Milena Jesenská was a courageous journalist, translator and resister of the Nazi regime. So why do most people only know her as Franz Kafka’s lover? Milena was one of the great loves of Kafka’s life, and his letters to her are immortalized in the book Letters to Milena. But that story remains unfinished … because Milena’s responses have never been found. That’s where writer Christine Estima steps in. In her debut novel, Letters to Kafka, Christine tells Milena’s story and gives voice to a woman often overshadowed in history. 

Liked this conversation? Keep listening:

• Leslie Jamison: Capturing Peggy Guggenheim in fiction and honouring a friend's dream
• Emma Donoghue boards a train destined for disaster  

Check out Mattea’s interview on Gays Reading:

• gaysreading.com 

Feeling nostalgic for the music of the aughts? You’re not the only one. Holly Brickley’s debut novel, Deep Cuts, follows a music-obsessed writer named Percy coming of age in the early 2000s. When Percy befriends a young musician in college, they start to collaborate and their connection deepens. Holly and Mattea talk about their shared love of music, the magic of the pre-smartphone era and why music and human connection often go hand-in-hand. 

Liked this conversation? Keep listening:

• Music, sex and finding the soundtrack to queer joy
• Emma Knight: 'Bad' mothers make good stories — and are more true-to-life

Tessa Hulls won a Pulitzer Prize for her first book. So why is it also her last? Tessa’s graphic memoir, Feeding Ghosts, unravels the stories of three women in her family: her Chinese grandmother, her mother and herself. It’s an emotional, complex and beautifully illustrated book that took Tessa almost a decade to produce. This week on Bookends, Tessa tells Mattea about following her family ghosts across the world … and why her next step will look a little different. 

Liked this conversation? Keep listening:

• Teresa Wong: Illustrating her family's past — in all its ordinary and epic moments
• Sarah Leavitt: Illustrating grief too wide for words

Listen to Mattea's interview on Gays Reading here: https://www.gaysreading.com/

Here at Bookends, we never shy away from difficult conversations … and neither does Anna Sale, the host of the popular Slate podcast Death, Sex and Money. The show is all about diving into topics that get deep fast, and Anna expands on that promise in her book, Let’s Talk About Hard Things. In this special summer edition of Bookends, Anna joins Mattea to chat all about the book, podcasting and how her own outlook on tough topics has changed over the years. 

The CBC Literary Prizes are where Canadian writing stars are made… and this week, we’ll prove it to you. In the first season of Bookends, Mattea Roach spoke with some of the winners, finalists and jurors of the prizes. This week, we’re revisiting Mattea's conversations with Zilla Jones, Dorian McNamara, David Huebert, Zoe Whittall, and Rachel Robb. You can learn more about the prizes at cbcbooks.ca.

Hear the full conversations here:

• An opera singer gives voice to the Grenadian revolution
• Meet the winner of the 2025 CBC Short Story Prize
• David Huebert: Exploring the complexity of our relationship with oil through fiction
• Zoe Whittall: Why heartbreak is a valid form of grief
• Rachel Robb: Exploring reconciliation and the natural world

This week, Bookends is revisiting the Mirrors series. It’s a CBC Books special featuring winners of the 2024 Governor General’s Literary Awards.

The English-language books that won last year’s awards demonstrate how stories help us reflect on our lives and see the world in new ways. In this special series, CBC Books asked the winners to further explore the power of reflection in original works. The new works are centred around the theme of mirrors and challenge how we see ourselves, explore alternative identities and blur the lines between reality and fantasy. 

This episode is hosted by Talia Schlanger. It features Canadian authors Li Charmaine Anne, Caleigh Crow, Katia Grubisic, Niigaanwewidam Sinclair, Todd Stewart and Chimwemwe Undi. You can learn more about the winners at cbcbooks.ca.

Commotion is where you go for thoughtful and vibrant conversations about all things pop culture. Host Elamin Abdelmahmoud calls on journalists, critics, creators and friends to talk through the biggest arts & entertainment stories of the day, in 30 minutes or less.

In this episode, Elamin is joined by authors Jael Richardson and David A. Robertson, and bookseller and publisher Martha Sharpe to chat about updating the Can Lit canon. What is considered to be a Canadian literary classic? Has that changed? Has it remained the same? More episodes of Commotion are available here: https://link.mgln.ai/cwea-bookends

This week on Bookends, we revisit Eleanor Wachtel’s conversation with Bernardine Evaristo. 

Bernardine is the recipient of the Outstanding Contribution award by the Women’s Prize for Fiction. It’s a special, one-time award to celebrate achievement over the course of a career. “Outstanding” is the perfect word to describe Bernardine’s accomplishments — in addition to several acclaimed books, Bernardine has dedicated the past 40 years to uplifting underrepresented writers and promoting inclusivity in literature. Eleanor and Bernardine spoke on Writers & Company in 2020 about Bernardine’s Booker award-winning novel, Girl, Woman, Other, and how her family background shaped her journey as a writer. 

• Hear the full interview here: https://digital.lib.sfu.ca/writers-company/bernardine-evaristo-black-british-identity-and-her-booker-winning-novel-girl-woman 
• Check out the rest of the Writers & Company archive: https://digital.lib.sfu.ca/writers-company 

Whether it’s battling your girlfriend’s “seven evil exes," reinterpreting childhood memories or celebrating the beauty of becoming a parent, comics and graphic novels transport readers to different worlds … and help us better understand the one we live in. In the first season of Bookends, Mattea Roach spoke with some of today’s leading cartoonists about their work and the inspiration they draw from life. In this special summer edition of the show, we’re revisiting Mattea's conversations with Adrian Tomine, Alison Bechdel, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Sarah Leavitt and Chris Ware.

Hear the full conversations here:

• Adrian Tomine: Answering his readers' burning questions
• Alison Bechdel on making money and seeing Fun Home in a new light
• Bryan Lee O’Malley: 20 years of Scott Pilgrim
• Sarah Leavitt: Illustrating grief too wide for words
• Chris Ware: Inside the sketchbooks of a comics master

Five days a week acclaimed interviewer Tom Power sits down with the artists, writers, actors and musicians who define pop culture. 

In this episode, Tom chats with the cartoonist and writer Gabrielle Drolet. A few years ago, Gabrielle developed a condition that made her unable to use her hands. It kept getting worse over time, and as Gabrielle searched for a diagnosis, she also had to find new ways to make art. Her new memoir “Look Ma, No Hands” is the story of an artist coming to terms with disability, adapting to the unexpected, and ultimately learning to express herself again. Gabrielle joins Tom to talk about those experiences that informed her memoir. 

More episodes of Q with Tom Power are available here: https://link.mgln.ai/qwtp