What Happened Next: a podcast about newish books

My guest on this episode is Elizabeth Renzetti. Elizabeth is an author and journalist who worked for the Globe and Mail as a reporter, editor, and columnist, and currently writes a regular column for the Toronto Star. Her books include Shrewed: A Wry and Closely Observed Look at the Lives of Women and Girls,  What She Said: Conversations about Equality, and the Bury the Lead, which she co-wrote with novelist Kate Hilton. Her most recent book, also co-written with Kate Hilton, is Widows and Orphans, published by House of Anansi Press in 2025. Chatelaine called the book "a smart whodunnit."Elizabeth and I talk about why she is Elizabeth on the covers of her books but Liz in real life, and why the Globe and Mail is partly responsible for that, about the benefits of having a co-author, and about how everything that happens in her life gets stored away as potential plot points for her mysteries.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Raymond Biesinger. Raymond is a Montréal-based illustrator, artist, and author whose work has been published in places like Billboard, the Economist, the Globe & Mail, the Guardian, the New Yorker, The Walrus, and more. His debut book was the bestseller 305 Lost Buildings of Canada, which he illustrated and which was written by Alex Bozikovic. His most recent book is 9 Times My Work Has Been Ripped Off, published by Drawn & Quarterly in 2025. Author Cory Doctorow called the book “a masterclass in how creative workers can transform the endless, low-grade seething about the endless ripoffs of the industry into something productive and even profound.” Raymond and I talk about his original plan to become a journalist, not an illustrator, about how his most recent book started life essentially as an act of blackmail, and about how having published a book about being ripped off has already helped in encouraging clients to pay him on time.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Michelle Berry. Michelle is the author of more than half a dozen novels and three collections of short stories. Her books have been nominated for multiple awards and been optioned for film several times. For five years Berry owned and operated her own independent bookstore in Peterborough, Ontario, called Hunter Street Books. Her most recent two novels, which were both published in 2025 by Turnstone Press under the name MS Berry, are the thrillers The Tenant and Behind the Door. The Seaboard Review of Books called Behind The Door “a riveting experience.”Michelle and I talk about how border collies are basically writers in dog form, about the culture shock that came with opening her own bookstore, and about the trade-offs that come with writing in a new genre under a pen name.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Zilla Jones. Zilla’s writing has won the Journey Prize and been shortlisted for the CBC Short Story Prize and the RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers. Her debut novel, The World So Wide, was published in April 2025 by Cormorant Books. The Winnipeg Free Press said that “Jones’ novel is a gift and a magnificent read that will leave readers crying for an encore.”  Zilla and I talk about the role opera singing has played in her life and in her creative work, about the very first story she ever wrote—at the age of 3, in crayon—and about exploring the complexities of social and historical issues through fiction, something she is rarely able to do in her day job as a lawyer.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Chantal Braganza. Chantal is the deputy editor at Chatelaine. Her work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Hazlitt, The Hairpin, the Globe and Mail, Toronto Life, Fashion Magazine, and Maisonneuve, among others. Her debut book is Story of Your Mother, published in 2025 by Strange Light. The Globe and Mail called it “an expansive hybrid of memoir and essay exploring identity, labour and care, which manages to be both intellectually rigorous and compulsively readable.” Chantal and I talk about some of the realities of her former life as a busy freelance writer, about struggling to complete a memoir about things that were happening in her life, while those things were still happening, and about her recent World Cup-induced obsession with soccer—which she is totally not going to write a book about. Maybe.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Russell Smith. Russell is the author of multiple novels and collections of short fiction, as well as one non-fiction book. His work has been nominated for the Giller Prize, the Governor General’s Award, the Rogers/Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the Trillium Prize, the Chapters/Books In Canada First Novel Award, the City of Toronto Book Prize, and the Danuta Gleed Award. He is the editor of three story anthologies, and works as an acquiring editor for Dundurn Press. His most recent novel, Self Care, was published by Biblioasis in 2025. Kirkus Reviews called it “an uncomfortable, disturbing, and timely examination of relationships between men and women.” Russell and I talk about the infamous and possibly apocryphal pitch letter that accompanied his very first novel, about how his very strong opinions as a writer and reader inform his work as an acquiring editor, and about the ways he feels the Canadian book world has sabotaged itself.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Elliott Gish. Elliott is a writer and librarian whose work has appeared in the Baltimore Review, Dark Matter, Grain, and the New Quarterly. Her debut novel, Grey Dog, was published by ECW Press in 2024. In a starred review of the novel, Publishers Weekly said “Gish’s prose is as sharp as a scalpel.”Elliott and I talk about the impact a very nerdy-sounding historical summer camp had on her imagination, about why she’s not into writing horror stories set in the era of cellphones, and about why she’s both excited and a little concerned that her second novel will have far fewer horror elements than her first.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Jason Schneider. Jason has written for Exclaim!, the Globe & Mail, the Toronto Star, Paste, American Songwriter, Relix, Shindig and many other media outlets. His books include Whispering Pines: the Northern Roots of American Music, The Longest Suicide: The Authorized Biography of Art Bergmann, and the novel 3,000 Miles. He is the co-author of Have Not Been The Same: the CanRock Renaissance 1985-1995. His most recent two books are That Gun in Your Hand: The Strange Saga of ‘Hey Joe’ and Popular Music’s History of Violence, published by Anvil Press, and the novel The City Knows, published by Montag Press. Both books were published in 2025.Jason and I talk about how he ended up publishing two books, in two different genres, in the same year, about turning a COVID-era deep dive into a single song into an entire book, and about how he is once again working on two books at once, in two different genres.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Jeannie Marshall. Jeannie is a nonfiction author, journalist, and former staff writer at the National Post. She has written for Maclean’s and the Walrus and has published literary nonfiction in The Common, the Literary Review of Canada, Brick, and elsewhere. Her first book was Outside the Box: Why Our Children Need Real Food, Not Food Products. Her most recent book is All Things Move: Learning to Look in the Sistine Chapel, published by Biblioasis in 2023. Vanity Fair called the book “rich, meditative” and said “the book is part art history, part memoir; a case for slowing down, curiosity, a closer look.” Jeannie and I talk about the early days of the National Post, about overcoming the skepticism of art historians who felt there was nothing new to say about the Sistine Chapel, and about how her new book project, a novel, fits in with her previous two books.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Emily Weedon. Emily is an award-winning screenwriter and author, whose first book was the novel Autokrator. Her most recent book is the novel Hemo Sapiens, which was published by Dundurn Press in 2025. Quill & Quire called the book “a fun and welcome addition to the vampire genre.” Emily and I talk about the agent who advised her to change the male protagonist of her novel to a lesbian for no particular reason, about publishing two books in two years, and why she does not recommend doing that, and about the book world’s strange and contradictory relationship with hustle culture. This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Tessa McWatt. Tessa is the author of many novels and  books for young people. Her fiction and non-fiction has won the Eccles British Library Award and the Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature for Non-Fiction, and has been nominated for the Governor General's Award, the City of Toronto Book Award, and the Hilary Weston Writer’s Trust Prize. Her most recent book, The Snag: A Mother, A Forest and Wild Grief, was published by Random House Canada in 2025. That book also won the Bocas Prize, and was shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize. Author Stephanie Bishop called it “wise, bold, and deeply affecting.”Tessa and I talk about the recent racist riots and violence in the UK, about writing books that are distinctly anti-cozy, and about how, as someone who now lives and teaches in England, she is desperate to go on a long canoe trip.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Sarah Leavitt. Sarah is the creator of the graphic memoir Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer's, My Mother, and Me and the historical fiction comic Agnes, Murderess. Her work has won a CBC Bookie award for Best Comic or Graphic Novel, a Vine Award for Canadian Jewish Literature, and an Alberta Book Publishing Award, and has been shortlisted for many, many other awards. An animated feature film version of Tangles, which features the voices of people like Seth Rogen, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Bryan Crantson, recently premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Sarah’s most recent book, the graphic memoir Something, Not Nothing: A Story of Grief and Love, was published by Arsenal Pulp Press in 2024 and was a finalist for an Eisner Awar, a Lambda Literary Award, and a Publishing Triangle Award. It won a BC/Yukon Book Prize, and the New York Times said in its review of the book that “Sarah Leavitt embraces the ways that comics can work as poetry.” Sarah and I talk about long process of turning Tangles into a film, about souring on social media as a way of sharing her creative work, and about her new project, which might turn out to be a novel, except without the graphic part.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Shyam Selvadurai. Shyam’s novels include Funny Boy, Cinnamon Gardens, and The Hungry Ghosts, as well as the YA novel Swimming in the Monsoon Sea. His work has won the W. H. Smith/Books in Canada First Novel Award and the Lambda Literary Award, and been shortlisted for the Giller Prize, the Governor General’s Literary Award, and the Trillium Prize. Funny Boy was made into a feature film in 2020 by director Deepa Mehta. His most recent book is the novel Mansions of the Moon, published by Knopf Canada in 2022. Maclean’s said “Selvadurai’s tale of emotionally torn star-crossed lovers—and the aftermath of their parting—is subtle, absorbing and thoroughly modern.” Shyam and I talk about the overwhelming whiteness of the Canadian book world when he first started publishing (and how that has changed for the better), about the difference between the literary reputation he has in his birth country of Sri Lanka and the one he has in Canada, and about the mall in Scarborough that might one day become a CanLit landmark, thanks to his books.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Alex Manley. Alex’s essays, fiction and poetry have appeared in numerous print and online publications, including The Walrus, Hazlitt, Vulture, Maisonneuve, among others. They have been a finalist for a National Magazine Award and a Digital Publishing Award. Their books include the poetry collection We Are All Just Animals & Plants and The New Masculinity: A Roadmap for a 21st-Century Definition of Manhood, which was a finalist for the Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction. Their most recent book is Post-Man: Essays on Being a Neurodivergent Non-Binary Person, published by Arsenal Pulp Press in 2025. Author Larissa Pham said the book is “steeped in internet lore and shimmering with a poet's sensibility.” Alex and I talk about the realities of writing careers that publishing their most recent book brought home, about whether any progress is being made in some of the traditionally straight male spaces they write about, and about their next book project, a novel.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Dennis Bock. Dennis is the author of the short story collection Olympia and the novels The Ash Garden, The Communist’s Daughter, Going Home Again, and The Good German. His work has won the CAA Jubilee Award, the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, the Betty Trask Award, and the Canada-Japan Literary Award, and been shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, the Kiriyama Prize, the Amazon Canada First Novel Award and the Giller Prize. His most recent novel is Strangers at the Door, published by HarperCollins Canada in 2025. The Winnipeg Free Press called it “eerily delightful.” Dennis and I talk about how playing guitar helps him write novels, about writing historical fiction that is more focused on the second part of that category than the first, and about learning to allow himself some fallow time between books. This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Kate Cayley. Kate has published two short story collections and three collections of poetry. She has won the Trillium Book Award, the Mitchell Prize for Poetry, and an O. Henry Prize, and been a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for Fiction, among other awards. She has also served as a playwright in residence with Tarragon Theatre. Her most recent book is the novel Property, published by Coach House Books in 2025. That novel was short-listed for the Foreword INDIES prize for literary fiction, and for the Amazon Canada First Novel Award, presented in partnership with The Walrus. Publishers Weekly called Property ”an unflinching tale of a community’s fragile bonds.” Kate and I talk about the surprise and pleasure of an award nomination coming many months after a book is published, about what her novel owes to the rats in her neighbourhood, and about the strangeness of being a debut novelist, six books into her career.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Adriana Barton. Adriana is an author and journalist whose writing has appeared in the Globe and Mail, the Boston Globe, Western Living, Vancouver magazine, and elsewhere. Her debut book is Wired for Music: A Search for Health and Joy Through the Science of Sound, published by Greystone Books in 2022. That book was a finalist in the Canadian Book Club Awards and the Science Writers and Communicators of Canada Book Awards. The Globe and Mail called it “thoroughly researched and tenderly written.”Adriana and I talk about how different the original pitch for her book was from its final version, about how she gets through her nervousness around public speaking, and about her ongoing difficulties with her planned follow-up book.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Gabrielle Drolet. Gabrielle is a journalist, essayist, and cartoonist whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, the Globe and Mail, New York Times, The Walrus, VICE, Teen Vogue, and more. Her essays on disability have been nominated for a Digital Publishing Award and won gold at the Canadian Online Publishing Awards. Her first book, Look Ma, No Hands: A Chronic Pain Memoir, was published by McClelland & Stewart in 2025, and was a finalist for a 2026 Lambda Literary Award. Journalist Sarah Hagi called the book “a remarkable debut from an incredible voice.”Gabrielle and I talk about some of the more ethically dubious gigs she has taken on as a freelance writer, about writing using voice-to-text software, and how that has changed her style, and about her worries that next book, which is not a memoir, might have less of a hook in comparison with her first.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Jacquelyn Zong-Li Ross. Jacquelyn’s fiction, poetry, essays, and art criticism have appeared in BOMB, C Mag, The Ex-Puritan, Fence, Mousse, and elsewhere. In addition, She is an editor at The Capilano Review. Her debut book, The Longest Way to Eat a Melon, was published by Sarabande Books in 2025. The New York Times called it "a collection of short stories each more satirical and surreal than the last."Jacquelyn and I talk about her book ending up in a New York Times trend piece, about turning self-consciousness from an obstacle to her writing into one of its central themes, and about how her approach to writing has been changed by becoming a parent.