My guest on this episode is Glenn Dixon. Glenn is an author and former educator whose work has appeared in National Geographic, the New York Post, The Globe and Mail, The Walrus, and Psychology Today. His books include the travel memoirs Tripping the World Fantastic, Pilgrim in the Palace of Words, and Juliet’s Answer, which was a national bestseller and has been published in twelve countries. His most recent book is the novel Bootleg Stardust, published by Simon & Schuster in 2021. Author and broadcaster Grant Lawrence called the book “a totally wild ride through the opulent and trashy world of 70s rock and roll.”

Glenn and I talk about releasing his first novel at the tail end of COVID lockdown, about recording original music for that novel with equipment previously used by, among others, The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, and about the weird naming debate he recently had with the editors of his next novel, which features a sentient vacuum cleaner.

This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Aviva Rubin. Aviva is an author and essayist whose work has appeared in the New York Times, the Globe and Mail, Chatelaine, and Toronto Life, amongst other places. She is the author of the memoirs Tomorrow was Always Too Late For Me and Lost and Found in Lymphomaland. Her most recent book is the novel WHITE, published by re:books in 2024. Kirkus Reviews called it “a provocative exploration of the ties that bind and the mad hatred that kills.”

Aviva and I talk about the brief moment of internet notoriety she experienced after writing a New York Times column on parenting and casual nudity, about the shift from memoir to fiction with her last book, and about the odd sense of hesitation her novel was greeted with by media and by author festivals, at a moment when a novel about how someone becomes a white supremacist is the very definition of timely.

This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this special live episode is Anne Michaels. Anne is an internationally award-winning novelist whose books have been translated into more than forty-five languages. She is the winner of the Orange Prize, the Guardian Fiction Prize, the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, the Trillium Book Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship, and has been shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award, the Griffin Poetry Prize and twice for the Giller Prize. She has also been twice longlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Her novel Fugitive Pieces was made into a feature film. Her most recent novel, Held, was published by McClelland & Stewart in 2024, and shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the Giller Prize. Alice Jolly, writing about Held in The Observer, said that “at the heart of this book lies the question of how goodness and love can be held across the generations. For Michaels, our final task is ‘to endure the truth.’”

Anne and I spoke live onstage at Humber Polytechnic’s Lakeshore Campus on July 10th, as part of Humber’s Summer Workshop in Creative Writing (which I also coordinate). This is an edited version of that conversation.

Anne and I talk about how, despite being both an internationally bestselling author and a fairly shy person, she has never developed a public persona for things like onstage interviews, about the importance of, in her words, “distillation, distillation, distillation” in her novel-writing process, and about the idea of writers who revise their work even after it has been published.

This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Steve Paikin. Steve is an author, journalist, and broadcaster who hosted TVO’s nightly current affairs show The Agenda for 19 years, until that show ended earlier this summer. He is an officer of the Order of Canada, a member of the Order of Ontario, and the author of eight books. His most recent book, John Turner: An Intimate Biography of Canada's 17th Prime Minister, was published by Sutherland House in 2022. The Globe & Mail called John Turner “an insightful portrait of a powerfully talented but deeply conflicted individual who influenced the story of our country, mostly for the better.”

Steve and I talk about his decision to leave The Agenda (and the legendary broadcaster whose advice planted the seed for that departure), about why he  chose to write a deeply researched biography of a man who was Prime Minister for a whopping 79 days, and about taking on not just one, but three new book projects.

This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Valérie Bah. Valérie is a multidisciplinary Québécois artist, filmmaker, documentarian, photographer, and writer whose first book was the collection The Rage Letters, translated from the French and published by Metonymy Press. Valérie’s most recent book is their first novel (and first book in English) Subterrane. That book was published by Véhicule Press in 2024 and was the winner of the Amazon Canada First Novel Award. The Montreal Review of Books said that Subterrane “hums with high-context, sublingual information, the kind that resists total comprehension joyfully and exactingly.”

Valérie and I talk about the surreal experience of winning the Amazon First Novel Award (including the timely consumption of edibles), about how they feel at home in multiple artistic mediums and practices at once, and about their recurring lottery-winning fantasies, which involve a very particular make of car.

