Bookspo

Kerry Clare
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Bookspo

A short form podcast in which authors of new books enthuse about the old books that inspired their works. kerryreads.substack.com

  1. HÁ 2 DIAS

    Season Two, Episode 12: Andrew Forbes

    We’ve made it to another Season Finale! Thank you for coming with me on this podcasting journey this year, and helping me reach the milestones of 24 episodes, 3.8K downloads (and counting), one whole sponsored episode, and so many great conversations both on and off the pod. A year ago, this project was just a distant dream that I was almost too terrified to realize, but I made the leap, here we are, and if you’ve enjoyed it all even half as much as I have, we’re all pretty lucky. I’m looking forward to launching BOOKSPO Season 3 in the spring, but in the meantime I’m trying to figure out ways to be compensated for my work on the project, and if you’ve been a fan of the pod this year, there are some ways you can help. First, if you’re not a paid subscriber to my Substack, please consider upgrading. My paid subscriptions are literally as cheap as Substack will permit, but the income means a lot to me and will enable me to sustain this project. You’ll also get access to my essays every month! (Paid subscribers will also get access to A VERY SPECIAL BOOKSPO BONUS episode dropping one week from today!). Second, do you know anyone who might want to reach an awesome audience of sharp-minded, literary-inclined Canadians (simply the BEST demographic) as a podcast sponsor? I’m thinking literary festivals, indie booksellers, small presses, subscription boxes, bookishly-minded entrepreneurs (are you a bibliotherapist?), writing programs, or any kind of literary booster? If this is you or someone you know, get in touch and we can hatch some plans. And now for our show…. It’s such a pleasure to conclude the second season of BOOKSPO with Andrew Forbes, whose latest release is also his sixth book AND his debut novel, THE DIAPAUSE. Our conversation comes complete with a defintion of the word “diapause” (although biologists among us might know it already), as well as a glimpse behind the curtain to reveal what elements of Per Petterson’s OUT STEALING HORSES were on Andrew’s mind as he began writing the book in August 2020, imagining possibilities for the future amidst the terrifying unknown of the Covid-19 Pandemic. The initial draft of the book was actually a novella, but Andrew’s editor encouraged him to expand the story, to show his readers what happens next. Bonus content: a shout out to the very good people at Peterborough’s Take Cover Books. Andrew tells me about the creative connections between his book and Petterson’s, some deliberate, others less so, which is all part of the process of creation. Both books, he explains, end up being about the ways in which we struggle to understand that people we’re supposed to be closest to, our parents in particular. And that childhood sense of mystery (and wonder!) is integral to his protagonist Gabriel’s sense of himself and the world during that strange and oddly idyllic sumer of 2020, although life for him would never be quite so simple again. Andrew also talks about the challenges of writing into “the moving target” that is the future, which made it difficult for him to know when to stop and understand just when his work was done. When ten-year-old Gabriel and his parents retire to his late grandfather’s disused cabin to wait out a pandemic, the big, dangerous world seems very far away, and Gabriel enjoys the freest summer of his young life. But tensions begin to surface, testing the family unit, and resulting in consequences that he will spend his life attempting to unravel. Spanning nearly a half-century, The Diapause is a literary-speculative-fiction novel about the near future, family, isolation, heartbreak, climate change, how we keep each other safe, and all the things we don’t know about the people we know best. Part White Fang, part Station Eleven, The Diapause is a novel about how the things we seek are often the things we didn’t know we’d lost. ANDREW FORBES is the author of the story collections Lands and Forests (Invisible P

    21min

  2. 13 DE NOV.

    Season Two, Episode 11: Jenny Haysom

    As a huge fan of books about houses and home, I fell in love with Jenny Haysom’s debut novel KEEP and was swept away by this story of three lives connected by the very unlikely occupation of real estate home staging, this inspired by Jenny’s own experience with this job a long time ago, as she explains to me in our BOOKSPO conversation. And this was a conversation I enjoyed in particular because Jenny’s BOOKSPO pick is a book by one of my all-time favourite authors, the wonderful and brilliant Carol Shields, who is due for a renaissance, Jenny asserts, and I agree entirely. Pickle Me This is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. In our discussion, Jenny makes the case for SWANN being one of Shields’ best novels (I required a bit of convincing!) and talks about her favourite parts of the book, especially the Emily Dickinson connection, which found its way into KEEP. She tells me what she had to learn in order to make the transition from poetry to fiction, what she learned about fiction (and life itself!) from Carol Shields, and confesses that she wishes readers would pay as much attention to the language in her fiction as in her poetry, as her choices there are just as careful and deliberate. A timely tale of ownership and loss, loneliness and connection, and a meditation on all the stuff in our lives. Home staging is an art of erasure. But in some cases—no matter how much clutter you remove, or how many coats of white paint you apply—stains bleed through, and memories rise from the walls like ghosts. Harriet, an elderly poet whose eccentricities have been compounded by years of living alone, must sell her beloved house. Having been recently diagnosed with dementia, she is being moved into a care facility against her wishes. When stagers Eleanor and Jacob are hired for the job, they quickly find themselves immersed in Harriet’s brimming and mysterious world, but as they struggle to help her, their own lives are unravelling. Keep is a meditation on all the stuff in our lives—from the singular, handcrafted artifact to indelible, mass-produced plastics. As Jenny Haysom excavates the material of our domestic spaces, she centres the people within them and celebrates the power of memory, even when it falters. JENNY HAYSOM has published her writing in magazines across Canada. Her debut poetry collection, Dividing the Wayside, won the Archibald Lampman Award and was shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. Jenny lived in Ottawa for nearly thirty years, on the unceded, ancestral lands of the Algonquin Nation, and has recently returned to Nova Scotia, in Mi’kma’ki, where she grew up. Get full access to Pickle Me This at kerryreads.substack.com/subscribe

    26min

  3. 6 DE NOV.

    Season Two, Episode 10: Priya Ramsingh

    New BOOKSPO, and this time we’re talking about THE ELEVATOR, by Priya Ramsingh, a book about modern love that read like a breeze, but also tackles important questions about race, trauma, toxic relationships, eating disorders and life in the city. It’s the story of Aria and Rob, who are familiar to each other from encounters in their building’s elevator, and about what transpires between them when these nearly-strangers match on a dating app. Will they? Won’t they? The course of love never did run smooth! But along the way, we meet a wider cast of characters who comprise Rob and Aria’s community, including the wonderful Mila, a character whose creation was informed by Ramsingh’s reading of Vivek Shraya’s memoir, I’M AFRAID OF MEN. Pickle Me This is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Priya tells me about how her diverse and multicultural cast of characters was not by design, per se, but instead a reflection of the Toronto she lives in and wants to celebrate in the novel. And one of favourites (and those of many readers too!) is the character of Mila, Aria’s neighbour and friend, whose own story—growing up against the backdrop of her Filipino mother’s nail salon where she was supported and encouraged in subtle and interesting ways as she came into her identity as a trans woman—is just as captivating as those of the main characters. And while details of Mila’s life were indeed inspired by the memoir I’M AFRAID OF MEN (which Ramsingh notes she’d read before, and perhaps had lingered in her subsconscious) the character herself appeared to Ramsingh almost fully formed, which was the most wonderful creative gift. Aria Ramdeen is learning to love herself—and her favourite foods—again. No guilt, no toxic boyfriend. Full of newfound confidence, she subscribes to LoveinTO, a Toronto-based dating website, where she’s matched with a crush she’s had for years: the attractive light-haired man who lives in her building. Aria messages him on the app, but there’s no response, leaving her quite embarrassed. Rob Anderson, who’s recently divorced, secretly admires Aria. He just lacks the confidence to approach her. And since he’s let his LoveinTO sub­scription lapse, he doesn’t see Aria’s message. Suddenly, Aria seems guard­ed when they run into one another, and the pair endure months of long, awkward silences together in the elevator. Until one day, Rob decides to give the app another chance and subscribes again. A fresh and entertaining modern story of two people from different back­grounds who find each other despite the pitfalls of dating technology, opin­ions from friends and family, and their own personal trauma. The Elevator will leave readers feeling hopeful about love, food and life in a big city. Priya Ramsingh is a writer and photographer. Her debut novel, Brown Girl in the Room, was published by Tightrope Books (2017). Her short story, Pies for Lunch, was shortlisted for best short fiction in 2021 by The Caribbean Writer. She is a former reporter and diversity columnist for Metroland Media, and she continues to write op-eds for the Toronto Star. In her spare time, Priya is a wildlife photographer and naturalist. Originally from Trinidad and Tobago, Ramsingh now lives in Toronto. For more about Priya, please visit her website – https://priyaramsingh.ca/ Get full access to Pickle Me This at kerryreads.substack.com/subscribe

    15min

  4. 30 DE OUT.

    Season Two, Episode 9: Richard Van Camp

    I’ve been so looking forward to sharing my conversation with Richard Van Camp, whose childhood obsession with the works of Stephen King (and so many other iconic authors!) was a force behind BEAST, the 30th book of Richard’s 30 years in publishing. BEAST is the kind of book that his younger self would have wanted to read, although I think readers of all ages will appreciate this story blending horror, Indigenous tradition, teenage yearning, friendship, adventure, and a kickass ‘80s soundtrack. Pickle Me This is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. With his characteristic exuberance, Richard talks to me about how he used to have ration his Stephen King reading back when he was a teenager, about how King’s IT was the book that spoke to his soul, and about how he’s learned from King’s novels how to up the stakes for his characters (and their readers). He also tells me how the foundation of BEAST is an actual peace treaty between the Tłįchǫ and the Chipewyan peoples, and how he hopes this novel inspires readers to consider the peace that needs upholding in their own worlds and their responsibilities toward that. Returning to his favourite setting of Fort Simmer, Northwest Territories, Richard Van Camp brings his exuberant style to a captivating teen novel that blends the supernatural with 1980s-era nostalgia to reflect on friendship, tradition and forgiveness. For as long as Lawson can remember, his life in a small Northwest Territories town has revolved around “the Treaty” between the Dogrib and the Chipewyan, set down centuries ago to prevent the return of bloody warfare between the two peoples. On the Dogrib side, Lawson and his family have done their best to keep the pact alive with the neighbouring Cranes, a family with ancestral ties to a revered Chipewyan war chief. But even as Lawson and his father dutifully tidy the Cranes’ property as an act of respect, their counterparts offer little more than scowls and derision in return, despite the fact that both families are responsible for protecting the treaty. Worse still, it seems that one of the Cranes’ boys is doing all he can to revive the old conflict: Silver, fresh out of jail, has placed himself in the service of a cruel, ghoulish spirit bent on destroying the peace. Now it's up to Isaiah Valentine, a Cree Grass Dancer, Shari Burns, a Metis psychic, and Lawson Sauron, a Dogrib Yabati—or protector—to face what Silver Cranes has called back. This latest feat of storytelling magic by celebrated author Richard Van Camp blends sharply observed realism and hair-raising horror as it plays out against a 1980s-era backdrop replete with Platinum Blonde songs and episodes of Degrassi Junior High. Unfolding in the fictional town of Fort Simmer—the setting of previous Van Camp stories—Beast delivers a gripping, spirited tale that pits the powers of tradition against the pull of a vengeful past. Born in Fort Smith, NWT, bestselling author Richard Van Camp is a member of the Dogrib (Tłįchǫ) Dene Nation. A graduate of the En’owkin Centre’s writing program in Penticton, BC, he completed his BFA in writing at the University of Victoria and received an MFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia. His work has won many awards and honours, among them the Blue Metropolis First Peoples Literary Prize and the title of Storyteller of the Year from the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers. Get full access to Pickle Me This at kerryreads.substack.com/subscribe

    20min

  5. 23 DE OUT.