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Miriam Toews. Miriam is the author of the internationally acclaimed and bestselling novels Fight Night, Women Talking, All My Puny Sorrows, Irma Voth, The Flying Troutmans, A Complicated Kindness, A Boy of Good Breeding, and Summer of My Amazing Luck, and the memoir, Swing Low: A Life. She is the winner of numerous awards, including the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, the Libris Award for Fiction, the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and the Writers’ Trust Engel Findley Award. Several of her novels have been made into feature films, including All My Puny Sorrows and the Oscar-winning Women Talking. Her most recent book is the bestselling memoir A Truce That Is Not Peace, published by Knopf Canada in 2025. That book was a finalist For The Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize For Nonfiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award For Autobiography, and was named a best book the year by TIME, The Globe and Mail, the CBC, The New Yorker, The Guardian and more. Author Paula Hawkins called it “beautiful, hilarious, devastating.”Miriam and I talk about the early days of her writing career, about how she thinks every new book she completes is her last, and about how she got to hold the Oscar for Women Talking for only about five seconds.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Ira Wells. Ira’s work has appeared in The Guardian, The New Republic, The Walrus, The Globe and Mail, Literary Review of Canada, Los Angeles Review of Books, and many other publications. His books include Fighting Words: Polemics and Social Change in Literary Naturalism and Norman Jewison: A Director’s Life. His most recent book is On Book Banning: Or, How the New Censorship Consensus Trivializes Art and Undermines Democracy, published by Biblioasis in 2025. That book is a finalist for the 2026 Writers’ Trust Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing. Quill & Quire called it “a testament to the life-altering power of books and ideas.” Ira and I talk about the sense of cultural fear and helplessness that seems to be behind the resurgence of book banning, about how his book was inspired, not by a conservative drive to ban books, but by a so-called “library audit” at a school in the heart of progressive Toronto, and about his return to biography for his next book project.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Meredith Hambrock. Meredith’s debut book was the novel Other People’s Secrets. She has been a finalist for the CBC Short Story Prize and worked extensively in television, most recently in the writers’ room for the Canadian Screen Award–winning sitcom Corner Gas Animated. Her most recent book is She’s a Lamb!, published by ECW Press in 2025. Booklist called the novel “a dive into the mind of a deeply delusional woman,” and said it is “audacious and darkly funny.” Meredith and I talk about her habit of deleting entire manuscripts (not permanently) while they are in progress, about her love of dark comedy and her resistance to sticking to the rules of genre, and about her next book, which has a narrative hook so good, she had to make sure nobody else had thought of it already.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Ethan Lou. Ethan is a journalist whose work has appeared in the Toronto Star, Toronto Life, The Guardian, the Washington Post, and elsewhere. He is the opinion editor for the Globe and Mail’s business section. His first book, Field Notes from a Pandemic, was a finalist for the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize. His most recent book is Once a Bitcoin Miner: Scandal and Turmoil in the Cryptocurrency Wild West, published by ECW Press in 2021. Publishers Weekly called the book a “roller-coaster ride” and said that “readers interested in an in-the-trenches view of the Bitcoin world will appreciate Lou’s willingness to tell all.” Ethan and I talk about the current state of crypto culture, about how he ended up publishing two books in very quick succession, and about the going cost of illicit drugs on the dark web. This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

 My guest on this episode is Zalika Reid-Benta. Zalika’s debut book was the story collection Frying Plantain, which won the 2020 Danuta Gleed Literary Award and the 2020 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for Literary Fiction. It was also shortlisted for the Toronto Book Award, the Trillium Book Award, the White Pine Award, and the Evergreen Award, and was longlisted for the 2020 Giller Prize. Zalika was the 2019 and 2023 winner of the ByBlacks People’s Choice Award for Best Author. Her most recent book is the novel River Mumma, published in 2023 by Penguin Canada. That book was shortlisted for the 2024 Trillium Book Award. The Walrus said that “amid a crash course in Jamaican folklore, Reid-Benta’s novel takes a gleeful swipe at everything from Toronto’s unreliable transit system to the cult of celebrity.”Zalika and I talk about her current relationship with Toronto as a city, which features so heavily in her fiction, about her irritation with readers who insist on seeing her work as autobiographical, and about training her agent to accept her chaotic creative process.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Giles Blunt. Giles is the author of a dozen books, including the six novels in the Cardinal series, which were made into a long-running TV series. He has won the British Crime Writers Silver Dagger award, the Crime Writers of Canada Arthur Ellis award for best novel, and has been twice longlisted for the Dublin IMPAC award. His most recent book is the novel Bad Juilet, published by Dundurn Press in 2025. The Toronto Star called it “captivating and beautifully written,” and “an intriguing tale with the taut pace of a thriller.”Giles and I talk about the shift from crime writing to historical fiction that Bad Juilet represents, about the notes to himself he will sometimes insert into his manuscripts, indicating his intention to quit writing them, and about why his most recent book has been harder to let go of than anything else he has written.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Donna Jones Alward. Donna wrote and published dozens of romance novels before shifting to historical fiction in 2024 with the bestselling novel When the World Fell Silent. Her most recent book is the novel Ship of Dreams, which was published in 2025 by HarperCollins Canada, and was also a national bestseller. Author Jennifer Robson called it “a thoughtful and immersive novel that confirms Alward’s gift for meaningful and character-driven storytelling.” Donna and talk about the astonishing fast pace with which she published books up until this year, which is the first one of her career in which she has no new books coming out, about that shift from romance to historical fiction, and about the perils inherent in writing a novel about a story everyone feels they already know… such as the sinking of the Titanic.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Eddy Boudel Tan. Eddy has been a finalist for the Edmund White Award, the ReLit Best Novel Award, and the Ferro-Grumley Award for his novels After Elias and The Rebellious Tide. He was named a Rising Star by Writers’ Trust of Canada in 2021. His most recent book is the novel The Tiger and the Cosmonaut, which was published by Viking Canada in 2025 and was shortlisted for the Giller Prize. Author Ashley Audrain said that “The Tiger and the Cosmonaut is the kind of rich literary suspense that grips your heart and your throat at once.” Eddy and I talk about the multiple novels he wrote as a kid, about giving up on trying to look serious in his author photos, and about the shift he made in his writing process with his most recent book, which previously involved the use of spreadsheets.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Merilyn Simonds. Merilyn is the author of more than 20 books, most recently Woman, Watching: Louise de Kiriline Lawrence and the Songbirds of Pimisi Bay and the novel Refuge. Her most recent book is Walking with Beth: Conversations with My Hundred-Year-Old Friend, which was published by Random House Canada in 2025, and was a national bestseller. Author Suzette Mayr says, about the book, that “Simonds explores aging, connection, and the power of family and community with a poetic grace that is unparalleled in this moving meditation on a friendship between two remarkable and unforgettable women.” Merilyn and I talk about the well-known and beloved editor whose process was so intense and so unrelenting it actually made her ill, about why she never pitches her books to publishers before she is finished writing them, and why she has zero plans to retire from writing anytime soon. This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Liann Zhang. Liann is a former social media content creator whose debut novel, Julie Chan Is Dead, was published by Simon & Schuster Canada in 2025, and was an instant bestseller. It has been translated into multiple languages, and was longlisted for Canada Reads 2026. Chatelaine called the book “a delicious and outrageous exploration of influencer culture [that] has both Yellowface and Yellowjackets vibes.” Liann and I talk about how she manages her own online profile, now that she is a published author, about the unsavoury behaviour she witnessed in the influencer world that inspired her novel, and about she deals with worries that, given all the success she’s had so far with her debut, she may have peaked as a writer.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Karen Solie. Karen is the author of the poetry collections Short Haul Engine, Modern and Normal, Pigeon, The Road In Is Not the Same Road Out, and The Caiplie Caves–which have won her the Dorothy Livesay Award, the Pat Lowther Award, the Trillium Poetry Prize, and the Griffin Prize. Her most recent collection, Wellwater, was published by House of Anansi in 2025. It won the Governor General's Award For Poetry, the Forward Prize, and the T.S. Eliot Prize. It was also named a book of the year by the Guardian, the Financial Times, the CBC, and the Observer. The Times Literary Supplement called the book “authoritative and unforgettable.” Karen and I talk about how little stress she felt going into T.S. Eliot Prize event, mostly because she assumed she had very little chance of winning, about the joy of using the prize money to pay off her credit card debt, and about her plans for her next book, which may see her taking a break from poetry.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Haley Mlotek. Haley is an author, editor, and journalist whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Nation, Bookforum, The Paris Review, The Columbia Journalism Review, Vogue, ELLE, Harper’s Bazaar, and n+1, among others. She is a founding member of the Freelance Solidarity Project in the National Writers Union, and is currently the director of content at Feeld. Her first book, No Fault: A Memoir of Romance and Divorce, was published by Viking Books and McClelland & Stewart in 2025. Author Susan Orlean called the book “an ideal hybrid of rigorous reporting, social commentary, and personal reflection on the nature of love and divorce.” Haley and I talk about the brief urge she had to cancel publication of her book the night before it came out, about resisting the idea that writing a book about divorce makes her either an expert on divorce or an advocate for it, and about the importance of recognizing that books are not built upon two or three moments of inspiration, but upon hundreds and hundreds of small decisions.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Michelle Shephard. Michelle is an award-winning author, journalist, filmmaker, and podcast host and producer. She is the author of Guantanamo’s Child: The Untold Story of Omar Khadr and Decade of Fear: Reporting from Terrorism’s Grey Zone. Her films include the Emmy-nominated documentary Guantanamo’s Child, The Perfect Story, The Man Who Stole Einstein's Brain, and The Way Out. Her most recent book is Code Name: Pale Horse, which she co-wrote with retired FBI Special Agent Scott Payne, and which was published by Simon & Schuster in 2025. Kirkus Reviews called it “an eye-opening look at the small but eminently dangerous radical right-wing fringe out there in the shadows.”Michelle and I talk about the kinds of things she has witnessed while reporting in places like Guantanamo Bay, about how she—an unapologetically lefty journalist who has reported extensively on abuses by the police and other government forces—handled co-writing a book with a former FBI agent, and about the journalist/novelist she looks to as a model as she contemplates trying her hand at a work of fiction.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Antonio Michael Downing. Antonio is the author of the memoir Saga Boy and the children’s book Stars in My Crown, and is the current host of CBC Radio’s book program The Next Chapter. He also writes and performs music as John Orpheus. His most recent book is the novel Black Cherokee, published in 2025 by Simon & Schuster Canada. Author Zalika Reid-Benta said that “Downing’s prose is both lyrical and controlled and weaves together a story that is, at once expansive and intimate, expertly blending the personal with the sweeping nature of the historical.” Antonio and I talk about bringing his own perspective as an author to his work on The Next Chapter, about why he handwrites the drafts of his books, and about unexpectedly discovering a kindred creative spirit in Anne of Green Gables.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Timothy Taylor. Timothy is a novelist, journalist, and educator whose books include the novels Stanley Park, Story House, The Blue Light, and The Rule of Stephens, the story collection Silent Cruise, and the non-fiction work Foodville. His work has nominated for multiple awards, including the Giller Prize, and has been chosen as the ‘One Book One City’ selection for Vancouver and named a finalist for Canada Reads. His most recent book is the novel The Rise and Fall of Magic Wolf, published by Dundurn Press in 2024. Author Kevin Chong called the book “a sumptuously written story about culinary ambition, restaurant-world vice, and the frailties of the heart.”Timothy and I talk about starting his writing career with a triple-nomination for the Journey Prize (which he ended up winning), about not wanting to be pigeon-holed as someone who always writes about restaurants and food, the subject of his most recent novel, and about the discovery of family secrets that have led to a massive podcast project with The Walrus and an upcoming book.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Tolu Oloruntoba. Tolu is the author of the poetry collections Manubrium, The Junta of Happenstance, which won the Griffin Poetry Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry,   and Each One a Furnace, a finalist for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. His most recent collection is Unravel, published by McClelland & Stewart in 2025. That book was named one of the Best Canadian Poetry Books of the year by CBC Books, and has been longlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award. The Tyee called the collection “a seeker’s book, exploring making and unmaking, doing and undoing, the twin existential horrors of ending and endlessness.”Tolu and I talk about the tensions, both good and bad, that come from winning awards so early in a career, about the pressure he put upon himself while writing Unravel, and about going in a very different direction for his next book, a collection inspired in part by Keanu Reeves’s John Wick films.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Bonny Reichert. Bonny is a National Magazine Award-winning journalist and author who has been an editor at Today’s Parent and Chatelaine, and a columnist and regular contributor to The Globe and Mail. Her first book, the memoir How to Share an Egg: A True Story of Hunger, Love, and Plenty, was published by Penguin Random House Canada’s Appetite imprint in 2025, and was a national bestseller, as well as a Globe and Mail Top 100 Book, an NPR Best Book of the Year, and a CBC Best Memoir. Publishers Weekly said that “Reichert weaves a rich narrative tapestry that traces her journey toward self-knowledge in luminous prose.” Bonny and I talk about her initial resistance to writing the book that become How to Share an Egg, about how publishing a very revealing memoir can lead readers to demand that authors reveal even more about themselves, and about her newest work in progress, a work of fiction, which she is finding both difficult and a relief.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode—the first of 2026—is Robert McGill. Robert’s books include three novels, The Mysteries, Once We Had a Country, and A Suitable Companion for the End of Your Life, and two nonfiction books, The Treacherous Imagination and War Is Here. His most recent book is the short fiction collection Simple Creatures, which was published by Coach House Books in 2024, and was a finalist for the Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. CBC Books called the collection "a hilarious and heartbreaking portrait of the world we live in." Robert and I talk about reading reviews of his own work, about the first short story he ever wrote, which was based on a video game he could only play on his grandmother’s Vic 20—Google that, kids—and about the previously published story he almost dropped from his most recent collection, and only kept in after changing the name of the author it repeatedly references, that author being Alice Munro.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is... nobody. Instead of a regular episode, I wanted to offer my thanks to everyone connected with this podcast, who have helped to make it a reality. Thank you to Carmine Starnino and everyone at The Walrus, to Alex Lukashevsky, to Meaghan Strimas, to all the authors who have appeared on the podcast, and to everyone who listens.I already have some great conversations lined up for 2026. Next regular episode will go up on Monday, January 5.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Rachel Reid. Rachel is the bestselling author of the Game Changers hockey romance series that includes Heated Rivalry, the TV adaptation of which has become a massive hit since it premiered in November. Her most recent novel is the standalone romance The Shots You Take, published earlier this year by Harlequin. Library Journal called the book “a beautifully written romance about finally finding oneself and a happy ending.” Rachel and I talk about how she, as someone who submitted the manuscript of her first novel without even telling her partner and her family, is handling the sudden explosion of attention, about the pressure she feels to make her next book worthy of this attention, and about her rules when it comes to writing explicit sex scenes.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Renée D. Bondy. Renée’s writing has appeared in Herizons, Bitch, Bearings Online, and the Humber Literary Review. Her debut novel, [non]disclosure, was published by Second Story Press in 2024. Author Julie S. Lalonde called [non]disclosure “a true masterclass on the power of solidarity and how community can either sustain us or drag us under.”Renée and I talk about how she is adjusting to her relatively luxurious new writing space, about swerving into literary fiction after a life spent as an academic and activist, and about how the difficulty of the issues she explores in her debut novel led her to put support structures in places at the launch event for it.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Rik Emmett. Rik is best known for being in the multi-platinum-selling band Triumph until the late 80s, after which he released many, many solo albums. Rik’s books include the poetry collection Reinventions and the memoir Lay It On The Line: A Backstage Pass to Rock Star Adventure, Conflict and Triumph, both published by ECW Press. His most recent book, Ten Telecaster Tales: Liner Notes for a Guitar and Its Music, was published by ECW earlier this year. Author Terry Fallis called the book “eloquent, erudite, entertaining, and enlightening […] a thoughtful meditation on art, creativity, and the human species.” Rik and I talk about why, at an age when most people would be enjoying retirement, he has suddenly become a published author with a new book out almost every year, about the focus and intensity he brings to all of his creative endeavours (and how he has learned to pull back a little for the sake of his relationships and his mental health), and about how, despite all he has accomplished on his own, and continues to accomplish, the machine that is his former band has a way of sucking him back in, and why he’s mostly okay with that.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Catherine Bush. Catherine is the author of five novels, including Blaze Island, which was a Globe and Mail and Writers’ Trust of Canada Best Book of the Year, and the Hamilton Reads 2021 Selection. Her other novels include the Canada Reads longlisted Accusation; the Trillium Award shortlisted Claire's Head; the national bestselling The Rules of Engagement, which was also named a New York Times Notable Book and a L.A. Times Best Book of the Year; and Minus Time, shortlisted for the City of Toronto Book Award. Catherine’s most recent book is the story collection Skin, published by Goose Lane Editions earlier this year. The Ottawa Review of Books called Skin “a haunting and beautifully crafted collection that solidifies Catherine Bush’s reputation as a writer of immense talent.” Catherine and I talk about the many exotic locations at which she has written, including time spent at an Italian villa with Zadie Smith as her neighbour, about writing her most recent book at a remote Ontario schoolhouse she had to break COVID protocols to get to, and about where serious literature fits within a world in which serious art of any kind is often overlooked.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Oonya Kempadoo. Oonya is the author of four novels, the first of which was longlisted for the Orange Prize, the second was longlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and won a Casa De Las Americas prize. Her most recent novel is Naniki, published by Dundurn Press in 2024. That novel was longlisted for the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction and was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award. The Montreal Review of Books called Naniki “playful, refreshing, and luminous, inspiring an almost childlike curiosity and urge for exploration, while illustrating the importance of understanding our past to safeguard our future.”Oonya and I talk about the ongoing immersive art project that inspired her to write her latest novel, about why she took such a long break from writing fiction after the publication of her third novel more than a decade ago, and about how writing and publishing Naniki has sparked a new desire in her to return to being a novelist.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Maggie Helwig. Maggie has published six books of poetry, two books of essays, a collection of short stories, and three novels, including Girls Fall Down, which was chosen as the One Book Toronto in 2012. Maggie is a long-time social justice activist, and also an Anglican priest, and has been the rector of the Church of St. Stephen-in-the-Fields since 2013. Maggie’s most recent book is Encampment: Resistance, Grace, and an Unhoused Community, published by Coach House Books earlier this year. It recently won the Toronto Book Award. Quill & Quire called it “required reading for anyone with a home who hopes to understand the lives of the many who do not."  