Ray Robertson is the author of nine novels, four collections of non-fiction, and a book of poetry. His work has been nominated for several awards and have been translated into many languages. His non-fiction work, Why Not? Fifteen Reasons to Live has been made into a film. Born and raised in Chatham, Ontario, he lives in Toronto. Estates Large and Small is his latest book, published by Windsor publisher Biblioasis. http://biblioasis.com/brand/robertson-ray/https://rayrobertson.com/Note: our teammate Irene Moore Davis could not join us for this recording, hence Ray referring to "both" Kim and Sarah!

Karl Jirgens, Professor Emeritus, former English Department Head and former Chair of the Creative Writing Program (University of Windsor), is author of three books of fiction and two scholarly books (Coach House, Mercury, ECW and The Porcupine’s Quill Presses). He edited two books (on painter Jack Bush, and poet Christopher Dewdney), plus the “Collaborations” issue of Open Letter magazine with Beatriz Hausner. His scholarly and creative works are published globally. Jirgens edited and published Rampike, an international journal of art, writing, and theory from 1979 to 2016, now digitally archived (free) on the University of Windsor Leddy Library scholars’ portal. Rampike contributors have been ground-breaking artists, writers, and theorists, including nominees and winners of awards such as the Booker, Commonwealth, Orange, Pulitzer, Dublin Impac, Giller, Trillium, Writer’s Trust, and Governor General’s Award, among other prizes. Jirgens serves on the Editorial Board of ellipse magazine. He is a long-time practitioner and grand-master (8th Degree Black Belt) of the martial art of Tae Kwon Do. He recently had a chapbook published by Above Ground Press featuring three stories, titled, Eco Blues: A Tale in 3 Parts, and it has recently been announced that his work will be featured in the 2023 edition of Best Canadian Poetry, published by Biblioasis. His short fiction collection, The Razor’s Edge, was recently released by The Porcupine’s Quill Press in 2022. Karl lives in Windsor, Ontario.(https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/rampike/about.html)https://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2022/02/new-from-aboveground-press-eco-blues.html?fbclid=IwAR1sY-1Pyr6EPUGSV1aqK2XqBK5RpZpOfcKYeP6Dwi_K69FzQWk-p2oBnjAhttps://porcupinesquill.ca//bookinfo6.php?index=369About Gas of Tank: A Canadian Law Enforcement Odyssey 1979 – 2019:Todd Ternovan believed in keeping things simple: Marrying his college sweetheart, studying Early Childhood Education at Ryerson University, spending his professional life as a daycare teacher. It was a tidy plan. Except for one thing: Man plans and the gods laugh.To fund his life and education in Toronto, Todd worked a part-time job—as a corrections officer at the infamous Don Jail.Although he spent a few years working with kids, Todd’s experience in corrections propelled him into a 33-year career within Canadian law enforcement.Small-town policing isn’t just rescuing cats from trees and performing wellness checks. The concession roads and rural routes of southwestern Ontario are home to some incredibly kind, resilient people, and scene to some strange, tragic and heinous events. Todd dealt with them all, from the naked machete-wielding man who claimed to be Jesus Christ, to armed American fugitives, decades-old sexual assaults, harrowing traffic accidents, violent home invasions, and even a year spent “Uncle Charlie” (undercover) investigating drug traffickers.The title comes from a phrase uttered by a motorcycle gang member who demonstrated his disdain for police by pulling a “wheelie” on his motorcycle following a traffic stop. The biker was charged with stunt driving. In his defense in court, the biker said, in a thick French accent: “It was not possible for me to a pull a ‘wheelie,’ Your Worship. I had a full gas of tank!”“Gas of Tank” embodies, for Todd, all the surreal, upside-down, unbelievable, description-defying experiences police face daily.Written by Matt St AmandFreelance writer: Writer / Videographer. Father and husband with a slowly improving track record. Fan of Ultraman (Hayata series), Aphex Twin and " rel="nofollow">

Based in Hamilton, Ontario, Jamie Tennant is a writer, author, broadcaster, and Program Director at McMaster’s radio station, 93.3 CFMU FM. He has covered music pop culture both locally and nationally. He also co-founded the Hamilton Independent Media Awards and became engaged in projects such as the 2015 JUNOs, the Polaris Prize, and Japan`s Fujirock Festival. His debut novel The Captain of Kinnoull Hill was released in 2016. On CFMU, Jamie hosts the weekly books and literature program and podcast Get Lit. https://palimpsestpress.ca/books/river-diverted-jamie-tennant/https://www.jamietennant.ca/index.php/about-me/Local Book Feature: C. M. Forest, also known as Christian Laforet, is the author of The Infested and We All Fall Before the Harvest, as well as the short story collection The Space Between Houses, and the co-author of the short-story collection No Light Tomorrow. His short fiction has been featured in several anthologies across multiple genres. A self-proclaimed horror movie expert, he spent an embarrassing amount of his youth watching scary movies. When not writing, he lives in Ontario, Canada with his wife, kids, three cats, and a pandemic dog named Sully who has an ongoing love affair with a blanket.https://christianlaforet.com/

Pauline Holdstock is an award-winning Canadian author, originally from the UK. She writes literary fiction, essays, and poetry. Her novels have been published in the UK, the US, Brazil, Portugal, Australia, and Germany. In Canada, her work has been shortlisted for a number of awards, including the Best First Novel Award, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the Scotiabank Giller Prize. Pauline’s essays and book reviews appear in Canada’s national newspapers and have been broadcast on CBC radio. Pauline has served on faculty of the Victoria School of Writing, the University of Victoria, and the Banff Centre for the Arts. She lives on Vancouver Island. http://paulineholdstock.com/Local Books Feature: The Principal ChroniclesDavid Garlick is a retired educator who spent fourteen years of his thirty-three year career as a high school principal. His long-suffering wife has no idea what he does to cause the incidents he writes about that always seem to happen to him, but he must do 'something.' She's been saying this for more than thirty-two years. They live together in Windsor, Ontario.  He has been denied entry into the National Curmudgeon Club, because he always gives the neighbour kids' balls back when they're kicked over his fence.  Availability: The print book is available at: FriesenPressAmazonBarnes & Noble And the eBook is available at: KoboGoogle PlayNookApple Books

W. S. PENN is a mixed-blood Native American (Nez Perce) who was a Washburn Distinguished lecturer and has won the distinguished Faculty Award at Michigan State University. He is the author of two novels, The Absence of Angels and Killing Time with Strangers; a collection of short stories titled This Is the World; and two collections of essays, All My Sins Are Relatives and Feathering Custer. He has won many literary awards including the North American Indian Prose Award and a Critic’s Choice Award. Raising Bean: Essays on Laughing and Loving is his most recent book.More about the book at the Wayne State University Press website:https://www.wsupress.wayne.edu/books/detail/raising-bean

A marine engineer by first trade, André Narbonne was living out of his duffel bag when he arrived in Halifax on a damaged tanker in the mid-eighties. He completed two degrees in English at Dalhousie University – where he was a Killam Scholar – and his Ph.D. in Canadian literature at the University of Western Ontario. He is a former chair of the Halifax chapter of the Canadian Poetry Association. His short stories have won the Atlantic Writing Competition, the FreeFall Prose Contest, and the David Adams Richards Prize and were anthologized in Best Canadian Stories. He teaches English & Creative Writing at the University of Windsor and is the fiction editor of the Windsor Review. His latest book, Lucien & Olivia was long-listed for the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize. https://blackmosspress.com/andre-narbonne/In this episode, Andre refers to "Alistair." Of course, in this region, that can only mean the late Alistair MacLeod, author of No Great Mischief, and a much-missed professor at the University of Windsor. Andre also mentions Casey Plett's excellent novel Little Fish. Information on that book is here: https://arsenalpulp.com/Books/L/Little-FishTW: there is a mention of suicide in the interviewWe have a new segment on our show this season. Occasionally, we’ll introduce enterprising local authors with some information about them and their books – and perhaps a short reading by them. In this episode, we’re sharing a reading by Edmond Gagnon. https://edmondgagnon.com/books/