    Season Two, Episode 8: Kirti Bhadresa

    My conversation with Kirti Bhadresa begins with reflections about our mutual friend Melanie Masterson, who died in December 2021 after years of living with metastatic breast cancer. Kirti tells me how Melanie’s example inspired her to make the most of her own time and prioritize completing her first book, AN ASTONISHMENT OF STARS. And then she reveals her BOOKSPO pick, Naben Ruthum’s CURRY, a book that, Kirti explains, gave her permission to write stories about racialized women the way she wanted to rather than in a way that’s circumscribed. Kirti and I mention the Turning the Page on Cancer Readathon, which is this weekend, with proceeds to RETHINK, improving outcomes for young women with breast cancer. If you’d like to contribute, you can sign up yourself at https://turning-the-page-on-cancer-2024.raisely.com/ or donate to my campaign at https://turning-the-page-on-cancer-2024.raisely.com/kerry-clare Pickle Me This is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. In our conversation, Kirti explains how CURRY made her understand that diasporic Indians (both in fiction and in the world!) can exist in a variety of different ways, and those ways need not always be powered by nostalgia. She tells me the fascinating story of how her story collection began with a list poem, each item on the item becoming a paragraph, and then those paragraphs growing into stories. Her stories, in her mind, aren’t necessarily laid out in the order they are in the book, but instead are all taking place concurrently (which is also how she wrote them, in bits and pieces, when life in general seemed so fractured during the COVID Pandemic), and then she shares how the title story in the collection came to her in a dream. The wife who uses the name of her white husband in public. The mother who cleans the small-town hospital while her daughter moves to the city to forget their shared past. The well-behaved teen girl who anxiously watches her older sister slip further and further away from their hovering parents. Each of these characters is both familiar and singular, reminding us of women we have been, of our mothers and daughters, neighbors and adversaries. Kirti Bhadresa is a keen observer of humanity, especially of the BIPOC women whose domestic and professional work is the backbone of late-stage capitalism but whose lives receive so little attention in mainstream culture. An Astonishment of Stars is a collection that sees those who are unseen and cuts to the heart of contemporary womanhood, community collisions, and relationships both chosen and forced upon us. Kirti Bhadresa’s fiction and non-fiction have appeared in The Fiddlehead, Prairie Fire, The Quarantine Review, The Sprawl, and Room, and she has been a finalist for the Alberta Magazine Publishers Association Award in the category of Feature Writing. Bhadresa lives with her family in Calgary, AB, on Treaty 7 territory. Get full access to Pickle Me This at kerryreads.substack.com/subscribe

    20min

  6. 16 DE OUT.

