves as the series editor of the annual Best Canadian Poetry anthology. Anita’s most recent two books were both published in 2023: Fire Monster, a poetic graphic novel collaboration with artist Pauline Conley, was published by Palimpsest Press. And While Supplies Last, a poetry collection published by the Signal Editions imprint of Véhicule Press. Author Luke Hathaway called Fire Monster “a gift of storytelling” and a “work of grace,” while poet Molly Peacock called While Supplies Last "capacious, generous, and gently funny.”

Anita and I talk about why she maintains a very limited online presence these days, how her journalistic instincts intersect with her poetic impulses, and, on that topic, how she turned a series of COVID-era radio traffic reports into verse.

Anita Lahey: anitalahey.com

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this episode is Jen Sookfong Lee. Jen is the author of three acclaimed novels, four works for children, a collection of poetry, and two works of non-fiction, including Gentlemen Of The Shade, about the movie My Own Private Idaho, and her most recent book, Superfan: How Pop Culture Broke my Heart, which was published by McClelland and Stewart in 2023. Jen is also works as an acquiring editor for ECW Press, and is the co-editor, with Stacey May Fowles, of two essay anthologies, Whatever Gets You Through and Good Mom on Paper.

Superfan is finalist for the 2024 Forest of Reading Evergreen Book Award, was named a Best Book of 2023 by the Globe and Mail and Apple Books Canada, and was a TODAY Show Recommended Read. The Toronto Star called Superfan “heady, thought-provoking, and emotionally fraught stuff, and a singular reading experience.”

Jen and I talk about how she had never intended Superfan to be a personal memoir, how the relative failure of her second novel almost made her stop writing altogether, why you should never wear faux leather pants while appearing on TV, and why she is still just a little bit disappointed to have never been crowned Miss Chinese Vancouver.

Jen Sookfong Lee: sookfong.com

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this episode is Wayne Johnston. Wayne is the author of nearly a dozen celebrated novels, including The Colony of Unrequited Dreams and The Mystery of Right and Wrong. He has also published a pair of memoirs, including his most recent book, Jennie’s Boy: A Newfoundland Childhood, about his own childhood in the 1960s. It was published in 2022 in Canada by Knopf Canada, and won the Stephen Leacock memorial award for humour. The Toronto Star,  in its review of the book, said: “Never overblown or sentimental, Jennie’s Boy is as vivid as one’s own memories, a glimpse into a past of pain and wonder, of loss and joy.”

Wayne and I talk about his nocturnal writing and living habits, and how he is slowly shifting his schedule to become more of a day person, why he has never suffered from writer’s block, and how, as someone who has been nominated for many many writing prizes, as well as winning a few, he deals with the happiness and agony of waiting to hear them call the name of the winner.

Wayne Johnston: waynejohnston.ca

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

No new episode this week - regular Monday episodes begin again on January 8. In the meantime, here's a very short preview of that episode.

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this special holiday episode is Louis Strimas. Louis is currently in Grade 4. He loves reading, making crafts, eating Cheerios, and playing video games, even though he only really gets to do that when he’s at a friend’s house, because his parents are mean.  Louis’s most recent two books are The Demon: A Horrer Story and its sequel, The Demon 2: Kingshard: A Horrer. Both books were self-published in the fall of 2023.

Lou and I talk about the books that have inspired him and why he enjoys reading so much. He also offers some advice for other people who might want to write their own books.

Happy holidays.

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this episode is Ron Sexsmith. Ron is an award-winning singer songwriter who has earned praised from people like Elvis Costello, Elton John, Ray Davies of the Kinks, John Prine, Gordon Lightfoot, Leonard Cohen, and Paul McCartney. His songs have been covered by Rod Stewart, Nick Lowe, Emmy Lou Harris, Feist, and Michael Bublé, among many others. His most recent album is The Vivian Line.

Ron’s first book, Deer Life: A Fairy Tale, was published in 2017 by Dundurn Press. In its review of the book, Publishers Weekly said that “Sexsmith’s novel has much the same effect as his music, conveying uncertainty with fearlessness and heart.”

Ron and I talk about the odd start of his artistic career, about the intense feeling of imposter syndrome he had when Deer Life first came out, his aborted attempt to write a prequel to the book, and about his plans to write and record songs to accompany the book, which he hopes will one day form the basis of a musical or even a film.

