Podcasts about biblioasis

Marty Gervais is perhaps the most well-known figure in the Windsor writing community. He is an award-winning Canadian journalist, poet, playwright, historian photographer and editor. He won Toronto's Harbourfront Festival Prize for his contributions to Canadian letters and to emerging writers, and he was awarded the Milton Acorn People's Poetry Award. He was also awarded the City of Windsor Mayor's Award for literature, and he is Windsor's Poet Laureate Emeritus. He received an honorary doctor of laws from Assumption University in 2010. Gervais has written more than a dozen books of poetry, two plays and a novel. His most successful work, The Rumrunners, a book about the Prohibition period was a Canadian bestseller in 1980 and was #10 on The Globe and Mail's non-fiction bestsellers list. His most recent book is the poetry collection, The Sky Above, is an engaging book that follows his long and colourful career of spinning stories.We recorded the launch of The Sky Above. It was held at Biblioasis and hosted by André Narbonne and Kalie Chapman. This episode was created from that recording. 

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by Mark Kingwell, professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto, a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a contributing editor of Harper's Magazine.  His new book is Question Authority, which is published by our friends at Biblioasis.  Topics of conversation include current affairs in Canada, super-cycle elections, demonization, what trustworthy leadership looks like, cultural and institutional achievements, skepticism, rhetorical education, professional wrestling and more.  Copies of Question Authority can be ordered here from Page 158 Books in Wake Forest, NC.  Happy reading!

Richard Kelly Kemick is an award-winning poet, journalist, and fiction writer. His limited series podcast, Natural Life, is an intimate and unexpectedly honest documentary on his cousin, who is serving a life sentence without parole in Michigan. Richard is also the author of I Am Herod, which takes readers undercover at one of the world's largest religious events, and Caribou Run, a collection of poetry. He is the recipient of multiple awards including two National Magazine Awards and the Writers' Guild of Alberta's 2019 Award for Best Short Story. His new book is Hello, Horse, a collection of short stories published by Biblioasis. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. https://biblioasisbookshop.com/item/N8KJ1y9ScrxoDMASDESSPAhttps://richardkemick.com/

We celebrate this, our 100th episode!  Thank you for listening!  And we chat with publisher and book store owner, Dan Wells, to mark the occassion of the 20th anniversary of his wonderful literary press, Biblioasis. Thank you for listening! If you like what you hear, give us a follow at: X: Across the Pond, Galley Beggar Press, Interabang Books, Lori Feathers, Sam JordisonInstagram: Across the Pond, Galley Beggar Press, Interabang Books, Lori Feathers, Sam JordisonFacebook: Across the Pond, Galley Beggar Press, Interabang BooksTheme music by Carlos Guajardo-Molina

My guest on this episode is Casey Plett. Casey is the author of A Dream of a Woman, Little Fish, and A Safe Girl to Love, and the co-editor of Meanwhile, Elsewhere: Science Fiction and Fantasy From Transgender Writers. She is also the publisher at LittlePuss Press. Casey's most recent book is On Community, published in 2023 by Biblioasis. That book was a Finalist for the Firecracker Award in Creative Nonfiction, the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Nonfiction, and  the Leslie Feinberg Award for Trans and Gender-Variant Literature. Geist magazine called On Community  “a heartfelt, funny, wistful read—just conceptually rigorous enough to provoke thought, but without difficult theory or jargon.” Casey and I talk about her terrible author signature, surviving the first days of the new Trump regime, and the shift in approach she is taking with her novel-in-progress. This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus. Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

The ocean has proven endlessly mysterious and fascinating to all manner of people across the globe, but for centuries true knowledge of the depths was simply out of reach. As modern technologies advance, science has debunked much once held to be true – including the idea of the “silent world” of the ocean. What was once thought to be a muffled marine landscape with little to no perceptible sounds has now been revealed to be a complex interplay of aquatic acoustics. In her debut book Sing Like Fish: How Sound Rules Life Under Water, science journalist Amorina Kingdon turns up the volume on groundbreaking discoveries in ocean soundscapes, why this research is important to our ecosystems, and how human impact is playing more of a role than science realized. Sing Like Fish explores how the complexity of oceanic noise goes far deeper than the familiar hits like whale song and crashing currents. Sound travels four times faster in water than in air and its reach in environmental impact is as expansive as the seas themselves. Kingdon educates readers on a plethora of natural sonic relationships that have been recorded under the surface – from individual snapping shrimp and communicating fish to rumbling seismic activity bouncing off the seafloor in regions light cannot reach and the biodiversity concerts that live as coral reefs. These revelations also cast into sharp relief the repercussions of humanity's presence in our seas. Marine noise pollution takes the form of everything from recreational boating and cruise tourism to the global shipping industry to military forces and oil exploration. As science continues to uncover the splendor and nuance of the ocean as an audible entity, Sing Like Fish reinforces the importance of understanding, protecting, and reveling in the symphony of our seas. Amorina Kingdon is an award-winning writer and science journalist with a focused fascination in marine biology and coastal environments. She previously served as staff writer and contributor to Hakai Magazine. Her science writing has been anthologized in Best Canadian Essays 2020 (Biblioasis), and her fiction works have been included in PRISM Magazine, Flash Fiction Magazine, and Speculative North. Buy the Book Sing Like Fish: How Sound Rules Life Under Water Third Place Books

Happy Halloween, everybody! And more than that: welcome to another season of Christmas Past. Yes, it's still Halloween. But that's the perfect time to kick things off, because it gives us a chance to honor the classic Christmas tradition of sharing a ghost story. Our Victorian forebears really loved their ghost stories — for all occasions, but perhaps especially for Christmas. Many magazines of the era published ghost stories specifically for the Christmas season. The stories didn't necessarily involve Christmas; but they were meant to be enjoyed on Christmas Eve, adding a little extra chill to a cold winter's night.Though the tradition has faded, it's not gone altogether. And that's thanks in part to my friends at Biblioasis publishing. Every year, they publish a series of classic ghost stories beautifully illustrated by the acclaimed artist known only as Seth. It's become a yearly tradition here on Christmas Past to start the season off with a story from their current series. In today's story, when a group of tourists visits the deserted island of Podolo, one wants to rescue a feral cat they find there, and the others reluctantly agree. Unfortunately, the rescue proves more difficult than they expect — and they soon discover they're not alone on Podolo. Music in this episode“Didion” — Blue Dot Sessions, via Free Music Archive"Frequency of Sleep Meditation" — Leigh Robinson, via Pixabay"Endless" — MildRelaxation, via PixabayConnect Facebook page Facebook group Instagram Twitter / X Email: christmaspastpodcast@gmail.com Website BookChristmas Past: The Fascinating Stories Behind Our Favorite Holiday's Traditions makes a great gift for all the Christmas lovers in your life. Available in hardcover and audiobook. Find it wherever books are sold, like Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

It's a packed episode filled with all sorts.We begin with a look at the Cornish custom of Star Gazy Pie.  It's not the most appetising pie you'll ever see, but it has a great history.Then our Podcast Barman Bob Baker takes a look at Caskets and Coffins.Next it's our yearly tradition of looking at Seth's Christmas Ghost Stories produced by Biblioasis.If you want to win the latest 3 books in the series email me with the following..."Yeah, I'll ave em".Check out the lovely little books here:https://www.biblioasis.com/product-category/fiction/seths-christmas-ghost-stories/In last episode's quiz I had never heard of the song Christmas Through Your Eyes by Gloria Estefan, so we take a look at the song, which was a B-side to the Miami Mega Mix.Want to watch a badly acted operatic version of A Christmas Carol?  Then check out Mr Scrooge from South Carolina ETV.  Here's a link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d49ucMOKh5sNext up Bob is back with Spread A Smile of Joy and he talks about giving blood.  It's a great way to save a life.Then it's The Christmas Quiz and you get to test yourself against the lovely Jeanie Mulligan from Ireland .Get in touch:Email: totalchristmas@gmail.comWebsite: totalchristmaspodcast.comMerry Christmas!

Today I interview Casey Plett. Plett is the author of multiple works of fiction, including the story collection A Dream of a Woman, the novel Little Fish, which was a winner of a Lambda Literary Award and the Amazon First Novel Award in Canada, and and the story-collection A Safe Girl to Love, also a winner of a Lambda Literary Award. Today, we talk about her new book, On Community (Biblioasis, 2023), which explores the idea of community as a word, a symbol, and a very messy, very human experience of which we're all, in one way or another, a part. Enjoy my conversation with Casey Plett. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Today I interview Casey Plett. Plett is the author of multiple works of fiction, including the story collection A Dream of a Woman, the novel Little Fish, which was a winner of a Lambda Literary Award and the Amazon First Novel Award in Canada, and and the story-collection A Safe Girl to Love, also a winner of a Lambda Literary Award. Today, we talk about her new book, On Community (Biblioasis, 2023), which explores the idea of community as a word, a symbol, and a very messy, very human experience of which we're all, in one way or another, a part. Enjoy my conversation with Casey Plett. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

Today I interview Casey Plett. Plett is the author of multiple works of fiction, including the story collection A Dream of a Woman, the novel Little Fish, which was a winner of a Lambda Literary Award and the Amazon First Novel Award in Canada, and and the story-collection A Safe Girl to Love, also a winner of a Lambda Literary Award. Today, we talk about her new book, On Community (Biblioasis, 2023), which explores the idea of community as a word, a symbol, and a very messy, very human experience of which we're all, in one way or another, a part. Enjoy my conversation with Casey Plett. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/sociology

Today I interview Casey Plett. Plett is the author of multiple works of fiction, including the story collection A Dream of a Woman, the novel Little Fish, which was a winner of a Lambda Literary Award and the Amazon First Novel Award in Canada, and and the story-collection A Safe Girl to Love, also a winner of a Lambda Literary Award. Today, we talk about her new book, On Community (Biblioasis, 2023), which explores the idea of community as a word, a symbol, and a very messy, very human experience of which we're all, in one way or another, a part. Enjoy my conversation with Casey Plett. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/lgbtq-studies

