Crow Reads Podcast

Rayanne Haines
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At Crow Reads, Rayanne Haines interviews intersectional writers, publishers, agents and editors from across Canada. Crow Reads is recorded on Treaty 6 territory the traditional home of the Metis, Inuit and First Nations people. Crow Reads focuses on providing a variety of perspectives and experiences across the literary landscape in Canada all with the eye to offering something new and interesting to our listeners as they think about developing literary careers.

  1. Carissa Halton

    JAN 30

    Carissa Halton

    In this episode I talk with author Carissa Halton about her debut novel Revolution Songs along with discussing research within place, how researching real people can help a writer with character development, the ways strategic planning can support a writer’s career, and writing historical fiction with authenticity, even when the truth of that authenticity is problematic. Carissa Halton is an awarding-winning writer whose fiction and creative non-fiction has appeared in the Post-Media Newspapers, Today’s Parent, Alberta Views, The Tyee, CBC among others. Her book of essays, Little Yellow House Finding Community in a Changing Neighbourhood, was a finalist for the 2019 Edmonton Book Prize. Revolution Songs is her debut novel. In her work life, Carissa runs Halton Strategic, where she works with teams and boards to find common ground. She lives in Treaty 6, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. About the Book:Annie Jalmer stands uneasily between opposing allegiances inher 1930s Rocky Mountain town. As the radical politics of herfamily inflame tensions, Annie becomes an unwilling double agent until a violent strike forces her to take a stand. Revolution Songs is the electrifying debut novel by award-winning writer Carissa Halton, inspired by the little-known story of a Communist union, the rise of the Canadian Ku Klux Klan, andthe women who fought on both sides. Set against the charged backdrop of Depression-era politics, Halton weaves athrilling and timely story that echoes the rising polarization of our own era. Carissa Halton is an awarding-winning writer whose fiction and creative non-fiction has appeared in the Post-Media Newspapers, Today’s Parent, Alberta Views, The Tyee, CBC among others. Her book of essays, Little Yellow House Finding Community in a Changing Neighbourhood, was a finalist for the 2019 Edmonton Book Prize. Revolution Songs is her debut novel. In her work life, Carissa runs Halton Strategic, where she works with teams and boards to find common ground. She lives in Treaty 6, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

    43 min
  2. Hollay Ghadery

    12/04/2025

    Hollay Ghadery

    In this episode of Crow Reads I talk with multi-genre author,podcaster and publicist, Hollay Ghadery about her multifaceted career, the pace of publishing and being in the public eye, the complexities and significance of being a literary citizen and the thing she wants every emerging writer to know.  Hollay Ghadery is a multi-genre writer living in Ontario onAnishinaabe land. She has her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph. Fuse, her memoir of mixed-race identity and mental health, was released by Guernica Editions in 2021 and won the 2023 Canadian Bookclub Award for Nonfiction/Memoir. Her collection of poetry, Rebellion Box was released by Radiant Press in 2023, and her collection of short fiction, Widow Fantasies, was released with Gordon Hill Press in fall 2024 and was longlisted for the Toronto Book Award. Her debut novel, The Unraveling of Ou, is due out with Palimpsest Press in 2026, and her children’s book, Being with the Birds, withGuernica Editions in 2027. Hollay is a host on The New Books Network, as well as a co-host on HOWL on CIUT 89.5 FM. She is also a book publicist, the Regional Chair of the League of Canadian Poets and a co-chair of the League’s BIPOC committee, as well as the Poet Laureate of Scugog Township. Learn more about Hollay at www.hollayghadery.com.

    28 min
  3. Women Who Dig

    10/21/2025

    Women Who Dig

    In this episode, I talk with Trina Moyles and Anna Kuelken about their experience writing and producing the film, Women Who Dig. Originally a book by Trina Moyles, the Women Who Dig film is produced by Anna Kuelken. We talk about creative collaboration, and what it meant to share the stories of women farmers, the weaving of multiple stories throughout the film and grandmother inspiration. Women Who Dig will be screened on October 23rd at the Metro Cinema in Edmonton, Alberta. Trina Moyles is an award-winning journalist and the author of three non-fiction books, including Women Who Dig, Lookout, and Black Bear, which will be published in January 2026. She grew up in the Peace Country of northern Alberta, though she currently lives in Whitehorse, Yukon, with her partner and their three dogs. Read more at: ⁠www.trinamoyles.com⁠ Instagram: ⁠@trinariannemoyles⁠ Anna Kuelken approaches documentary filmmaking through an ethnographic lens, investing time in cultivating relationships with her participants. She approaches storytelling not as an extractive process, but as one rooted in reciprocity, treating the story like an ecosystem that must be nurtured with care and respect.