Welcome to a live session presented by BookFest / Festival du Livre Windsor 2022 featuring Luke Hathaway, David Ly and Sarah Yi-Mei Tsiang. Moderated by Windsor poet Dorothy Mahoney. Sarah Jarvis, wearing two hats as podcaster and president of Literary Arts Windsor, the charitable organization that runs BookFest, introduces the sessions.This was recorded live at Fionn MacCool's, Windsor, so there are background noises and the occasional dropping spoon.  Occasional mature content.  Luke Hathaway is a trans poet who teaches English and Creative Writing at Saint Mary’s University in Kjipuktuk/Halifax. He has been before now at some time boy and girl, bush, bird, and a mute fish in the sea. His book Years, Months, and Days was named a best book of 2018 in The New York Times. He mentors new librettists as a faculty member in the Amadeus Choir’s Choral Composition Lab, and makes music with Daniel Cabena as part of the metamorphosing ensemble ANIMA. His latest book is The Affirmations (Biblioasis, 2022.) http://biblioasis.com/brand/hathaway-luke/ David Ly is a writer and editor whose debut poetry collection, Mythical Man (Palimpsest Press, 2020), was shortlisted for the 2021 Relit Poetry Award.  David is the poetry editor at THIS Magazine, part of the Anstruther Press editorial collective, and a poetry manuscript consultant with The Writers’ Studio at SFU. Dream of Me as Water is his second poetry collection. https://palimpsestpress.ca/books/dream-of-me-as-water/ Sarah Yi-Mei Tsiang is the author of Grappling Hook (2022) with Palimpsest Press, Status Update (2013), which was nominated for the Pat Lowther Award, and the Gerald Lampert award winning Sweet Devilry (2011). Her work has appeared in Best Canadian Poetry (2013, 2021, 2023,) and Best of the Best Canadian Poetry. She has been both longlisted and shortlisted for the CBC poetry prize as well as shortlisted for the UK’s Forward Award. She is the editor of the poetry collection, Desperately Seeking Susans (2013), the Poetry Editor for Arc Poetry Magazine, the Creative Director at Poetry in Voice, and teaches in both the UBC optional residency MFA program and the Vancouver Manuscript Intensive. She is also the author of eight children’s books.  https://sarahtsiang.com/Literary Arts Windsor would like to acknowledge the Ontario Arts Council, Canadian Heritage CAPF Fund, and the Canada Council for the Arts for funding our festival.

Recorded at the BookFest Windsor/Festival du livre Books and Brunch presentation, this live recording features a thought-provoking conversation between author Rinaldo Walcott and University of Windsor professor Natalie Delia Deckard about Walcott's much-discussed book, On Property: Policing, Prisons and the Call for Abolition. The book has been nominated for the Heritage Toronto Book Award, longlisted for the Toronto Book Awards, and selected as both a Globe and Mail Book of the Year and one of CBC Books Best Canadian Nonfiction of 2021.The opening remarks for the session are provided by Irene Moore Davis. While we apologize for the unexpected venue-sharing that caused some background noise, the conversation rises above the challenges to inspire new conversations about social justice and the way forward.ABOUT THE AUTHORRinaldo Walcott is the author of Black Like Who: Writing Black Canada and Queer Returns: Essays on Multiculturalism, Diaspora and Black Studies. In 2021, Walcott published The Long Emancipation: Moving Towards Freedom and On Property: Policing, Prisons and the Call for Abolition. Walcott is a Professor in the Women and Gender Studies Institute at the University of Toronto. His research is in the area of Black Diaspora Cultural Studies, gender and sexuality. Literary Arts Windsor would like to acknowledge the Ontario Arts Council, Canadian Heritage CAPF Fund, and the Canada Council for the Arts for funding our festival.

This live event was recorded on October 15, 2022 at the Chimczuk Museum in Windsor, Ontario as part of the BookFest / Festival du Livre Windsor 2022 literary festival. You will hear a conversation with moderator Gord Grisenthwaite and Louse Bernice Halfe Skydancer, Carol Rose GoldenEagle, Joseph Kakwinokanasum, and Tyler Pennock. The event has been edited for sound and length. There are some mature subjects and language. It's all great. Louise Bernice Halfe – Sky Dancer was raised on Saddle Lake Reserve and attended Blue Quills Residential School. She is Canada's Parliamentary Poet Laureate. Halfe was awarded the Latner Writers Trust Award for her body of work in 2017, and was awarded the 2020 Kloppenburg Award for Literary Excellence. She was granted a lifetime membership in the League of Canadian Poets, and currently works with Elders in the organization Opikinawasowin (“raising our children”) and lives near Saskatoon with her husband, Peter. Brick Books has published a new edition of Burning in This Midnight Dream in May 2021. Her newest work is awâsis – kinky and dishevelled  (Brick Books, 2021.) Carol Rose GoldenEagle was appointed Saskatchewan’s Poet Laureate in 2021.  She is an author of the award-winning novel Bearskin Diary.  It was chosen as the national Aboriginal Literature Title for 2017.  The French language translation of this novel, entitled Peau D’ours won a Saskatchewan Book Award in 2019.Her first book of poetry, titled Hiraeth, was shortlisted for a Saskatchewan Book Award in 2019.   Her second novel, Bone Black, was released in the Fall of 2019. Her latest novel, The Narrows of Fear, was released October 2020, and the chosen title for a 2021 Saskatchewan Book Award. Another collection of poetry, called Essential Ingredients, was released in 2021.  Her poetry collection, entitled Stations of the Crossed,  is published by Inanna Publications. Joseph Kakwinokanasum is a member of the James Smith Cree Nation who grew up in the Peace region of northern BC, one of seven children raised by a single mother. A graduate of SFU's Writers Studio, his short story “Ray Says” was a finalist for CBC’s 2020 Nonfiction Prize.  His work has appeared in The Humber Literary Review and Resonance: Essays on the Craft and Life of Writing. In 2022, he was selected by Darrel J. McLeod as one of The Writers Trust of Canada’s “Rising Stars.” He now lives and writes on Vancouver Island. Loosely based on his own childhood, My Indian Summer is his first novel. Tyler Pennock, author of Bones (2020) and Blood (2022) is a two-spirit adoptee from a Cree and Métis family in the Lesser Slave Lake region of Alberta. Tyler is a member of Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation. They graduated from Guelph University’s Creative Writing MFA program in 2013, and currently live in Toronto. Gord (G. A.) Grisenthwaite is Nłeʔkepmx, member of the Lytton First Nation. His work has earned a number of prizes, including the 2014 John Kenneth Galbraith Literary Award. He lives in Kingsville, ON.  His first book, Home Waltz was a Finalist for 2021 Governor General Award for Fiction and Longlisted for the 2021 First Nation Communities Read Award Literary Arts Windsor would like to acknowledge the Ontario Arts Council, Canadian Heritage CAPF Fund, and the Canada Council for the Arts for funding our festival.

A vibrant live event courtesy of the City of Windsor's Poet Laureate & Storytellers' Program, held on September 17, 2022 in the Coach House of Willistead Manor, Windsor, Ontario.Featuring and presented by outgoing Youth Poet Laureate, Alexei UngurenaşuWith contributions by: Poet Laureate Emeritus Marty Gervais,Victoria Hecnar, Mbonisi Zikhali Zokhonto,Serafina Piasentin,Past Poet Laureate Mary Ann Mulhern, Peter Hrastovec,Chidera Ikewibe,Nick Hildenbrand,Jade Wallace,Christopher Lawrence Menard,Alexei UngurenaşuEdited for time.

A special episode for you in the midst of the Fall Literary Festival Season! The wonderful poets Luke Hathaway and Alexandra Oliver recently appeared at Biblioasis Bookstore. Their publisher, Dan Wells introduces them. Episode edited for length. Enjoy these dynamic readings!Luke Hathaway is a trans poet, librettist, and theatre maker. His mythopoeic word-worlds have given rise to new choral works by Colin Labadie, James Rolfe, and Zachary Wadsworth, among others, and to the folk opera The Sign of Jonas, a collaboration with Benton Roark. He is the author of four books of poems, one of which (Years, Months, and Days, 2018) was named a Best Book of the Year in the New York Times. He works with Daniel Cabena as part of the metamorphosing ensemble ANIMA to create and commission new works inspired by early music sources.He teaches creative writing and English literature at Saint Mary's University in Kjipuktuk/Halifax. He also appeared at BookFest / Festival du Livre Windsor in October, 2022. http://biblioasis.com/brand/hathaway-luke/Alexandra Oliver was born in Vancouver, BC. She is the author of three collections published through Biblioasis: Meeting the Tormentors in Safeway (2013; recipient of the Pat Lowther Memorial Award), Let the Empire Down ( 2016), and Hail, the Invisible Watchman (2022). Her libretto for From the Diaries of William Lyon Mackenzie King, conceived in conjunction with composer Scott Wilson at the University of Birmingham, was performed by Continuum Music in Toronto in December, 2017. Oliver is a past co-editor of Measure for Measure: An Anthology of Poetic Meters (Everyman’s Library/Random House, 2015) as well as of the formalist journal The Rotary Dial. She has performed her work for CBC Radio and NPR, as well as at The National Poetry Slam and a murder of festivals and conferences. Oliver holds an M.F.A in Creative Writing from the University of Southern Maine's Stonecoast program and a Ph.D. in English and Cultural Studies from McMaster University. She lives in Burlington, Ontario with her husband and son.http://biblioasis.com/brand/oliver-alexandra/

A resident of Erie Beach, Ontario, Ian Kennedy is a secondary school teacher and journalist with a passion for sport and storytelling. In 2011, he founded CKSN (Chatham-Kent Sports Network), an online news outlet covering both amateur and professional athletes. His reporting has been featured on radio, in newspapers and publications that include The Hockey News, Canadian Horse Journal and Outdoor Canada magazine. He holds degrees in Kinesiology and Education from the University of Western Ontario. His new book is On Account of Darkness: Shining Light on Race and Sport.https://www.tidewaterpress.ca/ian-kennedy/

Sarah Yi-Mei Tsiang is a poet, children’s writer, and all-around generalist when it comes to writing. Her books for children run the gamut from board books, Toesy Toes to YA Breathing Fire, with a whole bunch of picture books in-between. Her poetry books Sweet Devilry (winner of the Gerald Lampert) and Status Update (nominated for the Pat Lowther) are a mix of traditional forms, lyric, and invented forms. She is the Creative Director at Poetry In Voice. Her new book is Grappling Hook, a poetry collection published by Palimpsest Press. Sarah will be appearing twice at this year’s BookFest Windsor/Festival du Livre on October 17th and we are pleased to have her with us on the podcast now. https://sarahtsiang.com/https://palimpsestpress.ca/books/grappling-hook/

Born and raised in Ottawa, Ontario, Stéfanie Clermont travelled throughout Canada and the United States, working at a wide variety of jobs, before settling in Montreal in 2012. Le jeu de la musique, her first book, was published in 2017. For this work, she won the prestigious Prix Ringuet of the Quebec Academy of Arts and Letters, the Quebec Arts Council’s prize for a new work by a young artist, and le Prix Adrienne Choquette for short stories. It was a finalist for the Grand Prix du Livre de Montréal and was included in Le Combat des livres, the French-language counterpart of Canada Reads. Le jeu de la musique has been released in English translation as The Music Game, published by Biblioasis Press. Stéfanie Clermont will be appearing twice at this year’s BookFest Windsor/Festival du Livre, as part of a French language panel on October 14th and an English language panel on October 15th.http://biblioasis.com/brand/clermont-stefanie/

