W@L Podcast
The Words At Large Podcast features Eleanor Wachtel talking to a trio of Jane Austen experts about the enduring popularity of her work
Posted by Words At Large Admin on September 24 at 12:00 AM
Listen here.
This week’s Words at Large podcast is devoted to Jane Austen, who has been a perennial favourite with our listeners. In this lively Writers & Company interview, Eleanor Wachtel brings together a group of Austen experts in London, England, to discuss the beloved author’s enduring popularity and her books’ successful move to the big screen.
This is our final Words At Large podcast, with host Sharon Farrell, but our website will continue to bring you the best of CBC’s book coverage. We’ve added an exciting new show to our line-up: Shelagh Rogers’ The Next Chapter, which debuts this week. Listen in to this hour-long exploration of Canadian writing and reading at 3 p.m. (3:30 in Newfoundland) on September 27. Or catch the podcast online.
We’ll also continue to feature a weekly podcast of Writers & Company and the Between the Covers readings, as well as online features from shows like Quirks & Quarks, Tapestry, The Sunday Edition and Spark.
First broadcast January 14, 1996 on Writers & Company. [runs 52:59]
Andrew Pyper explores how far a wannabe writer will go in pursuit of success in his book The Killing Circle
Posted by Words At Large Admin on September 17 at 12:00 AM
In terms of literary success stories, Andrew Pyper is undoubtably living the dream. His first book, The Lost Girls (HarperCollins), earned him two substantial six-figure advances from international publishers and had film companies fighting over the movie rights. But this is not every writer’s experience and in his dark new novel, The Killing Circle (Doubleday), Pyper explores what a wannabe writer is willing to do to ensure his book is a bestseller.
Patrick Rush is a TV critic for the fictional National Star who joins a writing group to fulfill his lifelong dream of writing a novel. But then a series of murders begins, all of which have some connection to Patrick. Then the members of his writing circle start disappearing…
Andrew Pyper spoke to Ramona Dearing on The Sunday Edition about The Killing Circle, and about our society’s obsession with celebrity and acquiring fame overnight. Listen here to their conversation.
First aired August 17, 2008 on The Sunday Edition. [runs 29:10]
Anne Lamott talks to CBC’s Mary Hynes about her conversion to Christianity despite her best efforts to the contrary
Posted by Words At Large Admin on September 10 at 12:00 AM
Anne Lamott doesn’t believe in pulling any punches — and her many fans love her for it. The celebrated author, political activist and Sunday school teacher has written candidly about her struggles with alcoholism, motherhood, writing and religion. Her knack for being both reverent and irreverent at the same time serves her particularly well in her latest book, Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith (Riverhead), which is both sincere and extremely funny.
In this interview with Mary Hynes for CBC Radio’s Tapestry, Lamott recounts the story of her conversion to Christianity, despite her best efforts to the contrary. She says her parents were intellectuals that equated “Christians with trailer parks” and so Lamott was careful to steer clear of any such doctrine. It was only when in her early 30s and dealing with her own abusive addictions that she finds herself strangely drawn to a little church she begins attending, though making sure to leave before the sermon. She liked that those attending this particular church were motivated peace activists, and eventually began to stay for the whole ceremony — and open up to a whole new way of looking at the world, and at herself.
Listen to Lamott share her thoughts on the power of prayer, laughter and the joys of giving, in this week’s Words At Large podcast.
Originally aired on July 6, 2008. [runs 42:12]
Beloved young adult fiction writer Judy Blume talks with CBC Radio’s Jian Ghomeshi
Posted by Words At Large Admin on September 03 at 12:00 AM
American author Judy Blume is back with a new book for children, the latest in a long list of books for the younger set. She brings host Jian Ghomeshi up to date on her life and writing in this Q interview.
Blume’s new book is called Going, Going, Gone! with The Pain and the Great One (Delcorte Books for Young Readers). It’s the third book in a series about eight-year-old Abigail, “The Great One,” and her six-year-old brother, Jake, “The Pain.” The two characters were inspired by her own children years ago.
Blume helped define the genre of young adult fiction in the '70s and '80s with her immensely popular novels, many focused on teens and their angst. These books have won her generations of fans, but also brought her more than her fair share of criticism.
She’s one of the most censored authors in the United States, due to her frank writing about youth and hot-button topics.
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (Laurel Leaf) took on religion and puberty, and Blubber (Yearling) looks at schoolyard bullying and body image concerns. The books that have caused the most controversy are the ones that deal with teenaged sexuality, including Deenie (Laurel Leaf), Forever... (Simon Spotlight Entertainment) and Then Again, Maybe I Won’t (Yearling).
Along the way, Blume has also written three novels for adults, Summer Sisters (Delta), Smart Women (Berkley), and Wifey (Berkley), all of which were New York Times bestsellers.
Download this week’s Words At Large podcast to hear Judy Blume talk with Q host Jian Ghomeshi about her responsibility to her fans and the mysteries of the writing process.
First aired August 14, 2008 on Q. [runs 19:08]
Authors Padma Viswanathan, Glenn Patterson and Andrew O’Hagan talk about where they — and their fiction — come from
Posted by Words At Large Admin on August 27 at 12:00 AM
Three writers who weave stories about very different times and places — historical India, modern-day Northern Ireland and Scotland past and present — talk in today’s podcast about how family and place of origin have influenced their writing.
The panel “Where You Started From,” was recorded by CBC Radio at the Blue Metropolis Montreal International Literary Festival last spring, with host Anne Legacé Dowson.
Canadian Padma Viswanathan, author of The Toss of a Lemon (Random House), reveals how her novel was inspired after she said something her grandmother was longing to hear: “Tell me about our family’s history.” The tales told by her grandmother became the seeds of Viswanathan’s debut novel, although she also visited India on a research trip and then reinvented the family stories as fiction.
Glenn Patterson was born in Belfast and has six novels to his credit, most of them set in contemporary Northern Ireland. He says that the question of where he comes from has a complex answer, because origins are always an intersection of a specific time and place. We can’t travel backward in time and truly go home again, but he believes this makes it even more vital to revisit our origins through the imagination and literature.