Colleen Coco Collins is an interdisciplinary artist of Irish, French, and Odawa descent, working in songwriting, performance, poetry and visual arts. She's worked as a gallery director, in forestry, fossil preparation, and renovation; as an autism support worker, teacher, and women's shelter counsellor. Her writing, music, and art practice centers on temporality, presumptions of sentience, subversion, rhythm, gesture, and more. Collins has studied at universities in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, New Zealand, and Ireland. She lives in rural Mi'kma'ki, Nova Scotia amidst crows, coyotes, grackles, bees, humpback, lichen and fox. Sorry About the Fire is her poetry debut, published by Biblioasis. https://www.biblioasis.com/shop/new-releases/sorry-about-the-fire/

We're joined today by Josh Cook. Josh is a bookseller and co-owner at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he has worked since 2004. He is the author of the critically acclaimed postmodern detective novel An Exaggerated Murder and most recently of The Art of Libromancy: Selling Books and Reading Books in the Twenty-First Century, published by our friends at Biblioasis.We chat about his work as well as I Hotel by Karen Tei Yamashita, published by Coffee House Press. Some words get thrown around a bit too often and are frequently misapplied. However, I Hotel is absolutely a masterpiece. To give any kind of synopsis is to do the book (and you) a disservice, but in a somewhat quixotic attempt at that: this is a novel comprised of novellas, all set in the San Francisco of the late 60s and early 70s exploring the revolutionary movements (political, cultural, artistic, romantic, and everything that makes life a dazzling experience) of that time and place. It's a wide-ranging conversation and one we hope you'll find as exciting and engaging as we did.Books/authors mentioned (another curriculum for you!):all of Yamashita's other works (Tropic of Cancer is next up for Tom, he thinks)Tell Me How It Ends by Valeria LuiselliWhite Teeth by Zadie SmithNever Did the Fire by Diamela Eltit, translated by Daniel HahnThree Trapped Tigers by G. Cabrera Infante, translated by Donald Gardner and Suzanne Jill LevineThe Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño, translated by Natasha WimmerGravity's Rainbow by Thomas PynchonUnderworld by Don DeLilloInfinite Jest by David Foster WallaceIf you'd like to read a bit more about/from Yamashita, here's a LitHub article Josh wrote “Why Everyone Should Read the Great Karen Tei Yamashita” and another LitHub article on the “The Craft of Writing” by Yamashita herself.To hear more from Josh follow him on Instagram (@joshthelibromancer) and Bluesky (@joshthelibromancer), and follow Porter Square Books on Instagram (@porter_square_books), Bluesky (@portersqbooks), and Threads (@porter_square_books).Click here to subscribe to our Substack and find us on the socials: @lostinredonda just about everywhere.Music: “The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys” by TrafficLogo design: Flynn Kidz Designs

This week, host Jason Jefferies welcomes award-winning author Alex Pugsley back to the program!  Alex discusses his new novel The Education of Aubrey McKee, which is published by our friends at Biblioasis.  Topics of conversation include novels about art and artists, worshipful beginners, people who are not active participants in their own lives, heartbreaking naïveté, comedy vs. horror, pirates, interesting problems, young adult love, loving someone as they become famous, and much more.  Copies of The Education of Aubrey McKee can be ordered here from Page 158 Books in Wake Forest, NC.  

Catherine Leroux is the author of three highly praised novels and an innovative sequence of short stories. Her first novel, La marche en forêt (2011), was a finalist for Quebec's Booksellers' Prize. Her bestselling second novel, The Party Wall, a translation of Le mur mitoyen, won the France–Quebec Prize in the original and, in translation, was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Dublin IMPAC Award. In the United States, The Party Wall was a prestigious Indies Introduce selection. Leroux's story sequence, Madame Victoria, won Quebec's Adrienne Choquette Prize and was a finalist for the Booksellers' Prize. Her novel, L'Avenir, won the Jacques Brossard Prize and was a finalist for the Imaginary Horizons Prize. Catherine Leroux works as a translator and editor in Montreal. She was awarded the 2019 Governor General's Literary Award for Translation. L'Avenir has now been translated into English by Susan Ouriou as The Future. Published by Biblioasis, The Future was released in the fall of 2023.  It is now short listed for CBC's Canada Reads championed by author Heather O'Neill. https://biblioasisbookshop.com/item/N8KJ1y9ScrwyM7ez4DnvLw/lists/L9Zzzb3Vt5iUhttps://www.cbc.ca/books/meet-the-canada-reads-2024-contenders-1.7073689

My guest on this episode is Amy Jones. Amy is the author of What Boys Like, a collection of stories published in 2009 by Biblioasis, and the novels We're All in This Together and Every Little Piece of Me, published in 2016 and 2019, respectively, by McClelland & Stewart. A film version of We're All In this Together, directed by and starring Kate Boland, was released in 2021. Amy's most recent book, Pebble and Dove, was published by McClelland and Stewart in 2023. The Toronto Star called Pebble and Dove “a rollicking read” and said that “as we bid goodbye to Jones' vividly imagined creatures, their weirdly endearing humanity lingers in our minds long after the final page.” Amy and I talk about how her parallel life as a dancer connects with her writing, about the writing career she thought she was going to have after the success of her first novel, and about the fake reality show that keeps making cameos in her novels and that she might one day write a whole book about.   Amy Jones: amyjonesauthor.com Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

Casey Plett is the author of A Dream of a Woman, Little Fish, and A Safe Girl to Love, the co-editor of Meanwhile, Elsewhere: Science Fiction and Fantasy from Transgender Writers, and the publisher at LittlePuss Press. She has written for the New York Times, Harper's Bazaar, the Guardian, the Globe and Mail, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, the Winnipeg Free Press, and other publications. A winner of the Amazon First Novel Award and the Firecracker Award for Fiction, and a two-time winner of the Lambda Literary Award, her work has also been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. On Community is the latest in the Field Notes series published by Biblioasis, and was released in 2023. On Community  has been named one of CBC's "30 Canadian books to read in winter 2024." https://www.cbc.ca/books/30-canadian-books-to-read-in-winter-2024-1.7073501https://caseyplett.wordpress.com/https://www.biblioasis.com/shop/new-releases/on-community/

Mark interviews Josh Cook, Josh Cook, an author, bookseller and the co-owner at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he has worked since 2004 about his writing, his book The Art of Libromancy and his life as a reader and writer. Prior to the interview, Mark reads comments from recent episodes, welcomes new patron Jennifer Brinn, thanks Buy Mark a Coffee patron Nikki Guerlain, shares a personal update, and a word about this episode's sponsor. This episode is sponsored by the books The Art of Libromancy and An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries and Bookstores. Ask for these books via your local indie-owned bookstore or via your local community library. In the interview, Mark and Josh talk about: Josh's earliest days really getting into reading and how he had wanted to be a writer since about the age of 16 After post-secondary education, landing in Boston and deciding that working in a bookstore would be a good place for a writer to work Discovering the "coming soon" and "help wanted" sign on a neighborhood bookstore: Porter Square Books Continuing to build a freelance writing career, crafting articles, reviews, fiction, and poetry Getting his first manuscript into the hands of a publisher that he knew well from his role in bookselling, which was the novel AN EXAGGERATED MURDER The path, via roles such as Online Presence Manager (website and social media) and Marketing Director that led to eventually becoming a co-owner of Porter Square Books The challenge of the most qualified people to take over owning and running a bookstore, the booksellers, often don't have the necessary money, funding, and resources to do so The model that has become a bit more common recently that enables employees the option of becoming a vested co-owner or interest sharing participant in a bookstore The genesis of the book THE ART OF LIBROMANCY The major reckoning that many people had in 2016 when Donald Trump got elected at trying to understand their place in a world that would allow something like that to happen The concept of how the book industry (publishing, bookselling) would continue to empower and legitimize the voices of misogyny, white supremacy, other bigoted ideas How it all clicked after Josh had participated in a virtual event with Biblioasis author Jorge Carrion for the book AGAINST AMAZON AND OTHER ESSAYS Pitching the book to Biblioasis and how the existing relationship and in-depth knowledge Josh had of their publishing house (and their editor's knowledge of Josh himself) led to an instant acceptance of his book proposal The importance of relationships and recommendations from people that you already know, like, and trust - and how that plays a significant role in book projects Elements of human curation that can happen in person within a community, particularly as something that Amazon can't do The idea of a bookstore as a "third place" that is neither home nor work where someone can go and be a human being with other human beings A few of the challenges, both expected and unexpected, that happened when Porter Square Books had to adapt into an online and curb-side order facility during the pandemic How the learned skills of booksellers being able to absorb information and insights about books from publishers, colleagues, and customers, even if they haven't read them, is such an important aspect of a bookseller's role ARCs (Advance Review Copies) as one of the primary ways Josh has of knowing what is on the way Christopher Morley's THE HAUNTED BOOKSHOP and the Melville House edition that Josh first discovered which is a love letter to the art of bookselling How books are great ways to be safely uncomfortable The paradox of tolerance, as expressed by Karl Popper in THE OPEN SOCIETY AND ITS ENEMIES: If you tolerate the intolerable, your space will eventually become intolerant A bookseller's role within that paradox of allowing tolerance for voices that seek fresh voices, but prevent those voices whose mandate is to shut-down or not allow diverse voices the ability to be expressed Josh's perspective of how publishers, authors, bookstores and others within the industry involved in this process are all teammates working together to get books to readers Strategies authors can use to establish genuine relationships with their local community bookstores And more . . .   After the interview Mark reflects on walking away from fascinating conversations with a list of books to read, some of the parallels between Josh's journey into bookselling and his own, and how the employee-to-owner situation also parallels the change-of-ownerships of Words Worth Books, a local indie bookstore in Waterloo that Mark adores.   Links of Interest: Josh Cook on Social Media: BlueSky Social Instagram The Art of Libromancy (Biblioasis) An Exaggerated Murder Porter Square Books (Cambridge and Boston) Words Worth Books (Waterloo, ON) Me and White Supremacy by Layla Saad An Author's Guide to Working With Bookstores and Libraries Smashwords Link (eBook 57% Off until end of Feb 2024) Mark's YouTube Channel Buy Mark a Coffee Patreon for Stark Reflections How to Access Patreon RSS Feeds Superstars Writing Seminars How to Write a Howling Good Story Smashwords link Patron Coupon for 75% off The Relaxed Author Buy eBook Direct Buy Audiobook Direct Publishing Pitfalls for Authors An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores Wide for the Win Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books This Time Around (Short Story) A Canadian Werewolf in New York Stowe Away (Novella) Fear and Longing in Los Angeles Fright Nights, Big City Lover's Moon Hex and the City The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard   Josh Cook is a bookseller and co-owner at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he has worked since 2004. He is also author of the critically acclaimed postmodern detective novel An Exaggerated Murder and his fiction, criticism, and poetry have appeared in numerous leading literary publications. He grew up in Lewiston, Maine and lives in Somerville, Massachusetts.   The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

We mark the death of poet and social activist Benjamin Zephaniah and talk about a new literary prize to be awarded by US prison inmates; author Don Gillmor joins us on his provocative new novel, Breaking and Entering, Canadian publisher Biblioasis' submission for the 2023 Republic of Consciousness Prize.

My guest on this episode is Randy Boyagoda. Randy is the author of six books, including the novels Governor of the Northern Province, Beggar's Feast, and Original Prin, and a scholarly biography of Richard John Neuhaus. His work has been nominated for the Giller Prize and for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize. He frequently writes for the New York Times, the Atlantic, the Walrus, Financial Times and Guardian, as well as many other places. He is former President of PEN Canada and is currently a member of The Walrus Educational Review Committee and a professor at the University of Toronto, where he is also a Vice-Dean in the Faculty of Arts and Science Randy's most recent novel, Dante's Indiana, was published by Biblioasis in 2021. The Wall Street Journal said that the novel “juxtaposes the ridiculous and the sublime—fitting as both an homage to Dante and a portrayal of America.” Randy and I talk about why he consciously shifted his fiction away from sprawling, multi-generational novels of immigration toward more pointed social satire, why he had to take time off from his day job, during a critical time at work, in order to complete the edits on Dante's Indiana, even though he knew that meant it would be published in the middle of a pandemic, and why he has no real plans – yet - to complete the trilogy that began with Original Prin and Dante's Indiana. We also talk about the cultural and social significance of... pickleball.   Dante's Indiana at Biblioasis.com Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

This week, host Jason Jefferies welcomes back Ray Robertson, author of All the Years Combine: The Grateful Dead in Fifty Shows, which is published by our friends at Biblioasis.  Topics of conversation include how a Grateful Dead concert is like life, the Grateful Dead vs. Taylor Swift and Beyonce, Bob Weir's approach to guitar vs. Jerry Garcia's, Phil Lesh as a cantankerous guy, tribute bands, the Grateful Dead's decision to record their shows, and much more.  Copies of All the Years Combine can be purchased here with FREE SHIPPING for members of Explore More+. 

It's a packed show for you boys and girls.First up Bob Baker, our self-appointed podcast barman, looks at how us Brits use the word Diary.Then it's the quiz, and this episode trying his arm at the questions we have Adam Kennedy.  Adam has a comedy Christmas album that is well worth a listen so check it out here:https://adamkennedy.bandcamp.com/album/literally-shrunk-down-and-living-in-my-christmas-villageNext up it's Jack Ask and this time the question comes from our Scandinavian American correspondent Benji Pearson.Then we have a joke from Benji.After that we find out who won the 'A Ghost Story for Christmas' books by Biblioasis that we offered in the last episode.  Juno helps us pick the winner.If you want to check them out, here's a link:https://www.biblioasis.com/shop/fiction/short-fiction/christmas-ghost-stories-3-pack-2023/and if you want to listen to Juno's podcast check it out here:anchor.fm/notcomplainingThen Bob is back with Christmas Everyday with a wonderful tradition you can keep on your shelf and did into for a bit of Christmas nostalgia.Have a listen to Bob's podcast here:https://4fpodcast.buzzsprout.com/This episodes version of A Christmas Carol is an episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and, despite it being one of the loosest versions I've seen, it's brilliant.Ed Daly comes on and helps me discuss it.If you want to check out Ed's fantastic Christmas book, here's a link:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Christmas-Book-Ultimate-Favorite-Holiday/dp/B09HS14DFMIf you want to get in touch, I'd love to hear from you.email: totalchristmas@gmail.comweb: totalchristmaspodcast.comMerry Christmas

This week on The Maris Review, Casey Plett joins Maris Kreizman to discuss On Community, out now from Biblioasis. Casey Plett is the author of A Dream of a Woman, Little Fish, and A Safe Girl to Love, the co-editor of Meanwhile, Elsewhere: Science Fiction and Fantasy From Transgender Writers, and the publisher at LittlePuss Press. Her new book is the 8th book in the Field Notes series from Biblioasis, and it's called On Community. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Don Gillmor is the author of To the River, which won the Governor General's Award for non-fiction. He is the author of three novels: Breaking and Entering, Long Change, Mount Pleasant, and Kanata. He is also the author of a two-volume history of Canada, Canada: A People's History, and has written nine books for children, two of which were nominated for a Governor General's Award. He was a senior editor at Walrus magazine, and his journalism has appeared in Rolling Stone, GQ, Walrus, Saturday Night, Toronto Life, the Globe and Mail, and the Toronto Star. He has won twelve National Magazine Awards and numerous other honours. He lives in Toronto. His latest book is Breaking and Entering, published by Biblioasis in 2023. Don was a featured author at this year's BookFest/Festival du Livre Windsor, October 12th-15th in Windsor, Ontario. https://www.biblioasis.com/brand/gillmor-don/http://www.dongillmor.ca/

It's episode 95 and it's a corker!We begin by following up on last weeks episode when Benji Pearson mentioned an old long forgotten Christmas song about the 3 wise men.  He hasn't been able to find a recording so he's gone and done it himself.Then it's Jack Ask and I sort out some Christmas conundrums for listener Travis.Next up it's Bob Baker and Cav has suggested a high tech way of keeping it Christmas all year long.Then it's The Christmas Quiz and we have Ed Daly on to see how well he can score.Ed is the author of The Christmas Book: The ultimate guide to your favorite holiday.Here's a link:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Christmas-Book-Ultimate-Favorite-Holiday/dp/B09HS14DFMFor this episode's Do You Hear What I Hear, Bob looks at the word 'Corker'.Check out Festive Foreign Film Fans here:https://4fpodcast.buzzsprout.com/Then it's our annual look at classic British Christmas songs that may or may not have made it across to the US.  And in this episode we also have a perspective from New Zealand, both Duane Bailey and Scott Newman from Tinsel Tunes have a listen and see if they know these 6 classics.Have a listen to Tinsel Tunes here:https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tinseltunesA couple of episodes ago I had the competition to win some little spooky ghost stories for Christmas, and now I have 3 more to give away.If you want to win them contact me with the following 4 words: "Yeah, I'll 'ave 'em" and they could be yours.Check out these lovely little books from Biblioasis here:https://www.biblioasis.com/shop/fiction/short-fiction/christmas-ghost-stories-3-pack-2023/Get in touch:email: totalchristmas@gmail.comweb: totalchristmaspodcast.comMerry Christmas

Lisa Alward grew up in Halifax during the 1960s and 70s. She worked in literary publishing in Toronto in the 80s and began writing fiction at 50. Her stories have won The Fiddlehead Prize and the Peter Hinchcliffe Short Fiction Award and have appeared in Best Canadian Stories and The Journey Prize Stories, as well as literary journals such as The New Quarterly, The Fiddlehead, untethered, Prairie Fire, and Exile. She lives with her husband, John, near the Wolastoq River in Fredericton.  Cocktail is her first book, published by Biblioasis. More information here: https://www.biblioasis.com/shop/fiction/short-fiction/cocktail/Lisa's website: https://www.lisaalward.com/More about BookFest / Festival du Livre Windsor 2023 here:  https://www.literaryartswindsor.ca/bookfest/

For the last forty-five years, the distinguished poets Molly Peacock and Phillis Levin have read and discussed nearly every poem they've written-an unparalleled friendship in poetry. In A Friend Sails in on a Poem (Palimpsest Press, 2022), Peacock collects her most important essays on poetic form and traces the development of her formalist aesthetic across their lifelong back-and-forth. Peacock offers a charming, psychologically wise, and metaphorically piquant look at navigating craft and creativity. This is a book both for serious poets as well as for anyone who wants a deep dive into the impact of friendship on art itself. Levin's most recent work, Mr. Memory and Other Poems, tackles themes of memory and longing and is as expansive and is it detailed. Another unique aspect of this already rare friendship is that they shared a therapist - one who was so beloved that, when she had a stroke and had to close her practice, both Peacock and Levin felt bereft like they'd lost a mother. In a fascinating role reversal, Peacock cared for her therapist after her stroke, and wrote magnificently about the experience and their years-long relationship prior to Joan's stroke in The Analyst (W. W. Nortton and Company, 2017).  Peacock is a poet, biographer, and memoirist whose literary life has taken her from New York City to Toronto, from lyric self-examination to curiosity about the lives of others, from poetry to prose and back again to poetry. In A Friend Sails in on a Poem she describes her decades-long friendship with distinguished poet Phillis Levin, quoting their poetry and outlining her personal rules for poetic form. In addition to The Analyst, Peacock's poetry collections include Cornucopia: New and Selected Poems from Biblioasis and W.W. Norton and Company. She is the founder of The Best Canadian Poetry series and the co-founder of Poetry in Motion on New York's subways and buses. Her poems have appeared in leading literary journals such as Poetry, The New Yorker, The Malahat Review, The Women's Review of Books, and Plume and are anthologized in The Oxford Book of American Poetry. She has written two books about creativity in the lives of women artists: The Paper Garden and Flower Diary. Peacock teaches online for the Unterberg Poetry Center at 92NY. You can learn more about Megan Wildhood at meganwildhood.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

For the last forty-five years, the distinguished poets Molly Peacock and Phillis Levin have read and discussed nearly every poem they've written-an unparalleled friendship in poetry. In A Friend Sails in on a Poem (Palimpsest Press, 2022), Peacock collects her most important essays on poetic form and traces the development of her formalist aesthetic across their lifelong back-and-forth. Peacock offers a charming, psychologically wise, and metaphorically piquant look at navigating craft and creativity. This is a book both for serious poets as well as for anyone who wants a deep dive into the impact of friendship on art itself. Levin's most recent work, Mr. Memory and Other Poems, tackles themes of memory and longing and is as expansive and is it detailed. Another unique aspect of this already rare friendship is that they shared a therapist - one who was so beloved that, when she had a stroke and had to close her practice, both Peacock and Levin felt bereft like they'd lost a mother. In a fascinating role reversal, Peacock cared for her therapist after her stroke, and wrote magnificently about the experience and their years-long relationship prior to Joan's stroke in The Analyst (W. W. Nortton and Company, 2017).  Peacock is a poet, biographer, and memoirist whose literary life has taken her from New York City to Toronto, from lyric self-examination to curiosity about the lives of others, from poetry to prose and back again to poetry. In A Friend Sails in on a Poem she describes her decades-long friendship with distinguished poet Phillis Levin, quoting their poetry and outlining her personal rules for poetic form. In addition to The Analyst, Peacock's poetry collections include Cornucopia: New and Selected Poems from Biblioasis and W.W. Norton and Company. She is the founder of The Best Canadian Poetry series and the co-founder of Poetry in Motion on New York's subways and buses. Her poems have appeared in leading literary journals such as Poetry, The New Yorker, The Malahat Review, The Women's Review of Books, and Plume and are anthologized in The Oxford Book of American Poetry. She has written two books about creativity in the lives of women artists: The Paper Garden and Flower Diary. Peacock teaches online for the Unterberg Poetry Center at 92NY. You can learn more about Megan Wildhood at meganwildhood.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

For the last forty-five years, the distinguished poets Molly Peacock and Phillis Levin have read and discussed nearly every poem they've written-an unparalleled friendship in poetry. In A Friend Sails in on a Poem (Palimpsest Press, 2022), Peacock collects her most important essays on poetic form and traces the development of her formalist aesthetic across their lifelong back-and-forth. Peacock offers a charming, psychologically wise, and metaphorically piquant look at navigating craft and creativity. This is a book both for serious poets as well as for anyone who wants a deep dive into the impact of friendship on art itself. Levin's most recent work, Mr. Memory and Other Poems, tackles themes of memory and longing and is as expansive and is it detailed. Another unique aspect of this already rare friendship is that they shared a therapist - one who was so beloved that, when she had a stroke and had to close her practice, both Peacock and Levin felt bereft like they'd lost a mother. In a fascinating role reversal, Peacock cared for her therapist after her stroke, and wrote magnificently about the experience and their years-long relationship prior to Joan's stroke in The Analyst (W. W. Nortton and Company, 2017).  Peacock is a poet, biographer, and memoirist whose literary life has taken her from New York City to Toronto, from lyric self-examination to curiosity about the lives of others, from poetry to prose and back again to poetry. In A Friend Sails in on a Poem she describes her decades-long friendship with distinguished poet Phillis Levin, quoting their poetry and outlining her personal rules for poetic form. In addition to The Analyst, Peacock's poetry collections include Cornucopia: New and Selected Poems from Biblioasis and W.W. Norton and Company. She is the founder of The Best Canadian Poetry series and the co-founder of Poetry in Motion on New York's subways and buses. Her poems have appeared in leading literary journals such as Poetry, The New Yorker, The Malahat Review, The Women's Review of Books, and Plume and are anthologized in The Oxford Book of American Poetry. She has written two books about creativity in the lives of women artists: The Paper Garden and Flower Diary. Peacock teaches online for the Unterberg Poetry Center at 92NY. You can learn more about Megan Wildhood at meganwildhood.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/poetry

In a special summertime "minisode" of All Write in Sin City, we connect with our friend and poet Kevin Spenst to find out what can happen on a no-holds-barred poetic romp across Canada. When he visited Windsor, he performed at the City of Windsor's birthday celebrations with our Poets Laureate, at the Art Windsor-Essex Gallery, and at Biblioasis bookstore. He was recorded live by Kim Conklin and interviewed by Irene Moore Davis. Kim Conklin and Sarah Jarvis did the editing (Kim did most of the editing - sj). Kevin Spenst, a Pushcart Poetry nominee, is the author of Ignite, Jabbering with Bing Bong, and Hearts Amok: a Memoir in Verse (all with Anvil Press), and over a dozen chapbooks including Surrey Sonnets (JackPine Press), Upend (Frog Hollow Press) and a holm with the Alfred Gustav Press coming out at the end of 2022. In 2019, he was writer-in-residence at the Joy Kogawa House. His work has won the Lush Triumphant Award for Poetry, been nominated for both the Alfred G. Bailey Prize and the Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry, and has appeared in dozens of publications including Event, the Malahat Review, Prairie Fire, CV2, the Rusty Toque, Lemon Hound, Poetry is Dead, and the anthologies Best Canadian Poetry 2019, Best Canadian Poetry 2020 and Sweet Water: Poems for the Watersheds. He co-organizes the Dead Poets Reading Series, writes a chapbook column in subTerrain magazine, is an occasional co-host with RC Weslowski on Wax Poetic on Co-op Radio, teaches Creative Writing at Vancouver Community College and is the 2022 Poetry Mentor at SFU's Writers Studio. He lives in Vancouver on unceded Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh territory.https://kevinspenst.com/about/

Dr. Heidi L.M. Jacobs was born and raised in Edmonton. A graduate of the University of Alberta, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Western University, she is currently a librarian at the University of Windsor as well as an award-winning writer and documentary producer. Her previous books include the novel Molly of the Mall: Literary Lass and Purveyor of Fine Footwear (NeWest Press, 2019), which won the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour in 2020, and 100 Miles of Baseball: Fifty Games, One Summer (with Dale Jacobs, Biblioasis, 2021). She is one of the researchers behind the award-winning Breaking the Colour Barrier: Wilfred “Boomer” Harding & the Chatham Coloured All-Stars project. Her new book, published by Biblioasis, is 1934: The Chatham Coloured All-Stars' Barrier-Breaking Year.https://www.biblioasis.com/brand/jacobs-heidi-lm/

Well, we did it: One whole episode just about baseball and books about baseball and baseball memories and anything else baseball. Caitlin Luce Baker of Island Books, James Crossley of Madison Books, and Dan Wells of Biblioasis join Chad W. Post from Open Letter to pick their "all-time favorite" books about baseball.  This week's music is "The Yips" and "Eraseable Man" by The Baseball Project. Caitlin's Picks: The Cultural History of Baseball by Jonathan Fraser Light The Brothers K by David James Duncan Ball Four: My Life and Hard Times Throwing the Knuckleball in the Big Leagues  by Jim Bouton The Physics of Baseball by Robert K. Adair Alan Nathan's blog, The Physics of Baseball The Church of Baseball: The Making of Bull Durham by Ron Shelton Away Games: The Life and Times of a Latin Ballplayer by Marcos Bretón and José Luis Villegas Lords of the Realm by John Helyar   Dan's Picks: Keystone Kids by John R. Tunis Fail Better: Why Baseball Matters by Mark Kingwell 1934: The Chatham Coloured All-Stars' Barrier-Breaking Year by Heidi LM Jacobs   James's Picks: All of Roger Angell A False Spring & A Nice Tuesday by Pat Jordan The Utility of Boredom by Andrew Forbes The Celebrant by Eric Rolfe Greenberg We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball by Kadir Nelson Dock Ellis in the Country of Baseball by Donald Hall   Chad's Picks: Baseball Genius by Derek Jeter The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop. by Robert Coover The Phenomenon: Pressure, the Yips, and the Pitch that Changed My Life by Rick Ankiel Believeniks!: 2005: The Year We Wrote a Book About the Mets by Ivan Felt and Harris Conklin   If you don't already subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast you can find us on iTunes, Stitcher, and other places. And follow Open Letter and Chad W. Post on Twitter(?????) for more info about upcoming episodes and guests.

Stephen Marche is a novelist, essayist, and cultural commentator. He is the author of half a dozen books, and has written opinion pieces and essays for The New Yorker, the New York Times, The Atlantic, Esquire, The Walrus, and many others. He lives in Toronto with his wife and children. On Writing and Failure is his latest book, and it is the latest in a series of essays call the Field Notes published by Biblioasis. http://www.stephenmarche.com/https://www.biblioasis.com/brand/marche-stephen/

Emily Urquhart is a journalist with a doctorate in folklore. Her award-winning work has appeared in Longreads, Guernica, and The Walrus, and elsewhere, and her first book was shortlisted for the Kobo First Book Prize and the BC National Award for Canadian Nonfiction. Her most recent book, The Age of Creativity: Art, Memory, my Father and Me, was listed as a top book of 2020 by CBC, NOW Magazine and Quill & Quire. She is a nonfiction editor for The New Quarterly and lives in Kitchener, Ontario. Her new book, Ordinary Wonder Tales, published by Biblioasis, explores the truths that underlie the stories we imagine, and reveals the magic in the everyday. “Wonder tales” is the Irish term for fairy tales. http://emilyurquhart.ca/https://www.biblioasis.com/shop/non-fiction/memoir/ordinary-wonder-tales/

Blair Austin was born in Michigan. A former prison librarian, he is a graduate of the Helen Zell Writers' Program at the University of Michigan where he won Hopwood awards for Fiction and Essay. He lives in Massachusetts. Dioramas is his first novel. It won the Dzanc Prize for Fiction in 2021. https://www.dzancbooks.org/all-titles/p/dioramasIn a city far in the future, in a society that has come through a great upheaval, retired lecturer Wiggins moves from window to window in a museum, intricately describing each scene. Whales gliding above a shipwreck and a lost cup and saucer. An animatronic forest twenty stories tall. urban wolves in the light of an apartment building. A line of mosquitoes in uniforms and regalia, honored as heroes of the last great war.Bit by bit, Wiggins unspools the secrets of his world—the conflict that brought it to the brink, and the great thinker, Michaux, who led the diorama revolution, himself now preserved under glass.After a phone call in the middle of the night, Wiggins sets out to visit the Diorama of the Town: an entire, dioramic world, hundreds of miles across, where people are objects of curiosity, taxidermied and posed. All his life, Wiggins has longed to see it. But in the Town, he comes face to face with the diorama's contradictions. Its legacy of political violence. Its manipulation by those with power and money. And its paper-thin promise of immortality.In this hybrid novel—part essay, part prose poem, part travel narrative—Blair Austin brings us nose to the glass with our own vanishing world, what we preserve and at what cost. Ben Van Dongen: Born in Windsor, Ben spent many years thinking about writing and becoming an author without doing any of the actual work. Eventually, he figured he should give it a try, and after more time being bad at writing, he managed to write some books he's proud of. Snow from a Distant Sky is Book Five in his science fiction series, The Synthetic Albatross. Currently the book is available at Biblioasis, or you can order it online.https://benwltp.wordpress.com/https://biblioasisbookshop.com/item/2yThqHuKelrII0-XD9yJ0Q

Welcome back! In this second episode we discuss some literary news, specifically the passing of Nobel laureate Kenzaburo Oe and the US/Canada edition of the Republic of Consciousness Prize (chaired by our Lori Feathers) before moving onto a conversation on Tristan Egolf's Kornwolf. In the Marías portion we chat some more about Redonda and dive into All Souls and Dark Back of Time. Bonus points if you can guess exactly when we recorded this episode (hint: lime-sized hail in Dallas is a pretty good giveaway).If you're interested in giving the Republic of Consciousness longlist event a listen (and we know you are!), here's a link to a recording of that event.And if you're eager to hear more about Redonda and Try Not to be Strange (from one of our favorite presses, Biblioasis), here's a link to Lori's other podcast, Across the Pond, and the episode where she and Sam Jordison of Galley Beggar Press chat with Michael Hingston.Books mentioned in this episode: A Personal Matter by Kenzaburo Oe, translated by John Nathan The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan the works of Amelia Gray Tristan Egolf's other novels: Skirt & the Fiddle and Lord of the Barnyard Try Not to Be Strange: The Curious History of the Kingdom of Redonda by Michael Hingston A Companion to Javier Marías by David K. HerzbergerClick here to subscribe to our Substack and do follow us on the socials, @lostinredonda across most apps (Twitter and Instagram for now; we're coming for you eventually #booktok).Music: “Estos Dias” by Enrique UrquijoLogo design: Flynn Kidz Designs

Ray Robertson is the author of nine novels, four collections of non-fiction, and a book of poetry. His work has been nominated for several awards and have been translated into many languages. His non-fiction work, Why Not? Fifteen Reasons to Live has been made into a film. Born and raised in Chatham, Ontario, he lives in Toronto. Estates Large and Small is his latest book, published by Windsor publisher Biblioasis. http://biblioasis.com/brand/robertson-ray/https://rayrobertson.com/Note: our teammate Irene Moore Davis could not join us for this recording, hence Ray referring to "both" Kim and Sarah! 

Karl Jirgens, Professor Emeritus, former English Department Head and former Chair of the Creative Writing Program (University of Windsor), is author of three books of fiction and two scholarly books (Coach House, Mercury, ECW and The Porcupine's Quill Presses). He edited two books (on painter Jack Bush, and poet Christopher Dewdney), plus the “Collaborations” issue of Open Letter magazine with Beatriz Hausner. His scholarly and creative works are published globally. Jirgens edited and published Rampike, an international journal of art, writing, and theory from 1979 to 2016, now digitally archived (free) on the University of Windsor Leddy Library scholars' portal. Rampike contributors have been ground-breaking artists, writers, and theorists, including nominees and winners of awards such as the Booker, Commonwealth, Orange, Pulitzer, Dublin Impac, Giller, Trillium, Writer's Trust, and Governor General's Award, among other prizes. Jirgens serves on the Editorial Board of ellipse magazine. He is a long-time practitioner and grand-master (8th Degree Black Belt) of the martial art of Tae Kwon Do. He recently had a chapbook published by Above Ground Press featuring three stories, titled, Eco Blues: A Tale in 3 Parts, and it has recently been announced that his work will be featured in the 2023 edition of Best Canadian Poetry, published by Biblioasis. His short fiction collection, The Razor's Edge, was recently released by The Porcupine's Quill Press in 2022. Karl lives in Windsor, Ontario.(https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/rampike/about.html)https://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2022/02/new-from-aboveground-press-eco-blues.html?fbclid=IwAR1sY-1Pyr6EPUGSV1aqK2XqBK5RpZpOfcKYeP6Dwi_K69FzQWk-p2oBnjAhttps://porcupinesquill.ca//bookinfo6.php?index=369About Gas of Tank: A Canadian Law Enforcement Odyssey 1979 – 2019:Todd Ternovan believed in keeping things simple: Marrying his college sweetheart, studying Early Childhood Education at Ryerson University, spending his professional life as a daycare teacher. It was a tidy plan. Except for one thing: Man plans and the gods laugh.To fund his life and education in Toronto, Todd worked a part-time job—as a corrections officer at the infamous Don Jail.Although he spent a few years working with kids, Todd's experience in corrections propelled him into a 33-year career within Canadian law enforcement.Small-town policing isn't just rescuing cats from trees and performing wellness checks. The concession roads and rural routes of southwestern Ontario are home to some incredibly kind, resilient people, and scene to some strange, tragic and heinous events. Todd dealt with them all, from the naked machete-wielding man who claimed to be Jesus Christ, to armed American fugitives, decades-old sexual assaults, harrowing traffic accidents, violent home invasions, and even a year spent “Uncle Charlie” (undercover) investigating drug traffickers.The title comes from a phrase uttered by a motorcycle gang member who demonstrated his disdain for police by pulling a “wheelie” on his motorcycle following a traffic stop. The biker was charged with stunt driving. In his defense in court, the biker said, in a thick French accent: “It was not possible for me to a pull a ‘wheelie,' Your Worship. I had a full gas of tank!”“Gas of Tank” embodies, for Todd, all the surreal, upside-down, unbelievable, description-defying experiences police face daily.Written by Matt St AmandFreelance writer: Writer / Videographer. Father and husband with a slowly improving track record. Fan of Ultraman (Hayata series), Aphex Twin and

Is failure an inherent part of the writing "enterprise"? Yes, I'd say, this is undoubtedly true. If seen, however, solely as an "exercise" in itself, does this still hold true? I'm not quite so sure.   These are the axes along which I tread during my conversation with Stephen Marche about his valuable new book On Writing and Failure: Or, On the Peculiar Perseverance Required to Endure the Life of a Writer, an essay published by Biblioasis.    We talk about, among other things, fulfillment, learning, self-knowledge, horse-feathers, attention, Jesus, Beckett, privacy, connection, writing and failure of course, intention, recognition, fame, meaning, communication, money, futility, perseverance, success, publishing, expletives, essays, Confucius, Socrates, Samuel Johnson, depression, mental health and illness, comfort, getting your balls cut off, fame, mock executions, resonance, and the cure for cosmic loneliness. 

John Metcalf is angry that after working in Canada as a "storyteller, editor, novelist, essayist, and critic" for more than fifty years his books still only sell about 500 copies each. Regardless of this, he's made a significant contribution to Canadian literature through his editing, teaching, critiquing, compiling of anthologies, publishing, and promotion generally of Canadian writers and the short story form. His work is known for its satire, intense emotion and imagery. In fact, his whole career can be said - John says it himself in Temerity and Gall, the book we discuss here today - to have been an extended conversation with Ezra Pound's Imagism. In our chronological conversation we examine John's life (he was born in 1938) starting with England and his relationship with his father, clergyman Thomas Metcalf; we talk about John's work with Oberon Press, ECW, Porqupine's Quill, and Biblioasis; about him teaching in the Montreal school system and almost dying of boredom, about publishing textbooks, and drinking with Mordecai Richler; about Michael Macklem (some people think he was a dick); about early catastrophes with Jack David and Robert Lecker, a lack of communication with Tim Inkster, and a love of Dan Wells's ambition. It's not all just juicy Canadian publishing gossip however, we also discuss James Joyce and the advent of film and modernism, Hemingway's first short story and the misspelling of his name, the serious ideas that underpin John's writing and editorial practice, and the success he's enjoyed, over many decades, of getting important books published. And finally, in the end, there's his patient, respectful wife Myrna working in the other room.

It's December, that means it's officially Christmas and you don't have to be ashamed of listening to the podcast.First up Bob Baker is explaining the term 'Tuck in'.Then we have an interview with Brian Earl of the Christmas Past podcast.  He's got a book out that is ideal for anyone who loves the interesting history of Christmas.Here's a link:https://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Past-Fascinating-Favorite-Traditions/dp/149306939XThen we have the quiz and you can compete with our US correspondent Scott Newman.  He has two great Christmas podcasts, check them out...https://anchor.fm/tinseltuneshttps://www.christmasmorningpodcast.com/Then Bob Baker gives us some more great Christmas activities going on in Wonderful Christmastime.This week's version of A Christmas Carol is an episode of WKRP in Cincinnati, called Bah Humbug.  I'm joined by Ed Daly the author of The Christmas Book: The Ultimate Guide To Your Favourite Holiday.Here's a link to the episode:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vZwQ4ydd8AAnd here's a link to Ed's book:https://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Book-Ultimate-Favorite-Holiday/dp/B09HS14DFMLast year I recommended some great little Christmas ghost story books from Biblioasis called Seth's Christmas Ghost Stories.  They've added even more books to the collection this year.Check them out here:http://biblioasis.com/product-category/fiction/seths-christmas-ghost-stories/This episode's recommendation is Thursday Night's Alright by Jack Andrews.  Just download it.https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thursday-Nights-Alright-Jack-Andrews-ebook/dp/B0BLW93NTK/If you want to get in touch, here's the website:totalchristmas@gmail.comHere's the email:totalchristmas@gmail.comMerry Christmas

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by Ray Robertson, author of Estates Large and Small, which is published by our friends at Biblioasis.  Topics of conversation include Biblioasis, the Grateful Dead, Hunterisms, virtual bookstores, leadership in the COVID-era, the used book business, the value of literary fiction in contemporary society, impersonations, and much more.  Copies of Estates Large and Small can be ordered here with FREE SHIPPING for members of Explore More+.  

Kim Conklin was a guest at my Oct 12 book launch for River, Diverted and I went down to Windsor to read with her at Biblioasis last week. Love meeting and getting to know new authors in person! On today's show we discuss her debut novel, King of Hope.

This conversation is with Rinaldo Walcott, who teaches in the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at University of Toronto, where he is the director of the Women and Gender Studies Institute. He is the author and editor of a number of books, including Black Like Who? Writing Black Canada (1997), Rude: Contemporary Black Canadian Cultural Criticism (2000), Queer Returns: Essays on Multiculturalism, Diaspora, and Black Studies (2016) - all with Insomniac Press), On Property (2021) with Biblioasis, and most recently The Long Emancipation: Moving Toward Black Freedom, published with Duke University Press and the occasion for our conversation today. In our conversation here, we explore the relationship between emancipation and freedom, the enigma of time in Black freedom struggle, music and meaning, expression and mobilization, and the complexity of pessimism in our long-age of antiblack violence. Cover art, discussed at the beginning of the podcast, is "A Single Section: The Journey #2" (2016) by Torkwase Dyson.

This week, Host Jason Jefferies is joined by Bookin' favorite Alex Pugsley, author of Shimmer, which is published by our friends at Biblioasis.  Topics of conversation include the James Joyce of Canada, 7-11, flip-phones, the Friends drinking game, pornography, Marlboro Ultra Lights, Courtney Love, guitar tablature, and much more.  Copies of Shimmer can be ordered here.  

A special episode for you in the midst of the Fall Literary Festival Season! The wonderful poets Luke Hathaway and Alexandra Oliver recently appeared at Biblioasis Bookstore. Their publisher, Dan Wells introduces them. Episode edited for length. Enjoy these dynamic readings!Luke Hathaway is a trans poet, librettist, and theatre maker. His mythopoeic word-worlds have given rise to new choral works by Colin Labadie, James Rolfe, and Zachary Wadsworth, among others, and to the folk opera The Sign of Jonas, a collaboration with Benton Roark. He is the author of four books of poems, one of which (Years, Months, and Days, 2018) was named a Best Book of the Year in the New York Times. He works with Daniel Cabena as part of the metamorphosing ensemble ANIMA to create and commission new works inspired by early music sources.He teaches creative writing and English literature at Saint Mary's University in Kjipuktuk/Halifax. He also appeared at BookFest / Festival du Livre Windsor in October, 2022. http://biblioasis.com/brand/hathaway-luke/Alexandra Oliver was born in Vancouver, BC. She is the author of three collections published through Biblioasis: Meeting the Tormentors in Safeway (2013; recipient of the Pat Lowther Memorial Award), Let the Empire Down ( 2016), and Hail, the Invisible Watchman (2022). Her libretto for From the Diaries of William Lyon Mackenzie King, conceived in conjunction with composer Scott Wilson at the University of Birmingham, was performed by Continuum Music in Toronto in December, 2017. Oliver is a past co-editor of Measure for Measure: An Anthology of Poetic Meters (Everyman's Library/Random House, 2015) as well as of the formalist journal The Rotary Dial. She has performed her work for CBC Radio and NPR, as well as at The National Poetry Slam and a murder of festivals and conferences. Oliver holds an M.F.A in Creative Writing from the University of Southern Maine's Stonecoast program and a Ph.D. in English and Cultural Studies from McMaster University. She lives in Burlington, Ontario with her husband and son.http://biblioasis.com/brand/oliver-alexandra/

In today's story, our hero finds himself stranded on Christmas Eve, alone in an abandoned ship. But is he really alone? It's "Christmas Eve on a Haunted Hulk," published by Biblioasis, and illustrated by the acclaimed cartoonist, Seth.  Mentioned in This Episode http://biblioasis.com/product-category/fiction/seths-christmas-ghost-stories/ Music in This Episode "This Christmas" — Hot Music, via Pixabay "ghost" — nojisuma, via Pixabay "Elf Meditation" — Kevin MacLeod, via Incompetech Buy the Christmas Past Book! Order your copy today. And remember...it makes a great gift! Amazon Barnes & Noble Books-a-Million IndieBound Share a Christmas memory  Be on the podcast! Just record a voice memo into your phone and send it to christmaspastpodcast@gmail.com. Keep it reasonably short, clean and family friendly, and be sure to say your name and where you're from.  Keep in touch christmaspastpodcast@gmail.com Facebook page Facebook group Twitter Instagram Website

Time for another ghost story! This one is more sentimental than spooky. It's The Corner Shop, in which a man buys a trinket in a curio shop that turns out to be worth a lot more than he bargained for. It's part of this year's series of ghost stories for Christmas from my friends at Biblioasis.  Mentioned in This Episode http://biblioasis.com/product-category/fiction/seths-christmas-ghost-stories/ Music in This Episode Christmas Story — Lesfm, via Pixabay Mystery 70 MIX — Stock Studio, via Pixabay Endless by PrabajithK — Mild Relaxation, via Pixabay Buy the Christmas Past Book! Order your copy today. And remember...it makes a great gift! Amazon Barnes & Noble Books-a-Million IndieBound Share a Christmas memory  Be on the podcast! Just record a voice memo into your phone and send it to christmaspastpodcast@gmail.com. Keep it reasonably short, clean and family friendly, and be sure to say your name and where you're from.  Keep in touch christmaspastpodcast@gmail.com Facebook page Facebook group Twitter Instagram Website

It's story time once again. Snuggle up, but beware of things that go bump in the night! Today, we're taking a trip of the imagination to a cemetery in France. The dead there are resting peacefully, until a new railway wakes them up! An old priest tries to help them return to rest while he helps the soul of a recently dead countess to find peace. It's Gertrude Atherton's "The Dead and the Countess." This story is part of Biblioasis's 2022 set of Ghost Stories for Christmas, designed and decorated by the acclaimed cartoonist known only as Seth. Mentioned in This Episode Biblioasis Ghost Stories for Christmas: 2022 Edition Music in This Episode "Christmas Day" — Alex MakeMusic, via Pixabay "Creepy Music Box" — SoundGalleryByDmitryTaras, via Pixabay "Frequency of Sleep Meditation" — Nature's Eye, via Pixabay Buy the Christmas Past Book! Order your copy today. And remember...it makes a great gift! Amazon Barnes & Noble Books-a-Million IndieBound Share a Christmas memory  Be on the podcast! Just record a voice memo into your phone and send it to christmaspastpodcast@gmail.com. Keep it reasonably short, clean and family friendly, and be sure to say your name and where you're from.  Keep in touch christmaspastpodcast@gmail.com Facebook page Facebook group Twitter Instagram Website

Courtney Bates-Hardy is the author of House of Mystery (2016) and a chapbook titled Sea Foam (JackPine Press, 2013). Her poems have appeared in a variety of publications, including Room, CAROUSEL, Juniper, This Magazine, and the Canadian Medical Association Journal. They have also been anthologized in Imaginarium 4: The Best Canadian Speculative Writing and The Best Canadian Poetry 2021 (Biblioasis). She is queer and disabled, and one-third of a writing group called The Pain Poets. She is currently working on her second manuscript of poetry, tentatively titled Anatomical Venus. You can follow Courtney on Twitter. As always, we would love to hear from you. Have you tried sending me a message on the Eh Poetry Podcast page yet? Either way, we would like to reward you for checking out these episode notes with a special limited time coupon for 15% off your next purchase of Mary's Brigadeiro's amazing chocolate, simply use the code "ehpoetrypodcast" on the checkout page of your order. If you are a poet in Canada and are interested in hearing your poem on Eh Poetry, please feel free to send me an email: jason.e.coombs[at]gmail[dot]com Eh Poetry Podcast Music by ComaStudio from Pixabay --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/ehpoetrypodcast/message

Kate Cayley is a fiction writer, playwright, and poet. She has written a short story collection, How You Were Born, two collections of poetry, When This World Comes to an End and Other Houses, a young adult novel, The Hangman in the Mirror, and a number of plays, both traditional and experimental. She has won the Trillium Book Award, the Mitchell Prize for Poetry, the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction, an O. Henry Short Story Prize, and a Chalmers Fellowship, and been a finalist for the Governor General's Award for Fiction, the K. M. Hunter Award, and the Toronto Arts Foundation Emerging Artist Award, and long-listed for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Prize and the CBC Prize in both poetry and fiction. She lives in Toronto with her wife and their three children. Her second short story collection, Householders, is published by Biblioasis. Read more about Kate, here. This poem, "Attention" was first published in Grain Magazine, then again in Best Canadian Poetry 2021, Biblioasis Press. Please check out her books, here and her plays, here. As always, we would love to hear from you. Have you tried sending me a message on the Eh Poetry Podcast page yet? Either way, we would like to reward you for checking out these episode notes with a special limited time coupon for 15% off your next purchase of Mary's Brigadeiro's amazing chocolate, simply use the code "ehpoetrypodcast" on the checkout page of your order. If you are a poet in Canada and are interested in hearing your poem on Eh Poetry, please feel free to send me an email: jason.e.coombs[at]gmail[dot]com Eh Poetry Podcast Music by ComaStudio from Pixabay --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/ehpoetrypodcast/message

David Huebert's writing has won the CBC Short Story Prize, The Walrus Poetry Prize, and was a finalist for the 2020 Journey Prize. David's fiction debut, Peninsula Sinking, won a Dartmouth Book Award, was shortlisted for the Alistair MacLeod Short Fiction Prize, and was runner-up for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award. David's work has been published in magazines such as The Walrus, Maisonneuve, enRoute, and Canadian Notes & Queries, and anthologized in Best Canadian Stories and The Journey Prize Stories. His second collection, Chemical Valley, is largely set in Sarnia, and deals with the ecological legacy of the oil and gas industry which seems to seep into every aspect of the characters' lives. Also published by Biblioasis, Chemical Valley has recently been nominated for two Atlantic Book Awards. He joins us from Atlantic Canada. http://biblioasis.com/tag/david-huebert/

Hey folks! Today we chat with author Kate Cayley. Her collection Householders is available through Biblioasis. Check it out and give the show a listen.

Two children stumble upon a mass grave in the forest outside of Minsk in Belarus where the NKVD, Stalin's secret police, buried tens of thousands of innocent victims of torture. The Singing Forest, by Judith McCormack (Biblioasis 2021) weaves the story of a low-rung enforcer of that torture in pre-WWII Belarus and a modern-day Canadian lawyer on the team prosecuting long-forgotten crimes. Stefan Drozd's life from earliest childhood lacked anything resembling kindness, nurturing, or morality. He has no understanding of human interaction, never had a friend, and did whatever he had to do to survive, even when that required torturing, murder, or lying to get into Canada after the war. Years later, Drozd is in his nineties and doesn't understand why anyone is making a fuss about something that happened so long ago. Leah Jarvis, a somewhat timid and confused young lawyer from an eccentric family, is helping prosecute him for war crimes. Leah knows that Drozd is guilty, but she needs hard evidence. While working on this case, she grapples with her own history – the death of her mother, the disappearance of her father, and her erratic upbringing by three uncles. Leah questions her Jewish heritage and wonders how a person becomes evil, how power is wielded by those who have it, and how justice is served. This is a beautifully written, lyrical novel about truth, heritage, and memory. Judith McCormack was born outside Chicago and grew up in Toronto, with brief stints in Montreal and Vancouver. Her first short story was nominated for the Journey Prize, and the next three were selected for the Coming Attractions Anthology. Her collection of stories, The Rule of Last Clear Chance, was nominated for the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Award and was named one of the best books of the year by The Globe and Mail. Her work has been published in the Harvard Review, Descant and The Fiddlehead, and one of her stories has been turned into a short film by her twin sister, Naomi McCormack, an award-winning filmmaker. Her most recent short story in the Harvard Review was recorded as a spoken word version by The Drum and has been anthologized in 14: Best Canadian Short Stories. Backspring, her first novel, was shortlisted for the Amazon First Novel Award in 2016. McCormack has several law degrees, which have mostly served to convince her that law is a branch of fiction, and she tries to point out as often as possible that Honoré de Balzac, Henry James, Paul Cézanne, Cole Porter and Geraldo Rivera were lawyers. She is a recipient of the Guthrie Award for outstanding public service and contributions to access to justice, and the Law Society Medal for outstanding service in the highest ideals of the profession. G.P. Gottlieb is the author of the Whipped and Sipped Mystery Series and a prolific baker of healthful breads and pastries. Please contact her through her website (GPGottlieb.com). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/eastern-european-studies

Two children stumble upon a mass grave in the forest outside of Minsk in Belarus where the NKVD, Stalin's secret police, buried tens of thousands of innocent victims of torture. The Singing Forest, by Judith McCormack (Biblioasis 2021) weaves the story of a low-rung enforcer of that torture in pre-WWII Belarus and a modern-day Canadian lawyer on the team prosecuting long-forgotten crimes. Stefan Drozd's life from earliest childhood lacked anything resembling kindness, nurturing, or morality. He has no understanding of human interaction, never had a friend, and did whatever he had to do to survive, even when that required torturing, murder, or lying to get into Canada after the war. Years later, Drozd is in his nineties and doesn't understand why anyone is making a fuss about something that happened so long ago. Leah Jarvis, a somewhat timid and confused young lawyer from an eccentric family, is helping prosecute him for war crimes. Leah knows that Drozd is guilty, but she needs hard evidence. While working on this case, she grapples with her own history – the death of her mother, the disappearance of her father, and her erratic upbringing by three uncles. Leah questions her Jewish heritage and wonders how a person becomes evil, how power is wielded by those who have it, and how justice is served. This is a beautifully written, lyrical novel about truth, heritage, and memory. Judith McCormack was born outside Chicago and grew up in Toronto, with brief stints in Montreal and Vancouver. Her first short story was nominated for the Journey Prize, and the next three were selected for the Coming Attractions Anthology. Her collection of stories, The Rule of Last Clear Chance, was nominated for the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Award and was named one of the best books of the year by The Globe and Mail. Her work has been published in the Harvard Review, Descant and The Fiddlehead, and one of her stories has been turned into a short film by her twin sister, Naomi McCormack, an award-winning filmmaker. Her most recent short story in the Harvard Review was recorded as a spoken word version by The Drum and has been anthologized in 14: Best Canadian Short Stories. Backspring, her first novel, was shortlisted for the Amazon First Novel Award in 2016. McCormack has several law degrees, which have mostly served to convince her that law is a branch of fiction, and she tries to point out as often as possible that Honoré de Balzac, Henry James, Paul Cézanne, Cole Porter and Geraldo Rivera were lawyers. She is a recipient of the Guthrie Award for outstanding public service and contributions to access to justice, and the Law Society Medal for outstanding service in the highest ideals of the profession. G.P. Gottlieb is the author of the Whipped and Sipped Mystery Series and a prolific baker of healthful breads and pastries. Please contact her through her website (GPGottlieb.com). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

Two children stumble upon a mass grave in the forest outside of Minsk in Belarus where the NKVD, Stalin's secret police, buried tens of thousands of innocent victims of torture. The Singing Forest, by Judith McCormack (Biblioasis 2021) weaves the story of a low-rung enforcer of that torture in pre-WWII Belarus and a modern-day Canadian lawyer on the team prosecuting long-forgotten crimes. Stefan Drozd's life from earliest childhood lacked anything resembling kindness, nurturing, or morality. He has no understanding of human interaction, never had a friend, and did whatever he had to do to survive, even when that required torturing, murder, or lying to get into Canada after the war. Years later, Drozd is in his nineties and doesn't understand why anyone is making a fuss about something that happened so long ago. Leah Jarvis, a somewhat timid and confused young lawyer from an eccentric family, is helping prosecute him for war crimes. Leah knows that Drozd is guilty, but she needs hard evidence. While working on this case, she grapples with her own history – the death of her mother, the disappearance of her father, and her erratic upbringing by three uncles. Leah questions her Jewish heritage and wonders how a person becomes evil, how power is wielded by those who have it, and how justice is served. This is a beautifully written, lyrical novel about truth, heritage, and memory. Judith McCormack was born outside Chicago and grew up in Toronto, with brief stints in Montreal and Vancouver. Her first short story was nominated for the Journey Prize, and the next three were selected for the Coming Attractions Anthology. Her collection of stories, The Rule of Last Clear Chance, was nominated for the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Award and was named one of the best books of the year by The Globe and Mail. Her work has been published in the Harvard Review, Descant and The Fiddlehead, and one of her stories has been turned into a short film by her twin sister, Naomi McCormack, an award-winning filmmaker. Her most recent short story in the Harvard Review was recorded as a spoken word version by The Drum and has been anthologized in 14: Best Canadian Short Stories. Backspring, her first novel, was shortlisted for the Amazon First Novel Award in 2016. McCormack has several law degrees, which have mostly served to convince her that law is a branch of fiction, and she tries to point out as often as possible that Honoré de Balzac, Henry James, Paul Cézanne, Cole Porter and Geraldo Rivera were lawyers. She is a recipient of the Guthrie Award for outstanding public service and contributions to access to justice, and the Law Society Medal for outstanding service in the highest ideals of the profession. G.P. Gottlieb is the author of the Whipped and Sipped Mystery Series and a prolific baker of healthful breads and pastries. Please contact her through her website (GPGottlieb.com). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

There's nothing like curling up with an old fashioned ghost story on a chilly evening during the Christmas season. This one's more ghostly than Christmassy, but it first appeared in a Christmas supplement to the Illustrated London Times. It's The Doll's Ghost, by F. Marion Crawford. And today, I'm reading it to you from the 2021 collection of Seth's Christmas Ghost Stories from from Biblioasis.  Music in this episode "Sal's Piano Solo" — Blue Dot Sessions, via Free Music Archive "Planet Earth" — Peter D. Helland, via Soothing Relaxation Share a Christmas memory on the podcast! Just record a voice memo into your phone and send it to christmaspastpodcast@gmail.com. Keep it reasonably short, clean and family friendly, and be sure to say your name and where you're from.  Keep in touch christmaspastpodcast@gmail.com Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ChristmasPastPodcast Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/173778110150282 Twitter: https://twitter.com/XmasPastPodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christmaspastofficial/ 

This show is packed to the gills.  We have it all, bad editing, poor sound quality, boring content, you name it, we've got it.First up is Santa Claus is NOT Coming to Town, and Katie Gibson shares the story of how she kept the magic alive for her younger sister.Rich Chambers shares another Christmas memory and we listen to his take on The Snow Miser and The Heat Miser from The Year Without a Santa Claus.  Check out Rich's album here:https://richchambers.com/santa-s-rockin-bandThen we're joined by Scott and Jay from Jingle Jank podcast.  We listen to 4 classic British Christmas songs and find out if the boys have ever heard of them.  This is the first half and we listen to another 3 in the next episode.Here's the songs:A Spaceman Came Travelling by Chris de Burghhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmZg7tvGN9oI Believe in Father Christmas by Greg Lakehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfY4b1NszpYDecember Will Be Magic Again by Kate Bushhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SldDENZ_jUFairytale of New York by The Pogues & Kirsty MacCollhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9jbdgZidu8Check out the Jingle Jank here:jinglejank.comThis episode's book review is Seth's Christmas Ghost Stories from Biblioasis.  Very atmospheric short stories to revive the tradition of ghost stories at Christmas.  Check them out here:http://biblioasis.com/product-category/fiction/seths-christmas-ghost-stories/If you'd like to win a couple of these books just email me and your name will go in the hat, with the winner to be announced in the next episde.http://biblioasis.com/product-category/fiction/seths-christmas-ghost-stories/Then we have an interview with Geoff Malcolmson the creator of Santa and Ruudy an online comic strip.  If you follow it on Facebook you'll get a daily strip each day of December.  It's just like a little advent calendar.https://www.facebook.com/SantaandRuudyThis episode we have two Top Ten Christmas Movie Lists, they're from Frank and Shelli Arnold and Mary Polte.  Where will they stand on our chart, only one person can decide, Judge Jack.Robin and Juno are BACK!  They explain to us exactly why we put out a stocking at Christmas and then attempt to sing the wonderful classic Last Christmas by Wham.Then we have a clip from Ed Daly explaining what inspired one of the all time greatest Christmas songs, Silent Night.  This story is taken from his book The Christmas Book: The Ultimate Guide To Your Favourite Holiday.https://www.amazon.co.uk/Christmas-Book-Ultimate-Favorite-Holiday-ebook/dp/B09D17ZK2QIf you want to get in touch, what's stopping you?Do it now.Merry Christmas

A retired history teacher and veteran of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, William Toffan lives in Windsor, Ontario, with his wife, Laura, and children Lauren, Heidi, Oksana, and Heather. Published by Biblioasis in the fall of 2020, his first book is Watching the Devil Dance: How a Spree Killer Slipped through the Cracks of the Criminal Justice System.http://biblioasis.com/brand/toffan-will/

This time on Open Stacks, with Philip Leventhal, Elizabeth Branch Dyson, Paul Yamazaki, and Dan Wells, we ask what makes a book "serious." Booksellers Amélie, Annie, and Artemie share scholarly favorites. We're releasing this episode during University Press Week 2021, the 10th annual celebration of these important institutions and the knowledge and culture they help to cultivate.  Philip Leventhal is Senior Editor at Columbia University Press, acquiring titles in journalism, film and media Studies, and literary studies. He also worked at the Co-op for many years, and was the managing editor of The Front Table, the Co-op's print catalog and newsletter. You can hear him on this episode from earlier in the season. Elizabeth Branch Dyson is Assistant Editorial Director and Executive Editor at The University of Chicago Press, acquiring titles in education, sociology, and music, especially jazz and blues studies. She's appeared a few times on this season of Open Stacks.  Paul Yamazaki is the principal buyer at City Lights, where he has worked for over 50 years. He has also appeared a few times on this season of Open Stacks, and will soon be publishing with Ode Books. Dan Wells is the founder of the publisher and bookstore Biblioasis. He also appeared on an earlier episode this season. Thanks to listener Marie for sharing a passage from My First Thirty Years by Gertrude Beasley. If you'd like to share a piece of great writing with us, send us a voice memo. This episode was hosted by Alena Jones and produced by Jackson Roach, and features music by Blue Dot Sessions, Los Amparito, Loyalty Freak Music, and Daniel Birch. Find a list of books discussed in this episode here.

Happy Hallowe-en! This episode tackles a book that deals with ghosts, gruesome accidents, and murder -- Kevin Lambert's You Will Love What You Have Killed, translated by Donald Winkler (published by Biblioasis 2020) from the French (Tu Aimeras Ce Que Tu As Tué, 5.40). Linda begins this episode with a personal anecdote about a dead body that was found in a dog house (on the property of her parents' neighbours): she uses this narrative to explore the idea of the "repressed," that is, those emotions or moments or stories we would prefer to forget. Lambert, she argues, not only does not allow us to forget the repressed, he insists we grapple with its elements--it makes for a disorienting and yet bewitching read, as even Le Devoir in its review of the book noted (11.43)! Like reigning horror writer from Quebec, Patrick Senecal (5.16), Lambert is skilfully eliciting a sense of our horror, highlighting its effects by locating the events of the book in Chicoutimi, Quebec (6.26) and toppling stereotypical notions of romance, or picturesque rural areas as featured in books like Maria Chapdelaine (7.00).If you want to read other reviews about Lambert's book, you can visit CBC book reviews here or Xtra here).In the Takeaway section, Linda praises other translations from the French, those of Virginia Pesamapeo Bordeleau 's Blue Bear Woman and The Lover, The Lake (13.30). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Marcello Di Cintio is the author of five books. Harmattan: Wind Across West Africa won the Henry Kriesel Award for Best First Book. Poets and Pahlevans: A Journey into the Heart of Iran won the Wilfred Eggleston Prize for Best Nonfiction at the Alberta Book Awards. Walls: Travels Along the Barricades and Pay No Heed to the Rockets: Palestine in the Present Tense were both winners of the W. O. Mitchell City of Calgary Book Prize, with the former winning the 2013 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing. (Shaughnessy Cohen, for those who don't know, was a remarkable Member of Parliament from Windsor.) His magazine writing has appeared in appeared in publications such as The International New York Times, The Walrus, EnRoute, Geist, Canadian Geographic, and Afar. Di Cintio has served as a writer-in-residence at the Calgary Public Library, the University of Calgary, and the Palestine Writing Workshop, and he teaches nonfiction writing at the annual WordsWorth youth writing residency. Marcello DiCintio's latest book is Driven: The Secret Lives of Taxi Drivers, published by Biblioasis in 2021. He will be appearing virtually at BookFest Windsor in October 2021.https://www.literaryartswindsor.ca/bookfest/http://biblioasis.com/brand/di-cintio-marcello/

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by Alex Pheby, winner of the Republic of Consciousness Prize and author of Lucia, which is published by our friends at Biblioasis.  Topics of conversation include Lucia and James Joyce, Finnegans Wake, Egyptology, Harry Potter, fan fiction, the likelihood that current authors will be studied in one hundred years, and much more.  Copies of Lucia can be purchased here with FREE SHIPPING for members of Readers' Club+.  

Rob Taylor returns to talk about his latest poetry collection, Strangers. Andrew asks Rob about community and editing. It's a joy! ----- Listen to more episodes of Page Fright here. Follow the podcast on Twitter here. Follow the podcast on Instagram here. ----- Rob Taylor is the author of Strangers (Biblioasis, 2021) and three other poetry collections. He is also the editor of What the Poets are Doing: Canadian Poets in Conversation (Nightwood Editions, 2018), and the guest editor of Best Canadian Poetry 2019 (Biblioasis, 2019). ----- Andrew French is an author from North Vancouver, British Columbia. He is the author of two chapbooks, Do Not Discard Ashes (845 Press, 2020) and Poems for Different Yous (Rose Garden Press, 2021). Andrew has a BA in English from Huron University College at Western University and an MA in English from UBC. He writes poems, book reviews, and hosts this very podcast.

Virago is a London-based British publishing company committed to publishing women's writing and books on "feminist" topics.  Established by women in the 1970s in tandem with the Women's Liberation Movement (WLM), Virago has done much to address inequitable gender dynamics in the publishing world, and, unlike anti-capitalist publishing ventures, has branded itself a commercial alternative in a male dominated publishing industry, seeking to compete with mainstream international presses.   Initially known as Spare Rib Books, Virago was founded by  Carmen Callil in 1973 primarily to publish books by women writers. From the get-go the company sought two sorts of books: original works, and out-of-print books by neglected female writers. The latter were reissued under the "Modern Classics" label, which launched in 1978   In 1982, Virago became a wholly owned subsidiary Random House, USA, but in 1987 Callil, Lennie Goodings and others put together a management buy-out. After a downturn in the market, the board decided to sell Virago to Little, Brown, of which Virago became an imprint in 1996 (with Lennie as Publisher).  In 2006, Virago became part of the Hachette publishing group with Lennie acting as editor and publisher. She is now Chair of Virago.   Today the company's stated mission is to "champion women's voices and bring them to the widest possible readership around the world. From fiction and politics to history and classic children's stories, its writers continue to win acclaim, break new ground and enrich the lives of readers."   I met Lennie via Zoom to talk about her life with Virago, as described in her new memoir A Bite of the Apple, published by OUP around the world, and by mighty Biblioasis in Canada. 

Elaine Dewar – author, journalist, television story editor—has been propelled since childhood by insatiable curiosity and the joy of storytelling. Her journalism has been honored by nine National Magazine awards, including the prestigious President's Medal, and the White Award. Her first book, Cloak of Green, delved into the dark side of environmental politics and became an underground classic. Dewar has been called “one of Canada's best muckrakers and “Canada's Rachel Carson.” We met at her house in Toronto to talk about her latest book, "The Handover: How Bigwigs & Bureaucrats Transferred Canada's Best Publisher and the Best Part of Our Literary Heritage to a Foreign Multinational;" about the history of McClelland and Steward, Jack McClelland's love of Canada, Canadian authors and Canadian Literature, government funding of Canadian publishers, nationalist policy, Avi Bennett, the University of Toronto, Penguin RandomHouse, oligopsonies, deep throat, tax credits, improperly given grants, "Puts," $16 million worth of debts, cleverness, Robert Pritchard, diversity of thought, lies, money made re-issuing The Handmaid's Tale, Canada as the first post-national country, benefits of economic nationalism,  bureaucrats, how Canada works, Canadian stories, and solutions. 

I met with David Mason in Kingston to talk about his memoir The Pope's Bookbinder. As the Biblioasis website wordsmiths have it: "From his drug-hazy, book-happy years near the Beat Hotel in Paris and throughout his career as antiquarian book dealer, David Mason brings us a storied life. He discovers his love of literature in a bathtub at age eleven, thumbing through stacks of lurid Signet paperbacks. At fifteen he's expelled from school. For the next decade and a half, he will work odd jobs, buck all authority, buy books more often than food, and float around Europe. He'll help gild a volume in white morocco for Pope John XXIII. And then, at the age of 30, after returning home to Canada and apprenticing with Joseph Patrick Books, David Mason will find his calling." "David Mason boldly campaigns for what he feels is the moral duty of the antiquarian trade: to preserve the history and traditions of all nations, and to assert without compromise that such histories have value.  The Pope's Bookbinder is an engrossing memoir by a giant in the book trade—whose infectious enthusiasm, human insight, commercial shrewdness, and deadpan humour will delight bibliophiles for decades to come. "  

Terry Griggs is the author of a collection of short stories, Quickening, which was nominated for a Governor General's Award, and two novels, The Lusty Man, and Rogues' Wedding, shortlisted for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Award. She has also written two books for children, Cat's Eye Corner, shortlisted for a Mr. Christie's Book Award and a Red Cedar Award, and most recently a sequel, The Silver Door. In 2003 she received the Marian Engel Award. Born on Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron, she currently lives in Stratford, Ontario.    We met in Ottawa to talk about her latest ‘farce noir' comic mystery novel, Thought you were Dead,  and, as a result about: cartoons, dead flies, Nabokov, Pnin's zany, self-mocking speech and ways, fending off intimacy, how comedy sharpens your judgment, wordplay, names and book titles, the male-female divide, ambiguity, contained chapters, Philip Larkin, naked women on book covers, and The Monkeys' Michael Nesmith's mother who invented liquid paper.