Crow Reads Podcast

Rayanne Haines
Crow Reads Podcast

At Crow Reads, Rayanne Haines interviews intersectional writers, publishers, agents and editors in Canada. Crow Reads is recorded on Treaty 6 territory the traditional home of the Metis, Inuit and First Nations people. Crow Reads focuses on Alberta representation and tackles questions around social movements, cultural trends, feminism, #CanLit, and inclusion / representation. And, at the end of the day, celebrates the people who are making things happen in the literary world. The podcast is presented in partnership with Read Alberta and is a member of the Alberta Podcast Network.

  1. 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
  2. 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

  3. 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
  4. 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
  5. Ali Bryan

    05/23/2023

    Ali Bryan

    For Ali Bryan, writing is an act of imagination performed as daily ritual. For this Calgary based author, character and plot speak as one device, and she rebels against labels that diminish the value of her writing and use of humour as a tool towards story development. This award-winning author writes family the way we live family, with no judgments or pre-conceived notions of what the characters will do in the moment. In our conversation we discuss character development both from re-visiting characters like in her new novel Coq, and the understanding of character as plot. We talk about the long-term profession of writing the value of the publishing relationship, and how one manifests success in a non-linear career.

    1h 6m
  6. Margaret Macpherson

    03/27/2023

    Margaret Macpherson

    In this episode, Rayanne speaks with Margaret Macpherson about her new book, Tracking the Caribou Queen: Memoir of a Settler Girlhood. The conversation looks at the ways the memoir touches on the racism deeply embedded in the North in the 60's and 70's and her understanding of it as a child and now in self-reflecting as an adult. Macpherson discuss, with a frankness, stepping outside of her fragility, to speak as a white women, who was clear about her culpability. We discuss the framing of the memoir, the authors fear of taking up space, the violence within the book, and in her words, how "the book is about white privilege. It's about entitlement. And it's about the dawning of the child's understanding of those things as she grows.”

    53 min

  7. 02/16/2023

    Emily Riddle

    In this month’s podcast Rayanne Haines speaks with Emily Riddle about her debut poetry collection, The Big Melt. The collection is rooted in nehiyaw thought and urban millennial life events. It examines what it means to repair kinship, contend with fraught history, go home and contemplate prairie ndn utopia in the era of late capitalism and climate change. Part memoir, part research project, this collection draws on Riddle’s experience working in Indigenous governance and her affection for confessional poetry in crafting feminist works that are firmly rooted in place. In their conversation Emily and Rayanne speak about kinship, land, joy, queer love, and intergenerational trauma in magpies.

    36 min
  8. Leslie Greentree

    12/13/2022

    Leslie Greentree

    In this episode, Rayanne Haines speaks with author Leslie Greentree about character vs plot driven stories, how short story and novel writing are shaped, writing flawed characters and controversial stories, and about career longevity in an increasingly competitive market. Leslie Greentree’s short story collection, Not The Apocalypse I was Hoping For, is a masterful collection that shapeshifts through her characters’ lives. It’s a not-so-subtle commentary on current politics, the pervasiveness of social media and our obsession with having or holding a platform, and the fallacy of human nature.

    1h 1m
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About

At Crow Reads, Rayanne Haines interviews intersectional writers, publishers, agents and editors in Canada. Crow Reads is recorded on Treaty 6 territory the traditional home of the Metis, Inuit and First Nations people. Crow Reads focuses on Alberta representation and tackles questions around social movements, cultural trends, feminism, #CanLit, and inclusion / representation. And, at the end of the day, celebrates the people who are making things happen in the literary world. The podcast is presented in partnership with Read Alberta and is a member of the Alberta Podcast Network.

Information

  • Creator
    Rayanne Haines
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2024
  • Episodes
    22
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Rayanne Haines
  • Show Website
    Crow Reads Podcast

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