My guest on this episode is Carol Off. Carol is an author, journalist, and broadcaster who spent almost sixteen years co-hosting the multi-award-winning CBC radio program, As It Happens. Before that, she covered news and current affairs in Canada and around the world. Her books include The Lion, The Fox and the Eagle, The Ghosts of Medak Pocket, Bitter Chocolate, and All We Leave Behind, which won the British Columbia National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction. Her most recent book is At a Loss for Words: Conversation in an Age of Rage, published by Random House Canada in 2024. General Roméo Dallaire said that Carol “delivers a thoughtful yet searing examination of the power of words, the necessity of truth, and the existential need for humanity to communicate with care." Carol and I talk about the strangeness of the recent Canadian federal election, about her worry that At A Loss for Words was being overtaken by world events even as she was writing it, and about the trouble she’s having getting down to work on her next book—despite already having a deadline to finish 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.
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33:04
Anne Fleming
My guest on this episode is Anne Fleming. Anne is the author of the story collections Pool-Hopping and Gay Dwarves of America, the novel Anomaly, as well as the middle-grade novel The Goat and a poetry collection, poemw. Her most recent book is the novel Curiosities, published in 2024 by Knopf Canada. That novel was longlisted for the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction and shortlisted for the Ferro-Grumley Award For LGBTQ Fiction. It was also a finalist for the 2024 Giller Prize. The Toronto Star said that Curiosities “grips with fervent tales of affection, love, and duty as it conjures a panicked era where witchery was no laughing matter.” Anne and I talk about the unexpected joy of doing a bookstore reading for two people, about why her latest novel was so hard to crack (and why the next one will be, too), and her feelings about being on the Giller Prize shortlist in a year in which the prize was the focus of so much controversy and so many author boycotts.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.
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28:02
Kyo Maclear
My guest on this episode is Kyo Maclear. Kyo is an award-winning novelist, essayist, and children's author. Her books have been translated into eighteen languages and published in over twenty-five countries, and have garnered nominations from the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction, the Governor General’s Literary Awards, the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Awards, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards, the Amazon.ca First Novel Award, and the National Magazine Awards. Her most recent book is Unearthing: A Story of Tangled Love and Family Secrets, published by Knopf Canada in 2023. That book won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Nonfiction. The Washington Post called Unearthing “a moving account of a daughter’s struggle to know her mother before she loses her.” Kyo and I talk about her tendency, as a writer and as a person, to seek out beauty and optimism, about starting to write a memoir even as the events it depicts are still happening, and about how the publication of Unearthing has allowed her to stop seeking to resolve some of the family secrets it explores. 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.
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29:22
Shawn Micallef
My guest on this very Toronto-centric episode is Shawn Micallef. Shawn is an author whose books include Full Frontal TO, The Trouble With Brunch, and Frontier City. He’s a weekly columnist at the Toronto Star, and a senior editor and co-founder of Spacing magazine. His most recent book is a fully updated version of Stroll: Psychogeographic Walking Tours of Toronto, originally published by Coach House Books in 2010. The updated version was published in 2024, also by Coach House. Author Douglas Coupland called Stroll "a smart and intimate guide to the city that makes you feel like an insider from start to finish."Shawn and I talk about his decision to finally abandon his Twitter account, which had been a big part of how he explored cities, about how updating Stroll turned out to be a more onerous task than he’d originally thought, and about how writing a weekly newspaper column and becoming a parent has a funny way of delaying big new book projects.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.
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25:42
Eden Boudreau
My guest on this episode is Eden Boudreau. Eden is an author whose work has appeared in the Globe & Mail, Flare, Today’s Parent, and elsewhere. She is the host and creator of the podcast Dear Lonely Writer, which was aimed at destigmatizing mental health struggles during the writing process. Eden’s most recent book is her debut, Crying Wolf: A Memoir, published by Book*hug Press in 2023 and shortlisted for a Lambda Literary Award. Author Erin Pepler called Crying Wolf “a vivid, searingly honest account of violence against women and the aftermath of an assault.”Eden and I talk about the difficult decision to pause her author podcast (which I had the honour of being a guest on), about her initial reluctance to include some darker truths about herself in her memoir, and why she’s grateful she became a published writer a little later in life than she’d originally hoped. 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.
About What Happened Next: a podcast about newish books
In each episode of What Happened Next, author Nathan Whitlock interviews other authors about what happens when a new book isn’t new anymore, and it’s time to write another one. This podcast is presented in partnership with The Walrus.https://thewalrus.ca/podcasts/what-happened-next/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Listen to What Happened Next: a podcast about newish books, Bookends with Mattea Roach and many other podcasts from around the world with the radio.net app
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