Maggie and I talk about the City of Toronto forcibly removing the encampment that she writes about in the book, less than a day after it won the Toronto Book Award, about her long, unplanned, and ongoing break from publishing works of fiction and poetry, and about her next book, a selection of sermons written and delivered at St. Stephen-in-the-Fields.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Kenneth Oppel. Kenneth’s books include the Silverwing trilogy, which has sold over a million copies around the world, Airborn, winner of the Governor General's Literary Award and a Michael L. Printz Honor Book, and Ghostlight, which was shortlisted for several awards, including the Aurora and the IODE Violet Downey Book Award. His most recent book is the novel Best of All Worlds, published by Penguin Teen Canada earlier this year and nominated for a Governor General's Literary Award. It has also been named one of Best Children’s Books of 2025 by The Times (UK). Publishers Weekly called it “a sharp examination of society and isolation presented as a thriller set in a deceptively bucolic landscape.” Kenneth and I talk about the book he remembers having the biggest emotional impact on him as a kid, about his dislike of the various age groups and categories that get applied to children’s literature, and about his next novel, which just might be his first one explicitly written for adults.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Su Chang. Su’s debut novel is The Immortal Woman, published by House of Anansi Press earlier this year. Publishers Weekly called the novel “a cathartic account of a family buffeted by the winds of modern Chinese history.”Su and I talk about the cultural and political realities that cause to very deliberate in her writing, about why her father, who was himself a writer, urged her not to follow in his footsteps, and about why she has chosen not to participate in any public-facing events to promote her book.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Niko Stratis. Niko’s writing has appeared in Xtra, Catapult, Spin, Paste, The Walrus, and more. She is the co-editor of the Lambda Literary Award-winning anthology  2 Trans 2 Furious and its follow-up, Sex Change and the City. Her debut book, The Dad Rock That Made Me a Woman, was published by the University of Texas Press earlier this year. Publishers Weekly called it a “stirring collection focused on the music that inspired the author to embrace her trans identity” and a “poignant ode to musicʼs power to change lives.” Niko and I talk about the roots of her intense connections to music, about the online chuds who have not been happy with a trans author writing about their favourite artists and bands, and about her novel-in-progress, which began life, like those award-winning anthologies, as kind of a joke.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Chelsea Wakelyn. Chelsea is a musician and author whose debut novel, What Remains of Elsie Jane, was published by Dundurn Press in 2023 and was a finalist for the Foreword Indies award. Author Emily Austin called the novel “a poignant, laugh-out-loud funny, weird, and heartbreaking window into being bereft and being in love.” Chelsea and I talk about losing track, in her twenties, of her initial plan to become a writer, about the enormous losses that finally drove her to write her first novel, and about the sick cosmic joke of losing another partner to cancer right after publishing a novel based on her real-life grief.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Phoebe Wang. Phoebe is the author of the poetry collections Admission Requirements and Waking Occupations. Her fiction and nonfiction has appeared in The Globe & Mail, The New Quarterly, Brick, The Unpublished City, and The Unpublished City: Volume II, The Lived City, which she co-edited. Her most recent book is Relative to Wind: On Sailing, Craft, and Community, published by Assembly Press in 2024. Kirkus Reviews called it “a thoughtful, illuminating look at life away from land.”Phoebe and I talk about the impact of her very first publication, about being edited, right at the start of her career, by one of the country’s best-known and most beloved poets, and about the odd and interesting places that promoting a book about sailing has taken her.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Guy Vanderhaeghe. Guy is a three-time winner of the Governor’s-General Award for his collections of short stories, Man Descending and Daddy Lenin, and for his novel, The Englishman’s Boy, which was also shortlisted for the Giller Prize and The International Dublin Literary Award. His novel The Last Crossing was a winner of the CBC’s Canada Reads Competition. He has also received the Timothy Findley Prize, the Harbourfront Literary Prize, and the Cheryl and Henry Kloppenburg Prize, all given for a body of work. Guy’s most recent novel, August into Winter, won the Saskatchewan Book Award for Fiction and the Glengarry Book Award and was shortlisted for the Writers’ Trust Atwood Gibson Fiction Prize. His most recent book, the essay collection Because Someone Asked Me To, was published in 2024 by Thistledown Press. That book won Book of the Year and the Non-Fiction Award at the 2025 Saskatchewan Book Awards. Shelagh Rogers, former host of the CBC’s “The Next Chapter”, said that “reading this volume, I felt all my circuitry light up like a flash of fireflies, as Nadine Gordimer would say. I’m just so glad somebody asked him to.” Guy and I talk about some critical advice he got from author Margaret Laurence when he first started as a writer, the enormous shifts that have happened in the Canadian literary scene since those early days, and why his most recent novel might be his last.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.