My guest on this episode is Russell Smith. Russell is the author of multiple novels and collections of short fiction, as well as one non-fiction book. His work has been nominated for the Giller Prize, the Governor General’s Award, the Rogers/Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the Trillium Prize, the Chapters/Books In Canada First Novel Award, the City of Toronto Book Prize, and the Danuta Gleed Award. He is the editor of three story anthologies, and works as an acquiring editor for Dundurn Press. His most recent novel, Self Care, was published by Biblioasis in 2025. Kirkus Reviews called it “an uncomfortable, disturbing, and timely examination of relationships between men and women.”

Russell and I talk about the infamous and possibly apocryphal pitch letter that accompanied his very first novel, about how his very strong opinions as a writer and reader inform his work as an acquiring editor, and about the ways he feels the Canadian book world has sabotaged itself.

This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Elliott Gish. Elliott is a writer and librarian whose work has appeared in the Baltimore Review, Dark Matter, Grain, and the New Quarterly. Her debut novel, Grey Dog, was published by ECW Press in 2024. In a starred review of the novel, Publishers Weekly said “Gish’s prose is as sharp as a scalpel.”

Elliott and I talk about the impact a very nerdy-sounding historical summer camp had on her imagination, about why she’s not into writing horror stories set in the era of cellphones, and about why she’s both excited and a little concerned that her second novel will have far fewer horror elements than her first.

This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Jason Schneider. Jason has written for Exclaim!, the Globe & Mail, the Toronto Star, Paste, American Songwriter, Relix, Shindig and many other media outlets. His books include Whispering Pines: the Northern Roots of American Music, The Longest Suicide: The Authorized Biography of Art Bergmann, and the novel 3,000 Miles. He is the co-author of Have Not Been The Same: the CanRock Renaissance 1985-1995. His most recent two books are That Gun in Your Hand: The Strange Saga of ‘Hey Joe’ and Popular Music’s History of Violence, published by Anvil Press, and the novel The City Knows, published by Montag Press. Both books were published in 2025.

Jason and I talk about how he ended up publishing two books, in two different genres, in the same year, about turning a COVID-era deep dive into a single song into an entire book, and about how he is once again working on two books at once, in two different genres.

This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Jeannie Marshall. Jeannie is a nonfiction author, journalist, and former staff writer at the National Post. She has written for Maclean’s and the Walrus and has published literary nonfiction in The Common, the Literary Review of Canada, Brick, and elsewhere. Her first book was Outside the Box: Why Our Children Need Real Food, Not Food Products. Her most recent book is All Things Move: Learning to Look in the Sistine Chapel, published by Biblioasis in 2023. Vanity Fair called the book “rich, meditative” and said “the book is part art history, part memoir; a case for slowing down, curiosity, a closer look.”

Jeannie and I talk about the early days of the National Post, about overcoming the skepticism of art historians who felt there was nothing new to say about the Sistine Chapel, and about how her new book project, a novel, fits in with her previous two books.

This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Emily Weedon. Emily is an award-winning screenwriter and author, whose first book was the novel Autokrator. Her most recent book is the novel Hemo Sapiens, which was published by Dundurn Press in 2025. Quill & Quire called the book “a fun and welcome addition to the vampire genre.”

Emily and I talk about the agent who advised her to change the male protagonist of her novel to a lesbian for no particular reason, about publishing two books in two years, and why she does not recommend doing that, and about the book world’s strange and contradictory relationship with hustle culture.

This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Tessa McWatt. Tessa is the author of many novels and books for young people. Her fiction and non-fiction has won the Eccles British Library Award and the Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature for Non-Fiction, and has been nominated for the Governor General's Award, the City of Toronto Book Award, and the Hilary Weston Writer’s Trust Prize. Her most recent book, The Snag: A Mother, A Forest and Wild Grief, was published by Random House Canada in 2025. That book also won the Bocas Prize, and was shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize. Author Stephanie Bishop called it “wise, bold, and deeply affecting.”

Tessa and I talk about the recent racist riots and violence in the UK, about writing books that are distinctly anti-cozy, and about how, as someone who now lives and teaches in England, she is desperate to go on a long canoe trip.

This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Sarah Leavitt. Sarah is the creator of the graphic memoir Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer's, My Mother, and Me and the historical fiction comic Agnes, Murderess. Her work has won a CBC Bookie award for Best Comic or Graphic Novel, a Vine Award for Canadian Jewish Literature, and an Alberta Book Publishing Award, and has been shortlisted for many, many other awards. An animated feature film version of Tangles, which features the voices of people like Seth Rogen, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Bryan Crantson, recently premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Sarah’s most recent book, the graphic memoir Something, Not Nothing: A Story of Grief and Love, was published by Arsenal Pulp Press in 2024 and was a finalist for an Eisner Awar, a Lambda Literary Award, and a Publishing Triangle Award. It won a BC/Yukon Book Prize, and the New York Times said in its review of the book that “Sarah Leavitt embraces the ways that comics can work as poetry.”

Sarah and I talk about long process of turning Tangles into a film, about souring on social media as a way of sharing her creative work, and about her new project, which might turn out to be a novel, except without the graphic part.

This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Shyam Selvadurai. Shyam’s novels include Funny Boy, Cinnamon Gardens, and The Hungry Ghosts, as well as the YA novel Swimming in the Monsoon Sea. His work has won the W. H. Smith/Books in Canada First Novel Award and the Lambda Literary Award, and been shortlisted for the Giller Prize, the Governor General’s Literary Award, and the Trillium Prize. Funny Boy was made into a feature film in 2020 by director Deepa Mehta. His most recent book is the novel Mansions of the Moon, published by Knopf Canada in 2022. Maclean’s said “Selvadurai’s tale of emotionally torn star-crossed lovers—and the aftermath of their parting—is subtle, absorbing and thoroughly modern.”

Shyam and I talk about the overwhelming whiteness of the Canadian book world when he first started publishing (and how that has changed for the better), about the difference between the literary reputation he has in his birth country of Sri Lanka and the one he has in Canada, and about the mall in Scarborough that might one day become a CanLit landmark, thanks to his books.

This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.