Andrew O'Hagan, who was born in Glasgow, Scotland, first wrote about his own childhood in his debut book, The Missing (Faber & Faber), and has since written a number of novels set in his country of origin. He talks about being brought up in a house with no books, and recalls the look of horror on his father’s face when he once sauntered in carrying a copy of Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own (Penguin Classic). In O’Hagan’s family, songs and stories were more important and more personal than books, and their sense of community and a shared past was created through their conversations.
Listen as these writers share their stories with CBC Radio host Anne Lagacé Dowson.
Recorded in May 2008. [runs 36:30]
The true story: Charles Foran, Anna Porter and Donald Antrim talk about mixing fact and fabrication in memoirs
Posted by Words At Large Admin on August 20 at 12:00 AM
How do authors keep from blurring the line between fact and fiction when writing about their personal experiences and family history, which are often coloured by emotion?
American writer James Frey’s bestselling memoir A Million Little Pieces (Anchor) caused a sensation when it became an Oprah book club selection. But it became even more of a cause célèbre when it was revealed that he had fabricated much of it. In the wake of that fiasco, the truthfulness of memoirs is under scrutiny these days.
CBC arts reporter Jeanette Kelly tackled this issue with three writers who took part in a panel discussion at this year’s Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival in Montreal. Canadian publisher and writer Anna Porter chronicled her Hungarian family’s history in The Storyteller: A Memoir of Secrets, Magic and Lies (Douglas & McIntyre). American author Donald Antrim wrote about his strained relationship with his alcoholic mother in The Afterlife: A Memoir (St. Martin's Press). And Toronto-born writer Charles Foran, who has published both fiction and non-fiction, wrote about his childhood in The Story of My Life (so far) (HarperCollins).
These authors reveal how they mixed imagination and memory to get at the “true” story. They also share the feelings of disquiet and even terror that they experienced when reconstructing the past in this way.
[runs: 33:17]
The game is afoot: experts on Sherlock Holmes offer their take on the master sleuth of Baker Street
Posted by Words At Large Admin on August 13 at 12:00 AM
One of the most enduring and beloved literary characters in the world is an anti-social, cocaine-taking eccentric who’s also a genius at deduction: Sherlock Holmes. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s master detective has long been a favourite with filmmakers, too. Many distinguished actors, including John Barrymore, Michael Caine and Christopher Plummer, have donned the famous deerstalker hat. Now Robert Downey Jr. is set to join that list, as the star of Sherlock Holmes, a Guy Ritchie project that’s currently in production and is slated for release in 2010.
In honour of the peerless sleuth whose appeal never seems to wear thin, Words At Large did some investigating of its own, dipping into the CBC archives to unearth two lively conversations about Holmes conducted by experts in all things Sherlockian. As Holmes himself might say, "Good show!"
This first clip comes from Morningside. In 1987, to mark the 100th anniversary of the publication of the first Sherlock Holmes story, the late Peter Gzowski assembled a trio of Holmes enthusiasts (Thelma Beam in Toronto, Mark Hacksley in Winnipeg and Wilfred de Freitas in Montreal) to discuss the character’s enduring appeal. Test your expertise and play along with the short quiz Gzowski springs on his guests to see how much you know about the books.
The second clip aired October 22, 2006 on The Sunday Edition. That month, fans of Sherlock Holmes gathered in Toronto to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the Arthur Conan Doyle collection housed in the Toronto Reference Library. The Sunday Edition brought together Peggy Perdue, the curator of the collection, Charles Prepolec of Calgary’s Sherlock Holmes Society and Peter Calamai, a Toronto Star writer and a member of the Baker Street Irregulars, the leading Sherlockian organization in North America. They talked to host Christopher Thomas about Holmes’s relationship with Watson and the film adaptations of the books.
Listen to the Words At Large podcast here:
[runs 37:45]
Israeli writer Etgar Keret discusses his offbeat stories and adapting his work for the big screen
Posted by Words At Large Admin on August 06 at 12:00 AM
Salman Rushdie hails him as “the voice of the next generation.” Award-winning Israeli author Etgar Keret has written graphic novels, plays and television scripts, but he’s best known for his quirky, fabulist short stories, which have been translated into 22 languages.
In this candid interview with CBC’s Paul Kennedy, at the Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival in Montreal, Keret explains why he feels he can best express himself in his mother tongue, the ancient language of Hebrew. He compares his writing style to the paradox that he says is reflective of modern Israel, a country that is so conservative that buses don’t run on the Sabbath, and yet so liberal that it once sent a transvestite to compete in the annual Eurovision Song Contest.
Keret’s stories are notable for their brevity; most are only a few pages long, but they pack a dramatic punch. In fact, many have been adapted into films. Wristcutters: A Love Story, which premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, was based on his story “Kneller’s Happy Campers,” and Keret himself has made the leap from writer to film director. His most recent film, Jellyfish, made in collaboration with his wife, the poet Shira Geffen, won the Caméra d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007.
Listen to his interview on the Words At Large podcast, where he talks about making Jellyfish and why creative collaboration is so important to him.
[runs 42:24]
In This is Your Brain on Music, Daniel Levitin explains why music matters so much to us
Posted by Words At Large Admin on July 30 at 12:00 AM
Have you ever experienced instantly recalling the lyrics to a song you heard long ago, but weren’t able to remember what you had for breakfast yesterday? Don’t fret, it’s not a symptom of any kind.
There’s a reason why music lyrics get crazy-glued to our memories, and Daniel Levitin explains that and much more in This is Your Brain on Music (Plume).
Now a neuroscientist and professor of psychology at McGill University, Levitin started his career as a musician and record producer. He worked with the likes of Stevie Wonder and Santana before becoming an academic and his book draws on examples from classical to contemporary music alongside the latest brain research.
In his bestselling book, which is subtitled The Science of a Human Obsession, Levitin argues that music is fundamental to humans, perhaps even more so than language. Along the way, he reveals why the music we listened to as teenagers always matters most to us.
Levitin was interviewed by former CBC Radio host Anne Lagacé Dowson at this year’s Blue Metropolis Montreal International Literary Festival.
