-- Susan Swan. 

In this episode:

* Susan Swan on The Western Light
* Andrew Kaufman on Born Weird
* George Elliott Clarke on his day job in the Toronto traffic control centre
* David Gilmour reviews I'm Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen by Sylvie Simmons
* Patrick Ledwell on I Am An Islander

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In her latest novel The Western Light, Susan Swan reintroduces us to Mouse Bradford.  Mouse is a 12-year-old girl coming of age in small town Ontario in the 1950s.  Mouse's father is the local doctor and doesn't have much time for her.  In his absence, Mouse becomes friends with John Pilkie, a prisoner at the local mental hospital.  It's an odd, possibly dangerous relationship, but one that Susan Swan understands on a very personal level.

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-- Stephen Marche. 

In this episode:

* Stephen Marche on Love and the Mess We're In
* Luke Doucet on Porno by Irvine Welsh
* Lynne Van Luven and Lenore Rowntree on Hidden Lives: coming out on mental illness
* Randy Boyagoda reviews The Bukowski/Purdy Letters 1964-1974

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Stephen Marche's writing is ultra-modern and casts off conventions as needed, but his latest novel has a parallel life as art object, created with the best that traditional printmaking and papermaking can offer. He worked on the design for more than two years with his publisher, Andrew Steeves at Gaspereau Press.

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-- Donna Morrissey. 

In this episode:

* Donna Morrissey on The Deception of Livvy Higgs
* Marjorie Celona on Y
* Kevin O'Leary on Cold Hard Truth: On Business, Money & Life
* Gail Vaz-Oxlade takes the Proust Questionnaire
* Giles Blunt (Until the Night) recalls the job he should never have quit

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-- Thomas King. 

In this episode:

* Thomas King on The Inconvenient Indian
* Will Whitwham from the band The Wilderness of Manitoba on Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden
* Ing Wong-Ward says if you liked A Cook's Tour by Anthony Bourdain, you'll love The Devil's Picnic by Taras Grescoe
* Priscila Uppal on Winter Sport: Poems

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In the early weeks of 2013, the Idle No More movement raised international awareness of the deep frustration and discontent felt by many aboriginal people in Canada. But what was it really all about? Thomas King's latest book The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America provides some deep historical context and timely answers to that question.

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-- Tamas Dobozy. 

In this episode:

* Tamas Dobozy on Siege 13
* Amelia Curran on Gold by Chris Cleave
* Literary Smackdown with Cathy Marie Buchanan and Andrew Kaufman: Is it better to write with or without music?
* Deirdre Kelly on Ballerina: Sex, Scandal, and Suffering Behind the Symbol of Perfection
* Catherine Gildiner reviews Into The Abyss by Carol Shaben

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Cathy Marie Buchanan vs. Andrew Kaufman 

 

There are as many ways to write as there are writers.  So, The Next Chapter and Canada Writes created Literary Smackdown, a forum for authors to debate which way works best.  In this tenth instalment, Cathy Marie Buchanan and Andrew Kaufman face off in a question of creative ambiance: is it better to write with our without music?

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-- Richard Wagamese. 

In this episode:

* Richard Wagamese on Indian Horse. It's a contender in Canada Reads 2013.
* Sarah Tsiang on Desperately Seeking Susans
* Lorna Crozier on The Book of Marvels
* Neil Pasricha, author of The Book of Awesome, answers the Proust Questionnaire

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