Bookends Highlights: The language of comics with 5 masters of the craft
Whether it’s battling your girlfriend’s “seven evil exes," reinterpreting childhood memories or celebrating the beauty of becoming a parent, comics and graphic novels transport readers to different worlds … and help us better understand the one we live in. In the first season of Bookends, Mattea Roach spoke with some of today’s leading cartoonists about their work and the inspiration they draw from life. In this special summer edition of the show, we’re revisiting Mattea's conversations with Adrian Tomine, Alison Bechdel, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Sarah Leavitt and Chris Ware.Hear the full conversations here:Adrian Tomine: Answering his readers' burning questionsAlison Bechdel on making money and seeing Fun Home in a new lightBryan Lee O’Malley: 20 years of Scott PilgrimSarah Leavitt: Illustrating grief too wide for wordsChris Ware: Inside the sketchbooks of a comics master
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Bookends Bonus: Cartoonist and writer Gabrielle Drolet on Q with Tom Power
Five days a week acclaimed interviewer Tom Power sits down with the artists, writers, actors and musicians who define pop culture. In this episode, Tom chats with the cartoonist and writer Gabrielle Drolet. A few years ago, Gabrielle developed a condition that made her unable to use her hands. It kept getting worse over time, and as Gabrielle searched for a diagnosis, she also had to find new ways to make art. Her new memoir “Look Ma, No Hands” is the story of an artist coming to terms with disability, adapting to the unexpected, and ultimately learning to express herself again. Gabrielle joins Tom to talk about those experiences that informed her memoir. More episodes of Q with Tom Power are available here: https://link.mgln.ai/qwtp
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3 writers on finding their voices — and the power of personal stories
To wrap up our first season, Bookends is bringing you to the Festival of Literary Diversity in Brampton. Tanya Talaga, Morgan Campell and Amal Elsana Alh'jooj may be memoir writers from different walks of life — but a common thread in their work is how they continually use their voices to negotiate challenging conversations. They recently joined Mattea Roach on stage for a live panel, where they spoke about the value of difficult conversations … and how telling personal stories creates empathy at large.Hear the rest of our interview with Tanya Talaga here:Tanya Talaga: Searching for her great-great grandmother — a story of family, truth and survival
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What makes Montreal a transgender city?
For Montreal writer Chris Bergeron, the power of transgender storytelling is revolutionary. Her novel Valid is about a 70-year-old trans woman who is forced back into the closet to survive in a dystopian Montreal. Valid, translated from French by Natalia Hero, was chosen for this year’s One eRead Canada campaign. Chris sat down with Mattea Roach at a live virtual event in April. They spoke about the relationship between transness and technology, the meaning of “dystopian autofiction” and how the city of Montreal is always in transition. If you enjoyed this conversation, check out these episodes:Helen Phillips: In a world run by AI, what makes us human?Judith Butler: Breaking down why people fear gender
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Weaving a story of family trauma and celebrating the beauty in survival
For Chyana Marie Sage, being “soft as bones” means accepting that humans are both strong and fragile — and have immense capacity for healing. Her new memoir, Soft As Bones, is her quest to better understand the childhood trauma that scarred her family. It's also a tapestry of poetry, history, Cree language, traditional ceremony and folklore — and delves into her experiences and those of her family with compassion and strength. Chyana joins Mattea Roach to share the catharsis she felt from writing about painful memories and the care she took to portray everyone with empathy.If you enjoyed this conversation, check out these episodes:Tanya Talaga: Searching for her great-great grandmother — a story of family, truth and survival Teresa Wong: Illustrating her family's past — in all its ordinary and epic moments
When the book ends, the conversation begins. Mattea Roach speaks with writers who have something to say about their work, the world and our place in it. You’ll always walk away with big questions to ponder and new books to read.
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