Listen to Levitin talk about his own love affair with music on this week’s Words At Large podcast.
Recorded by CBC Radio in May 2008. [runs 48:19]
James Meek and Andrew O’Hagan reveal how being from Scotland has coloured their writing
Posted by Words At Large Admin on July 23 at 12:00 AM
One of the key panels at the recent Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival in Montreal featured two writers who are part of what has been called “a Scottish literary renaissance.”
In a frank discussion moderated by CBC’s Ideas Host Paul Kennedy, James Meek and Andrew O’Hagan revealed how their homeland has influenced their work and also talked about the surprising ways that Scotland intersects with Canada.
Meek is a journalist who writes for the Guardian and the London Review of Books, as well as a fiction author. His publications range from award-winning news stories to historical epics. Born in London, he grew up in Dundee, Scotland, and much of his fiction is influenced by that country’s landscape and character.
O’Hagan was born in Edinburgh. His first novel, Our Fathers (Emblem Editions), was shortlisted in 1999 for the Man Booker Prize for fiction and the Whitbread First Novel Award. O’Hagan layers political and historical issues in his work and often raises the issue of Scotland’s national identity within the United Kingdom.
On this week's Words At Large podcast listen to James Meek and Andrew O’Hagan, recorded by CBC Radio at the Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival.
[runs 40:30]
An international panel of travel writers talk about their journeys with CBC host Paul Kennedy
Posted by Words At Large Admin on July 16 at 12:00 AM
Is it really true that getting there is half the fun, and the journey is half the trip? Find out what four well-known travel writers have to say about their times on the road in this week’s podcast.
Paul Kennedy, host of CBC Radio’s documentary series, Ideas, moderated a panel on travel writing that was recorded live at the Blue Metropolis Montreal International Literary Festival earlier this year.
The 10th edition of this multilingual annual festival ran from April 30 to May 4, with 290 writers, translators, journalists and artists taking part.
This panel brought together writers from three countries: Scotland’s Angus Bell, Adriaan Van Dis from the Netherlands and Canada’s own Karen Connelly and Charles Foran. In their wide-ranging discussion, they swapped their best travel stories and compared their favourite places around the globe.
Recorded by CBC Radio in Montreal. [runs 49:00]
Nino Ricci, Wayson Choy, Paul Quarrington and Susan Swan on the real-life perils of making a living as an author
Posted by Words At Large Admin on July 09 at 12:00 AM
Here’s a chance to hear some of Canada’s most established authors talk about the trials and tribulations they’ve faced in the writing life.
In May, the Writers’ Union of Canada held their annual general meeting in Toronto. Proceedings included several panel discussions on the craft and business of being a writer. The panel in today’s podcast, What I Wish I’d Known, comes to us courtesy of the Writers’ Union of Canada and was sponsored by the University of Toronto’s creative writing department.
Moderated by the union’s past chair Susan Swan, this discussion features authors Nino Ricci, Wayson Choy and Paul Quarrington sharing some of their personal experiences in becoming writers. In particular, they relate how they held a steady course through the sometimes treacherous waters of the writing life, including steering around unsupportive teachers and wading through the complexities of contracts. They also dish on a writer’s worst nightmare: how to cope when no one shows up to your public readings.
Listen to today’s podcast of What I Wish I’d Known here:
[runs 54:26]
How Bilbo Baggins got his start: an interview with Rayner Unwin, who helped persuade his father to publish The Hobbit
Posted by Words At Large Admin on July 02 at 12:00 AM
A story of small beings is hitting the big times: The Hobbit is being made into not one, but two movies. It’s a far cry from the modest beginnings of the book.
J.R.R. Tolkien wrote the story for his own children, who were its first readers. When he sent it to George Allen & Unwin, the company’s publisher asked his 10-year-old son to vet the manuscript.
Rayner Unwin recommended that the book be published, saying that it would appeal to “children ages five to nine.” He was paid one shilling for his work. Since it came out in 1937, The Hobbit has sold an estimated 100 million copies world-wide. (It’s now published in Canada by Harper Collins.)
In honour of the small hobbit’s move to the big screen, this week’s podcast features an interview with Unwin, who later joined the family firm and became a key figure in British publishing.
The film double bill is scheduled to be released in 2011 and 2012, directed by Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth) and produced by Peter Jackson, who was responsible for the Academy Award-winning trilogy The Lord of the Rings.
Unwin was also instrumental in persuading his father to publish The Lord of the Rings. It was his idea to turn the book into a trilogy, against Tolkien’s wishes, to make the epic story more manageable for readers.
Unwin was interviewed by Erika Ritter for CBC’s Dayshift in 1987. The podcast also visits a hobbit camp in Nova Scotia run by the Festival Antigonish Summer Theatre, with a recording from 2006.
Listen to the Words at Large podcast here:
[runs 23:42]
Crimes of passion - Shelagh Rogers and her panel of mystery experts share their latest favourite whodunits
Posted by Words At Large Admin on June 25 at 12:00 AM
CBC Radio host Shelagh Rogers has long been a fan of tales of murder and mayhem. During her final week as host of Sounds Like Canada, she got together with her panel of mystery lovers one last time to recommend some of the latest and greatest reads for this summer.
The panelists are J.D. Singh, the co-owner of the Sleuth of Baker Street bookstore in Toronto; Margaret Cannon, the mystery-book columnist for the Globe and Mail newspaper; and P.K. Rangachari, a mystery lover who is also a professor in the faculty of medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton.
The session started out with its own mystery: a missing panelist. One of the three was lost in transit, so Shelagh begins by asking the others about the changes they’ve noticed in the genre over the last few years.
[runs 23:31]
View the recommended reading list:
J.D. Singh's suggestions:
The Headhunters by Peter Lovesey (Soho Press)
Moonlight Downs by Adrian Hyland (Soho Press)
Kill All the Judges by William Deverell (McClelland & Stewart )
The Downhill Lie by Carl Hiaasen (Knopf).
