On today’s show, we speak to Annick MacAskill.

Annick MacAskill is the author of four full-length poetry collections, including Murmurations (Gaspereau Press, 2020) and No Meeting Without Body (Gaspereau Press, 2018), which was nominated for the League of Canadian Poets’ Gerald Lampert Memorial Award and shortlisted for the J.M. Abraham Poetry Award (Atlantic Book Awards). Her third collection Shadow Blight (Gaspereau Press, 2022), a book that explores miscarriage, disenfranchised grief, and Ovid’s Metamorphoses, won the Governor General’s Literary Award for English-Language Poetry, and was also shortlisted for the League of Canadian Poets’ Pat Lowther Memorial Award and the J.M. Abraham Award (Atlantic Book Awards). MacAskill’s fourth book of poetry, Votive, was published in the fall of 2024 by Gaspereau Press.

MacAskill recently served as Poet-in-Residence with Arc Poetry Magazine and has taught creative writing through the League of Canadian Poets’ P.K. Page Mentorship Programme, the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia’s Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Programme, and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, among others.

MacAskill holds a PhD in French literature from Western University and has published articles in journals such as the International Journal of the Classical Tradition, L’Année ronsardienne, Le Verger, and Renaissance et Réforme / Renaissance and Reformation. She currently teaches French language, literature, and translation as a contract faculty member in the Department of Languages and Cultures at Saint Mary’s University.

A settler of French and Scottish ancestry, she lives and writes in Kjipuktuk (Halifax, Nova Scotia), on the traditional and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq.

Find Annick at the links below.

Website: https://annickmacaskill.com/

Instagram: @annickmaca

You can find Annick’s book Votive, here: http://www.gaspereau.com/

If you're interested in creative writing, the University of King's College MFA in Creative Writing might be for you. Find out more at: ukings.ca/area-of-study/writing-and-publishing/

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Thanks as always to our friends at the King’s Co-op Bookstore. kingsbookstore.ca/

On today’s show, we talk to Donna Kane.

Donna Kane is a writer who divides her time between Rolla, BC on Treaty 8 Territory and Halifax, NS in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and traditional lands of the Mi’kmaq people. Her poems, short fiction, reviews, and essays have been published widely in journals such as Science Today, Scientific American, The Walrus, The Fiddlehead, and The Malahat Review, as well as in several anthologies including Best Canadian Poetry 2013 (Tightrope Books, 2013), I Found it at the Movies: An Anthology of Film Poems (Guernica Press 2014), In This Together: Fifteen True Stories of Real Reconciliation (Brindle and Glass, 2016), Beyond Earth’s Edge: The Poetry of Spaceflight (University of Arizona Press, 2020) and, most recently, Outer Space: 100 Poems (Cambridge University Press, 2022).

She has published four books of poetry, Somewhere, a Fire, (Hagios Press, 2004), and Erratic (Hagios Press, 2007), both finalists for the ReLit Award, Orrery (Harbour, 2020), a finalist for the Governor General’s Award, and Asterisms (Harbour, 2024). She is also the recipient of the Lina Chartrand Poetry Award (2000) and in 2010 she was a winner in Geist’s Annual Literal Literary Postcard Story Contest. Her poetry has been featured on CBC’s Daybreak North and North by Northwest, and in 2011, her poem, Summer Solstice, was featured on Garrison Keillor’s The Writer’s Almanac. “The Gaze,” one of the chapters from Summer of the Horse (Harbour Publishing, 2018) was shortlisted for the Edna Staebler Personal Essay Contest and published in the 2016 summer issue of The New Quarterly. An excerpt from Orrery, was published as a chapbook titled Pioneer 10, I Hear You by JackPine Press in October, 2016.

Find Donna at the links below.

