In this episode:

* Literary Smackdown with Sharon Butala and Jane Urquhart: To Re-read or Not to Re-Read Old Work
* Science fiction writer Robert J. Sawyer on his day job as a book store clerk
* Esi Edugyan on Half-Blood Blues
* Sheila O'Brien recommends great reads about the Royal Family:
          * The Queen by Ben Pimlott
          * Elizabeth: A Biography of Britain's Queen by Sarah Bradford
          * Young Prince Philip by Philip Eade
          * Elizabeth the Queen by Sally Bedell Smith

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Canada Writes and The Next Chapter present our eigth literary smackdown, an always thoughtful, sometimes feisty, debate about the writing life.

This time, a quandary for published writers: is it a good idea to re-read your old work?  Sharon Butala and Jane Urquhart have both written plenty of books, but they have very different thoughts on what to do with them.

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In this episode:

• Vincent Lam on The Headmaster's Wager
• Wayne Petti from Cuff the Duke on Beautiful Losers by Leonard Cohen and the song God is Alive, Magic is Afoot by Buffy Sainte-Marie
• Karen Levine on the Tenth Anniversary Edition of Hana's Suitcase
• Adria Vasil on Ecoholic Body
• Marjorie Anderson and Gail Anderson-Dargatz on the collaborative novel At the Edge

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In 2006, 32-year old physician Vincent Lam won the Scotiabank Giller Prize for his collection of medical short stories Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures. Over the past six years, he's continued his medical practice while writing his much-anticipated first novel, The Headmaster's Wager.

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In this episode:

• Michael Christie on The Beggar's Garden
• Christa Couture on the Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery
• Donna Morrissey and Bridgette Morrissey on Cross Katie Kross
• Gail Vaz-Oxlade on her day job as a secretary
• Antanas Sileika on Solar Dance by Modris Eksteins

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In this episode:

• Kim Thuy on Ru
• Rose Cousins on Dance Dance Dance by Haruki Murakami
• Eva Stachniak on The Winter Palace
• Master Class with Rudy Wiebe
• Adrienne Clarkson, author of Room for All of Us, answers the Proust Questionnaire

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On its booksleeve, Kim Thuy's novel Ru is described as "a lullaby for Vietnam and a love letter to a new homeland".

Ru is a series of short, powerful vignettes that weave back and forth through time and place.  The novel begins after the fall of Vietnam and tells the story of one woman's journey from a comfortable home in Saigon, to a crowded refugee camp in Malaysia, and finally a new home in small-town Quebec.

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In this episode:

• Alexi Zentner on Touch
• Kathryn Calder on 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
• Literary Smackdown with Shyam Selvadurai and Robert Hough: Write What You Know vs. Write What You Don't Know
• Michael Crabb reviews The Pursuit of Perfection: A Life of Celia Franca by Carol Bishop-Gwyn

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Canada Writes and The Next Chapter present the seventh great literary smackdown... and this time the gloves come off.

"Write what you know" is probably the most widely touted maxim among writers, but is it always the best advice?  Shyam Selvadurai and Robert Hough have very different thoughts on the matter.

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In this episode:

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