    Season Two, Episode 7: Anne Hawk

    Marilynne Robinson’s debut novel never actually came to mind while I was reading Anne Hawk’s THE PAGES OF THE SEA (which The Guardian called “evocative of the beauty of the Caribbean and full of sparkling observation" when it was published in the UK in July), but when I learned that HOUSEKEEPING was Hawk’s BOOKSPO pick, it made such perfect sense. The everpresence of water, Robinson’s lake and Hawk’s sea, houses that blurred boundaries between inside and out, marginalized from their communities, their depictions of childhood and of children who give form to their worlds. It had been nearly 20 years since I last read HOUSEKEEPING, and it was a really remarkable experience to pick it up again to read within the context of Hawk’s same-but-very-different novel, set in an unnamed Caribbean island during the 1960s as a young girl makes sense of the absence of her mother who has left to find work in England, as so many people from the Caribbean did during the post-war period, comprising the Windrush Generation. Pickle Me This is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. My conversation with Anne Hawk is such a gift. She talks about her desire to write about childhood, to create a narrative showing the ways in which children communicate with their surroundings and spend their seemingly idle time constructing and reconstructing the world around them. She tells me about her own curious relationship with HOUSEKEEPING, a book that keeps on giving, and also about how she doesn’t truly really believe that one book begets another, but how both books share an atmosphere, an undercurrent of sadness and loss, as well as characters well rooted in their fear of abandonment. Hawk then explains the story of the Windrush Generation, and talks about how THE PAGES OF THE SEA is different from other books on the subject that readers might have encountered before. On a Caribbean island in the mid-1960s, a young girl copes with the heavy cost of migration. When her mother emigrates to England to find work, Wheeler and her older sisters are left to live with their aunts and cousins. She spends most days with her cousin Donelle, knocking about their island community. They know they must address their elders properly and change their shoes after church. And during the long, quiet weeks of Lent, when the absent sound of the radio seems to follow them down the road, they look forward to kite season. But Donelle is just a child, too, and though her sisters look after her with varying levels of patience, Wheeler couldn’t feel more alone. Everyone tells her that soon her mother will send for her, but how much longer will it be? And as she does her best to navigate the tensions between her aunts, why does it feel like there’s no one looking out for her at all? A story of sisterhood, secrets, and the sacrifices of love, The Pages of the Sea is a tenderly lyrical portrait of innocence and an intensely moving evocation of what it’s like to be a child left behind. Anne Hawk grew up in the Caribbean, the UK and Canada. She has worked as a journalist, a paralegal and was for many years a secondary school teacher. She is married and lives in London. The Pages of the Sea is her first novel. Get full access to Pickle Me This at kerryreads.substack.com/subscribe

    28min

  7. 9 DE OUT.

    Season Two, Episode 6: Jennifer Whiteford

    Oh my goodness, this is a good one, a conversation beginning with Jennifer Whiteford expounding on the literary qualities of the mixtape, music (both making it and loving it) being the foundation of her wonderful new novel MAKE ME A MIXTAPE, the perfect book for October, a story that manages to be cozy and edgy at the very same time. And the book Jennifer chose for her BOOKSPO pick? Why, it’s the 2015 memoir HUNGER MAKES ME A MODERN GIRL, by Carrie Brownstein, she of Sleater Kinney fame (and Jennifer recalls hearing “Little Babies” for the first time on CBC Radio’s BRAVE NEW WAVES all those years ago…) Pickle Me This is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Jennifer Whiteford reflects on how Sleater Kinney gave her a model for women having confidence in their art, even if some critics didn’t take it seriously, and how she applies that to her own work in the romance genre. She explains what a remarkable and thoughtful book Brownstein’s memoir really is (not your typical rock memoir!), how Brownstein’s book gave her a foundation from which to explore the ways in which bands are such pressure cookers for relationships, and how she was so moved the first time she read it because she and Brownstein are contempories and—twenty years later—the memoir brought her right back to the person she used to be. A guarded punk-rocker-turned-barista meets a big-hearted sound tech who charms his way into her life and helps her revisit her musical past in this truly charming, cozy fall romance. Allie Andrews gave up on the music world ten years ago. No wild tours, no late nights, no career-ending inter-band blowouts. Just day after comfortable day of working in her aunt's café in Brooklyn and recording '80s cover songs in her tiny apartment. The last thing she wants, or expects, is to be recognized as former punk rocker Allie Jetski. But a last-minute coffee delivery lands her face-to-face with the big, handsome (and quite possibly number one fan of the Jetskis) Ryan Abernathy. Ryan isn't about to forget meeting the lead singer of one of his favorite bands. Undeterred by her prickly demeanor, he sets his mind to helping Allie find her wayback to the Jetskis—so she can come to terms with what happened all those years ago. Allie finds Ryan hard to resist, and her quiet life is turned upside down as she is swept up in the hunt for her old bandmates. But when Aunt Mindy announces that she's decided to sell the café, Allie is faced with a life-altering choice: play it safe and take over the business, or risk opening herself up to a future in music . . . and maybe even love. JENNIFER WHITEFORD (she/her) lives in Ottawa, Ontario, with her partner, children, dog and record collection. She writes regularly for Razorcake, a long-standing punk publication. She was also a founding member of the "all girl, all rock" band Sophomore Level Psychology. With those rock 'n roll days behind her, she now mostly stays home and reads. Find her on Instagram at @jenniferwhitefordwrites. Get full access to Pickle Me This at kerryreads.substack.com/subscribe