Ron Sexsmith: ronsexsmith.com

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this episode is Randy Boyagoda. Randy is the author of six books, including the novels Governor of the Northern Province, Beggar’s Feast, and Original Prin, and a scholarly biography of Richard John Neuhaus. His work has been nominated for the Giller Prize and for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize. He frequently writes for the New York Times, the Atlantic, the Walrus, Financial Times and Guardian, as well as many other places. He is former President of PEN Canada and is currently a member of The Walrus Educational Review Committee and a professor at the University of Toronto, where he is also a Vice-Dean in the Faculty of Arts and Science

Randy’s most recent novel, Dante’s Indiana, was published by Biblioasis in 2021. The Wall Street Journal said that the novel “juxtaposes the ridiculous and the sublime—fitting as both an homage to Dante and a portrayal of America.”

Randy and I talk about why he consciously shifted his fiction away from sprawling, multi-generational novels of immigration toward more pointed social satire, why he had to take time off from his day job, during a critical time at work, in order to complete the edits on Dante’s Indiana, even though he knew that meant it would be published in the middle of a pandemic, and why he has no real plans – yet - to complete the trilogy that began with Original Prin and Dante’s Indiana. We also talk about the cultural and social significance of... pickleball.

Dante's Indiana at Biblioasis.com

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this episode is Hiromi Goto. Hiromi’s first novel, Chorus of Mushrooms, won the 1995 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book, was the co-winner of the Canada-Japan Book Award. Her second adult novel, The Kappa Child, won the 2001 James Tiptree Jr. Memorial Award. She has published multiple novels for adults and children, as well as a book of poetry, and a collection of short stories. She has also won The Sunburst Award and the Carl Brandon Parallax Award.

Hiromi's most recent book, Shadow Life—her first graphic novel, created with artist Ann Xu—was published by First Second Books in 2021. Shadow Life won the 2022 Asian/Pacific American Literature Award for Adult Fiction and was nominated for a 2022 GLAAD Media Award and an LA Times Book Prize. The New York Public Library also declared it one of the best books of 2021. Publishers Weekly, in its review of Shadow Life, said: “this wry genre-bending graphic novel …delves into aging, independence, lost love, and mortality with a whimsy that doesn’t undercut its literary heft.”

Hiromi and I talk about her current situation in which she finds herself unable to read and write barely at all, and about the work she is doing as a part-time farmhand that, even if it doesn’t help her get writing again, is doing some good and necessary things for her soul.

Hiromi Goto: hiromigoto.com

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this episode is Dimitri Nasrallah. Dimitri is the author of four novels, which have received nominations for multiple awards and have won the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction and the McAuslan First Book Prize. His most recent book is the novel Hotline, published in 2022 by Véhicule Press, where Dimitri also serves as the fiction editor. Hotline was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and was a Canada Reads selection in 2023. In its review of Hotline, Quill & Quire said the the novel “intertwines hope and sorrow to create a moving story that sears the heart.”

Dimitri and I talk about how working as an editor changed the way he writes novels, and how his plan to keep Hotline alive in readers’ minds beyond the usual 5 or 6 weeks after publication got blown up, in a good way, by Canada Reads. We also talk about some of the frustrations he felt about how Hotline was discussed on Canada Reads, and how he is in no rush to complete the follow up to that novel.

Dimitri Nasrallah: vehiculepress.com

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this episode is Kelly S. Thompson. Kelly is a former Logistics Officer in the Canadian Armed Forces who began writing about her military experiences in a blog for Chatelaine magazine. She wrote about those experiences again in her debut book, Girls Need Not Apply, which was published in 2019 by McClelland & Stewart, named a Globe and Mail Top 100 Book, and became an instant bestseller. Kelly teaches Creative Nonfiction at the University of King’s College. Her most recent book, the memoir Still, I Cannot Save You, was published by McClelland & Stewart in 2023, and was also an instant bestseller. It was shortlisted for the 2024 Evelyn Richardson Non-Fiction Award. Rachel Matlow, author of Dead Mom Walking, wrote that “with this heartwrenching yet hopeful book, Kelly has turned her loss and grief into something beautiful.”

Kelly and I talk about how her current writing practice is informed by her years in the military and by her experiences with chronic illness, about the worst response to her writing she has ever received, and about how publishing Still, I Cannot Save You has led to some expected, but no less agonizing difficulties with her extended family.

A quick warning: this conversation covers some very difficult and traumatic territory, such as addiction and domestic abuse.

This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

My guest on this episode is Harley Rustad. Harley is an award-winning and bestselling author, journalist, and a senior editor at The Walrus magazine. Harley’s first book was Big Lonely Doug: The Story of One of Canada’s Last Great Trees, published by House of Anansi in 2018. His most recent book is Lost in the Valley of Death: A Story of Obsession and Danger in the Himalayas, published in 2022 by Knopf Canada and by Harper US. Lost in the Valley of Death won the 2023 Poland Mountain Literature Festival Award for Best Non-Fiction Book and the 2023 Religion News Association Award for Nonfiction Books. The CBC named it one of the best Canadian nonfiction books of 2022. In its feature review of the book, the New York Times said that “In prose that moves like a clear river... Rustad has done what the best storytellers do: tried to track the story to its last twig and then stepped aside.”

Harley and I talk about why he chose to narrate the audiobook for Lost in the Valley of Death himself, what it was like to find himself on the cover over the New York Times Book Review, and why he has had such a hard time letting go of this story and starting a new book.

Harley Rustad: harleyrustad.com

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guests on this episode are Moe and Laura Berg. Moe Berg is a musician, songwriter, and producer best known as the frontman for the band The Pursuit of Happiness. Moe’s first book, a short story collection called The Green Room, was published by Gutter Press in 2000. Laura Berg is a college professor, professional speaker, trained therapist. She has been named one of the Top 10 Mom Entrepreneurs, Savvy Mom of the Year, and was awarded YouTube’s Silver Play Button. Laura’s first book, The Baby Signing Bible, was published by Avery in 2012. Her most recent book, Thriving Life: How to Live Your Best Life No Matter the Cards You're Dealt was published by Health Communications Inc in 2021.

In its review of The Green Room, the Globe and Mail said “the stories… take the edgy, easy cynicism of Berg's songs and build from it some fascinating glimpses into young urban lives grappling with love and lust, flirting with fame and confronting the prospect of abject failure.”

In its review of Thriving Life, the Wisconsin Bookwatch said that “Laura Berg deftly draws upon her years of experience and expertise to create an ideal DIY instructional guide that is as practical and effective as it is inspired and inspiring.”

Moe and Laura and I talk about how moving into the publishing world after achieving success in another creative field can open doors, but can also create unrealistic expectations, how unforeseen problems—like, say, a breakdown in the distribution chain or a global pandemic—can mess up book release plans, and how an unexpected collaboration with their daughter has brought new life to an in-progress book project.

Moe Berg: moeberg.ca

Laura Berg: lauraberginc.com

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this episode is Gil Adamson. Gil is a Toronto author whose first novel, The Outlander, won the Dashiell Hammett Prize for Literary Excellence in Crime Writing, the Amazon.ca First Novel Award, the ReLit Award, and the Drummer General’s Award. She is also the author of a collection of linked stories, Help Me, Jacques Cousteau, and two poetry collections, Primitive and Ashland. (She is also the co-author of one celebrity biography, which we discuss in the episode.)

Gil and I talk about nearly passing out the first time she ever read from one of her books in public, about her ongoing discomfort with discussing her work in the abstract, and about her occasional urges to abandon historical fiction altogether.

Ridgerunner by Gil Adamson: houseofanansi.com/products/ridgerunner

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this episode is Evan Munday. Evan is the author and illustrator of the Silver Birch-shortlisted Dead Kid Detective Agency series, the fourth and most recent volume of which, Connect the Scotts, was published by ECW Press in 2018. Munday works as publicity manager for children’s books at Penguin Random House Canada. In its review of Connect the Scotts, the School Library Journal wrote that “fans of the series will be thrilled with another spectral mystery glinting with subtle mirth.”

Evan and I talk about the days when he was very frequently spotted at Toronto book events, and why those days are mostly over. (Spoiler: it’s age and kids; it’s almost always age and kids.) We talk about the as-yet unpublished fifth instalment of the Dead Kid Detective Agency Series, and why it is as yet unpublished, and why being a full-time writer simply does not fit Evan’s guilt-ridden  personality.

Evan Munday's Dead Kid Detective Agency series: ecwpress.com

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this episode is Joe Ollmann. Joe is an artist and writer from Hamilton, Ontario, and the author of more than a half-dozen acclaimed graphic novels and collections of graphic stories. His book This Will All End in Tears, published by Insomniac Press, won the 2007 Doug Wright Award for best book.

Joe’s most recent graphic novel is Fictional Father, published in 2022 by Drawn & Quarterly. In a starred review of Fiction Father, Publishers Weekly wrote that "Ollmann’s funny, faux-meta memoir… is a complex look at an artist’s evolving relationship to the past." 

The book won the 2022 Hamilton Literary Award for fiction, and was nominated for a Governor General’s Literary Award.

Joe and I talk about his creative process—specifically how that process becomes less creative and more mechanical the closer a book gets to being finished—about how he is much more mellow and zen than he was when he wrote his visceral and emotionally raw early books, and about the time he successfully argued with a former Ontario premier over the work of fellow graphic novelist Kate Beaton.

