Hamilton Review of Books Podcast

After last year's protest at the Giller Prize ceremony helped expose Scotiabank and its investment holdings for having ties with the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, writers have been pressuring the Prize to drop its primary sponsor. We talk with three writers involved in the campaign:

Michael DeForge is a cartoonist in Toronto. His books include Birds of Maine, Familiar Face and Heaven No Hell. 

Avik Jain Chatlani is the author of This Country is No Longer Yours.  A historian by training, he has taught in schools and prisons in Latin America, Canada, and the United States.

Jacob Wren makes literature, collaborative performances and exhibitions. His books include Polyamorous Love Song, Rich and Poor, and Dry Your Tears to Perfect Your Aim.

Mentioned in Episode

CanLit Responds (https://www.canlitresponds.ca/)

No Arms in the Arts (https://www.noarmsinthearts.com/)

“How the Giller Prize Became Associated with Genocide” in The Walrus, https://thewalrus.ca/giller-prize-genocide/

Reading Queer Lit with Shawn Mooney

We are joined by Shawn Mooney, the host of the fantastic BookTube channel, Shawn Breathes Books to talk about Queer Literature, why it's having its moment and why it's important for us to be reading it!

PODCASTS MENTIONED

Lindy Magpie Reads

BOOKS MENTIONED

Trans writers/novels

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters

Little Blue Encyclopedia (for Vivian) by Hazel Jane Plante

Little Fish by Casey Plett

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi

Gay male writers/authors/subjects

Édouard Louis

Change: A Method, translation by John Lambert

The End of Eddy translation by Michael Lucey

History of Violence translation by Michael Lucey (Shawn's full review)

Afterparties by Anthony Veasna So

Thomas Grattan

The Recent East (Shawn's interview about this novel with the author)

In Tongues (Shawn’s interview with the author about this novel)

Billy-Ray Belcourt

Christopher DiRaddo

The Family Way

The Geography of Pluto (Shawn's full review)

And Then He Sang a Lullaby by Ani Kayode Somtochukwu

Now and Then by William Corlett (Shawn's chat with Ericka Seidemann about this novel)

Danny Ramadan

The Clothesline Swing

The Foghorn Echoes

Crooked Teeth: A Queer Syrian Refugee Memoir (Shawn's “mystery guest” chat with Danny about Crooked Teeth)

The Sleeping Car Porter by Suzette Mayr (Shawn's full review)

Small Joys by Elvin James Mensah (Shawn's interview with the author)

Adam Mars-Jones

Pilcrow (John Cromer #1)

Cedilla (John Cromer #2)

Caret (John Cromer #3)

Lesbian Literature

Other People Manage by Ellen Hawley (Shawn’s interview with the author)

Cantoras by Caro De Robertis

After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz

For some, reading is an escape from the world, but some of the most powerful and compelling works of fiction delve deep into political subjects. We are joined by Toronto short story writer, Humberto Da Silva, to discuss why political literature is worth embracing, what makes good political fiction and have a mini book club on last year's Booker Prize winning novel, Prophet Song.

Books Mentioned

Humberto Da Silva, Compassion Fatigue
Adania Shibli, Minor Detail
Isabella Hamad, Enter Ghost

On the first episode of the season, we are joined by Janet Hoy, co-owner of The City and the City Bookstore in Hamilton. We talk about speculative fiction, our favourite titles, and what makes it a fascinating genre. We also do a mini book club, talking about Giller Prize longlisted novel Girlfriend on Mars by Deborah Willis.

You can find Victoria at https://www.instagram.com/bookcasebelle/

Summer is coming to an end so we have to get in as much beach reading time in as possible. Our guest for this episode all about Beach Reads is Bookstagrammer Victoria Kinzel. We chat about what makes a good beach read, give several recommendations and finish off discussing Emily Henry's new book Happy Place.

You can find Victoria at https://www.instagram.com/bookcasebelle/

We are joined today by Jaime Krakowski, independent bookseller and owner of Epic Books in Hamilton. We discuss adaptations of our favourite novels, what we are looking for, what has worked and what hasn't. The second half is a mini book/movie club featuring the novel and film Scarborough. 

This episode’s guest is Lisa Richter, a Toronto poet, and author of the award  winning collection Nautilus and Bone. We talked about what drew her to poetry, how we should read poetry, and how we should teach poetry. We dig into her collection and do a minibook club of Gillian Sze’s Quiet Night Think.

Lisa’s Website (https://www.lisarichter.org/)

Youtube Video Mentioned: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-qbXZMU8WE (performance by Emily Hiemstra)

Gillian Sze, Quiet Night Think: https://ecwpress.com/products/quiet-night-think

Poets Mentioned:

Sonnet L'Abbé

Kim Hyesoon

Victoria Konchan

Books Mentioned

Madeleine Thien, Do Not Say We Have Nothing

Ocean Vuong,  On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

Maddie Mortiner, Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies

Sheila Heti, Pure Colour

Haruki Murakami

Jing Tsu, Kingdom of Characters

Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch

Many readers get caught up with book prizes so we wanted to explore why they are so entrancing, what we love and hate about them, and which winners we loved and hated.

Featured guest is Jill from the Book Bully BookTube Channel.

You can find her at

https://www.youtube.com/c/TheBookBully

https://www.instagram.com/thebookbully_/

Alex Kerner hosts and produces.

In this episode, Editorial Board member James Cairns joins us to discuss memoirs and essays, why the form resonates and which are our favourites. We also spend the second half digging deep into Sarah Polley's new memoirish essay collection, Run Towards The Danger.

This episode of the podcast is about literature in translation, and we are lucky to have Barbara Halla as our guest Barbara Halla. Barbara is the Criticism Editor for Asymptote Journal and a contributing editor for Reading in Translation, two online magazines publishing and reviewing literature in English translation. She works also as a researcher, focusing on the writings of contemporary and classic Albanian women authors.

Recommended Books

Elena Ferrante  - Neapolitan Novels

Stieg Larsson  - Millennium Series

Olga Tokarczuk – Flights (translated by Jennifer Cross)

Sang Young Park – Love in the Big City (translated by Anton Hur)

Christelle Dabos – A Winter’s Promise (translated by Hildegarde Serle)