Broken Shore by Peter Temple (Anchor Canada)
Bad Debts by Peter Temple (Anchor Canada)
Margaret Cannon's suggestions:
The Last Train to Kazan by Stephen Miller ( Penguin)
The Girl of His Dreams by Donna Leon (Atlantic Monthly)
The Demon of Dakar by Kjell Erikson (Thomas Dunne Books )
Bleeding Heart Square by Andrew Taylor (Penguin)
P.K. Rangachari's picks:
The Serpent's Tale by Ariana Franklin (Penguin)
Interred with their Bones by Jennifer Lee Carrell (Dutton)
Skin and Bone by Kathryn Fox (Hodder) July release
Toronto Noir edited by Janine Armin and Nathaniel Moore (Akashic Books, New York)
Green Mantle by John Buchan (Oxford University Press)
Listen to the prize-giving at the recent Griffin gala, as well as an interview with winning poet John Ashbery
Posted by Words At Large Admin on June 18 at 12:00 AM
(Photo credit: Lynn Davis) This week’s podcast features recordings from the Griffin Poetry Prize event. Along with the awards presentations and acceptance speeches from the gala in Toronto in early June, there’s also a new interview with John Ashbery, who won the international poetry prize.
Ashbery won for his collection Notes From the Air: Selected Later Poems (HarperCollins). The poet hand-picked the poems from books published in the past 20 years. CBC Radio Two host André Alexis interviewed Ashbery just before the Griffin event, for his program Skylarking.
Born on July 27, 1927 in New York, Ashbery studied at Harvard and Columbia universities, and lived in France as a Fulbright scholar in 1955. Since then, he has lived in New York City and published more than 20 books of poetry, along the way winning many major poetry awards.
Ashbery’s early book, Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror (Penguin), was the first ever to win the big three American awards in the same year: the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award.
Ashbery was New York State’s Poet Laureate from 2001 to 2003, and an official John Ashbery Day was declared there on April 7, 2006. Not bad for a poet, who, as you’ll hear in his acceptance speech for the Griffin Prize, doesn’t much like to be noticed.
There’s also a special treat in the podcast, a reading of a short poem written especially for Canada by Korean poet Ko Un, who won this year’s Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry’s Lifetime Recognition Award.
Listen to the Words at Large podcast here:
[runs 35:18]
Read the poem “Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror”.
For more on John Ashbery, click here.
In honour of CBC’s Othello, the Words At Large podcast presents interviews about Shakespeare—and his wife
Posted by Words At Large Admin on June 11 at 12:00 AM
“Have you pray'd to-night, Desdemona?” are the chilling words Othello uses to greet Desdemona one fateful evening. In the new CBC TV and Radio performance of Othello: The Tragedy of the Moor, the great actor Carlo Rota (24, Little Mosque on the Prairie) takes on the mantle of the jealous Moor.
You can hear CBC’s fresh approach to Othello on CBC Radio One this Friday at 7 p.m., or see the filmed version on CBC TV on Sunday, June 15, at 9 p.m. This take on the famous play was directed by Zaib Shaikh (Little Mosque on the Prairie, Canada Reads 2008), who also co-wrote the adaptation with playwright Matthew Edison.
The show’s other performers include Matthew Deslippe (Across the River to Motor City), Christine Horne (The Stone Angel) and Graham Abbey (The Border).
Check out our Words at Large podcast, which is dedicated this week to Shakespeare, with two interesting takes on the man and his times.
In Shakespeare: A Life (Oxford University Press), Park Honan goes beyond the few historical documents about the bard to depict what Shakespeare’s life would have been at different stages. Honan creates an ambitious and detailed picture of Shakespeare’s childhood and days as a second-rate player in a theatrical troop, as well as the playwright’s relationships with his wife and children.
Eleanor Wachtel interviewed Honan about his book on The Arts Today in 2000.
If so very little is known about Shakespeare, even less is known about his wife, Anne Hathaway. Australian author and feminist Germaine Greer set out to correct that in her new book Shakespeare’s Wife (Mclelland & Stewart). Among other insights, she offers a new interpretation of the infamous “second-best bed” being willed by Shakespeare to his wife.
When she spoke last week with CBC’s Jian Ghomeshi on Q, Greer criticized previous Shakespeare scholars for not having enough knowledge of social history to correctly piece together the available facts.
We invite thee to listen to this week’s podcast in tribute to Shakespeare:*
Words at Large podcast [runs 54:20]
Take a look at the trailer here.
This week’s podcast features interviews with three of the authors up for the Best of the Booker Prize
Posted by Words At Large Admin on June 04 at 12:00 AM
To celebrate its 40th anniversary, the Man Booker Prize is inviting people to vote for their favourite novel out of a shortlist of six past winners. The poll for the Best of the Booker Prize is open until noon on July 8, 2008.
According to one of the world’s leading bookmakers, William Hill, the odds favour Salman Rushdie, Pat Barker and Peter Carey. This week’s Words at Large podcast features interviews with all three.
The six books were selected by a jury chaired by biographer Victoria Glendinning:
Pat Barker, The Ghost Road (Booker winner in 1995, Penguin)
Peter Carey, Oscar and Lucinda (1988, Faber And Faber)
J.M. Coetzee, Disgrace (1999, Vintage)
J.G. Farrell, The Seige of Krishnapur (1973, New York Review Of Books)
Nadine Gordimer, The Conservationist (1974, Penguin)
Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children (1981, Vintage Canada)
It seems appropriate that Peter Carey’s Oscar and Lucinda, a novel about gamblers, has a good shot at the prize. Shelagh Rogers spoke to Australian Peter Carey about Oscar and Lucinda in 1988.
Paul Kennedy spoke to English writer Pat Barker in 1996 just after she won the Booker Prize for The Ghost Road. They spoke about the many ways that winning the award affected her.
The current favourite to win is Midnight’s Children. The late Peter Gzowski spoke to Salman Rushdie in 1983 about the many prizes showered on the author’s second novel. Besides the Booker, Midnight’s Children won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, an Arts Council Writers' Award and the English-Speaking Union Award. In 1993, it was chosen as the Booker of the Bookers, the best novel to have won the award in its first 25 years.
Will Rushdie score a hat trick? The winning book will be announced on July 10 at the London Literature Festival.
