A nomination and/or a win for Canada’s most prestigious literary medal is an achievement that speaks to talent more than luck. Nonetheless, three humble writers – Francesca Ekwuyasi, Tessa McWatt, and Guy Vanderhaege – gave us a compelling hour of personal stories of luck and the vagaries of succ...
Discovering who you are and where you belong are at the heart of each of these writers' bracing and brilliant memoirs. A conversation with Eternity Martis and Tessa McWatt about multi-racial identity, battling stereotypes, and finding community.
With generosity, humour, and writerly insight that makes us want to watch the world go by from a George Street pub, Eva Crocker and Michael Crummey talk family, music, and the limits of leaning on the people we love.
While the talent and tenacity of our winningest authors cannot be overstated, they would agree that success in writing (as well as in love, river-rafting and cat ownership) involves a healthy dollop of luck. Four beloved writers share how fortune – and misfortune – has shaped their lives.
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He had us at "middle-aged Jewish wannabe-cowboy". The protagonist in Gary Barwin’s magnificent, mordantly funny new novel is a “Jewish cowpoke, Brisket Boy, my grandfather,” and the focal point of a rich, wonderfully weird conversation hosted by Bill Richardson.
Tomson Highways’s new book, Permanent Astonishment, is a celebration of the nomadic author's beautiful, challenging, love-filled life. In conversation with fellow playwright and author Eugene Stickland.
Métis writer and activist Cherie Dimaline and Maria Campbell, the renowned Métis author of Halfbreed, move us to tears, laughter, and inspiration to live with intention and compassion.
Pick up a copy of Campbell's Halfbreed here: https://wordfest.com/25at25/book-recommendations/maria-campbell
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Irish-Canadian writer Emma Donoghue shares the stories behind her brilliant, timely, instant No. 1 bestseller The Pull of Our Stars, which depicts a claustrophobic maternity ward and the women who did extraordinary things there during the 1918 pandemic.
CBC’s Shelagh Rogers and Thomas King never fail to steal our hearts and enrich our minds. The long-time friends discuss King’s Indians on Vacation, as well his popular DreadfulWater mystery series.
Truth, conspiracy, madness, belonging, and… wait a minute, do you hear that? Jordan Tannahill's profound new literary thriller, The Listeners, is an ear-worm can't shake.
Successful marriages are rare. So are monumental novels. Combine the two and you’ve got, well, Esi Edugyan and Steven Price who discuss love and literature from their home on Vancouver Island.
Hosted by CBC Reads winner Joshua Whitehead, two of North America's leading figures of contemporary Indigenous writing, Billy-Ray Belcourt and Stephen Graham Jones, come together with curiosity, passion and fascinating, fresh approaches to rage, fear, and toxic masculinity.
Long-time friends and endearing members of the mutual admiration club, Swampy Cree author David A. Robertson and YA novelist Alice Kuipers laugh at old photos, discuss parenting, work goals — and tenderly champion one another’s work.
“Don’t cry” and “I love you” were oft-repeated phrases that resonated with this GG-award winning Cree author throughout his childhood. Certainly, the loved ones who uttered those words contributed to McLeod’s remarkable, multiple bounce-backs from unspeakable events — events the author does indee...
Luck comes in many shapes: for poet and GG-finalist Benjamin Hertwig, it has arrived in the form of a returned wallet; a speeding car; a weighty baby; and a carrot cake (for who can summon anger when holding a carrot cake in a bakery line-up while facing one’s ex-wife’s weary lover?).
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The incomparable, award-winning author of Season of Fury and Wonder, Sharon Butala joins us from her aerie high above the Calgary skyline where she yearns for company but finds hope under a “measureless silent sky” (swoon).
Pick up a copy of Season of Fury and Wonder here: https://wordfest.com/2...
Wayne Grady, author of the new novel, The Good Father, had no idea having daughters would be so… complex. Here, he shares the lessons he learned (and keeps learning) and why he got inside the head of a fictional young woman named Daphne.
Pick up a copy of The Good Father here: https://wordfest.c...
A very special conversation with the multi-talented, ever-engaging author in celebration of his much-anticipated novel Sufferance, hosted by Iris Tupholme, Executive Publisher at HarperCollins Canada and King’s longtime editor.
Tragic family secrets are fascinating fodder for fiction —most satisfyingly revealed when shared by a master writer such as Wayne Johnston.
With joy and affection, CanLit heavy-weights Margaret Atwood and Ian Williams have much to discuss, not least of which is what footwear they chose at the age of 25.
The luck of meeting (and marrying) a man who instantly makes you want to slide your hand between the snaps of his cowboy shirt — fortune rarely smiles so widely. The formidable, lovable Lorna Crozier recently had devastatingly bad luck, too; her new memoir is a stunning tribute to her life with P...
Not only has Don Gillmor won countless literary prizes including last year’s GG win for non-fiction, but he can lay claim to an epic personal phone message from John Malkovich. Certainly an unstoppable literary force no matter what, a long-ago encounter with “a tall elegant woman” on Parliament H...
Ivan Coyote never fails to move us – to laughter and tears; to shut up and speaking our minds; to deep listening and empathy. Their new GG-nominated book, Care Of: Letters, Connections and Cures, is a world of unforgettable storytelling by the ever-compelling, award-winning spoken-word performer,...
Guy Gavriel Kay and Marina Endicott are from different literary worlds, yet they finish each other sentences as they segue from one fascinating topic to the next with ease and delight.
