Writers and Company CBC Arts & Entertainment
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- Arts
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CBC Radio's Writers and Company offers an opportunity to explore in depth the lives, thoughts and works of remarkable writers from around the world. Hosted by Eleanor Wachtel.
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Chance, fate and fiction: looking back at American novelist and filmmaker Paul Auster
Paul Auster spoke with Eleanor Wachtel about his novel Oracle Night, the ways in which reality and fiction blend and how coincidences shape our lives at the Blue Metropolis Literary Festival in Montreal in 2004. The writer of The New York Trilogy, Leviathan and 4 3 2 1, among many other books, was best known for his postmodernist fiction and meta-narratives. He died on April 30, 2024. He was 77.
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Looking back on American sculptor Richard Serra and how he became the Man of Steel
From his childhood in San Francisco's sand dunes to sitting in French cafes with Philip Glass and Samuel Beckett, Richard Serra reflects on his life and work during a 2011 conversation with Eleanor Wachtel. Best known for his evocative and monumental steel structures, you can find Serra's sculptural works all over the world, including his piece Titled Spheres in Toronto Pearson Airport. Serra died in March. He was 85.
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Poet Raymond Antrobus on hearing, seeing and grieving through verse
This week on Writers and Company, British poet Raymond Antrobus. Antrobus spoke with Eleanor Wachtel in 2019 about his collection, The Perseverance, which explores his complicated relationship with his late father and growing up deaf.
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Colm Toibin on the unspoken and powerful dynamics between mothers and sons
This week, Irish novelist Colm Toibin discusses his short story collection, Mothers and Sons, which explores the unspoken and shifting dynamics in these relationships. Toibin is the author of Brooklyn, which was made into an Oscar-nominated feature film starring Saoirse Ronan, as well as Nora Webster, The Magician and more. His latest novel, Long Island, is the sequel to Brooklyn.
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Alice Oswald on poetry, nature and the shedding of identity
To celebrate poetry month, a conversation with one of England’s greatest living poets, Alice Oswald. Winner of the 2017 international Griffin Poetry Prize for her book Falling Awake, Oswald's work explores the relationship between human life and the natural world. Her latest title, Nobody, is a book-length poem inspired by Homer’s Odyssey.
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The beautiful, melancholy world of Anita Desai
This week on Writers and Company, Anita Desai — one of India's most celebrated and successful writers. Over the course of her career, which spans five decades, Desai has written several novels and has been nominated for the Booker Prize three times. Eleanor Wachtel spoke to her on stage at Montreal's Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival in 2017, where she received the Grand Prix for lifetime achievement. Desai's latest book, Rosarita, is forthcoming from Picador Press.
This interview originally aired May 7, 2017.
Customer Reviews
The best literary podcast in the world
Peerless perfection and honest. I adore it
Please make back episodes available
For so many years now our tradition has been to go for a long drive in the country on Sunday while listening to Writers and Company …. I’ve been listening since the very first shows …. Please some how make all the old episodes available? My fav was that Francine du Plessy Grey show …. Will miss you Elenor
Oh Eleanor!
I only just found out that they will not be any more new shows of writers and company, where the most literate woman in Canada will lead us through novels and authors, so that we may enrich are the lives! You have accompanied me in so many trips to the store, to pick up children, to deliver gifts to friends, to spend an afternoon in my backyard weeding. I thank you very much for all your incredible research and inviting interviews.
I suppose this means that we will just have to go through all the back library of interviews and podcasts. You're a gem. We will miss you Eleanor.