Joe Ollman: wagpress.net

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this episode is Victoria Hetherington. Victoria is an author and professional ghostwriter whose first book was the novel Mooncalves, published by Now or Never in 2019. Victoria’s most recent books are Into the Mist: Finding CF-JDO, a non-fiction book published by Kestrel Publication, and Autonomy, published by the Rare Machines imprint of Dundurn Press. Both books were published in 2022.

Author Liz Harmer said about Autonomy that "Hetherington's vision is bleak, but their glittering prose gives even the most monstrous realities of late-capitalism an unsettling glimmer."

Victoria and I talk about her ghostwriting career (and why the professional pitch for her services sounds a little Philip K Dick-esque), about the difficulty that some sci-fi fans have had with Autonomy, and about the complicated reality of literary books being treats as aesthetic class signifiers online.

NB: Victoria and I will be appearing alongside three other great Rare Machines authors—and our editor, Russell Smith—at the Book Drunkard Festival hosted by Blue Heron books in Uxbridge, Ontario, on Thursday, October 19. Find info at bookdrunkard.com.

Victoria Hetherington: vhetherington.com

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this episode is Anna Fitzpatrick. Anna has written for The New York Times Magazine, Rookie, Vice, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, The Hairpin, Hazlitt, The Believer, The Village Voice, Refinery29, the National Post, the Globe and Mail and many more. She is the author of the children’s picture book Margot and the Moon Landing, illustrated by Erika Medina, which was published by Annick Press in 2020. Her most recent book is the novel Good Girl, published by Flying Books in 2022. Writing about Good Girl, Buzzfeed said that “Fitzpatrick takes romance tropes and flips them on their head — then slaps them.”

Anna and I talk about the mix of luck, hard work, and privilege that defines her writing career, and about how her next book began life as a sequel to Good Girl, before her agent advised her to scrap the idea, and about how strange and often unhelpful it is that certain kinds of writers get lumped together as part of a literary trends.

Anna Fitzpatrick: bananafitz.ca

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this episode is Sheila Murray. Sheila’s short fiction has been published in many literary journals including Descant, The Dalhousie Review, and The New Quarterly. Murray is an advocate for social justice and currently leads a grassroots, volunteer-driven initiative that engages urban residents in adapting to local climate change impacts.

Sheila’s first novel, Finding Edward,  was published in 2022 by Cormorant Books. Finding Edward has been shortlisted for a Governor General’s Literary Award, longlisted for Canada Reads, and selected as the One Book One Aurora book for 2023. The novel is also finalist for the 2023 Toronto Book Award, the winner of which will be announced at a ceremony on October 10th.

Sheila and I talk about her extensive advocacy and community work, about how she says yes to every invitation to read or speak as a writer, and about how, despite the ongoing success of her first novel, she’s not getting approached by big-time agents and editors at multinational publishers—and why she’s kinda okay with that.

Sheila Murray: sheilamurray.ca

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this episode is Claire Cameron. Claire is the kind of person who has led canoe trips in Algonquin Park and worked as an instructor for Outward Bound. She has taught mountaineering, climbing, and whitewater rafting in Oregon and beyond. But also the kind of person whose writing has appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Globe and Mail, the Guardian, Lenny Letter, and Salon. Claire is the author of three novels, the most recent of which is The Last Neanderthal, which was published in 2017 by Doubleday Canada, and went on to be published in a dozen other countries. It was a bestseller in Canada, and was a finalist for the 2017 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize.

The Los Angeles Review of Books said about The Last Neanderthal that "Cameron pulls out all the literary stops in giving Neanderthals as much free rein, agency and authenticity as possible. . . . This could easily be the best book that shakes up the classic Neanderthal tropes in science fiction and fantasy."

Claire and I talk about how she does her best writing when is able to write from inside out, rather than the outside in, how being diagnosed with a form of skin cancer after the publication of The Last Neanderthal changed not only what she wrote about next but how she engages with the outside world, and about how the idea of taking a dump in the woods is kind of central to the way her imagination works.

Claire Cameron: claire-cameron.com

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this episode is Emily Austin. Emily is the author of Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead, which was published in 2022 by Simon & Schuster Canada, and has been published in multiple other countries and in many other languages. Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead was long listed for The Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour, shortlisted for the Amazon First Novel Award, and a finalist for the Ottawa Book Awards.

Buzzfeed called the book “the perfect blend of macabre and funny.”

