Uncited: An English Lit Podcast

Amy, Chantelle, and Mr. E. Sangria are reading Am I The A**hole Stories from Read-it, the version of Reddit for fictional characters only! Are these guys in the wrong? And what stories are they from, anyway?

The long-awaited second part of our children's lit episode, four years after the original! Thank you to everyone who submitted audience recommendations for picture books many, many moons ago. And we are joined by a Very Special Guest who has Lots Of Experience reading to children!

We're talking about The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel! This Canadian book by an Uncited alumnus author delves into murder accusations, investment fraud, and GHOSTS.

We're talking about Billy Bishop Goes to War, a musical by Eric Peterson and John MacLachlan Gray! Have you ever wanted to talk about World War I but make it fun and quirky and then make it very very sad? Fly on over.

We're welcoming back our good friend Az (calscalzones on Bluesky) to talk about Bryan Lee O'Malley's Volume 4 of the Scott Pilgrim series, Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together! We're talking allll the L words.

We're reviewing one of Chantelle's top five favourite books ever, Two Dark Moons by Avi Silver! It's a queer YA fantasy that looks at: What if astrology was a main component of culture? How do we define our role in society? What if a lizard was real big?

It's another epistolary novel, which means we're once again joined by special guest Jamie Anderson (jamienerdgirl on Bluesky) to talk about The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood! It's... oof.

We're talking about Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan! About taking a nice trip through the Polish countryside because of a music festival and—oh wait—no, it's about the Holocaust. Content warning for genocide, racism, and violence.

This week we're talking about Hiromi Goto's The Kappa Child! Featuring Japanese folklore, Little House on the Prairie, a mysterious pregnancy, and so many cucumbers. Keep listening for more Canadian lit coming your way.

We're talking about Delicious in Dungeons, Volume 2 by Ryoko Kui! The gang is back at it again with giant chia pets, kelpie friends, and non-edible paintings.

We're talking about The Princess Bride again! We wrap up the main story then cover some hot takes from our lovely listeners. Buttercup's Baby coming soon (we swear).

We're talking about Chantelle's favourite book, The Princess Bride by S. Morgenstern by William Goldman! If you've seen the movie, buckle up because it's entirely the same yet completely different.

It's our last episode of the year and we're talking about Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen! How much does it have in common with Disney's Frozen? And how much does it have in common with The Secret, that 2006 manifestation book?

Today we're reading THAT story. The story that pops up when you give ChatGPT the prompt "Tell me a story". Can it do it? (Spoiler: No, it can't.)

This week we're talking about Daniel Perry's Modern Folklore, a book about the things that haunt us: our regrets, our vices, the mysterious figure of a woman with long dark hair, rental units.

This week, we talk about In Flanders Fields by John McCrae, along with other World War I poems in honour of Remembrance Day.

This week Amy is sharing A Sapling Cage by Margaret Killjoy, her new book recommendation with a signed copy and a lending copy. This story on trans witchcraft talks about earth magic, power struggle, and self-invention, and we talk about cool witch s***.

This week we're welcoming back Jamie Anderson (@UnabashedJames) to talk about Stephen King's 11/22/63! Much like the book, we talk about the Kennedy assassination, sure. But mostly other things.

This week we're talking about Delicious in Dungeon, Volume 1 by Ryoko Kui! In which walking mushrooms, screaming roots, and carnivorous plants are on the menu (along with friendship!)

We're talking about Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun! This was a standout book and a hearty recommendation, but boy is it rough. Content warnings for genocide, violence, sexual assault, and murder of a pregnant woman.

We're back in the Scott Pilgrim series with Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness! Plus, we're having something of an infinite sadness ourselves. But in a fun, chill way, you know?

We're back with a group storytelling game! And it gets wild. Check out Glen and Gertie Nuzzles from Nuzzle House and Ben and Nate from Words About Books!

This week in honour of our 100th episode, we're playing a game with some of our podcast friends! Check out Jamie @UnabashedJames, Colin @ColinMParker, and Az @Cals_Calzones on Twitter!

This week we're talking about William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, stage productions and adaptations, and Bard on the Beach in Vancouver! What does Willy do when he's scared? Willy Shakes.

This week we're finishing up The Tortured Poets Department section from Taylor Swift's Eras tour set. Songs covered are Down Bad, Fortnight, The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived, and I Can Do It With a Broken Heart.

Is Chantelle... a Swiftie? In honour of the 18th birthday of Taylor Swift's music career, we're talking about songs from The Tortured Poets Department section of the Eras tour set: But Daddy I Love Him, So High School, and Who's Afraid of Little Old Me.

This week we're talking about Emily Dickinson's poems and letters to her lifelong gal pal Susan Gilbert. References are mostly from Emily Dickinson's Electric Love Letters to Susan Gilbert by Maria Popova. Happy Pride! P.S. The world's oldest queer book store, Glad Day, needs help keeping its doors open as one of the city's core safe spaces! Can you help save Glad Day Bookshop? https://www.gladday.ca/savegladday

In honour of the release of Bridgerton Season 3, we're tackling the first book in Julia Quinn's series, The Duke and I! We chat about daddy issues, "The Talk", and swimming in the River Thames. Content warning for sexual assault.

