Shows
What Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksEden BoudreauMy guest on this episode is Eden Boudreau. Eden is an author whose work has appeared in the Globe & Mail, Flare, Today’s Parent, and elsewhere. She is the host and creator of the podcast Dear Lonely Writer, which was aimed at destigmatizing mental health struggles during the writing process. Eden’s most recent book is her debut, Crying Wolf: A Memoir, published by Book*hug Press in 2023 and shortlisted for a Lambda Literary Award. Author Erin Pepler called Crying Wolf “a vivid, searingly honest account of violence against women and the aftermath of an assault.”Eden and I ta...
2025-04-0729 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksAyelet TsabariMy guest on this 100th episode is Ayelet Tsabari. Ayelet is the author of the short-story collection The Best Place on Earth and the memoir The Art of Leaving, which won the Canadian Jewish Literary Award and was a finalist for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction. She is also a co-editor of the anthology Tongues: On Longing and Belonging through Language. Her most recent book is the novel Songs for the Brokenhearted, published by HarperCollins Canada in 2024. That book won a National Jewish Book Award for Fiction and the AJL Jewish Fiction Award, and was named a bo...
2025-03-3133 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksBob McDonaldMy guest on this episode is Bob McDonald. Bob has been the host of CBC Radio’s Quirks and Quarks since 1992 and is a regular science commentator on the CBC News Network and a science correspondent for The National. He is the author of multiple books, including The Earthling’s Guide to Outer Space, Canadian Spacewalkers, and The Future is Now. He has been honoured with the Michael Smith Award for science promotion from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Sandford Fleming Medal from the Royal Canadian Institute for Science, and the McNeil Medal for the...
2025-03-2429 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksJowita BydlowskaMy guest on the episode is Jowita Bydlowska. Jowita is the author of four books, including the bestselling memoir Drunk Mom, and the novels GUY and Possessed. She is a journalist, and teaches at the Creative School at Toronto Metropolitan University. Her most recent book is the novel Monster, which was published by Anvil Press in 2024. Author Barbara Gowdy said about Monster: “that a book with almost pornographic sexual scenes should be so humane and polished, so well written, is astonishing.”Jowita and I talk about the identity crisis she is currently undergoing as a writer, about the...
2025-03-1729 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksAmy StuartMy guest on this episode is Amy Stuart. Amy is the author of four bestselling novels, including her first, Still Mine, and her most recent, A Death at the Party, which was published in 2023. Her most recent book is Home and Away, a memoir by former Toronto Maple Leafs captain Mats Sundin, which she co-wrote with Sundin. That book was published by Simon & Schuster Canada in 2024, and was an instant #1 bestseller. Sundin’s fellow player Tie Domi said about the book that “it’s a treat to hear Mats tell his story after all these years.”Amy and I ta...
2025-03-1029 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksAnuja VargheseMy guest on this episode is Anuja Varghese. Anuja is a writer whose debut book, the short-story collection Chrysalis, was published by House of Anansi Press in 2023. That book won the Writers Trust of Canada Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging Writers, the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, and the Hamilton Literary Award for Fiction. It was also nominated for a Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize and the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction. Quill & Quire said that “every piece in Chrysalis is as subtle and punchy as the eponymous final story. Varghese’s women are like her wo...
2025-03-0326 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksDaniel Innes and Christina WongMy guests on this episode are Daniel Innes and Christina Wong. Daniel is an artist whose work includes painting, art installation, graphic and textile design, and illustration. He currently divides his time between Toronto and an artist residency in Hyōgo, Japan. Christina is an author, playwright, and multidisciplinary artist whose plays have been performed at Factory Studio, Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace, and the Palmerston Library Theatre, and whose writing has appeared in TOK Magazine and the Toronto Star. Daniel and Christina’s first book collaboration is the graphic novel Denison Avenue, which was published by ECW Press in 2023 and...
2025-02-2428 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksMargaret MacMillanMy guest on this episode is Margaret MacMillan. Margaret is a historian and author whose bestselling books include The War That Ended Peace; Nixon and Mao; Women of the Raj; and Paris 1919. She is emeritus professor of History at the University of Toronto, where she served as Provost of Trinity College, and an emeritus professor of International History at Oxford University, where she served as Warden of St Antony’s College. Her work has won numerous awards, including the Samuel Johnson Prize, the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize, a Governor General's Literary Award, and the Duff Cooper Prize. In 2015 she was ma...
2025-02-1727 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksIvan LesayMy guest on this episode is Ivan Lesay. Ivan is a senior climate finance advisor at the National Bank of Slovakia and has served as the State Secretary of that country’s Finance Ministry. In addition to his policy work, he has published two children’s books, and writes lyrics for a hardcore band. His debut novel for adults, Topografia bolesti, was published in 2020, and was shortlisted for the Slovak National Book of the Year award. An English translation of the novel, The Topography of Pain, translated by Jonathan Gresty, was published by Canada’s Guernica Editions in 2024. In its re...
2025-02-1031 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksSheung-KingMy guest on this episode is Sheung-King. Sheung-King’s debut novel, You Are Eating an Orange. You Are Naked, was published by Book*Hug Press in 2021, and was a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction and the Amazon Canada First Novel Award. It was longlisted for Canada Reads and named one of the best book debuts by the Globe and Mail. His most recent book is the novel Batshit Seven, published by Penguin Canada in 2024. That book was named a book of the year by the Globe and Mail and by the CBC, and was the winn...
2025-02-0325 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksShashi BhatMy guest on this episode is Shashi Bhat. Shashi the author of the novels The Most Precious Substance on Earth, a finalist for the Governor General's Award, and The Family Took Shape, a finalist for the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award. Her fiction has won the Writers’ Trust/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize and been shortlisted for a National Magazine Award and the RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers. She is the editor-in-chief of EVENT magazine and teaches creative writing at Douglas College. Shashi’s most recent book is the story collection Death by a Thousand Cuts, published by McClel...
2025-01-2733 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksDerek McCormackMy guest on this episode is Derek McCormack. Derek is the author of more than a dozen books, including Dark Rides, The Haunted Hillbilly, and The Well-Dressed Wound. He has written frequently about fashion and art for places like Artforum and The Believer, and was a regular fashion writer for the National Post. His most recent book is Judy Blame’s Obituary: Writings on Fashion and Death, a collection of his fashion writing published in 2022 by Pilot Press. The Heavy Feather Review called Judy Blame’s Obituary “a furious haberdashery of [McCormack’s] own shining and ghostly obsessions. When writing...
2025-01-2031 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksfrancesca ekwuyasiMy guest on this episode is francesca ekwuyasi. francesca is a writer, artist, and filmmaker whose first book, the novel Butter Honey Pig Bread, was published in 2020 by Arsenal Pulp. That book won the Writers' Trust of Canada Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging Writers; was shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award, the Amazon Canada First Novel Award, and a Lambda Literary Award, and was longlisted for the Giller Prize. In 2021, it was a runner-up on the CBC's Canada Reads competition. Her most recent book is Curious Sounds: A Dialogue in Three Movements, a collaboration with celebrity...
2025-01-1333 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksLeigh NashMy guest on this episode is Leigh Nash. Leigh has worked as the publisher at House of Anansi Press and Invisible Publishing, and is now the co-publisher at Assembly Press, a brand-new independent literary press. She also helps run the PEP Rally Reading Series out of Books & Company in Picton and co-founded The Emergency Response Unit, a chapbook press. Her most recent book was also her debut: the collection Goodbye, Ukulele, published by Mansfield Press in 2010. The scholarly journal Canadian Literature said Leigh “has an eye for unsettling images” and praised Goodbye, Ukulele as “a compelling read.”Leigh an...
2025-01-0628 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksAndrew Pyper (re-upload)This episode was originally uploaded in June 2023. It is a conversation with Andrew Pyper, who died just a few days ago at the age of 56. Andrew was the author of more than a dozen books, including The Homecoming, The Residence, and many others. In our conversation, Andrew talks about the odd career he has created for himself as a writer with one foot in the literary world and one in the worlds of horror and suspense and thrillers. We also talk about Andrew’s connection to the late Steve Heighton. I have not re-edited the conversation itself, except to lo...
2025-01-0441 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksMartha BaillieMy guest on this episode is Martha Baillie. Martha is the author of multiple works of fiction, including the novel The Incident Report, published by Coach House Books in 2009 and longlisted for the Giller Prize. Darkest Miriam, a feature film based on that novel, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival this year and had its Canadian premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival, where it won the DGC Best Director prize. Her most recent book is the memoir There Is No Blue, which was published in 2023, yet again by Coach House, and recently won the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust...
2024-12-3031 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksStephen MaherMy guest on this episode is Stephen Maher. Stephen has been writing about Canadian politics for decades as a columnist and investigative reporter at Postmedia News, iPolitics, and Maclean’s. His work has won numerous awards, including the Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University, the Michener Award for meritorious public service journalism, a National Newspaper Award, two Canadian Association of Journalism Awards, and a Canadian Hillman Prize, and has been nominated for several National Magazine Awards. He is also the author of a handful of thriller novels, which we talk about briefly in this episode. Stephen’s most recent book is T...
2024-12-2326 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksCharlene CarrMy guest on this episode is Charlene Carr. Charlene is the author of 10 self-published works of fiction, as well as the novel Hold My Girl, which was published by HarperCollins Canada in 2023 and was shortlisted for the Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction and the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award. Her most recent book, the novel We Rip the World Apart, was published at the start of this year by HarperCollins Canada, and will be published in the US in January. Author Marisa Stapley called We Rip the World Apart “both a charged emotional epic and a gentle exploration of th...
2024-12-1633 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksJosh O'KaneMy guest on this episode is Josh O’Kane. Josh is a reporter at the Globe and Mail whose first book, Nowhere With You: The East Coast Anthems of Joel Plaskett, The Emergency and Thrush Hermit was published by ECW Press and was a Canadian bestseller. Josh’s most recent book, Sideways: The City Google Couldn’t Buy, was published by Random House Canada in 2022. It was a national bestseller and a finalist for numerous Canadian and international literary awards, including the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing, the National Business Book Award, the Ontario Speaker’s Book Award, the Heri...
2024-12-0931 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksCasey PlettMy 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...
2024-12-0230 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksAlison McCreeshMy guest on this episode is Alison McCreesh. Alison is a writer, visual artist, and the creator of the graphic novels Ramshackle: A Yellowknife Story, which won the NorthWords Best Book Award, and Norths: Two Suitcases and a Stroller Around the Circumpolar World. Both books were published by Conundrum Press. Alison’s most recent book is the graphic memoir Degrees of Separation: A Decade North of 60, published by Conundrum earlier this year. Joe Sacco called Degrees of Separation a “tender and loving ode to the people and landscapes of the Far North.”Alison and I talk about mostly...
2024-11-2530 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksLisa Whittington-HillMy guest on this episode is Lisa Whittington-Hill. Lisa is a writer whose work has appeared in Longreads, Hazlitt, Catapult, The Walrus, and more. She is the publisher of This Magazine and teaches in the publishing program at Centennial College. Lisa’s most recent two books are The Go-Go's Beauty and the Beat, part of the 33 1/3 series published by Bloomsbury, and the essay collection Girls, Interrupted: How Pop Culture Is Failing Women, published by Véhicule Press. Both books were published in the fall of 2023. Lauren McKeon, author of No More Nice Girls, called Girls, Interrupted “brilliantly considered, meticulously researched...
2024-11-1835 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksAli BryanMy guest on this episode is Ali Bryan. Ali is the author six novels, including Roost, which was a One Book Nova Scotia selection, The Figgs and The Hill. Her work has won and been nominated for multiple awards, including the Leacock Prize, the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize, the Pushcart Prize, a Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Award, a Commonwealth Short Story Prize, and the BPAA Trade Fiction Book of the Year. Her most recent books are the novels Coq, shortlisted for the Leacock Award for Humour, and The Crow Valley Karaoke Championships—both published in 2023, by Freehand an...
2024-11-1131 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksHannah GreenMy guest on this episode is Hannah Green. Hannah is a writer as well as the poetry editor at the literary journal CV2. Her debut collection, Xanax Cowboy, was published by House of Anansi in 2023 and won the Governor General's Literary Award for Poetry. In its starred review of the book, Quill & Quire called the book “timely and witty” and said “it leaves nothing off stage, hides nothing.”Hannah and I take about a photo from her book launch that went viral, about writing poetry before and after getting sober, and about the unexpectedly long break from writing...
2024-11-0432 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksAinslie HogarthMy guest on this Halloween-themed episode is Ainslie Hogarth. Ainslie is the author of two YA horror novels, The Lonely and The Boy Meets Girl Massacre (Annotated), and the adult novel Motherthing, which was a New York Times Best Book of the Year and was included in Cosmopolitan’s list of Best Horror Books of All Time. Her short fiction has been published in Hazlitt, Black Static, and elsewhere. Her most recent book is the novel Normal Women, published by Strange Light in 2023. In its review of the book, Booklist said that “Hogarth has a talent for writing depth and...
2024-10-2832 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksDan WerbMy guest on this episode is Dan Werb. Dan is an author, epidemiologist and policy analyst whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Salon, and elsewhere. His first book, City of Omens: A Search for the Missing Women of the Borderlands, was published by Bloomsbury Publishing in 2019 and was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for nonfiction. He holds faculty appointments at the University of California San Diego and the University of Toronto, and was the inaugural winner of the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse Avenir Award. He is also the recipient of...
2024-10-2132 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksTamara Faith BergerMy guest on this episode is Tamara Faith Berger. Tamara is an author and screenwriter whose books include Lie With Me, which she helped adapt into a feature film, The Way of the Whore (later republished by Coach House Books as Little Cat), Maidenhead, Kuntalini and Queen Solomon. She has been nominated for the Trillium Book Award and won the Believer Book Award. Two films for which she wrote the screenplays will be premiering in 2025. Tamara’s most recent book is the novel Yara, published in 2023 by Coach House Books. The Toronto Star and the Globe & Mail selected it as on...
2024-10-1431 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksPaige MaylottMy guest on this episode is Paige Maylott. Paige is a writer and gamer who works as an accessibility expert at McMaster University. Her first book, the memoir My Body Is Distant, was published by ECW Press in 2023. That book won an Independent Publisher Book Award for LGBTQ+ Non-Fiction, and was shortlisted for the Rakuten KOBO Emerging Writer Prize in the nonfiction category. Publishers Weekly said that “Maylott’s gripping debut memoir covers her gender transition, divorce, and experiments with online relationships in thrillingly nonlinear fashion.”Paige and I talk about the cultural and personal importance of the ea...
2024-10-0740 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksWaubgeshig RiceMy guest on this episode is Waubgeshig Rice. Waubgeshig is the Anishinaabe author of four books, including the short story collection Midnight Sweatlodge (2011), and the novels Legacy (2014) and Moon of the Crusted Snow (2018). As a journalist, he has worked for various outlets, including CBC Radio One. He also hosted, along Jennifer David, the Storykeepers podcast, which focused on Indigenous writing. He has won the Independent Publishers Book Award, the Northern 'lit' Award, and the Debwewin Citation for Excellence in First Nation Storytelling. Waubgeshig’s most recent book is Moon of the Turning Leaves, published in 2023 by Random House Canada. That no...
2024-09-3034 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksDavid BergenMy guest on this episode is David Bergen. David is the author of numerous acclaimed novels and short-story collections, including The Case of Lena S, which won the 2002 Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award, and The Time In Between, winner of the 2005 Giller Prize. Four of his books have won the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award. David’s work has also won the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction and the John Hirsch Award, and been nominated for the Manitoba Book of the Year, the Relit Prize, and the International Dublin Literary Award. Four of his books have won th...
2024-09-2333 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksChristine EstimaMy guest on this episode is Christine Estima. Christine is a journalist, author, and performer whose work has appeared in the New York Times, the Walrus, VICE, the Globe and Mail, Chatelaine, Maisonneuve, and elsewhere. She was shortlisted for the 2018 Allan Slaight Prize for Journalism, longlisted for the 2015 CBC Canada Writes Creative Nonfiction prize, and was a finalist for the 2011 Writers’ Union of Canada short prose competition. She’s also been a contestant on reality TV competition… twice!Christine’s debut book is The Syrian Ladies Benevolent Society, published by House of Anansi Press in 2023 and included in the CBC’s l...
2024-09-1633 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksCarl WilsonMy guest on this episode is Carl Wilson. Carl is the music critic at Slate and also writes for The Globe and Mail, Hazlitt, The New York Times Magazine and many other online and print publications. His work has been included in two of Da Capo Books' annual Best Music Writing collections. Carl’s first book was Let’s Talk about Love: A Journey to the End of Taste, which Carl himself describes as being about “aesthetic conflict, class, and Céline Dion.” That book was originally published in 2007 by Bloomsbury as part of the 33 1/3 series of books about popular m...
2024-09-0935 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksPeter DarbyshireMy guest on this episode is Peter Darbyshire. Peter is an author, journalist, and communications professional whose debut novel, Please, won the KM Hunter Award for Best Emerging Artist and the ReLit Award for Best Novel. He is also the author of the novel The Warhol Gang and the story collection Has the World Ended Yet? He works as Communications Officer for BC’s Provincial Health Services Authority.I’m doing something slightly different in this episode, because Peter actually has three books that are about to be published: The Mona Lisa Sacrifice, The Dead Hamlets and The...
2024-09-0231 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksMichael ChristieMy guest on this episode is Michael Christie. Michael is the author of the 2012 story collection, The Beggar's Garden, which was longlisted for the Giller Prize, shortlisted for the Writers' Trust Prize for Fiction, and won the Vancouver Book Award. His 2015 novel If I Fall, If I Die was also longlisted for the Giller Prize, as well as the Kirkus Prize, and was selected as a New York Times Editors' Choice Pick, and was on numerous best-of-the-year lists. His essays and book reviews have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Globe & Mail. Michael’s mo...
2024-08-2633 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksDeborah DundasMy guest on this episode is Deborah Dundas. Deborah is a writer and journalist who has worked as a television producer and as the Books Editor for the Toronto Star, where she is currently an opinion editor. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including Maclean’s, the Globe and Mail, the National Post, Canadian Notes and Queries, the Belfast Telegraph, and the Sunday Independent. She also teaches Creative Non-Fiction at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies. Deborah’s first book is On Class, which was published by Biblioasis Books in 2023. That book was A Hamilton Review of Boo...
2024-08-1936 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksJackie KhaliliehMy guest on this episode is Jackie Khalilieh. Jackie is a writer and former teacher whose first book, the YA novel Something More, was published by Tundra Books in 2023. That novel was shortlisted for the Ruth & Sylvia Shwartz Award, as well as the Snow Willow Award, and was selected for several Best of the year lists, including by the New York Public Library and Audible Books Canada. Publishers Weekly called Something More a “thought-provoking and thoroughly entertaining debut that centers questions of identity via a fresh lens."Jackie and I talk about how her identities as a pe...
2024-08-1233 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksKathryn KuitenbrouwerMy guest on this episode is Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer. Kathryn is the author of the novels All the Broken Things, Perfecting, and The Nettle Spinner, as well as the story collection, Way Up, which won the Danuta Gleed Award. Her work has been published in Granta Magazine, Maclean’s Magazine, The Walrus, Joyland, This Magazine, and elsewhere. Her fiction has won a Danuta Gleed Award and been nominated for The Amazon First Novel Award, the Toronto Book Award, CBC Canada Reads, and the Relit Award. Kathryn’s most recent book is Wait Softly Brother, which was published by Wolsak...
2024-08-0536 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksKelly S. ThompsonMy guest on this episode is Kelly S. Thompson. Kelly is a former Logistics Officer in the Canadian Armed Forces who began writing about her military experiences in a blog for Chatelaine magazine. She wrote about those experiences again in her debut book, Girls Need Not Apply, which was published in 2019 by McClelland & Stewart, named a Globe and Mail Top 100 Book, and became an instant bestseller. Kelly teaches Creative Nonfiction at the University of King’s College. Her most recent book, the memoir Still, I Cannot Save You, was published by McClelland & Stewart in 2023, and was also an instant bes...
2024-07-2940 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksRollie Pemberton (Cadence Weapon)My guest on this episode is Rollie Pemberton. Rollie is a writer, rapper, producer, poet and activist who performs under the name Cadence Weapon. His album Parallel World won the 2021 Polaris Music Prize and his writing has been published in Pitchfork, The Guardian, Wired, Toronto Life, and Hazlitt. Rollie has also acted as Poet Laureate for his hometown of Edmonton, Alberta. He also recently released a song and a video celebrating that city’s hockey team and its run for the Stanley Cup. Rollie’s debut book is the memoir Bedroom Rapper: Cadence Weapon on Hip-Hop, Resistance and Surviving the...
2024-07-2229 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksJohn VaillantMy guest on this first episode of The Walrus era is John Vaillant. John is a Vancouver author and journalist whose acclaimed, award-winning nonfiction books, The Golden Spruce and The Tiger, were national bestsellers. His debut novel, The Jaguar’s Children, was a finalist for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the International Dublin Literary Award. John has written for, among others, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, National Geographic, and... The Walrus. John’s most recent book is Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast, which was published by Knopf Canada in 2023. Fire Weather was a national bestseller, and wo...
2024-07-1532 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksAlissa YorkMy guest on this episode is Alissa York. Alissa is the author of the novels Mercy, Effigy (which was shortlisted for the Giller Prize), Fauna and The Naturalist (which was winner of the Canadian Author’s Association Fiction Award, and the short fiction collection, Any Given Power. Alissa’s essays and articles have appeared in The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, Brick magazine and elsewhere, and she teaches at Humber College, where she is the coordinator for the Creative Writing program. Full disclosure, we used to have offices right across the hall from each other at Humber.Alissa’s...
2024-07-0835 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksCody CaetanoMy guest on this episode is Cody Caetano. Cody is a writer and an off-reserve member of Pinaymootang First Nation. He also works as a literary agent at CookeMcDermid. Cody’s debut memoir, Half-Bads in White Regalia, was published Penguin Canada’s Hamish Hamilton imprint in 2023 and was a national bestseller. It won the 2023 Indigenous Voices Award for Best Published Prose, was shortlisted for the 2023 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction, and was longlisted for the Toronto Book Award, the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour, and Canada Reads. It was named one of the best books of the year...
2024-07-0133 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksNina DunicMy guest on this episode is Nina Dunic. Nina is writer, editor, and journalist whose has done work for the Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, CBC Docs and others. After winning a number of short story contests less than a decade ago, Nina turned to writing fiction. Nina’s first book is the novel The Clarion, which was published by Invisible Publishing in 2023. The Clarion was longlisted for the Giller Prize and just last week, it won the Trillium Prize. It was also named one of the Globe and Mail's Best Books of 2023, and the Best Canadian Debut of...
2024-06-2435 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksNathan WhitlockMy guest on this episode is... me. That’s because my most recent novel, Lump, was published exactly one year ago this week by the Rare Machines imprint of Dundurn Press, so I am officially in WHAT HAPPENED NEXT territory.My guest interviewer on this episode is Julie S. Lalonde. Julie is an internationally recognized women’s rights advocate and public educator. Her book Resilience is Futile: The Life and Death and Life of Julie S. Lalonde was published by Between the Lines in 2020. It was named one of the best books of the year by CBC Books ...
2024-06-1734 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksLaurie PetrouMy guest on this episode is Laurie Petrou. Laurie is the author of four books, including the short story collection Between, and the novels Sister of Mine and Love, Heather. She is an Associate Professor at the RTA School of Media at Toronto Metropolitan University.Laurie’s most recent book is Stargazer, published in 2022 by Verve Books. Author Marissa Stapley called Stargazer "a sinuous, captivating exploration of the mysterious depths of female friendship.”Laurie and I talk about the lessons she has learned since her first book about what to say no to and what to y...
2024-06-1038 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksJordan AbelMy guest on this episode is Jordan Abel. Jordan is the author of The Place of Scraps (which won the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize), Un/inhabited, Injun (winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize) and NISHGA, which won the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize and the VMI Betsy Warland Between Genres award and was a finalist for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction, the Wilfrid Eggleston Award for Nonfiction, and the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize. Jordan is an Associate Professor in the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta where he teaches Indigenous Literatures, Research-Creation, and Cr...
2024-06-0337 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksAndrew F. SullivanMy guest on this episode is Andrew F Sullivan. Andrew is the author of the novel WASTE, a Globe & Mail Best Book of the Year, and the short story collection All We Want is Everything, also a Globe & Mail Best Book of the Year and finalist for the ReLit Award. Andrew’s most recent two books are the novels The Marigold, published by ECW Press in Spring 2023, a finalist for the Aurora Awards and the Locus Awards, and named a Best Book of the Year by Esquire, The Verge, Book Riot and the Winnipeg Free Press, and The Handyman Me...
2024-05-2738 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksKen McGooganMy guest on this episode is Ken McGoogan. Ken is the author of sixteen books—most of them nonfiction narratives, but also a few novels. His books include Fatal Passage, Lady Franklin’s Revenge, and Canada’s Undeclared War: Fighting Words from the Literary Trenches. Ken has won the Pierre Berton Award for Popular History and the University of British Columbia Medal for Canadian Biography. A fellow of the Explorers Club and the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, McGoogan sails as a resource historian with Adventure Canada. Ken’s most recent book is Searching for Franklin: New Answers to the Great Ar...
2024-05-2033 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksSheima BenembarekMy guest on this episode is Sheima Benembarek. Sheima is a journalist who’s written for The Walrus, Broadview, Maisonneuve, and the Literary Review of Canada. She has worked as special reports editor at Strategy, a senior editor for Toronto Life, an events manager for The Walrus, a business development and brand communications lead at Corporate Knights, and as an associate editor at Broadview. Currently, she is a contributing writer for The Walrus. In 2020, she was chosen as one of the five RBC Taylor Prize Emerging Writers of the year.Sheima’s first book is Halal Sex: The...
2024-05-1335 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksScott ChantlerMy guest on this episode is Scott Chantler. Scott is the creator of multiple graphic novels for both adults and young readers, including Northwest Passage, Two Generals, which was voted by CBC's Canada Reads as one of the 40 best Canadian non-fiction books of all time, the Three Thieves series (winner of the Joe Shuster Award for Best Comic for Kids), and Bix. He has been the illustrator for many other graphic novels and comic books, and has served as Cartoonist-in-Residence at the University of Windsor, the first cartoonist to be appointed to such a position by a Canadian university. Sc...
2024-05-0631 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksMeaghan StrimasMy very special guest on this one-year-anniversary episode is Meaghan Strimas. Meaghan is the author of three collections of poetry, including Junkman's Daughter and A Good Time Had By All, which was shortlisted for the 2011 ReLit Award. She the editor of The Selected Gwendolyn MacEwen and co-edited Another Dysfunctional Cancer Poem Anthology with the late Priscila Uppal. She is a professor in the Faculty of Media and Creative Arts at Humber College, where she runs the Bachelor of Creative and Professional Writing degree. (She is also married... to me.) Meaghan’s most recent book is Yes or Nope, which was...
2024-04-2936 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksRob BenvieMy guest on this episode is Rob Benvie. Rob is the author of three novels, including Safety of War and Maintenance, both published by Coach House Books. His writing has appeared in McSweeney’s, Dazed, Vice, Joyland, The Puritan, CNQ, and Best Canadian Essays. He also co-wrote the screenplay for the 2021 film Stanleyville. Rob was a founding member of the band Thrush Hermit, and performs and records solo as Tigre Benvie. Rob’s most recent novel, Bleeding Light, was published in 2021 by Invisible Press. Author Liz Harmer called Bleeding Light "bizarre, terrifying, and wise." Rob’s upcoming novel, Book of the Flock...
2024-04-2240 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksLawrence HillMy guest on this episode is Lawrence Hill. Lawrence is the author of eleven books including the novels The Book of Negroes and The Illegal, and the memoir Black Berry Sweet Juice: On Being Black and White in Canada and Blood: The Stuff of Life, which was the CBC Massey Lecture in 2013. Lawrence is the winner of the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book, and both CBC Radio’s Canada Reads and Radio-Canada’s Combat des livres. Lawrence’s most recent book, his first YA novel, is Beatrice and Croc Harry, which was published...
2024-04-1532 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksAmber CowieMy guest on this episode is Amber Cowie. Amber is the author of a number of bestselling novels, starting with Rapid Falls, which was published in 2018 by Lake Union Publishing, an imprint of Amazon Publishing and was a Whistler Book Awards nominee. Her essays have been published in the New York Times, Salon, the Globe and Mail, and Scary Mommy. Amber’s most recent novel, Last One Alive, was published here by Simon & Schuster Canada in 2022. The Globe and Mail said Last One Alive contains “as clever a twist as Agatha Christie ever envisioned.” Unusual for this podcast, Amber has a...
2024-04-0838 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksJoyce GrantMy guest on this episode is Joyce Grant. Joyce is an award-winning children’s author, a freelance journalist, an editor, and an educator. She is the author of a trio of picture books published by Fitzhenry & Whiteside, and a pair of middle-grade novels published by Lorimer. Joyce’s most recent book is Can You Believe It? How to Spot Fake News and Find the Facts, published by Kids Can Press in 2022. Can you Believe it? won two Hamilton Literary Awards, in the categories of children’s book and non-fiction, as well as a Press Freedom Teaching Award. The book was al...
2024-04-0133 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksLiz HarmerMy guest on this episode is Liz Harmer. Liz is a writer, editor, and teacher whose first novel, The Amateurs was published in 2018 by Knopf Canada and was a finalist for the Amazon First Novel Award. In 2019, Liz was a Bread Loaf fellow and the runner-up to the Mitchell Prize in Poetry. She has won a National Magazine Award in Personal Journalism, was a finalist for the Journey Prize, and has been shortlisted for the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. Her work has also been included in the annual Best Canadian Stories anthology. She currently teaches Creative Wr...
2024-03-2533 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksMark PupoMy guest on this episode is Mark Pupo. Mark is a writer and editor who was a senior editor at Toronto Life magazine, and was their food writer for many years. Mark has also served as a senior editor at Chatelaine magazine, the director of Special Projects at Macleans magazine, and was the editor in chief at Reader’s Digest Canada. Mark’s first book is Sundays: A Celebration of Breakfast and Family in 52 Essential Recipes, which is both a cookbook and a memoir about Mark’s life with his neurodivergent son, Sam. It was published in 2023 by the Appeti...
2024-03-1830 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksTerry FallisMy guest on this episode is Terry Fallis. Terry’s first novel, The Best Laid Plans, which began as a podcast and was initially self-published, won the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour and was re-published by McClelland & Stewart in 2008. That book went on to win the 2011 edition of Canada Reads and was adapted as a CBC Television series and a stage musical. His next two novels, The High Road and Up and Down, were finalists for the Leacock Medal. And In 2015, he won the prize a second time, for his fourth book, No Relation. His other novels include Poles Apart, On...
2024-03-1136 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksDenise Da CostaMy guest on this episode is Denise Da Costa. Denise is an author and visual artist who studied Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia and is an alumna of the Humber School of Writers and the Diaspora Dialogues mentorship program. Her debut novel, And the Walls Came Down, was published in 2023 by Dundurn Press. Author Zalika Reid-Benta called And the Walls Came Down “a beautiful exploration of memory and perception and will linger in the minds of readers long after they’ve finished."Denise and I talk about how she learned the public side of being a w...
2024-03-0434 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksOmar El AkkadMy guest on this episode is Omar El Akkad. Omar is an author and celebrated journalist whose debut novel, American War, was published in 2017. It was an international bestseller, was translated into thirteen languages, and won the Pacific Northwest Booksellers’ Award, the Oregon Book Award for fiction, the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize as well as being nominated for nearly a dozen other awards. It was also a finalist on Canada Reads. His second and most recent novel, What Strange Paradise, was published in 2021 by McClelland & Stewart in Canada. It won the Giller Prize, The Pacific Northwest Book Award, and la...
2024-02-2636 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksAmy JonesMy 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 cre...
2024-02-1935 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksNatalie MacLeanMy guest on this episode is Natalie MacLean. Natalie is a journalist and wine writer whose first book, Red, White and Drunk All Over, was published in 2006. Her second, Unquenchable, was published by in 2011. Her most recent book, the memoir Wine Witch on Fire: Rising from the Ashes of Divorce, Defamation, and Drinking Too Much, was published in 2023 by Dundurn Press and was a national bestseller. Natalie is the wine expert on CTV's The Social, has been named the World's Best Drinks Writer at the World Food Media Awards, and won four James Beard Foundation Journalism Awards. She is...
2024-02-1239 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksMeg RemyMy guest on this episode us Meg Remy. Meg is a multi-disciplinary artist and performer, primarily known as the creative force behind U.S. Girls. Her most recent album as U.S. Girls was Lives, a live record released in November 2023. Her first book, Begin By Telling, a kind of fragmentary and poetic memoir about abuse and trauma and sexual politics, was published by Book*Hug Press in 2021. In its review of Begin By Telling, Quill & Quire said the book “reminds us that the very act of telling one’s story can change one’s life.”Meg and I ta...
2024-02-0538 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksKamal Al-SolayleeMy guest on this episode Kamal Al-Solaylee. Kamal is the author of the bestselling memoir Intolerable: A Memoir of Extremes, published in 2012 by HarperCollins Canada, which has published all of his books to date. His second book, Brown: What Being Brown in the World Today Means (to Everyone) was published in 2016. His most recent book, Return: Why We Go Back to Where We Come From, was published in 2021, and was a Book of the year for the Globe and Mail, the Hill Times and the CBC. Author Esi Edugyan called Return “an urgent, thought-provoking read with much to say abou...
2024-01-2940 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksAnita LaheyMy guest on this episode is Anita Lahey. Anita is the author of six books, including The Mystery Shopping Cart: Essays on Poetry and Culture and two poetry collections: Spinning Side Kick and Out to Dry in Cape Breton and a the memoir The Last Goldfish, which was a finalist for the Ottawa Book Award. She is also an award-winning magazine journalist, and she serves as the series editor of the annual Best Canadian Poetry anthology. Anita’s most recent two books were both published in 2023: Fire Monster, a poetic graphic novel collaboration with artist Pauline Conley, was published by...
2024-01-2238 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksJen Sookfong LeeMy guest on this episode is Jen Sookfong Lee. Jen is the author of three acclaimed novels, four works for children, a collection of poetry, and two works of non-fiction, including Gentlemen Of The Shade, about the movie My Own Private Idaho, and her most recent book, Superfan: How Pop Culture Broke my Heart, which was published by McClelland and Stewart in 2023. Jen is also works as an acquiring editor for ECW Press, and is the co-editor, with Stacey May Fowles, of two essay anthologies, Whatever Gets You Through and Good Mom on Paper.Superfan is finalist...
2024-01-1537 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksWayne JohnstonMy guest on this episode is Wayne Johnston. Wayne is the author of nearly a dozen celebrated novels, including The Colony of Unrequited Dreams and The Mystery of Right and Wrong. He has also published a pair of memoirs, including his most recent book, Jennie’s Boy: A Newfoundland Childhood, about his own childhood in the 1960s. It was published in 2022 in Canada by Knopf Canada, and won the Stephen Leacock memorial award for humour. The Toronto Star, in its review of the book, said: “Never overblown or sentimental, Jennie’s Boy is as vivid as one’s own memories...
2024-01-0838 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksWelcome to 2024No new episode this week - regular Monday episodes begin again on January 8. In the meantime, here's a very short preview of that episode. Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2024-01-0103 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksLouis StrimasMy guest on this special holiday episode is Louis Strimas. Louis is currently in Grade 4. He loves reading, making crafts, eating Cheerios, and playing video games, even though he only really gets to do that when he’s at a friend’s house, because his parents are mean. Louis’s most recent two books are The Demon: A Horrer Story and its sequel, The Demon 2: Kingshard: A Horrer. Both books were self-published in the fall of 2023.Lou and I talk about the books that have inspired him and why he enjoys reading so much. He also offers some ad...
2023-12-2515 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksRon SexsmithMy guest on this episode is Ron Sexsmith. Ron is an award-winning singer songwriter who has earned praised from people like Elvis Costello, Elton John, Ray Davies of the Kinks, John Prine, Gordon Lightfoot, Leonard Cohen, and Paul McCartney. His songs have been covered by Rod Stewart, Nick Lowe, Emmy Lou Harris, Feist, and Michael Bublé, among many others. His most recent album is The Vivian Line.Ron’s first book, Deer Life: A Fairy Tale, was published in 2017 by Dundurn Press. In its review of the book, Publishers Weekly said that “Sexsmith’s novel has much the sam...
2023-12-1839 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksRandy BoyagodaMy 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...
2023-12-1148 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksHiromi GotoMy guest on this episode is Hiromi Goto. Hiromi’s first novel, Chorus of Mushrooms, won the 1995 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book, was the co-winner of the Canada-Japan Book Award. Her second adult novel, The Kappa Child, won the 2001 James Tiptree Jr. Memorial Award. She has published multiple novels for adults and children, as well as a book of poetry, and a collection of short stories. She has also won The Sunburst Award and the Carl Brandon Parallax Award.Hiromi's most recent book, Shadow Life—her first graphic novel, created with artist Ann Xu—was publishe...
2023-12-0446 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksDimitri NasrallahMy guest on this episode is Dimitri Nasrallah. Dimitri is the author of four novels, which have received nominations for multiple awards and have won the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction and the McAuslan First Book Prize. His most recent book is the novel Hotline, published in 2022 by Véhicule Press, where Dimitri also serves as the fiction editor. Hotline was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and was a Canada Reads selection in 2023. In its review of Hotline, Quill & Quire said the the novel “intertwines hope and sorrow to create a moving story that sears the heart.”
2023-11-2746 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksHarley RustadMy guest on this episode is Harley Rustad. Harley is an award-winning and bestselling author, journalist, and a senior editor at The Walrus magazine. Harley’s first book was Big Lonely Doug: The Story of One of Canada’s Last Great Trees, published by House of Anansi in 2018. His most recent book is Lost in the Valley of Death: A Story of Obsession and Danger in the Himalayas, published in 2022 by Knopf Canada and by Harper US. Lost in the Valley of Death won the 2023 Poland Mountain Literature Festival Award for Best Non-Fiction Book and the 2023 Religion News Association Awar...
2023-11-2049 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksMoe and Laura BergMy guests on this episode are Moe and Laura Berg. Moe Berg is a musician, songwriter, and producer best known as the frontman for the band The Pursuit of Happiness. Moe’s first book, a short story collection called The Green Room, was published by Gutter Press in 2000. Laura Berg is a college professor, professional speaker, trained therapist. She has been named one of the Top 10 Mom Entrepreneurs, Savvy Mom of the Year, and was awarded YouTube’s Silver Play Button. Laura’s first book, The Baby Signing Bible, was published by Avery in 2012. Her most recent book, Thriving Life...
2023-11-1344 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksGil AdamsonMy guest on this episode is Gil Adamson. Gil is a Toronto author whose first novel, The Outlander, won the Dashiell Hammett Prize for Literary Excellence in Crime Writing, the Amazon.ca First Novel Award, the ReLit Award, and the Drummer General’s Award. She is also the author of a collection of linked stories, Help Me, Jacques Cousteau, and two poetry collections, Primitive and Ashland. (She is also the co-author of one celebrity biography, which we discuss in the episode.) Gil and I talk about nearly passing out the first time she ever read fro...
2023-11-0655 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksEvan MundayMy guest on this episode is Evan Munday. Evan is the author and illustrator of the Silver Birch-shortlisted Dead Kid Detective Agency series, the fourth and most recent volume of which, Connect the Scotts, was published by ECW Press in 2018. Munday works as publicity manager for children’s books at Penguin Random House Canada. In its review of Connect the Scotts, the School Library Journal wrote that “fans of the series will be thrilled with another spectral mystery glinting with subtle mirth.”Evan and I talk about the days when he was very frequently spotted at Toronto book e...
2023-10-3046 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksJoe OllmannMy guest on this episode is Joe Ollmann. Joe is an artist and writer from Hamilton, Ontario, and the author of more than a half-dozen acclaimed graphic novels and collections of graphic stories. His book This Will All End in Tears, published by Insomniac Press, won the 2007 Doug Wright Award for best book.Joe’s most recent graphic novel is Fictional Father, published in 2022 by Drawn & Quarterly. In a starred review of Fiction Father, Publishers Weekly wrote that "Ollmann’s funny, faux-meta memoir… is a complex look at an artist’s evolving relationship to the past." The boo...
2023-10-2348 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksVictoria HetheringtonMy guest on this episode is Victoria Hetherington. Victoria is an author and professional ghostwriter whose first book was the novel Mooncalves, published by Now or Never in 2019. Victoria’s most recent books are Into the Mist: Finding CF-JDO, a non-fiction book published by Kestrel Publication, and Autonomy, published by the Rare Machines imprint of Dundurn Press. Both books were published in 2022.Author Liz Harmer said about Autonomy that "Hetherington's vision is bleak, but their glittering prose gives even the most monstrous realities of late-capitalism an unsettling glimmer."Victoria and I talk about her ghostwriting car...
2023-10-1642 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksAnna FitzpatrickMy guest on this episode is Anna Fitzpatrick. Anna has written for The New York Times Magazine, Rookie, Vice, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, The Hairpin, Hazlitt, The Believer, The Village Voice, Refinery29, the National Post, the Globe and Mail and many more. She is the author of the children’s picture book Margot and the Moon Landing, illustrated by Erika Medina, which was published by Annick Press in 2020. Her most recent book is the novel Good Girl, published by Flying Books in 2022. Writing about Good Girl, Buzzfeed said that “Fitzpatrick takes romance tropes and flips them on their head...
2023-10-1043 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksSheila MurrayMy guest on this episode is Sheila Murray. Sheila’s short fiction has been published in many literary journals including Descant, The Dalhousie Review, and The New Quarterly. Murray is an advocate for social justice and currently leads a grassroots, volunteer-driven initiative that engages urban residents in adapting to local climate change impacts.Sheila’s first novel, Finding Edward, was published in 2022 by Cormorant Books. Finding Edward has been shortlisted for a Governor General’s Literary Award, longlisted for Canada Reads, and selected as the One Book One Aurora book for 2023. The novel is also finalist for the 202...
2023-10-0249 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksClaire CameronMy guest on this episode is Claire Cameron. Claire is the kind of person who has led canoe trips in Algonquin Park and worked as an instructor for Outward Bound. She has taught mountaineering, climbing, and whitewater rafting in Oregon and beyond. But also the kind of person whose writing has appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Globe and Mail, the Guardian, Lenny Letter, and Salon. Claire is the author of three novels, the most recent of which is The Last Neanderthal, which was published in 2017 by Doubleday Canada, and went on to be published...
2023-09-2545 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksEmily AustinMy guest on this episode is Emily Austin. Emily is the author of Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead, which was published in 2022 by Simon & Schuster Canada, and has been published in multiple other countries and in many other languages. Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead was long listed for The Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour, shortlisted for the Amazon First Novel Award, and a finalist for the Ottawa Book Awards.Buzzfeed called the book “the perfect blend of macabre and funny.”Emily and I talk about how studying library scie...
2023-09-1837 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksStuart RossMy guest on this episode is Stuart Ross. Stuart is a writer, editor, teacher, and self-described "small press guerrilla." Stuart is the author of over twenty books of poetry, fiction, and essays. He is the recipient of the 2019 Harbourfront Festival Prize and the 2010 Relit Prize for Short Fiction. His most recent works are The Book of Grief and Hamburgers, published by ECW Press in Spring 2022, and I Am Claude François and You Are a Bathtub, published by Anvil Press in the fall of 2022.The Book of Grief and Hamburgers recently won the Trillium Book Award, and R...
2023-09-1151 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksJamie TennantMy guest on this episode is Jamie Tennant. Jamie’s debut novel The Captain of Kinnoull Hill was published by Palimpsest Press in 2016. His second novel, River Diverted, also published by Palimpsest Press, was published in the fall of 2022. Jamie also hosts the weekly books and literature program/podcast Get Lit on CFMU, where he is also the Program Director.Author Emily Saso said about River Diverted: “Nobody writes a charming monster quite like Jamie does. Highly recommend if you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to chuck your North American life and move to Japan.”...
2023-09-0442 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksNaseem HrabMy guest on this episode is Naseem Hrab. Naseem is the author of many stories for children, which have been translated into several languages. Her book The Sour Cherry Tree, published by OwlKids Books, won a Governor General’s Literary Award in 2022. Naseem’s most recent book, Otis & Peanut, illustrated by Kelly Collier, was also published by OwlKids Books earlier this year. Kirkus Reviews called Otis and Peanut “a tender friendship story for the ages.” The New York Times said that its main characters “bravely follow in the footsteps of Frog and Toad and George and Martha."(Also...
2023-08-2842 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksCarleigh BakerMy guest on this episode is Carleigh Baker. Carleigh’s debut story collection, Bad Endings, published by Anvil Press in 2017, won the City of Vancouver Book Award, and was also a finalist for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the Emerging Indigenous Voices Award for fiction. Foreword magazine said, about Bad Endings, “Baker is a skillful, sensitive writer with an uncanny gift for subtle, dark humor and the ability to assume the viewpoint of her characters […] There is no judgment or condemnation in these stories, but a tender, deep savoring of the quirks that make us human.” ...
2023-08-2155 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksCary FaganMy guest on this episode is Cary Fagan. Cary is the author of many novels and collections of short stories. He has won the Toronto Book Award and the Canadian Jewish Book Award for Fiction, and has been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Writers’ Trust Fiction Award, the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction. He is also an acclaimed writer of books for children, having won the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award, the IODE Jean Throop Book Award, a Mr. Christie Silver Medal, the Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for Young People, and the Joan Betty Stuc...
2023-08-1440 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksSusan MusgraveMy guest on this episode is Susan Musgrave. Susan is the author of nineteen books of poetry, numerous works of fiction and non-fiction, and several books for children. In 2023, she was recognized with the George Woodcock Award for Outstanding Literary Achievement in British Columbia. Susan also teaches poetry in the University of British Columbia’s Creative Writing school, where I was lucky enough to be her student – twice – while completing my MFA degree. Susan’s most recent book of poetry, Exculpatory Lilies, was published in 2022 by McClelland & Stewart, and was shortlisted for the 2023 Griffin Poetry Prize.
2023-08-0743 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksErin PeplerMy guest on this episode is Erin Pepler. Erin is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in Today’s Parent, Parents Canada, SavvyMom, Romper, Scary Mommy, MoneySense, Broadview Magazine and more. Her first book, Send Me Into the Woods Alone: Essays on Motherhood, was published by Invisible Publishing in 2022. Writing about the book in the Globe and Mail, Marsha Lederman said that Send Me Into the Woods Alone “is the book I wish I had had as a companion during those early, difficult months and early, difficult years. Because this book is not just instructive...
2023-07-3151 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksLynn CoadyMy guest on this episode is Lynn Coady. Lynn is the author of eight books, including the novel The Antagonist, which was shortlisted for the 2011 Giller Prize, and the short-story collection Hellgoing, which won the Giller Prize in 2013. Her most recent novel novel is Watching You Without Me, which was published by House of Anansi 2019 and Knopf US in 2020. Publishers Weekly said that Watching You Without Me “stands out for its incisive, bleakly humorous look at gullibility and the complexities of guilt.” Lynn is also an accomplished TV writer who has worked...
2023-07-2441 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksAnn DouglasMy guest on this episode of WHAT HAPPENED NEXT is Ann Douglas. Ann is the bestselling author of 26 works of non-fiction — yes, that is correct — and creator of the Mother of All Books series, which have sold over half a million copies in North America. Her most recent book is Navigating the Messy Middle: A Fiercely Honest and Wildly Encouraging Guide for Midlife Women, published by Douglas & McIntyre in 2022. Kim Shiffman, the Editor-in-Chief of Today's Parent, says that Ann's book "made me feel seen, understood and empowered.” Ann and I talk about wh...
2023-07-1738 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksAlicia ElliottMy guest in this episode is Alicia Elliott. Alicia is a Mohawk writer living in Brantford, Ontario, whose essays have been nominated for multiple National Magazine Awards. She is also a recipient of the RBC Taylor Emerging Writer Award. Alicia’s first book, the essay collection A Mind Spread Out On The Ground, was a national bestseller, and was nominated for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction. It also won the Forest of Reading Evergreen Award. The New York Times Book Review called that collection “raw” and “unflinching”, the Globe and Mail called it “a tour de...
2023-07-1036 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksClaire Ross DunnMy guest on this episode is Claire Ross Dunn. Claire is not only a novelist, whose first book, At Last Count, was published in 2022 by Invisible Publishing, but also a story editor and producer for television, where she has worked on obscure little shows like Little Mosque on the Prairie and Degrassi: The Next Generation. At Last Count was named a Best Book of 2022 by the Globe and Mail. Claire and I talk about how she felt like a complete newbie shifting from the film-and-TV world to that of books, how sh...
2023-07-0348 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksElyse FriedmanMy guest on this episode is Elyse Friedman, the author of a whole bunch of things, including a number of screenplays, a collection of poetry, a collection of short stories, and a few novels, the most recent of which is The Opportunist, which was published by HarperCollins Canada in 2022. The Toronto Star review of The Opportunist said that “In exciting, page-turning prose, Friedman’s brilliant plotting and wonderfully devious characters act out scenes of mayhem and power struggles.” Elyse and I talk about how Anne of Green Gables inspired her early shift into novel-writing, why she thi...
2023-06-2639 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksAlix OhlinOn this episode of What Happened Next, I speak with Alix Ohlin. Alix is the author of three novels and three short story collections. Alix as been shortlisted twice for the Giller Prize, among many other award nominations, and she chairs the creative writing program at the University of British Columbia. Alix’s most recent book is the collection We Want What We Want, published by House of Anansi in 2021. Esquire said that We Want What We Want is “Shot through with dark humour and keen powers of observation.” The Toronto Star called the stories in the collection “stunning” and said t...
2023-06-1935 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksDawn PromislowOn this episode of What Happened Next, I speak with Dawn Promislow. Dawn is the author of the short story collection Jewels, published in 2010, and the novel Wan, published by Freehand Books in May 2022. Author Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer has called Wan “a masterpiece” and said that this “beautiful, painterly, sublime, and sonically exquisite novel … is a work of utter genius.” Dawn and I talk about the long stretch of time between her first and second book (and how that is only partly her fault), the astonishingly short time it took her to write the first draft of Wan when...
2023-06-1232 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksAndrew PyperOn this episode of What Happened Next, I speak with Andrew Pyper. Andrew is the author of a dozen bestselling books, including the novels The Homecoming, The Residence, and many others. His most recent project is Oracle, an audio-only book he created for Audible that was narrated by Joshua Jackson (Yes, Dawson's Creek’s Joshua Jackson.) Andrew also created a kind of sequel for Oracle in the form of an original audio drama called Oracle 2: the Dreamland Murders, also starring Mr Jackson. That was released by Audible in 2022. In our conversation, Andrew talks about the str...
2023-06-0539 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksNicola WinstanleyOn this episode of What Happened Next, I speak with Nicola Winstanley, the author of six picture books, including her most recent, How to Teach Your Cat a Trick: In Five Easy Steps, published by Tundra Books in 2022. Nicola’s books have received numerous award nominations, including the Marylin Bailie Picture book award and the Governor General’s Award. CM Reviews called How to Teach Your Cat a Trick a “funny, sweet story that highlights what all cat owners know: cats will do what they want, when they want."In our conversation, Nicola talks about the long gestati...
2023-05-2943 minWhat Happened Next: a podcast about newish booksFarzana DoctorOn this episode, I speak with Farzana Doctor about her first poetry collection You Still Look the Same, published by Freehand Books in 2022*. We talk about the how she learned to market herself, how publishing a collection of poetry was a surprisingly relaxing experience (at least compared to publishing her four previous novels), and how the messes of her forties have broadened her ambitions as a writer. Listen for a chance to win a copy of You Still Look the Same, courtesy of Freehand Books. * In the introduction, I say 2021 by mis...
2023-05-2235 min