Emily and I talk about how studying library science helped her avoid some of the cliches of LGBTQ+ fiction, the disassociation she feels about her book’s success, and how having a readership has makes her feel some responsibility when it comes to writing narratives about queerness and mental health issues. I also take a moment to scare Emily a little about coming out as a poet.

Emily Austin: emilyaustinauthor.com

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this episode is Rollie Pemberton. Rollie is a writer, rapper, producer, poet and activist who performs under the name Cadence Weapon. His album Parallel World won the 2021 Polaris Music Prize and his writing has been published in Pitchfork, The Guardian, Wired, Toronto Life, and Hazlitt. Rollie has also acted as Poet Laureate for his hometown of Edmonton, Alberta. He also recently released a song and a video celebrating that city’s hockey team and its run for the Stanley Cup. Rollie’s debut book is the memoir Bedroom Rapper: Cadence Weapon on Hip-Hop, Resistance and Surviving the Music Industry, which was published by McClelland & Stewart in 2022.

The Toronto Star called Bedroom Rapper “an intriguing window into a creative mind that takes creativity and the constant betterment of that creativity very seriously.”

Rollie and I talk about his relentlessly curatorial approach to art and the world, about the need for more and better artistic criticism, and about why he thinks books and writing will soon eclipse music as his central creative pursuit.

This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

My guest on this episode is Stuart Ross. Stuart is a writer, editor, teacher, and self-described "small press guerrilla." Stuart is the author of over twenty books of poetry, fiction, and essays. He is the recipient of the 2019 Harbourfront Festival Prize and the 2010 Relit Prize for Short Fiction. His most recent works are The Book of Grief and Hamburgers, published by ECW Press in Spring 2022, and I Am Claude François and You Are a Bathtub, published by Anvil Press in the fall of 2022.

The Book of Grief and Hamburgers recently won the Trillium Book Award, and Ross himself was the subject of a special tribute night put on by his adopted town of Cobourg, Ontario.

Stuart and I talk about that tribute night, and the mix of delight and embarrassment he felt around the whole event, about what he calls his "neurotic" drive to keep starting new writing projects, and about how he identifies with the students he teaches in his poetry workshops.

Stuart Ross's author page at Anvil Press: anvilpress.com/authors/stuart-ross

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this episode is Jamie Tennant. Jamie’s debut novel The Captain of Kinnoull Hill was published by Palimpsest Press in 2016. His second novel, River Diverted, also published by Palimpsest Press, was published in the fall of 2022. Jamie also hosts the weekly books and literature program/podcast Get Lit on CFMU, where he is also the Program Director.

Author Emily Saso said about River Diverted: “Nobody writes a charming monster quite like Jamie does.   Highly recommend if you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to chuck your North American life and move to Japan.”

Jamie and I talk about his early days as a theatre kid and as the singer in a band, about his relatively late start as a novelist, and about the kinds of lessons he has learned from interviewing authors every week on his show — which is something I can very much relate to.

Jamie Tennant: jamietennant.ca

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this episode is Naseem Hrab. Naseem is the author of many stories for children, which have been translated into several languages. Her book The Sour Cherry Tree, published by OwlKids Books, won a Governor General’s Literary Award in 2022. Naseem’s most recent book, Otis & Peanut, illustrated by Kelly Collier, was also published by OwlKids Books earlier this year.

 Kirkus Reviews called Otis and Peanut “a tender friendship story for the ages.” The New York Times said that its main characters “bravely follow in the footsteps of Frog and Toad and George and Martha."

(Also relevant to this conversation: Naseem’s day job is as an Associate Publisher at Kids Can Press.)

Naseem and I talk about her seeming inability to take any time off from writing stories, about why she tries very hard to ignore prize culture, and about her plans to do something she has never done before: write a book for grown ups.

Naseem Hrab: naseemhrab.com

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this episode is Carleigh Baker. Carleigh’s debut story collection, Bad Endings, published by Anvil Press in 2017, won the City of Vancouver Book Award, and was also a finalist for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the Emerging Indigenous Voices Award for fiction. Foreword magazine said, about Bad Endings, “Baker is a skillful, sensitive writer with an uncanny gift for subtle, dark humor and the ability to assume the viewpoint of her characters […] There is no judgment or condemnation in these stories, but a tender, deep savoring of the quirks that make us human.”

Carleigh and I talk about how winning a major award was both a shock and the occasion for some private head-swelling, about the experience (so far) of moving from a small independent press to McClelland & Stewart, and about how she keeps forgetting the very lessons she emphasizes when she is teaching creative writing.

Carleigh Baker: carleighbaker.com

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact