Inside the Frozen Mammoth AELAQ

Should you stay or should you go? In the final episode of our series, poet and playwright Talya Rubin and fiction writer Tom Abray talk about the constant push and pull of Montreal, which simultaneously draws them in and spits them out. Will they end up leaving the island? Listen to find out, and to hear readings from both writers.

Tom Abray, the author of Pollen (2011) and Where I Wanted to Be (2017), both from DC Books, grew up near Strathroy, Ontario, but has lived in Montreal since 1989.

Poet, playwright and theatre creator/performer, Talya Rubin’s poetry has garnered the Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers. She’s the author of Leaving the Island, published by Véhicule Press’s poetry imprint Signal in 2015.

GLOSSARY
Jacob Two-Two https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Two-Two
Moving Day https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moving_Day_(Quebec)
Pastagate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastagate
Le Devoir https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Devoir
Blue Met https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Metropolis

LITERARY MENTIONS
Mordecai Richler
Leonard Cohen

We begin with a reading by fiction writer Lesley Trites, from her new collection A Three-Tiered Pastel Dream. Then, have you ever wondered about the difference between solid and liquid gaskets? Neither has Fawn Parker, but sometimes you have to earn a buck. Episode 9 features Parker and Trites on (very) odd jobs, family secrets, mom jokes, and the power of silence. Plus, Michael Blair drops by to recommend Madeleine Thien's Do Not Say We Have Nothing for Quebec Libris.

Fawn Parker is a writer and editor based in Montreal. She's the author of Looking Good and Having a Good Time, published by Metatron.

Lesley Trites is the author of the story collection A Three-Tiered Pastel Dream (Véhicule Press).

A couple of well-travelled writers talk about what makes Montreal a unique place to live and create, and why you need to leave a place in order to write it. Anita Anand takes us into the airless world of a couple imprisoned by winter and their stifling relationship, while Greg Santos puts on his detective hat and goes on the trail of the missing half-brother of a Montreal painter. Also discussed: The Poetry Brothel, the dangers of subconscious plagiarism, language kerfuffles.

Anita Anand is a writer and translator, and author of the short story collection Swing in the House (Véhicule Press).

Greg Santos is the author of Rabbit Punch! (DC Books, 2014) and The Emperor’s Sofa (DC Books, 2010). He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from The New School. His writing has appeared in The Walrus, Geist, Vallum, World Literature Today, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, and The Best American Poetry Blog. He regularly works with at-risk communities and teaches writing and literature at the Thomas More Institute. He is the poetry editor of carte blanche and lives in Montreal with his family.

LITERARY MENTIONS
Alice Munro
John Updike
Margaret Laurence
Martín Espada
The Poetry Brothel
Federico García Lorca
Leonard Cohen

GLOSSARY
École Polytechnique massacre: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89cole_Polytechnique_massacre
Anne Savage : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Savage_(artist)
Beaver Hall Group: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaver_Hall_Group

Two writers find overlap in their very different experiences—of migration, language, and of writing in the wake of a traumatic experience. Listen in on a fascinating conversation that travels from childhood to aging to money and its attendant problems, and ends up somewhere neither writer expected to be.

A two-time winner of the Quebec Writers' Federation award for best English-language fiction, Kenneth Radu has recently completed a new collection of stories scheduled for publication by DC Books in early 2018.

Licia Canton is the author of the collection Almond Wine and Fertility (Longbridge Books), stories set in Montreal. She is also a literary translator and founding editor-in-chief of Accenti Magazine.

LITERARY MENTIONS
Jane Austen
Marcel Proust

GLOSSARY
St. Leonard : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Leonard,_Quebec
Québécoise de souche : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pure_laine
Tout le monde en parle : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tout_le_monde_en_parle_(Quebec)