Jacquelyn Zong-Li Ross

Tessa McWatt

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 [https://www.nathanwhitlock.ca/], in partnership with The Walrus [https://thewalrus.ca/podcasts/]. Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky [https://alukashevsky.bandcamp.com/]. Used with permission. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Sarah Leavitt

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 [https://www.nathanwhitlock.ca/], in partnership with The Walrus [https://thewalrus.ca/podcasts/]. Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky [https://alukashevsky.bandcamp.com/]. Used with permission. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Shyam Selvadurai

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 [https://www.nathanwhitlock.ca/], in partnership with The Walrus [https://thewalrus.ca/podcasts/]. Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky [https://alukashevsky.bandcamp.com/]. Used with permission. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Alex Manley

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 [https://www.nathanwhitlock.ca/], in partnership with The Walrus [https://thewalrus.ca/podcasts/]. Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky [https://alukashevsky.bandcamp.com/]. Used with permission. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Dennis Bock

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 [https://www.nathanwhitlock.ca/], in partnership with The Walrus [https://thewalrus.ca/podcasts/]. Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky [https://alukashevsky.bandcamp.com/]. Used with permission. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.