My very special guest on this one-year-anniversary episode is Meaghan Strimas. Meaghan is the author of three collections of poetry, including Junkman's Daughter and A Good Time Had By All, which was shortlisted for the 2011 ReLit Award. She the editor of The Selected Gwendolyn MacEwen and co-edited Another Dysfunctional Cancer Poem Anthology with the late Priscila Uppal. She is a professor in the Faculty of Media and Creative Arts at Humber College, where she runs the Bachelor of Creative and Professional Writing degree. (She is also married... to me.) Meaghan’s most recent book is Yes or Nope, which was published by Mansfield Press in 2016 and was awarded the Trillium Book Award for Poetry in the following year. Author Zoe Whittall said of that book that “the poetry in Yes or Nope is whip-smart and tenderhearted, funny and alive.”

Meaghan and I talk about the shift that happened in her writing that allowed her to write Yes Or Nope under some difficult circumstances and time constraints, about working on the final books by her friends Priscila Uppal and Teva Harrison, books that, in both cases, were published posthumously, and about her new work, which she says further develops the stylistic freedoms she discovered in Yes or Nope and which will pay tribute to some of the writers who have inspired her.

Meaghan Strimas: notesandqueries.ca/meaghan-strimas

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

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this episode is Rob Benvie. Rob is the author of three novels, including Safety of War and Maintenance, both published by Coach House Books. His writing has appeared in McSweeney’s, Dazed, Vice, Joyland, The Puritan, CNQ, and Best Canadian Essays. He also co-wrote the screenplay for the 2021 film Stanleyville. Rob was a founding member of the band Thrush Hermit, and performs and records solo as Tigre Benvie. Rob’s most recent novel, Bleeding Light, was published in 2021 by Invisible Press. Author Liz Harmer called Bleeding Light "bizarre, terrifying, and wise." Rob’s upcoming novel, Book of the Flock, will be published by Knopf Canada in 2025.

Rob and I talk about how doing novel revisions can be a little bit like a band reunion, how, despite having a successful career as a musician and songwriter, it might be the case that he was a writer all along, and how being published by a multinational is not quite the same as a band signing with a major label (he hopes).

Rob Benvie: robbenvie.com

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

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this episode is Lawrence Hill. Lawrence is the author of eleven books including the novels The Book of Negroes and The Illegal, and the memoir Black Berry Sweet Juice: On Being Black and White in Canada and Blood: The Stuff of Life, which was the CBC Massey Lecture in 2013. Lawrence is the winner of the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book, and both CBC Radio’s Canada Reads and Radio-Canada’s Combat des livres. Lawrence’s most recent book, his first YA novel, is Beatrice and Croc Harry, which was published in 2022 by HarperCollins Canada. The French version of Beatrice and Croc Harry is about to be published in Quebec by Mémoire d'encrier. It will come out in Europe in the fall. Author David Chariandy called Beatrice and Croc Harry “A modern fable of great beauty and sophistication.”

Lawrence and I talk about some peculiarities concerning his author name, about the grief that helped compel him to write his first book for children, and about the one disappointment he had when he met Queen Elizabeth II.

Lawrence Hill: lawrencehill.com

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

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact