What a delight to bring you this conversation with Emily Austin about her beautiful and hilarious new novel INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT SPACE, how some interesting feedback on her first novel inspired her to deepen her own understanding of love, and how ideas from bell hooks’ ALL ABOUT LOVE found their way into her fiction. Listenhttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bookspo/id1733542694 at Apple Podcasts or on Substack ..read more

In case you missed me, I was busy buying books all over Northwest England, and having a grand time while doing it. Full report to come in my newsletter on Monday—make sure you’re on the list ..read more

This week on BOOKSPO I’m talking with Waubgeshig Rice about his new novel MOON OF THE TURNING LEAVES—which came out in Canada last fall and was just published in the United States—and how he was inspired by Cormac McCarthy’s 1985 novel BLOOD MERIDIAN to craft a narrative in which the land guides the story. List at Apple Podcasts or on Substack ..read more

and I realized that my quiet writing has a relevance to those who are willing to listen. And even if it doesn’t, I need to do it. A lot of writers, I can only assume, would feel like they can’t write about a thing unless they’re an expert about the topic, but there’s a lot of activity that happens in the act of learning. That’s where the factual stuff in both of our stories feeds the emotional content. How do I know so much about these Mills & Boon romances? Because I snuck into my sister’s books of course. Later I also snuck into my father’s bookshelves and read all the juicy bits from ..read more

This time I’m talking with Ashley Tate, bestselling debut author of TWENTY-SEVEN MINUTES, about how reading Iain Reid’s smash hit novel I’M THINKING OF ENDINGS gave her permission to write the blendy psychological thriller-literary mash-up of her dreams (or worst nightmares?). Listen at substack or Apple podcasts or most places where you can get your podcasts ..read more

I’ve been around for a little while, and I think it’s safe to say that Sharp Notions: Essays from the Stitching Life, edited by Marita Dachsel and Nancy Lee is the best literary anthology I’ve ever read. It’s a beautiful volume, as aesthetically as pleasing as you’d expect for a book about art, a beautifully crafted object in its own right, complete with colour photography of beadwork, quilts, Kelly S. Thompson’s knitted bull terrier, a conversation in embroidery, and needlepoint. I’m not actually sure of what the difference is between embroidery and needlepoint (I’m a lapsed knitter myself ..read more

Last week marked seven years since the release of my first novel, an occasion I didn’t mark as in years past because I’m trying to be more honest and human about my publishing experiences (as opposed to, like, posting, say “WOO HOO BIG BOOK TOUR ENERGY!” posts when it’s just me eating crullers at a series of Tim Hortons across Southern Ontario). I’ve been really lucky and privileged to have published three novels in total, but it’s never been like how I thought it would be, I’ve never received the validation that my books are real, that I’m legit. I’ve never made a major bestseller list, I’ve ..read more

How to begin? I think I’ll start with my bona fides, even though its kind of obnoxious. I don’t own a car, I use public transit, I wash and reuse plastic bags, I hang my laundry to dry, I’ve banished serviettes in favour of secondhand cloth napkins, I make monthly charitable donations to the Nature Conservancy of Canada, I’m not a jet-setter, all my clothes are secondhand or from local designers, I’ve been refilling the same dish soap container for half a decade now, I only vote for politicians with climate plans, I eat meat just once a week if that, save veggie scraps for soup stock, I buy s ..read more

Anna Julia Stainsby’s debut The Afterpains has been a hot topic of conversation in one of my group chats lately, so I was happy to get my hands on a copy and check it out for myself. It’s the story of three women and their respective experiences of motherhood and loss woven together with those of the people who love them, a testament to love and friendship, first and foremost, and the transformative possibilities of both. It’s the story of Isaura, whose teenage pregnancy was part of a long family history that seemed like a curse, and how she had to leave her daughter behind in Honduras while ..read more

The third episode of BOOKSPO is up, and it’s particularly special to me because…it was also the first interview I did for this project, at the end of January. Back when I knew absolutely nothing about how to make a podcast, back when my self-esteem and confidence were at remarkable lows, and I knew that making the podcast would help me find my way out of that low. But making the leap to doing that was scary. There was something paralyzing about where I was at that point, creatively, and making any leap seemed terrifying and impossible. I felt really intimidated about approaching authors for i ..read more