Website: https://www.donnakane.com/

Instagram: @ donnakaneishere

You can find Donna’s book Asterisms, here: https://harbourpublishing.com/products/9781990776717?srsltid=AfmBOopdldaLTIrAVTvho51fJXuCh5KMVJHYfdUhNKkORjvW14-_fxDT

If you're interested in creative writing, the University of King's College MFA in Creative Writing might be for you. Find out more at: https://ukings.ca/area-of-study/writing-and-publishing/

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Thanks as always to our friends at the King’s Co-op Bookstore. https://kingsbookstore.ca/

On today’s show, we talk to Martin Bauman.

Martin Bauman is a writer, podcaster, and the award-winning author of Hell of a Ride (Pottersfield Press). As a broadcast journalist, his work has been featured on-air in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa, Halifax, London, Waterloo Region, and overseas in Cardiff, Wales. His writing has also appeared in the Globe and Mail, Calgary Herald, Waterloo Region Record, The Coast, Capital Daily, DARBY, and Canadian Mennonite, among other places.

In addition to his writing, he’s also passionate about mental health. In the summer of 2016, he cycled across Canada to raise funds for mental health initiatives across the country and in his home of Waterloo Region, and he continues to speak publicly about the importance of community mental health resources.

Find Martin at the links below.

Website: https://martinbauman.com/

Instagram: @shotbymartin

You can find Martin’s book Hell of a Ride: Chasing Home and Survival on a Bicycle Voyage Across Canada at: https://www.indiebookstores.ca/book/9781990770470/

If you're interested in creative writing, the University of King's College MFA in Creative Writing might be for you. Find out more at: ukings.ca/area-of-study/writing-and-publishing/

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Thanks as always to our friends at the King’s Co-op Bookstore. https://kingsbookstore.ca/

On today’s show, we talk to Elliott Gish.

Elliott Gish wants to creep you out. A writer and librarian from Halifax, Nova Scotia, she grew up on a steady diet of Tamora Pierce books, trashy teen romcoms, and bad pop punk. She loves all of those things to this day. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from Memorial University of Newfoundland and a Master of Library and Information Studies from Dalhousie University. Elliott is a 2020 graduate of the Simon Fraser University Writer’s Studio program, where she was mentored by Jen Sookfong Lee and Paul Headrick. Her stories have been published in several journals, including Vastarien, the Baltimore Review, Wigleaf, Psychopomp Magazine, and the New Quarterly. Her debut novel, Grey Dog, was published by ECW Press in 2024. She lives in Halifax’s North End with her partner and, when not writing, spends her time watching too many sitcoms and reading too many listicles.

Find Elliott at the links below.

Website: https://www.elliottgishwrites.com/

Instagram: @elliottgish

You can find Elliott’s book Grey Dog at https://ecwpress.com/products/grey-dog

If you're interested in creative writing, the University of King's College MFA in Creative Writing might be for you. Find out more at: ukings.ca/area-of-study/writing-and-publishing/

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Thanks as always to our friends at the King’s Co-op Bookstore. https://kingsbookstore.ca/

On today’s show, we talk to Richard Van Camp. Richard is the author of a stunning 26 books, which cross genre, format, and age categories, appealing to a broad readership. Anchoring Richard’s work is his childhood in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, where his connection to his community continues to provide inspiration. While Richard now lives in Edmonton, he has drawn for us a vibrant cast of characters who cross between his short stories and graphic novels, and along the way he’s brought fellow authors and visual artists to collaborate with him. Among his many accolades are The Blue Metropolis First Peoples Literary Prize and The CODE Burt Award for First Nations in Young Adult Literature. He has been the Storyteller in Residence for Calgary Public Library, and the Writer in Residence at the Metro Federation of Edmonton Libraries. In his most recent book, Gather: Richard Van Camp on the Joy of Storytelling, Richard compels us to think about how we connect with our communities, share story, memory, food, music, and culture, at a moment when we are all craving it. Today, Richard talks to us about writing in different formats, collaboration, and the joy of telling stories.

Transcript coming soon.

Find Richard at the links below.