    24min

  8. 2 DE OUT.

    Season Two, Episode 5: Suzy Krause

    This episode of BOOKSPO is brought to you by COPIBEC, and their new three-part podcast series COPYRIGHT ACT: A CENTURY OF STORIES, a fascinating journey through the 100-year history of copyright in Canada—and even beyond it. Rich, immersive, and also FUN (!), COPYRIGHT ACT: A CENTURY OF STORIES, a series funded by the Government of Canada, is available now wherever you get your podcasts. Visit https://bit.ly/bookspo-copyright-act to start listening now. Many thanks to our sponsor! Suzy Krause’s I THINK WE’VE BEEN HERE BEFORE was a total word-of-mouth book for me, a book I picked up because a trusted friend promised I would love it—and I did! A comforting book about the end of world—can you even fathom such a thing? It’s a novel that Suzy pitches—most remarkably—as (wait for it…) Iain Reid’s I’M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS meets Stuart McLean’s VINYL CAFE DIARIES. Cozy and unsettling at once. Okay! And just as much as I loved the book, I adored our conversation. Suzy talks to me about how her initial BOOKSPO pick was Iain Reid’s I’M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS, but when she realized Ashley Tate had picked it already back in Season 1, she went with Stuart McLean instead. Both authors, she explains, give her a kind of permission as a writer, Reid to get a little weird, and McLean to lean into her instincts to see the good in people, the possibility of community. Her characters, she tells me, are inspired by the kind of people she grew up around, and my favourite character in the book just might be a checker at her local grocery store…. I’m looking forward to hanging out with Suzy IRL next week at Type Books Junction (2887 Dundas St. W) where I will be moderating a discussion between her and Marissa Stapley about their wonderful new novels. Event begins at 7pm. Join us! Marlen and Hilda Jorgensen's family has received two significant pieces of news: one, Marlen has been diagnosed with a terminal illness. Two, a cosmic blast is set to render humanity extinct within a matter of months. It seems the coming Christmas on their Saskatchewan farm will be their last. Preparing for the inevitable, they navigate the time they have left together. Marlen and Hilda have channeled their energy into improbably prophetic works of art. Hilda's elderly father receives a longed-for visitor from his past, her sister refuses to believe the world is ending, and her teenaged nephew is missing. All the while, her daughter struggles to find her way home from Berlin with the help of an oddly familiar stranger. For everyone, there's an unsettling feeling that this unprecedented reality is something they remember. Suzy Krause is the bestselling author of Sorry I Missed You and Valencia and Valentine. She grew up on a little farm in rural Saskatchewan and now lives in Regina, where she writes novels inspired by crappy jobs, creepy houses, personal metaphorical apocalypses, and favorite songs. Her work has been translated into Russian and Estonian. Suzy lives in Regina, Saskatchewan. Pickle Me This is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Pickle Me This at kerryreads.substack.com/subscribe

    16min
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Sobre

A short form podcast in which authors of new books enthuse about the old books that inspired their works. kerryreads.substack.com

Informações

  • Criado por
    Kerry Clare
  • Anos de atividade
    2 mil
  • Episódios
    26
  • Classificação
    Livre
  • Copyright
    © Kerry Clare
  • Site do podcast
    Bookspo

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