    34 min
  4. Dr. Lisa Martin

    09/10/2025

    Dr. Lisa Martin

    After some time away to rethink, reinvigorate, and rebuild,Crow Reads is back with a new episode. This season I’m broadening our conversations into the literary world and interviewing, yes authors, as well as publishers, literary festival directors, editors, agents and more. For our firstinterview of the season, I’m delighted to interview the incomparable Dr. Lisa Martin, author and creative writing professor about developing a varied writing career, tension in story and character creation, sentence craft, and writingtraumatic grief. To close us off, Dr. Martin shares one favourite piece of writing advice.   Lisa Martin is the author of two full-length poetrycollections, One Crow Sorrow (Brindle & Glass, 2008)and Believing is not the Same as Being Saved (University ofAlberta Press, 2017). Her work has been shortlisted for the City of Edmonton Book Prize and has won a National Magazine Award for Personal Journalism. A scholarly monograph, Creative Writing in Post-Secondary Education:Practice, Pedagogy, and Research, appeared with Bloomsbury Academic in Spring 2025. She is Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at MacEwan University in Edmonton, on Treaty 6 territory. Her first novel, A Story Can Be Told About Pain, published by NeWest Press and recorded by HighBridge Audio, is available now as a print book, e-book, and audiobook ashas been a regular on the Alberta Bestseller list.

    59 min
  5. Leilei Chen

    02/04/2024

    Leilei Chen

    In this episode of Crow Reads, Rayanne Haines speaks to poet, scholar, and translator Leilei Chen about her 2023 poetry collection, I Have Forsaken Heaven & Earth, But Never Forsaken You (Frontenac House). They discuss Chen’s history as a writer, translator and scholar, the act of betrayal in translation, the unknowingness and ambiguity of translation, publishing and editorial work, and the hopes for the future of translation in Canadian Publishing.

    59 min
  6. Astrid Blodgett

    11/24/2023

    Astrid Blodgett

    In this episode of Crow Reads, Rayanne speaks to author Astrid Blodgett about her 2023 short story collection, This is How we Disappear, (UofA Press). The collection explores the consequences of grief and denial and single moments that change perceptions, lives, and attachments forever. Crisp prose and unexpected plot twists move relatable characters through vivid outdoor settings and interior depths. Haines and Blodgett speak about storytelling techniques including ambiguity and expectation, the impact of writing setting and place, consciously focusing on creating relatable characters without deliberately considering empathy vs sympathy and writing retreats and their impact on creativity.

    45 min

  7. 10/06/2023

    Natalie Meisner

    In this month’s podcast Rayanne Haines speaks with playwright and poet, Natalie Meisner about her book, It Begins in Salt, a masterful collection of poems that wander the halls of an ocean blue-collar life while rummaging the heart spaces of growing up, and evolves into mothering, labours, and loves. This is a poetry book for poets evidenced in the staccato of line details, the rhythms that echo the maritime waves, and the sounds shaped and formed by a studied writer. Among more, they talk about craft and obedience, how performance shapes writing, the choice to write as participant, Queer identity and finding safe spaces in discovery, and the grounding if mother labour.

    49 min
  8. Shima Robinson AKA Dwennimmen

    06/21/2023

    Shima Robinson AKA Dwennimmen

    In this month’s podcast Shima Robinson AKA Dwennimmen speaks to us, among other things, about finding your place in the poetry community, supporting the community while advocating for artist payment, self-publishing and self-creation, and finding the intent of the poem through performance. Amiskwaciwâskahikan (Edmonton - Treaty 6) born poet and spoken word artist Shima Robinson embodies, with every poem, the ancient meaning of her chosen pen name. Dwennimmen is the name of an ancient African Adinkra symbol, which means strength, humility, learning and wisdom. It is no surprise, then, that this veteran of the Alberta poetry community uses a searing intellect and dynamic precision-of-language to create poetry which ushers her readers and listeners toward greater understanding and poignant reflection. For Dwennimmen, poetry has long been a compass, a salve, an anchor and guiding light. She uses the potential and force of poetry to uncover the full range of her cerebral, linguistic and spiritual fortitude. This is why her every poem and performance testifies to an emerging power and wisdom, an authentic, deeply human potency which she hopes to pass on to listeners and poetry-lovers around the world.

    52 min
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About

At Crow Reads, Rayanne Haines interviews intersectional writers, publishers, agents and editors from across Canada. Crow Reads is recorded on Treaty 6 territory the traditional home of the Metis, Inuit and First Nations people. Crow Reads focuses on providing a variety of perspectives and experiences across the literary landscape in Canada all with the eye to offering something new and interesting to our listeners as they think about developing literary careers.

Information

  • Creator
    Rayanne Haines
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    26
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Rayanne Haines
  • Show Website
    Crow Reads Podcast