Hamilton Review of Books Podcast: Recent Episodes
Hamilton Review of Books / Alex Kerner
Interviewing folks from the Hamilton area or beyond about books, reading, literary criticism and so much more!
After last year's protest at the Giller Prize ceremony helped expose Scotiabank and its investment holdings for having ties with the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, writers have been pressuring the Prize to drop its primary sponsor. We talk with three writers involved in the campaign:
Michael DeForge is a cartoonist in Toronto. His books include Birds of Maine, Familiar FaceandHeaven No Hell.
Avik Jain Chatlani is the author of This Country is No Longer Yours. A historian by training, he has taught in schools and prisons in Latin America, Canada, and the United States.
Jacob Wren makes literature, collaborative performances and exhibitions. His books include Polyamorous Love Song, Rich and Poor, and Dry Your Tears to Perfect Your Aim.
Mentioned in Episode
CanLit Responds (https://www.canlitresponds.ca/)
No Arms in the Arts (https://www.noarmsinthearts.com/)
“How the Giller Prize Became Associated with Genocide” in The Walrus, https://thewalrus.ca/giller-prize-genocide/
Reading Queer Lit with Shawn Mooney
We are joined by Shawn Mooney, the host of the fantastic BookTube channel, Shawn Breathes Books to talk about Queer Literature, why it's having its moment and why it's important for us to be reading it!
PODCASTS MENTIONED
Lindy Magpie Reads
BOOKS MENTIONED
Trans writers/novels
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
Little Blue Encyclopedia (for Vivian) by Hazel Jane Plante
Little Fish by Casey Plett
Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi
Gay male writers/authors/subjects
Édouard Louis
Change: A Method, translation by John Lambert
The End of Eddy translation by Michael Lucey
History of Violence translation by Michael Lucey (Shawn's full review)
Afterparties by Anthony Veasna So
Thomas Grattan
The Recent East (Shawn's interview about this novel with the author)
In Tongues (Shawn’s interview with the author about this novel)
Billy-Ray Belcourt
Christopher DiRaddo
The Family Way
The Geography of Pluto (Shawn's full review)
And Then He Sang a Lullaby by Ani Kayode Somtochukwu
Now and Then by William Corlett (Shawn's chat with Ericka Seidemann about this novel)
Danny Ramadan
The Clothesline Swing
The Foghorn Echoes
Crooked Teeth: A Queer Syrian Refugee Memoir (Shawn's “mystery guest” chat with Danny about Crooked Teeth)
The Sleeping Car Porter by Suzette Mayr (Shawn's full review)
Small Joys by Elvin James Mensah (Shawn's interview with the author)
Adam Mars-Jones
Pilcrow (John Cromer #1)
Cedilla(John Cromer #2)
Caret(John Cromer #3)
Lesbian Literature
Other People Manage by Ellen Hawley (Shawn’s interview with the author)
Cantoras by Caro De Robertis
After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz
For some, reading is an escape from the world, but some of the most powerful and compelling works of fiction delve deep into political subjects. We are joined by Toronto short story writer, Humberto Da Silva, to discuss why political literature is worth embracing, what makes good political fiction and have a mini book club on last year's Booker Prize winning novel, Prophet Song.
Books Mentioned
Humberto Da Silva, Compassion Fatigue
Adania Shibli, Minor DetailIsabella Hamad, Enter Ghost
On the first episode of the season, we are joined by Janet Hoy, co-owner of The City and the City Bookstore in Hamilton. We talk about speculative fiction, our favourite titles, and what makes it a fascinating genre. We also do a mini book club, talking about Giller Prize longlisted novel Girlfriend on Mars by Deborah Willis.
You can find Victoria at https://www.instagram.com/bookcasebelle/
Summer is coming to an end so we have to get in as much beach reading time in as possible. Our guest for this episode all about Beach Reads is Bookstagrammer Victoria Kinzel. We chat about what makes a good beach read, give several recommendations and finish off discussing Emily Henry's new book Happy Place.
You can find Victoria at https://www.instagram.com/bookcasebelle/
We are joined today by Jaime Krakowski, independent bookseller and owner of Epic Books in Hamilton. We discuss adaptations of our favourite novels, what we are looking for, what has worked and what hasn't. The second half is a mini book/movie club featuring the novel and film Scarborough.
This episode’s guest is Lisa Richter, a Toronto poet, and author of the award winning collection Nautilus and Bone. We talked about what drew her to poetry, how we should read poetry, and how we should teach poetry. We dig into her collection and do a minibook club of Gillian Sze’s Quiet Night Think.
Lisa’s Website (https://www.lisarichter.org/)
Youtube Video Mentioned: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-qbXZMU8WE (performance by Emily Hiemstra)
Gillian Sze, Quiet Night Think: https://ecwpress.com/products/quiet-night-think
Poets Mentioned:
Sonnet L'Abbé
Kim Hyesoon
Victoria Konchan
Books Mentioned
Madeleine Thien, Do Not Say We Have Nothing
Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
Maddie Mortiner, Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies
Sheila Heti, Pure Colour
Haruki Murakami
Jing Tsu, Kingdom of Characters
Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch
Many readers get caught up with book prizes so we wanted to explore why they are so entrancing, what we love and hate about them, and which winners we loved and hated.
Featured guest is Jill from the Book Bully BookTube Channel.
You can find her at
https://www.youtube.com/c/TheBookBully
https://www.instagram.com/thebookbully_/
Alex Kerner hosts and produces.
In this episode, Editorial Board member James Cairns joins us to discuss memoirs and essays, why the form resonates and which are our favourites. We also spend the second half digging deep into Sarah Polley's new memoirish essay collection, Run Towards The Danger.
This episode of the podcast is about literature in translation, and we are lucky to have Barbara Halla as our guest Barbara Halla. Barbara is the Criticism Editor for Asymptote Journal and a contributing editor for Reading in Translation, two online magazines publishing and reviewing literature in English translation. She works also as a researcher, focusing on the writings of contemporary and classic Albanian women authors.
Recommended Books
Elena Ferrante - Neapolitan Novels
Stieg Larsson - Millennium Series
Olga Tokarczuk – Flights (translated by Jennifer Cross)
Sang Young Park – Love in the Big City (translated by Anton Hur)
Christelle Dabos – A Winter’s Promise (translated by Hildegarde Serle)
This episode features an interview with Hamilton graphic novelist, Joe Ollman, who, besides being a great bookstore worker at Epic Books, is an award-winning graphic novelist whose latest work, Fictional Father, was shortlisted for the Governor General’s award for fiction. We talk comics, movies, how brilliant the Booker-longlisted Sabrina was and finish off with a discussion of Philippe Gerard’s graphic novel Leonard Cohen: On A Wire.
Some graphic novelists we mention in the episode and who you may want to check out include:
Nick Drnaso
Chris Ware
Seth
Alison Bechdel
Julie Doucette
Posy Simmonds
This episode features Ja'miil Millar, our guest editor for the Review's Youth Issue. We talk about her reading life, seeing ourselves (or not) in the literature we read, and have a discussion about The Most Precious Substance on Earth by Shashi Bhat.
For our first full episode, our guest is the Editor-in-Chief of the Hamilton Review of Books, Dana Hansen. We talk about the Review, Dana's reading life, and then have a great discussion about Miriam Toews new book Fight Night. Listen, subscribe and please review the podcast on the platform you use.