Listen to the Words at Large podcast here:
Vote for the Best of the Booker here.
Interviews with bestselling authors Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat Pray Love) and Tom Harpur (The Pagan Christ)
Posted by Words At Large Admin on May 08 at 12:00 AM
When her marriage fell apart, American Elizabeth Gilbert embarked on a year-long journey of self-discovery that took her to Italy, India and Bali.
In these countries she was exposed to radically different approaches to life, love and spirituality. She shares her experiences — including information on where to get the best pizza ever — in her hugely successful memoir, Eat Pray Love (Penguin Group Canada). It became a world-wide bestseller, and more than one million copies of the book are now in print in more than thirty languages. And a certain pizzeria in Naples is now getting loads of foreign visitors.
This week’s podcast features her recent conversation with Shelagh Rogers on CBC’s Sounds Like Canada. Canadian Tom Harpur is another author whose personal spiritual journey, rather unexpectedly, led him far from where he started.
As an Anglican priest, Harpur studied the Bible closely for many years. He came to view the Bible as a source of inspiration rather than historical truth. His controversial and bestselling book, The Pagan Christ (Thomas Allen Publishers), suggests that the New Testament was based on Egyptian mythology, a position that has left many Christians outraged.
We feature his 2004 interview with CBC Radio’s Mary Hynes.
Nancy Huston and Alberto Manguel join up in Moncton at the Frye Festival
Posted by Words At Large Admin on April 30 at 12:00 AM
The 9th annual Frye Festival recently took place in Moncton, New Brunswick with a slew of great authors. The bi-lingual event is named in honour of the literary critic, and Moncton native, Northrop Frye.
Today, we feature interviews with two ex-pat Canadians who flew in from France just for the event – Nancy Huston and Alberto Manguel.
Nancy Huston was born in Calgary in 1959, but has called Paris home since 1979. Despite speaking little French when she moved there, she now writes her novels directly in French. Her books have been translated into many languages including Chinese and Russian, but for the English editions, she prefers to translate them herself.
In 2005, she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. In today’s podcast, listen to Nora Young speak to Nancy Huston about the theatre adaptation of her book, An Adoration.
Writer Alberto Manguel relocated to France several years ago to live in a renovated medieval farmhouse, complete with an oak-paneled library to house his collection of 30,000 books. In A History of Reading, Manguel celebrates the reader, walking us through 6000 years of book-reading history, from clay tablets to the computer screen. Erika Ritter spoke to him to about this book in 1996.
Three Canadian poets are in the running for the lucrative Griffin Poetry Prize
Posted by Words At Large Admin on April 17 at 11:53 AM
This week's podcast features the three home-grown poets nominated for one of the world's most well-heeled literary awards. There are two categories in the Griffin Poetry Prize: one for a Canadian poet and the other for an international writer. Both winners will be announced on June 4 and will receive $50,000.
The podcast has archival interviews with the three Canadian nominees: Robin Blaser, David McFadden and Nicole Brossard.
The Vancouver poet Robin Blaser has already been honoured by the Griffin Trust, with a lifetime achievement award in 2006. His new book is The Holy Forest: Collected Poems of Robin Blaser (University of California Press). A conference was held in Vancouver in 1995 to pay tribute to Blaser on his 70th birthday. Blaser spoke to CBC host Vicki Gabereau just before this grand celebration.
David McFadden began writing poetry and publishing in well-known literary magazines as a high school student in Hamilton. He now lives in Toronto. Why Are You So Sad (Imsomniac Press and 4 a.m. Books) is a selection of writing from the almost two dozen collections he has published over the past five decades. Listen to an interview with Don Harron recorded 30 years ago for CBC Radio's Morningside.
Nicole Brossard's latest collection, Notebooks of Roses and Civilization (Coach House Books), is translated by Robert Majzels and Erin Mouré. Based in Montreal, Brossard is a literary giant in Quebec. She has published more than 30 books and has won the Governor General's Literary Award for Poetry twice. An active feminist, she has founded literary and feminist journals and co-directed a film called Some American Feminists. Listen to Brossard in a 1995 conversation with Eleanor Wachtel.
Download the podcast or listen here:
For a round-up of all the poets and their books, read Barbara Carey's article.
Spring, Eros and the Paradox of some True Confessions
Posted by Words At Large Admin on April 09 at 12:00 AM
Spring is sprung, and there's a whole lot of propagating going on out there. In this week's podcast, we've got a pair of books whose subject seems as perennial as those plants busily thrusting out of the soil: just what is going on with women and men these days?
Award-winning author Russell Smith is put on the spot for gathering stories of women's fantasies and turning them into a kind of lucrative true confessions in Diana: A Diary In The Second Person (Biblioasis).
Montreal psychologist and author Susan Pinker takes on the gender divide with a different approach to biology in her book The Sexual Paradox: Extreme Men, Gifted Women and the real Gender Gap (Random House).
CBC radio host Shelagh Rogers corrals both authors and examines just which is the frailer sex?
Listen to their conversation here:
The End of East – a poem that grew into a novel
Posted by Words At Large Admin on April 02 at 12:00 AM
The Vancouver author Jen Sookfong Lee has been a writer for most of her 30 years. She wrote her first short story when she was seven. By the time she was ten, she had decided that she was better suited to writing than firefighting, her other dream job.
Until recently, though, most of her writing has been in short form. Her debut novel, The End of East, actually began life as a long poem. Published in 2007 as part of Random House’s New Faces of Fiction series, it’s a tale of family conflicts set against the backdrop of Vancouver’s Chinatown – a city within a city where dreams are shattered as quickly as they’re built, and where history repeats itself through the generations.
The narrator, Sammy Chan, was sure she’d escaped her family obligations when she fled Vancouver six years ago, but with her sister’s upcoming marriage, it's her turn to care for their aging mother. Abandoned by all four of her older sisters, jobless and stuck in a city she resents, Sammy finds herself cobbling together a makeshift family history, delving into stories that date back to 1913, when her grandfather, Seid Quan, then eighteen years old, came to Canada.