Website: https://richardvancamp.com/

Twitter: @ richardvancamp

Instagram: richardvancamp

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/richard.v.camp

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/richardvancamp

You can find Richard’s latest book, Gather: Richard Van Camp on Storytelling, at https://uofrpress.ca/Books/G/Gather

If you're interested in writing nonfiction, the University of King's College MFA in Creative Nonfiction might be for you. Find out more at ukings.ca/area-of-study/master…creative-nonfiction/.

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If you'd like to hear more book-related conversations, check out Bookings, the podcast of our friends at the King's Coop Bookstore.

On today’s show, we talk to Eufemia Fantetti. Eufemia is a writer and professor whose work delves into often difficult emotional territory using forthright language, a recognizable and familiar voice, and humour. Her writing work has bridged fiction, nonfiction, and playwriting, and has appeared in multiple volumes, including Love Me True, Exploring Voice, and Body & Soul. Her first book, A Recipe for Disaster & Other Unlikely Tales of Love, was runner up for the 2013 Danuta Gleed Literary Award, and a winner of the 2014 F.G. Bressani Prize. Eufemia’s memoir, My Father, Fortune-tellers & Me was released in 2019 by Mother Tongue Publishing. Today Eufemia joins us to discuss the process of turning life into art via memoir, thinking like an editor, and bringing creative practice to the classroom.

Transcript coming soon.

Find Eufemia at the links below.

Website: https://www.eufemiafantetti.com/

Twitter: @ EufemiaFantetti

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eufemia.fantetti

Instagram: eufemia_fantetti

You can find Eufemia’s latest book, My Father, Fortune-Tellers, and Me: A Memoir, at https://www.mothertonguepublishing.com/

If you're interested in writing nonfiction, the University of King's College MFA in Creative Nonfiction might be for you. Find out more at ukings.ca/area-of-study/master…creative-nonfiction/.

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If you'd like to hear more book-related conversations, check out Bookings, the podcast of our friends at the King's Coop Bookstore.

On today’s show, we talk to Kirsteen MacLeod. Kirsteen is a long-time journalist and author whose work has spanned a wide variety of subjects. In early 2021, she turned her journalist’s lens on something she’d been thinking about for many years: the idea of retreat. Examining it from a spiritual, artistic, geographical, religious, practical, and social perspective, Kirsteen wrote a comprehensive take on the idea of solitude just when we were all experiencing it ourselves. In Praise of Retreat: Finding Sanctuary in the Modern World is a book for anyone thinking about their creative and spiritual practices, and is especially helpful for the writer often scrambling to find moments of solitude to engage in their craft. Kirsteen joins us today to talk about the creative process, the business of writing, and the sometimes fuzzy lines between fiction and nonfiction.

Transcript coming soon.

Find Kirsteen at the links below.

Website: https://www.kirsteenmacleod.ca/

You can find Kirsteen’s latest book, In Praise of Retreat: Finding Sanctuary in the Modern World, at https://ecwpress.com/products/in-praise-of-retreat

If you're interested in writing nonfiction, the University of King's College MFA in Creative Nonfiction might be for you. Find out more at ukings.ca/area-of-study/master…creative-nonfiction/.

Subscribe to Further Reading:

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If you'd like to hear more book-related conversations, check out Bookings, the podcast of our friends at the King's Coop Bookstore.

On today’s show, we talk to Jordan Abel. Jordan is the author of many award-winning books, most recently, Nishga, an experimental, multi-media exploration of urban Indigenous identity and the intergenerational trauma wrought by Canada’s residential schools. Jordan has been working in the poetry field for many years, winning the Griffin Prize with his work Injun. Now, with a PhD from Simon Fraser University, he teaches Indigenous Literatures and Creative Writing at the University of Alberta. His work has been published in numerous journals and magazines—including Canadian Literature, The Capilano Review, and Poetry Is Dead—and his visual poetry has been included in exhibitions at the Polygon Gallery and the Oslo Pilot Project Room in Oslo, Norway. Today, he joins us to talk about his creative process, breaking the “rules” of writing, and bridging disciplinary divides.