This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Leanne Toshiko Simpson. Leanne is an author and educator who co-founded a reflective writing program at Canada’s largest mental health hospital and teaches at the University of Toronto. Her debut is the novel Never Been Better, published by HarperCollins Canada in 2024. That book recently won the KOBO Emerging Writer Prize in the category of Romance. In a starred review, Kirkus Reviews called the novel “a funny, refreshing, and generous story full of wisdom on mental health.”

Leanne and I talk about how she, as someone with bipolar disorder, handles moments of emotional upheaval, about the benefits of being a writer publicly identified with that disorder, and about the reaction she has received, from romance readers and from readers interested in reading about issues of mental health, to writing a rom-com novel about pysch ward survivors.

This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Natalie Zina Walschots. Natalie is an author, game designer and journalist whose books include two poetry collections, DOOM: Love Poems for Supervillains and Thumbscrews. Her most recent book is the novel Hench, published by HarperCollins in 2021. That book was a finalist on Canada Reads and was nominated for a Locus Award for Best First Novel. The New York Times called it “witty and inventive.”

Natalie and I talk about the multiple times she has written, then scrapped, the sequel to Hench, about finally cracking the novel while working in a borrowed camper in small-town Nova Scotia, and about the Canadian book that would have turned her very chill experience with Canada Reads into a “medieval joust.”

This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Tickets for the live onstage interview with Anne Michaels on July 10 at the Humber Lakeshore Campus in Toronto.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Michelle Good. Michelle’s first book, the novel Five Little Indians, won the HarperCollins/UBC Best New Fiction Prize, the Amazon First Novel Award, the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Award, the Evergreen Award, the City of Vancouver Book of the Year Award, and even Canada Reads. Her most recent book, Truth Telling: Seven Conversations about Indigenous life in Canada was published in 2023 by HarperCollins Canada. That book was a #1 national bestseller and won the High Plains Book Award, and was a finalist for the Writers’ Trust Balsillie Prize for Public Policy and the Indigenous Voices Award. Author Waubgeshig Rice said that "Truth Telling is at once heartfelt, instructive, and authentic."

Michelle and I talk about her “bemusement” over becoming a successful and celebrated author in her late 60s, about the sense of responsibility and pressure that comes with her new high-profile status, and about how, despite all the awards and accolades, the process of writing the follow-up to Five Little Indians has been just as stressful and full of self-doubt as it was the first time.

Please check out Indigenous Watchdog

This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Tickets for the live onstage interview with Anne Michaels on July 10 at the Humber Lakeshore Campus in Toronto.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Michael Crummey. Michael is the author of seven books of poetry, a collection of short stories, and a half-dozen novels, all of which have won and/or been shortlisted for major literary prizes, including the Giller, the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and the Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction. His most recent novel, The Adversary, was published in 2023 by Knopf Canada. That book was a #1 national bestseller, and recently won the Dublin Literary Award. The New York Times called it “a twisty, gloriously grim novel."

Michael and I talk about winning the Dublin Literary Award, about the intense struggle he had writing his very first novel, River Thieves, and about his gratitude for the success of The Adversary—a novel he worried might end his career as a writer.

This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Tickets for the live onstage interview with Anne Michaels on July 10 at the Humber Lakeshore Campus in Toronto.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Teresa Wong. Teresa is an author and artist whose work has appeared in The Believer, The New Yorker, McSweeney’s and The Walrus. Her first book, the graphic novel Dear Scarlet, was longlisted for CBC Canada Reads. Her most recent book is the graphic novel All Our Ordinary Stories, published in 2024 by Arsenal Pulp Press. It was also longlisted for Canada Reads, and won two Alberta Literary Awards. (NB: as you’ll hear, this episode was recorded a day before the book won.) Publishers Weekly said that “Wong explores her Chinese immigrant parents' history with gentle curiosity, wry humor, and moments of aching regret” and called the book “a resonant journey into the past.”

Teresa and I talk about the potential meditative benefits of learning to swim as an adult, which she is currently doing, about worrying she was done making books entirely after All Our Ordinary Stories was published, and about her complicated thoughts on the whole concept of literary awards.

This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Tickets for the live onstage interview with Anne Michaels on July 10 at the Humber Lakeshore Campus in Toronto.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.