CAROLE HARMON: 

In Mountain Light — Walking With My Grandfather

In this essay Carole explores her family's role in the colonial history of the Canadian Rockies where she was raised in a family of landscape photographers and worked as a photographer and publisher for many years.

I didn't intend to write about the plight of aboriginal people in Canada, Carole says. I began to think about boundaries. The National Parks  were supposedly created for ALL Canadians but the National Parks Act excluded aboriginal people from these, their ancestral lands. Aboriginal people in Canada, after so many horrific injustices, even now being revealed, are still seen and treated as 'other' by mainstream Canadian society.

In her essay Carole explores her own photography as an example of transgressing boundaries.

UNA SUSELI  O'CONNELL

The Cuckoo That Laid the Golden Egg—The Legacy of Nazi Gold in Switzerland

Una writes extensively about family history based on letters and diaries left by both sides of her family. Whereas Carole Harmon's family legacy is photographs, Una's is words.

Una's Swiss mother taught her, 'gold is good, gold will save your life'. Coming from a poor family in then impoverished Switzerland this belief of Una's mother is understandable. Instead the paralyzing spectre of want led to fear and imprudence. 

This is an essay which explores how a country ignored its cultural heritage and values in order to secure prosperity and security, It reveals how thin and mutable the boundaries between victim and perpetrator actually are.

Una's family memoir, The Absent Prince explores the effect of war and other cultural values which shatter families by isolating and removing the men from family life. It can be ordered internationally through Amazon and more widely in the UK.

If you are new to this series, listen to our PODCAST of the Introduction to the series: Lisa Iversen, the editor, in conversation with Ingrid Rose.

Read more about the book: reviews, links to past online events on CAB Publishing website.

Go to WritersRadio.ca and listen to the current episode.

Writers Radio is a free 24/7 non-commercial internet radio station that presents new and recognized writers reading their own work.

Writers Radio is proud to be a registered nonprofit society in British Columbia, Canada.

"Honouring The Past"

Summer Starr & Sharon Halfnight

In her introduction to the anthology Lisa Iversen writes:

In the collective field of the soul, everyone and everything belongs. This knowingness provides a necessary resource when there are experiences of injustice....Bringing visibility to both perpetrators and victims of injustice, whether past or present, is necessary to heal inheritances of collective trauma.

In this episode one writer explores her ancestral history while another looks at today's challenges and imagines the future.

Summer Starr

Whiteness in Colonial America: My Family's Legacy

Summer writes:

...for most of my life, as far as I knew, we were just Californians. This lack of history put the focus on the now, on the immediate, and the past held very little interest for me...My concept of family history was only a couple of generations back. That all changed in the summer of 2019.

Sharon Halfnight

White Walking

Sharon begins her essay:

I welcomed the invitation to contribute an essay to this book on whiteness before I had any idea about what it might require of me. It's been a tussle, a full body-mind-soul wrestling with what whiteness means in this context and what it means to me. There has been no comfort in this inquiry.

Host, Carole Harmon, Music and Audio Production, Gary Sill

If you are new to this series, listen to our podcast of the introduction to the series: Lisa Iversen, the editor, in conversation with Ingrid Rose.

Read more about the book: reviews, links to past online events on CAB Publishing website.

Go to WritersRadio.ca and listen to the current episode.

Writers Radio is a free 24/7 non-commercial internet radio station that presents new and recognized writers reading their own work.

Writers Radio is proud to be a registered nonprofit society in British Columbia, Canada.

Lost Coast Writers

Host, Ingrid Rose

A special summer episode curated by Susan Dambroff featuring writers from the  Lost Coast Writers Retreat in northern California

Susan Dambroff - Introduction

Chris Kammler - The Whistlin' Gal

Jeff DeMark - Guatemala

Chris Kammler - Spring Again 1 & 2

Chris Orr - The Library of Kisses

Go to WritersRadio.ca and listen to the current episode.

Writers Radio is a free 24/7 non-commercial internet radio station that presents new and recognized writers reading their own work.

Writers Radio is proud to be a registered nonprofit society in British Columbia, Canada.

Home and Away
Coming To Terms With Loss and Identity
Host, Ingrid Rose

Writers on this episode include:

Mara Alper:         
What Do You Take When You Don't Know Where You're Going?
Mara discovers...it isn't a dream but a powerful ceremony.

Janice Masur:
Shalom Uganda:  A Jewish Community on the Equator
Janice remembers her childhood community.

Daniela Cohen:
Hilda and Justice
Daniella asks, can a lost home ever be refound?

Carol Groumoutis:
Home is Where You Are (Greek)
Carol affirms in her poem, the Greek would never not be Greek.

Go to WritersRadio.ca and listen to the current episode.

Writers Radio is a free 24/7 non-commercial internet radio station that presents new and recognized writers reading their own work.

Writers Radio is proud to be a registered nonprofit society in British Columbia, Canada.

Sonya Lea:

Bloodlines

A Legal Lynching and a Family's Reckoning

Sabine Olsen:

It Cannot Be Condoned

Whiteness and the Legacy of War

Host, Ingrid Rose, Music and audio production, Gary Sill

The hanging in 1936 of Rainey Bethea, a young black man, for the rape and murder of an elderly white woman was the last public execution in America. Sonya Lea’s family participated in this event in various ways. In her essay, Bloodlines: A Legal Lynching and a Family's Reckoning, Sonya brings this event to light through her struggle, first to know, then to understand. Sonya is a writer of memoir and fiction who has lived in both the USA and Canada. She presently lives in Banff, in the Canadian Rockies.

Sabine's essay was developed from an interview with Lisa Iversen. Sabine is a Reiki master who emigrated to Canada from Munich, a birthplace she shares with Adolf Hitler. Reflecting on the speeches and rallies which swept Hitler to power in 1930's Germany, Sabine decries the increasing use of hate speech today. She writes: ...that's how it starts, a little bit, a little bit more, it gets bolder and bolder and before you know it there's a monster you can't control. Sabine lives near Abbotsford, west of Vancouver, Canada.

Go to WritersRadio.ca and listen to the current episode.

Writers Radio is a free 24/7 non-commercial internet radio station that presents new and recognized writers reading their own work.

Writers Radio is proud to be a registered nonprofit society in British Columbia, Canada.

The Octopus Has Three Hearts

In an interview with Ingid Rose, Rachel Rose reads excerpts from her Of Rats and Men.

Rachel's stories explore cause and effect, inter-species bonding, and shine a glaring spotlight on the experience of being “other". The protagonists in her stories are individuals who have been harmed in life, who live on the margins of society. Their animal friends are creatures we also think of as other: rats for instance.

Rachel is the author of poetry, prose, and now short story. She is a teacher, writing mentor and community activist who lives in Vancouver, Canada.

Go to WritersRadio.ca and listen to the current episode.

Writers Radio is a free 24/7 non-commercial internet radio station that presents new and recognized writers reading their own work.

Writers Radio is proud to be a registered nonprofit society in British Columbia, Canada.

Karin Konstantynowicz:

Roots Borders and Belonging

June Blue Spruce:

Warning: Whiteness May Be Hazardous to Your Health

Host, Carole Harmon, Music and audio production, Gary Sill

Karin Konstantynowicz and her family emigrated to Canada from Eastern Europe following World War 2. Their roots are in contested territory which has changed its name, and its overlords many times. Starting with the idea of an "invasive species", Karin muses on the nature of identity and belonging and the experiences she and her family had as new immigrants to the Canadian prairies. Karin is a teacher, crisis counsellor, broadcaster and writer who lives in Vancouver, Canada.

June Blue Spruce comes from a long line of doctors in the USA. In her essay June probes the racist roots of the AMA and prevalent racism within the medical system in America. She delves into her own conflicted history as an activist, and a gay woman working within this system. June is a reformer, health worker, and writer who lives in Seattle, USA.

Go to WritersRadio.ca and listen to the current episode.

Writers Radio is a free 24/7 non-commercial internet radio station that presents new and recognized writers reading their own work.

Writers Radio is proud to be a registered nonprofit society in British Columbia, Canada.

Petra

Shaena Lambert is interviewed by Ingrid Rose.

Petra is a novel, but not a biography of Petra Kelly. Yet, in its pages, fictional and real characters are inspired by and closely follow the lives and events of that time.

In 1980's Germany, NATO plans to deploy nuclear missiles which are expected to face off against those of the USSR. The Berlin Wall still stands. World War 3 seems almost inevitable.

A charismatic young woman named Petra Kelly, half German, half American, inspires, charms and reasons her way to the forefront of the Peace Movement and becomes a founding member of the German Green Party.

Shaena Lambert is a fiction writer and teacher who lives in Vancouver, Canada.

Go to WritersRadio.ca and listen to the current episode.

Writers Radio is a free 24/7 non-commercial internet radio station that presents new and recognized writers reading their own work.

Writers Radio is proud to be a registered nonprofit society in British Columbia, Canada.

Lisa Iversen with host Ingrid Rose

Using the lens of inherited trauma and family history, Whiteness Is Not an Ancestor offers a hopeful, humanizing path for dismantling whiteness. 

For over two decades, family constellations facilitator and therapist Lisa Iversen has been working with groups, including descendants of ancestors who have perpetrated harm or been victimized in circumstances of injustice. In this collection of essays, she brings together twelve white women who explore the role of whiteness in collective movements of immigration, colonialism, slavery, and war. Through genealogical research, family documents, and deep reflection, these writers from the US, Canada, and the UK disentangle themes of innocence, grief, race, privilege, and belonging in their families and ancestries.

Each essayist shares moving stories and anecdotes from their life, adding historical and cultural context to current conversations about white women's role in creating and sustaining whiteness.

Go to WritersRadio.ca and listen to the current episode.

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Writers Radio is proud to be a registered nonprofit society in British Columbia, Canada.

Finding Gold in New York

In this interview with Ingrid Rose, Rosanna Hille  discusses writing Finding Gold in New York. The excerpts are read by Danish Canadian poet,  Christina Marie Moth.

After raising a family, Rosanne embarked on a 20 year career working for an NGO and travelling the world helping people. Now she is returning to her early love of story and writing with a memoir about her remarkable life.

Finding Gold in New York recounts Rosanna's first visit to the United Nations, and her amusing adventure in the city.

Rosanna lives in Vancouver, Canada.

Go to WritersRadio.ca and listen to the current episode.

Writers Radio is a free 24/7 non-commercial internet radio station that presents new and recognized writers reading their own work.

Writers Radio is proud to be a registered nonprofit society in British Columbia, Canada.