Transcript coming soon.

Find Jordan at the links below.

Website: https://www.jordanabel.ca/

Twitter: @ jordoisdead

Instagram: jordoisdead

You can find Jordan’s latest book, Nishga, at https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/610846/nishga-by-jordan-abel/9780771007903

If you're interested in writing nonfiction, the University of King's College MFA in Creative Nonfiction might be for you. Find out more at ukings.ca/area-of-study/master…creative-nonfiction/.

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If you'd like to hear more book-related conversations, check out Bookings, the podcast of our friends at the King's Coop Bookstore.

On today’s show, we talk to J.B. MacKinnon. Many of you know J.B. from his bestselling work, The 100-Mile Diet. That book set him on course to be a prolific author who traffics in big ideas. Challenging our preconceptions, and encouraging us to try new ways of being in the world, are at the core of J.B.’s work as are his love of animals, the environment, and the natural world. He has written for The Atlantic, The National Observer, The National Post, and Orion Magazine, and his nonfiction titles include The Once and Future World and Dead Man in Paradise, which won the Charles Taylor Prize. His most recent book, The Day the World Stops Shopping, published in 2021 by Random House, challenges us to think about a post-consumption world and what that would mean for the economy, the environment, and our understanding of human nature. As with much of his work, it’s a thought experiment, one that required wrangling abstract ideas into a highly readable, engaging book. Today, J.B. talks to us about that process, and we get into how he thinks about research, his reading audience, and his character portraits too.

Transcript coming soon.

Find J.B. at the links below.

Website: https://www.jbmackinnon.com/

Twitter: @JB_MacKinnon

You can find J.B.’s latest book, The Day the World Stops Shopping: How Ending Consumerism Saves the Environment and Ourselves at https://www.jbmackinnon.com/the-day-the-world-stops-shopping

If you're interested in writing nonfiction, the University of King's College MFA in Creative Nonfiction might be for you. Find out more at ukings.ca/area-of-study/master…creative-nonfiction/.

Subscribe to Further Reading:

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If you'd like to hear more book-related conversations, check out Bookings, the podcast of our friends at the King's Coop Bookstore.

On today’s show, we talk to Jenn Thornhill Verma. Jenn is a journalist and graduate of the King’s Creative Nonfiction MFA. Her recent book, Cod Collapse: The Rise and Fall of Newfoundland’s Saltwater Cowboys was published by Nimbus in 2019, and was listed as one of the best Canadian Nonfiction Books of that year by The Hill. Fuelling her writing on nature, the environment and the fishing industry of the Atlantic provinces is her extensive scientific background: she also holds a Master’s of Science in Medicine from Memorial University. Jenn has written for many major publications including The Globe and Mail, Reader’s Digest, The Independent, and Salt Scapes, and was a silver finalist for Best Profile Article in both 2019 and 2020 at the Atlantic Journalism Awards. If that weren’t enough, she has also worked in film and as a healthcare executive. And she is a landscape painter – for which she has also won awards. Amidst all of this, she made time to talk to us here at Further Reading, to discuss craft, writing about home, and putting years of research into book form.

Transcript coming soon.

Find Jenn at the links below.

Website: https://jennverma.ca/

Twitter: @JenniferYVerma

Instagram: jenn_verma

You can find Jenn’s latest book, Cod Collapse: The Rise and Fall of Newfoundland’s Saltwater Cowboys at https://nimbus.ca/store/cod-collapse.html

If you're interested in writing nonfiction, the University of King's College MFA in Creative Nonfiction might be for you. Find out more at ukings.ca/area-of-study/master…creative-nonfiction/.

Subscribe to Further Reading:

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Contact us:

If you'd like to hear more book-related conversations, check out Bookings, the podcast of our friends at the King's Coop Bookstore.