Watershed Writers with Tanis MacDonald: Recent Episodes
Tanis MacDonald
Watershed Writers with Tanis MacDonald is a podcast for readers and for writers, for people interested in how writing works and why it’s vital to where and how we live in the Grand River watershed of the Region of Waterloo. It was launched in November, 2021. We upload one new episode every week, featuring interviews with local novelists, poets, playwrights and essayists and offers a showcase for a community of nationally-known writers as well as writers who are just getting started. We are committed towards engaging an inclusive perspective on Canadian books and their authors by featuring First Peoples writers, as well as LGBTQ writers and writers from other marginalized communities.
We record in the Grand River Watershed region, the traditional territories of the Neutral, Anishnaabe, and Haudenosaunee peoples.
Hosted by Tanis MacDonald Produced by Frances Roberts Reilly Edited by Brendon Highmore Music by Alysha Brilla Artwork by John Roscoe Sponsored by The Region of Waterloo Arts Fund
In this episode, we begin by asking when writing a memoir, at what point does your parents’ story become your own?” We talk with Governor General Award winner, Madhur Anand about challenging the standard memoir form, and how she decided to explore its limits in her book A Red Line Goes Right Through To Your Heart.
In this podcast episode, we ask about age. What if artistic experimentation does not decline with age? Are many of our assumptions about aging just flat-out wrong? Listen in as we talk with author, Emily Urquhart about her new book, The Age of Creativity: Art, Memory, My Father, and Me.
In this episode, we talk with Luke Hathaway about Luke’s Waterloo Region roots and the international reach of his latest book, Years, Months, and Days, as well about the importance of influences in maker culture.
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Hosted by Tanis MacDonald
Produced by Frances Roberts Reilly
Edited by Brendon Highmore
Music by Alysha Brilla
Artwork by John Roscoe
Sponsored by The Region of Waterloo Arts Fund
We talk with Tuscarora writer, performer, and publisher Janet Rogers. As the national Truth and Reconciliation conversation continues, we listen as Janet speaks of writing as a response to the work of her forebears. She reads from her new book Ego of a Nation about personal and political power.
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Hosted by Tanis MacDonald
Produced by Frances Roberts Reilly
Edited by Brendon Highmore
Music by Alysha Brilla
Artwork by John Roscoe
Sponsored by The Region of Waterloo Arts Fund
We talk with author Tasneem Jamal about migrant writing in Canadian literature, the challenge of writing across generations in her novel Where The Air is Sweet.
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Hosted by Tanis MacDonald
Produced by Frances Roberts Reilly
Edited by Brendon Highmore
Music by Alysha Brilla
Artwork by John Roscoe
Sponsored by The Region of Waterloo Arts Fund
In this podcast episode, we ask Inuit author Mike Chaulk about his writerly solutions for claiming his mixed-race identity explored in his book Night Lunch. Also on this episode, we ask Sarah Tolmie about literary prize culture. She reads from her book, Check, about confirmation bias and speaks about taking up space, daring to be funny.
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Hosted by Tanis MacDonald
Produced by Frances Roberts Reilly
Edited by Brendon Highmore
Music by Alysha Brilla
Artwork by John Roscoe
Sponsored by The Region of Waterloo Arts Fund
In this episode, our guests are Fitsum Areguy, Yasmeen Namett Alla and Ashley Hynd who are a few of the many contributors to Textile Magazine. Lean in as we explore two questions that form the backbone of Textile magazine, “Which stories are valued the most? Where does power reside?”
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Hosted by Tanis MacDonald
Produced by Frances Roberts Reilly
Edited by Brendon Highmore
Music by Alysha Brilla
Artwork by John Roscoe
Sponsored by The Region of Waterloo Arts Fund
In this episode, we speak with three poets, Yvonne Blomer, Laurie D. Graham and Gary Barwin who all write about their local watersheds in Sweat Water: Poems for the Watersheds. We ask, what does a poetics of water look like/sound like in Waterloo Region?
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Hosted by Tanis MacDonald
Produced by Frances Roberts Reilly
Edited by Brendon Highmore
Music by Alysha Brilla
Artwork by John Roscoe
Sponsored by The Region of Waterloo Arts Fund
In this episode we ask, as a young artist, would you take the risk of being called notorious? That’s the risk our podcast guest, the multi-talented Janice Jo Lee took with the performances of her one-person show Will You Be My Friend? in Kitchener and in Toronto. For many years, Janice was a mover and shaker in the artistic community of the Region of Waterloo,. She was everywhere, it seemed, with her songs and spoken word pieces about identity, friendship, and solidarity.
Listen in as Janice talks about her upcoming album, Ancestor Songs, and her many other projects. We ask, what is it like to be a public artist who shakes things up? What does it means to get uncomfortable to make art responsibly. How do we find capacity to create in challenging times?
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Hosted by Tanis MacDonald
Produced by Frances Roberts Reilly
Edited by Brendon Highmore
Music by Alysha Brilla
Artwork by John Roscoe
Sponsored by The Region of Waterloo Arts Fund
Sit back and get transported to the steppes of Mongolia where eagle hunting, an age-old tradition is overturned by one young girl’s bravery and determination to train an eagle as author Erin Bow talks about Stand on the Sky, which won the 2019 Governor General’s Award for Young People’s Literature in English. Then hear what’s hair-raising about her book Plain Kate and how Erin explores blood magic to transform an old Russian fairytale for contemporary readers. We finish with Erin reading her poem about Madame Curiewhere Erin puts her science background to poetic means.
Hosted by Tanis MacDonald
Produced by Frances Roberts Reilly
Edited by Brendon Highmore
Music by Alysha Brilla
Artwork by John Roscoe
Sponsored by The Region of Waterloo Arts Fund