We're finally talking about Beowulf, the epic poem written for 300 years that could have ended about four times! Incoming intertextuality (?) with Paradise Lost, Frankenstein, The Fast and the Furious, James Bond, and Disney.

This week we're talking about Volume 2 of Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim series, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World! Scott finally makes the right choice, outsmarts Chris Evans on a skateboard, and has a breakdown about his ex.

This week we're talking about Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life (Volume 1 of the series)! We chat about the various adaptations of the series and Scott's single brain cell.

This week we have Glen and Gertie Nuzzles to talk about A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens! We chat about ghost stories, Christmas in the Victorian era, old timey entertainment, and Muppet oppression. Find Glen and Gertie's podcast, Gestating the Curious Mind, under the Nuzzle House umbrella @HouseNuzzle.

This week we're talking about the 1941 sci fi short story By His Bootstraps by Robert A. Heinlein! Buckle up in the time gate to chat about paradoxes, capitalist propaganda, and Doctor Who.

This week we're playing a new game courtesy Amy and ChatGPT! Chantelle is guessing books based on riddles. Will she live up to her English degree or will those book spines crack under the pressure?

This week we're rounding out Chinua Achebe's African Trilogy with Arrow of God! This episode memorializes Professor Pius Adesanmi, who made Amy love the book. https://newsroom.carleton.ca/story/carleton-mourns-loss-of-professor-pius-adesanmi/ https://youtu.be/fsxGJj6YsB8?si=ctSOFkLpW6N1_ZKP

This week we're talking about Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, toxic masculinity, the insidiousness of colonialism, and yams.

This week we're taking a trip down memory lane to the city where it all began! Our chat on Consolation by Michael Redhill delves into memory, stories, history, and a whole lotta red tape. Content warning: suicide.

This week we're talking about Arthur Conan Doyle's A Scandal in Bohemia featuring your boy Sherlock Holmes! We chat feminism with Irene Adler (who is not like other girls) and how heart eyes can make you an unreliable narrator.

This week we talk about Marvel comic What If... Magik Became the Sorcerer Supreme? Illyana Rasputin kicks butt, becomes an apprentice to Dr. Strange, and takes a nice little beach vacation.

We're back with original poems from reddit's r/OCPoetry and our beloved community! Thank you to Beesarecool, Marvellous_Loki, James Russell, Mayura/cenaplec, Peyton, James Teller of the If You Want the Gravy blog, Gertie from Nuzzle House, and Jamie from Timeline Scavengers for letting us share your poems!

This week, we take a serious moment to talk about the genocide in Gaza. For more information, follow these creators: @ahmedhijazee (Twitter, Instagram, TikTok) @mahmoudzuaiter (TikTok) or @mahmoudabuzaiter (Instagram) @motaz_azaiza (Instagram) @alijadallah66 (Twitter, Instagram) @byplestia (Twitter, Instagram, TikTok) @aborjelaa (Instagram, TikTok) @joegaza93 (Twitter, Instagram) @mohammedelkurd (Instagram) @mariam_abdallahhh (Instagram) or @mariamabdallah47 (TikTok)

This week we welcome Az (@Cals_Calzones) to talk about Harvey by Mary Chase, a play that explores the love between a man and his invisible 6 foot talking rabbit. We chat mental health, imaginary friends, and ghosts!

This week, Ben and Nate from Words About Books join us to talk about Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart. We also discuss werewolves, anxiety, and Shakira. Follow wordsaboutbookspodcast on Instagram and Threads!

This week we're talking about Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House with special guest Ethan! We talk spooky ghosts, femme friendships, and "roommates".

This week we talk about Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal For Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Public, a nice normal essay. Also, unrelated, Hozier's Eat Your Young.

Amy is getting married! We're celebrating by reading love poems including Love's Philosophy by Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Mountain Song by Tophouse, and a surprise sonnet.

In this very last episode of Shakespeare's histories, Amy brings us Henry VIII, which has less murder than you would expect and might be a eulogy!

Today we're wrapping up (the main part of) Shakespeare's Henriad with our collective favourite history play, Richard III! We talk villain motivations, royal propaganda, and woman power in Medieval England.

We are finally finished with Shakespeare's Henry VI! Margaret goes nuclear, everyone dies, and our boy Richard III makes an appearance.

We're back with the second installment of the Henry VI trilogy, AKA Seventeen-Year-Old Gets Messy! Featuring prophecies, witches, murder, and no it's not Macbeth.

We are back with a healthy dose of Shakespearean history! This week we venture back into France, where things are going awry and the women (gasp) are doing WAR THINGS (GASP)! Featuring a special appearance by Joan of Arc.