In CBC Radio’s Studio One Bookclub, Jen Sookfong Lee talks about the evolution of this story from poem to novel and relates other frank and funny anecdotes about her writing. Click on the Words at Large podcast to hear that conversation.
On the horizon
If you're going to be in the Vancouver area on April 14, enter to win tickets to the next CBC Radio Studio One Bookclub. Jen Sookfong Lee will be Sheryl MacKay's guest co-host in a conversation with Alberta writer Padma Viswanathan about her debut novel, The Toss of A Lemon. It's being published this month as part of Random House's 2008 New Faces of Fiction program. For more information, go to the website.
Canadian non-fiction writers finally get the big bucks
Posted by Words At Large Admin on March 26 at 12:00 AM
Although not as glamorous as fiction, non-fiction writing is finally catching up at least in terms of financial rewards and prizes. Noreen Taylor, wife of author and journalist Charles Taylor, set up a twenty-five thousand dollar prize to honor a man who delighted in story-telling. In this week's podcast we'll go behind the scenes to meet the five nominees for this year's Charles Taylor Prize, and hear their outstanding stories.
Everyone seems to know the name Oskar Schindler, but the world does not remember Reszo Kastzner. He was a Jewish man who stood fearlessly, eyeball to eyeball with the Nazi's. Anna Porter's book "Kasztner's Train: The True Story of Rezso Kastzner. Unknown Hero of the Holocaust" was one of this year's nominees.
Erwin Nyireghazi is also not a household name. When he was 8, he played piano, for the Queen. Author Kevin Bazzana discusses researching and writing his book "Lost Genius: The Story of a Forgotten Musical Maverick." Erwin was brilliant and eccentric: leaving blood on the keyboards, and going on the wildest sex-capades. He once declared that the biggest problem in his life ...was his "pecker!"
Sir John A. had something to say about that. He wisely observed that there is "no wisdom below the belt". He was full of witty oneliners, but he also coped with many sad moments in his life. In a new biography, you get to know the Man Who Made Us...like never before. Author and journalist Richard Gwyn presents "John A.: The Man Who Made Us" The Life and Times of John A. Macdonald"
Also in this mix of nominees, are the stories that come straight from the heart. "From Harvey River" is a luscious memoir, about a family and about Jamaica. If you know what it's like to have your heart in two countries, you will be drawn to Lorna Goodison's book.
Finally there is "The Film Club". Author David Gilmour thinks "A Hard Day's Night", starring the Beatles, is "irresistable", and profound. His teenage son, on the other hand, thinks it is simply "dreadful."
Find out what happens when a father lets his teenager drop out of school...and watch movies instead.
Water Into Wine
Posted by Words At Large Admin on March 19 at 12:00 AM
In his latest book Water Into Wine best-selling author Tom Harpur discusses the myths at the heart of religion. But he isn't suggesting that faith is a fallacy - far from it. Listen to his conversation with CBC Radio host Mary Hynes in this week's Words At Large podcast.
The Man Behind The Title
Posted by Words At Large Admin on March 12 at 12:00 AM
On March 3rd former publishing mogul Conrad Black entered Coleman Prison in Florida to begin his sentence. It's a story to rival the usual British tabloids and unlike other scandals this one had a witness to lay blame at the feet of the mighty.
In the little over three years since the case began several biographies have flourished in an attempt to peer behind the mask of this public figure. This week on the podcast we look at several of those books both serious and incendiary.
He Shoots, He Scores!
Posted by Words At Large Admin on March 05 at 12:00 AM
The battle of the books is over and the novel left standing is Paul Quarrington's story about an aging hockey player called King Leary.
If you missed any of the verbal fisticuffs, you can catch those podcasts on the Canada Reads site.
It seems you don' t have to be a hockey fan to enjoy the winning book. But it’s not just fiction that has snapped up the hockey theme. There are dozens of non-fiction books about our national sport and this week in the Words At Large podcast we look at why they're so popular.
2007 CBC Literary Award Winners
Posted by Words At Large Admin on February 27 at 12:00 AM
Thousands of entries from across the country flooded the 2007 CBC Literary Awards. After an exacting judging process there were six lucky winners in the English language categories. A total of thirty thousand dollars was split between the first and second place English language winners. Their work will be published in En Route Magazine and you can hear those entries right here in this week's podcast.
For more information about the Awards and this year's participants go to the awards webpage.
Canada Reads: passion and the power of stories
Posted by Words At Large Admin on February 20 at 12:00 AM
Next week the CANADA READS panel takes their gloves off for the 2008 brawl of the books. CBC Radio host Jian Ghomeshi will be in top form as he keeps one step ahead of them in an attempt to determine which book Canadians should be reading. You can join the fun weekdays Feb. 25th- 29th on CBC Radio One at 11:30 am and 7:30pm.
In the meantime join us in this podcast for some early comments from the panelists as they hone their passion and their arguments.
Then you can hear critics and authors from across the country discuss the power of stories to shape our lives.
From Page to Stage
Posted by Words At Large Admin on February 13 at 12:00 AM
This week on the Words At Large podcast Leon Rooke's award-winning novel "Shakespeare's Dog" is translated to the stage. The theatrical adaptation opens Feb.14th at the Manitoba Theatre Centre and moves on to the National Arts Centre in March.
We revisit a conversation with Leon Rooke about the novel, his career and his affection for his adopted country.
Mysteries past and present
Posted by Words At Large Admin on February 06 at 12:00 AM
Mysteries past and present are the topic of this week's podcast. In celebration of the 100th anniversary of G.K.Chesterton's mystery "The Man Who Was Thursday" Penguin Books has reprinted it along with John Buchan's thriller "The 39 Steps".
CBC Radio's Talking BOoks panel discusses whether these two classics have stood the test of time.
Plus we put our ear to the door to hear some of the early comments from this year's CANADA READS panelists. As they warm up for the debates starting on Feb.25th each of the five celebrity contenders must get their most passionate arguments prepared.
Check it out!
