Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:

– Shashi Bhat’s new novel The Most Precious Substance on Earth

– Shashi’s first novel The Family Took Shape

– Getting accused of plagiarism as a kid

– Pen15

– Writing an accidentally successful blog

– Naben Ruthnum’s book Curry: Eating, Reading, and Race

– That place where Shashi and I both went to grad school

– Melissa Bank’s book The Girl’s Guide to Hunting and Fishing

– #OwnVoices

– The Love, Simon controversy

– Kaitlyn Greenidge’s article “Who Gets to Write What?”

– The greatness of Amy Hempel

– Writing believable dialogue

– Casting the audiobook of your own novel

– The Americans

– Toastmasters

– Novels-in-stories vs. novels-in-chapters

– Emily St. John Mandel’s book The Glass Hotel

– Revising your Canadian novel for an American editor

– Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage

– Columbine

– Capturing the Friedmans

– Salman Rushdie’s books Midnight’s Children and Imaginary Homelands

– Hannah Waters’ article “Inaccuracies in fiction: when is reshaping fact appropriate?”

– Margaret Atwood’s book Cat’s Eye

– Shashi’s forthcoming (?) speculative fiction novel Vancouver

– Italo Calvino’s book Invisible Cities

– Thank You for Smoking

– Elizabeth Bishop’s poem “In the Waiting Room”

– Lee Edelman’s abbreviated essay “On ‘In the Waiting Room’”

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Music by ETRNL

Art by Daniel Alexander Smith