Celebrating the 100th birthday of the masterful Canadian short story writer, Mavis Gallant. Born in Montreal, Gallant lived and worked in Paris for most of her life. She sold her first short story to The New Yorker magazine, where her fiction, reportage and political commentary appeared over the next 50 years. In the late 1970s she published her acclaimed story collection, From the Fifteenth District, set in the aftermath of the Second World War. This interview originally aired on January 13, 2008.

Mavis Gallant: celebrating the centenary of the masterful Canadian short story writer

CBC Radio's Writers and Company offers an opportunity to explore in depth the lives, thoughts and works of remarkable writers from around the world. Hosted by Eleanor Wachtel.

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In 2004, just before she won the Scotiabank Giller Prize (for the second time) for her story collection, Runaway, Alice Munro met Eleanor Wachtel at a restaurant near the author's home to discuss her new book, her interest in writing about infidelity and sex and her life growing up in Wingham, Ontario. The acclaimed Canadian short story writer, and Canada's first winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, died on May 13, 2024.

Alice Munro on writing about life, love, sex and secrets

Paul Auster spoke with Eleanor Wachtel about his novel Oracle Night, the ways in which reality and fiction blend and how coincidences shape our lives at the Blue Metropolis Literary Festival in Montreal in 2004. The writer of The New York Trilogy, Leviathan and 4 3 2 1, among many other books, was best known for his postmodernist fiction and meta-narratives. He died on April 30, 2024. He was 77. 

Chance, fate and fiction: looking back at American novelist and filmmaker Paul Auster

From his childhood in San Francisco's sand dunes to sitting in French cafes with Philip Glass and Samuel Beckett, Richard Serra reflects on his life and work during a 2011 conversation with Eleanor Wachtel. Best known for his evocative and monumental steel structures, you can find Serra's sculptural works all over the world, including his piece Titled Spheres in Toronto Pearson Airport. Serra died in March. He was 85.

Mavis Gallant: celebrating the centenary of the masterful Canadian short story writer

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