The Long Table: Conversations at Upstart & Crow Literary Arts Studio

Alexis Wright is a highly lauded Australian writer and land activist whose works have twice one the prestigious Stella Prize. Her new novel, Praiseworthy (New Directions) has been described as the “the most ambitious and accomplished Australian novel of this century.” In this episode of The Long Table, Upstart & Crow cofounder Ian Gill chats with Wright about her epic new novel.

In Strandings: Confessions of a Whale Scavenger, and in this conversation, the fate of whales becomes a metaphor for our greed and continued disconnection to nature. Through stories of beached whales, unexpected community and a potted history of humans we begin to better understand our future.  Join Upstart Co-Founder Zoe Grams and Dr. Peter Riley for a discussion on “controlling the flight instinct” when we consider our late-stage capitalism reality; about whales and ideological purity (and its downfalls); about connection, environmentalism and cognitive living or death. It may not be at our in-studio Long Table, but here is a warm discussion of reality and possibility. Part of Upstart & Crow's Climate Series events. About StrandingsA genre-defying book of intellect, heart and page-turning anecdotes and philosophy, Strandings has received glowing reviews from across the UK and beyond. “It is at once incisive and funny, personal and historical, gripping and moving.” — Merlin Sheldrake, author of Entangled Life  About the Author  Dr. Peter Riley is a Senior Lecturer in American Literature at the University of Exeter, and the inaugural winner of the Profile-Aitken Alexander Prize. He has an appropriate specialisation in Herman Melville, and has been investigating the world of the whale scavengers since his teens. He is currently working on three more books (editing one, writing two) and is making a radio documentary based on Strandings, which is due to air on BBC Radio 4 next year. 

What is wilderness, what is wildness, and is there a difference between the two? Who gets to decide? Do people belong there? How do Indigenous perspectives aid our appreciation of wilderness? As tourism both celebrates and simultaneously overwhelms or outright ruins some of the most beloved and endangered places on Earth, these questions are more pressing than ever. Who better to discuss them at The Long Table than Phillip and April Vannini, wanderers, ethnographers, and authors of an important new book, In the Name of Wild: One Family, Five Years, Ten Countries, and a New Vision of Wildness (UBC Press). The Vanninis are joined in conversation by seasoned wilderness campaigner Valerie Langer, host Ian Gill, and knowledgeable invited guests for this, the second Long Table podcast brought to you from the Upstart & Crow Literary Arts Studio on Granville Island in Vancouver, Canada.

“The breaking of listening is the breaking of well-being. You can't be loved if you are not heard.” These poignant words are shared by Hugh Brody in this inaugural episode of The Long Table at Upstart & Crow. Brody is a celebrated writer, anthropologist and film-maker who has spent many years immersed in communities of Indigenous peoples in the Arctic and Subarctic Canada. His books include The People's Land, Maps and Dreams, The Other Side of Eden and a collection of short stories, Means of Escape. Brody's beautiful new book, Landscapes of Silence: From Childhood to the Arctic (Faber & Faber), is both memoir and an object lesson in the importance of listening, something that in these noisome times seems like a lost art. Here, he is in conversation with Coast Salish artist and advocate Jada-Gabrielle Pape (BA, MEd) of the Saanich and Snuneymuxw Nations, and renowned documentary maker Gary Marcuse. In this reflective, powerful and confronting discussion, they explore the harms of silence and the reasons behind it, whether in family dynamics or the ongoing colonial project in Canada. They speak to knowledge versus wisdom, information versus stories, and the deep need for changing what is listened to, amidst the silence. Please note: This conversation includes discussion of suicide, dispossession and other forms of trauma.