Catherine Gildiner joined Shelagh Rogers on stage in Burlington, Ontario to entertain the crowd with stories from her teenage life, the subject of her second memoir, After the Falls. It's the follow-up to Too Close to the Falls.

Also on the show, W. Paul Young talks about growing up in Guinea with missionary parents. Paul has written a multi-million-selling book of personal wisdom called The Shack. Randy Boyagoda reviews the novel Border Songs by Jim Lynch, and Wendy Morton talks about her most important poetry project ever, called What Were Their Dreams.

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Lorna Crozier grew up poor in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, and later became one of Canada's best-known poets. Lorna writes about her upbringing and particularly her tough-and-tender mom in a memoir called Small Beneath the Sky. Jane Christmas recalls her extraordinary trip to Italy with her mother, a journey that was supposed to lead to a renaissance in their difficult relationship. Jane's travel memoir is called Incontinent on the Continent. Andreas Schroeder describes his strict Mennonite father, and Ariel Gordon starts a project to photograph the hands of Canadian authors.

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Anne Murray meets Shelagh to reflect on the singer's life and career. Ms. Murray's memoir is called All of Me. Also on the show, gossip columnist Shinan Govani reveals the secrets behind is new novel, Boldface Names, a book that is only partly fictional and contains thinly disguised references to celebrities. Mark Leiren-Young drops by to tell an anecdote from his Leacock Award-winning humorous book, Never Shoot a Stampede Queen. And regular columnist Tom Howell launches Word Report, keeping Canadians up-to-date with poetry and today's literary avant-garde. The first victims, er, featured authors, are Martha Baillie, author of The Incident Report, and Amatoritsero Ede, author of Globetrotters & Hitler's Children.

Posted by Tom Howell at 09:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)