An Icon in Canadian literature passes away
Posted by Words At Large Admin on January 30 at 12:00 AM
Although virtually unknown to the public, Robert Weaver- radio producer, editor and anthologist - helped to develop Canadian writers for more than half a century. Called the Godfather of Canadian Literature by many he commissioned short stories for CBC radio and in 1979 established the CBC Literary Awards. These have been won by some of the country's most acclaimed writers, including Michael Ondaatje, Carol Shields, Gwendolyn MacEwan, Barry Callaghan, Susan Musgrave and Bonnie Burnard.
His passing is remarked by writers both established and new in this country.
Writers like Alice Munro, Austin Clarke and Mordecai Richlerhave acknowledged their debt to him. From the start of his career at the CBC in 1948, Robert Weaver committed himself to discovering and broadcasting the work of new Canadian writers, in programs such as Anthology andCBC Wednesday Night.
On Feb.12 and 13th the CBC radio program IDEAS presents a two part intimate portrait of the man by Montreal writer Elaine Kalman Naves. Then on Thursday February 21st his legacy continues with the announcement of the winners of this year's CBC Literary Awards.
In this week's Words At Large podcast you can hear reminiscences by award-winning author Alice Munro as well as poet and journalist Barry Callaghan. And don't miss the lighter side of literary traditions when the CBC Radio TALKING BOOKS panel takes on Alan Bennett's lively novella "The Uncommon Reader".
Literary skirmishes, part 2
Posted by Words At Large Admin on January 23 at 12:00 AM
This week's podcast features audio from three of this year's Canada Reads authors: Mavis Gallant, Paul Quarrington and Timothy Findley.
Here's the second installment of our sneak peek at this year's literary survivor list. Last week we went behind the scenes at Canada Reads to listen to what the contending authors had to say. This week Paul Quarrington jokes about the 'gravitas' inherent in comedy. Mavis Gallant offers her own literary license and a voice from the past brings us Timothy Findley in conversation with Peter Gzowski.
Literary skirmishes
Posted by Words At Large Admin on January 16 at 12:00 AM
January is well underway. The winter books are out and the next big literary event on the horizon is Canada Reads. Books championed in the past have come from as far back as early in the last century and as recently as just off today’s presses. This year’s celebrity panelists have chosen books published between 1979 and 1998.
The end result is that four of the five authors are still with us and one of them has actually been part of Canada Reads before, although as a panelist rather than a contender.
Starting this week the Words at Large podcast slips behind the scenes at the Battle of the Books and we start with special interviews with the contending authors.
For more information about the books and all the participants plus a chance to voice your own opinions about the books, go to the Canada Reads website.
How Shakespeare became Shakespeare
Posted by Words At Large Admin on January 09 at 12:00 AM
When you think of "the classics" in literature, naturally Shakespeare is one of the first names that come to mind. Most everyone knows William Shakespeare's plays but details about the life of the writer himself are somewhat sketchy. Stephen Greenblatt is the author of 'Will in the World: How Shakespeare became Shakespeare'. The book has won numerous prizes and is said to be one of the best biographies ever written on Shakespeare.
From Gen X to JPod
Posted by Words At Large Admin on January 02 at 12:00 AM
On Tuesday January 8th, CBC TV launches a new comedy series based on Douglas Coupland's popular novel JPod. Set on Canada's west coast in the hotbed of video game design, the novel is a hilarious take on the Google generation. Not to be considered one note, Coupland also lampoons grow ops, businesses that make nothing, the love life of a burger character and oh yes the difficulty of sustaining adult relationships.
The CBC Radio Studio One Bookclub invited listeners to attend a discussion with Doug Coupland and pose their questions to the man who brought us Generation X and JPod.
Jane Urquhart: the unknown best seller
Posted by Words At Large Admin on December 26 at 12:00 AM
Over two years on the best seller lists. Six internationally acclaimed novels . What do you have to do to get some recognition around here?
Canadian author Jane Urquhart has some profile now but it's relatively recent.
Like many authors she wrote at the kitchen table for quite some time. When her third novel Away swam to the top of the best seller lists in 1993, audiences and reviewers finally learned how to spell her name. Yet that initial recognition had a price. Wanting to move on to other territory Urquhart's next book, The Underpainter, was met with reader disappointment when it had no "Irish" in it. Still it won the Governor General's Award for Fiction and was followed by The Stone Carvers and A Map of Glass.
The latest book with her name on it is The Penguin Book of Canadian Short Stories. She claims to have had a lot of fun as editor of this project.
This past spring she was invited to the Blue Metropolis Literary Festival in Montreal, where she was interviewed about her life and her career.
Perspectives on Faith
Posted by Words At Large Admin on December 19 at 12:00 AM
Part of living in our global village is understanding one another. Each religion preaches tolerance yet the possibility of misunderstanding is overwhelming. In this podcast we look at books that try and offer points of reference and – perhaps-better understanding.
Haroon Siddiqui discusses the root causes of the disenfranchisement of so many Muslims in his book, “Being Muslim”.
Then Laurel Snyder asks - should religions welcome or shun people who marry outside the faith? She shares her thoughts in “Half-Life : Jewish Tales From Interfaith Homes”.
'Tis the season to be reading
Posted by Words At Large Admin on December 11 at 11:23 PM
On the podcast - writers and readers talk about books they enjoy reading.
Books Mentioned In This Week’s Podcast
How To Talk About Books You Haven’t Read
By Pierre Bayard
Raincoast Books
Fifteen Days: Stories of Bravery, Friendship, Life and Death From Inside the New Canadian Army
By Christie Blatchford
Doubleday
Divisadero
By Michael Ondaatje
McClelland & Stewart
Certainty
By Madeline Thien
Emblem Editions
Blue Valley: An Ecological Memoir
By Luanne Armstrong
Maa Press
The Mennonite Miracle - a separation of faith and writing
Posted by Words At Large Admin on December 05 at 08:06 AM
Is the Mennonite Miracle just a snappy headline? Three award-winning authors discuss writing and faith in this week's podcast.
One of those writers is Sandra Birdsell. The popular author was a keynote speaker at this year's Saskatchewan Book Awards where she regaled award guests with the story of her own modest upbringing and first stirrings of writerly interest.
Others in the discussion include acclaimed authors David Bergen and Miriam Toews. All three are part of a wave of western writers whose work has come to prominence in the past few years.
Is there a link between what stirs them to write and their faith?
Ondaatje ties an all-time record at this year's Governor General's Awards
Posted by Words At Large Admin on November 27 at 01:30 PM
(Photo: Jeff Nolte) Nine of this year's winners are receiving Governor General's Literary Awards for the first time. For Michael Ondaatje, winner of the 2007 award in English-language fiction for Divisadero, this is his fifth award, tying the record set by the late Hugh MacLennan for the most Governor General's Awards in the prize's history.
Each winning author receives twenty-five thousand dollars with publishers of those books receiving a small reward of their own.
Over the past few weeks we've highlighted nominees from many of the GG categories. You can check out those podcasts under Recent Stories on the right hand side of the page.
But today we celebrate some of the winners.
Continue reading "Ondaatje ties an all-time record at this year's Governor General's Awards" »
A tapestry of talent: the 2007 Governor General's Literary Awards
Posted by Words At Large Admin on November 21 at 08:35 AM
Thirty five books compete in seven categories for this year's Governor General's English Language Literary Awards. This year each prize totals twenty-five thousand dollars. Not a bad bonus for the lucky winners.
In our last podcast Words At Large presented the five nominees for the non-fiction category and this week we take a look at the fiction, poetry and drama categories. The list of nominees this year includes a mix of well-known CanLit literati plus virtual newcomers. Find out more about them right here.
GG Non-fiction nominees
Posted by Words At Large Admin on November 13 at 11:57 PM
Award winning Truths
From vanishing species to gun culture in Canada ,the nominees for this year's Governor General's Award for Non-Fiction cover a lot of ground and Words At Large is there.
The jury's out on this $25,000. award and we won't hear til November 27th just who the lucky winner is. Could it be the former parliamentarian with the inside scoop on the private life of one of Canada's most controversial prime ministers? How about the archaeologist who dug up traces of the underground railroad in a school in Toronto? Then there's the hiphop magazine duo who investigate guns and music; a biologist who has an answer for our vanishing songbirds and finally a challenging yet hopeful experience with AIDS in Africa.
The Words at Large podcast will have more on this year's 5 nominated books.
Remembrance Day podcast
Posted by Words At Large Admin on November 07 at 08:55 AM
This week on the podcast - War and Remembrance: how war changes those who fight as well as those who witness.
CBC Radio's onair bookclub Talking Books focuses on how war changes lives in many different ways. The panel starts with Alan Cumyn's acclaimed novel The Famished Loverand then moves on to other books about global conflict.
Canadian journalist Paul Watson was deeply affected by his time in Mogadishu and the photograph that won him the Pulitzer Prize. He talks about it in his book Where War Lives.
There's also a look behind the scenes of the radio show that explores what it's like for Canadians in a combat zone. The radio drama serial Afghanada is well into it's second season. Series writers Greg Nelson and Adam Peddle have regular meetings with their military advisors to make sure both the action and the issues are accurate. To ensure the Afghan characters are fully represented the writers count on a cast member for comments and translations.
You can hear comments from cast and advisors on how real experiences have affected their take on the war and how they present it on air.
Then this Sunday Nov.11th you can hear the Afghanada Remembrance Day Special on CBC Radio One at 1:05 (1:35 NT), 4:05 PT.
Margaret Atwood and Ian Rankin
Posted by Words At Large Admin on October 31 at 08:37 AM
Laughs aplenty at this year's PEN Benefit.
The 450 seat Premiere Dance Theatre in Toronto was sold out on October 17th as people paid $125 each to quoff drinks and listen to Margaret Atwood and Ian Rankin.
It was the annual PEN Benefit event held at this year’s International Festival of Authors and all the money raised went to support PEN’s work supporting writers in exile. CBC was one of the sponsors.
(photo: International Reading at Harbourfront Centre) Taking the role of interviewer was Canada’s own literary superstar Margaret Atwood.
As well as being an award-winning author internationally--Margaret Atwood is one of the founding members of PEN Canada. And she’s recently been elected a vice-president of PEN International.
She took on the role of interviewer at this event easily breaking the ice with both the audience and her subject - Scottish crime-writer Ian Rankin. The best selling author traded her laugh for laugh while they discussed his latest novel Exit Music. Then the floor was opened to questions from the audience.
Carol Shields: Random Illuminations
Posted by Words At Large Admin on October 24 at 09:00 AM
Carol Shields was lauded as a keen observer of people as well as a writer of extraordinary skill. In the ten brief years from her “discovery” in 1993 to her death in 2003, she became one of the most celebrated Canadian authors in the world. When she died of cancer at 68 she was mourned both at home and abroad. CBC broadcaster and author Eleanor Wachtel has just published a book of her conversations and correspondance with Carol Shields called Random Illuminations published by GooseLane Editions. This week on the podcast--a reflection of the Shields magic and one of Eleanor’s favourite interviews with the author. Plus, you’ll hear a tribute from fellow writers Jane Urquhart and Marjorie Anderson.
The 2007 Giller nominees
Posted by Words At Large Admin on October 17 at 12:59 PM
Listen to the five finalists for the 2007 Giller Prize on this week's podcast.
The countdown to this year's Scotiabank Giller Prize is underway. On November 6th a jury will chose one author to be awarded $40,000 for the best Canadian novel or short story collection published in English in the past year. Each of the four other finalists will be awarded $2,500.
On this week's Words At Large podcast you can hear all five of the finalists reading from their nominated books. You can also hear excerpts from interviews with those writers.
The five finalists cover the gamut of experience–Michael Ondaatje and M.G. Vassanji are multiple award-winners while Alissa York is relatively new on the scene. Elizabeth Hay has been a broadcaster as well as an author and Daniel Poliquin is an accomplished translator and author.
The books themselves are just as diverse with stories set in the past and the present, travelling from California through France to Canada’s far north and small town Utah.
For more information on the 2007 Giller Prize visit the website.
Words at Large is CBC’s online destination for Canadians who love books. Look for something new every day, from CBC programs and podcasts, to interviews with writers and more. Stay tuned for our newly designed and expanded site.
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