Kim Conklin is a writer, filmmaker, and podcaster. Kim’s stories, poems and films have appeared in journals, anthologies, and film festivals. Her journalism has appeared in broadcast and print, and her communications work has received more than 15 awards, including a Clio and a NY International Film Festival award. Her first novel, King of Hope releases in October, 2022 with Palimpsest Press, and Kim will appear at BookFest / Festival du Livre Windsor on October 14. Originally from Michigan, she lives in Windsor, Ontario. https://palimpsestpress.ca/books/king-of-hope-kim-conklin/BookFest / Festival du Livre Windsor 2022

ALEXANDER MacLEOD was born in Inverness, Cape Breton, and raised in Windsor, Ontario. He is the author of two internationally acclaimed books of fiction: Light Lifting, with Windsor’s Biblioasis, a winner of an Atlantic Book Award, and a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, the Thomas Head Raddall Fiction Award, and the Commonwealth Book Prize. His latest book is Animal Person, which includes the O. Henry Award-winning story “Lagomorph,” originally published in Granta. MacLeod holds degrees from the University of Windsor, the University of Notre Dame, and McGill. He currently lives in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, and teaches at Saint Mary's University in Halifax.Editor's Note: when Alex refers to his "Dad," that is of course the late Dublin Impac Award winning author Alistair MacLeod. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/667155/animal-person-by-alexander-macleod/9780771029882http://biblioasis.com/shop/fiction/light-lifting-2/

Former Detroiter Kimberly Garrett Brown is the Publisher and Executive Editor of Minerva Rising Press. Her work has appeared in Black Lives Have Always Mattered: A Collection of Essays, Poems and Personal Narratives, The Feminist Collective, Compass Literary Magazine, Today’s Chicago Woman, Chicago Tribune, The Rumpus and elsewhere. Cora’s Kitchen is her first novel, due out in September 2022 from Toronto’s Inanna Publications. It was a finalist in the 2018 William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition and the 2016 Louise Merriweather First Book Prize. She earned her MFA at Goddard College, and she currently lives in Boca Raton, Florida. https://kimberlygarrettbrown.com/https://www.inanna.ca/product/coras-kitchen/

David Huebert’s writing has won the CBC Short Story Prize, The Walrus Poetry Prize, and was a finalist for the 2020 Journey Prize. David’s fiction debut, Peninsula Sinking, won a Dartmouth Book Award, was shortlisted for the Alistair MacLeod Short Fiction Prize, and was runner-up for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award. David’s work has been published in magazines such as The Walrus, Maisonneuve, enRoute, and Canadian Notes & Queries, and anthologized in Best Canadian Stories and The Journey Prize Stories. His second collection, Chemical Valley, is largely set in Sarnia, and deals with the ecological legacy of the oil and gas industry which seems to seep into every aspect of the characters’ lives. Also published by Biblioasis, Chemical Valley has recently been nominated for two Atlantic Book Awards. He joins us from Atlantic Canada. http://biblioasis.com/tag/david-huebert/

On April 22, 2022, Literary Arts Windsor and BookFest Windsor with funding from the Canadian Heritage Canadian Arts and Performance Fund celebrated a new outdoor and although very cool and rainy, well-attended event at Lanspeary Park in Windsor: BookFest Equinoxe. We welcomed wonderful musicians, but for rights issues, you’ll just hear the fabulous poetry and conversation with Alex-Andrei (Alexei) Ungurenaşu, Windsor’s Youth Poet Laureate and BookFest / Festival du Livre Planning chair during this episode. This event was made possible by generous funding from Canadian Heritage CAPF.  You’ll hear a selection from: Kate Hargreaves, Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch, Nick Hildenbrand, and Jovan StefanovAll of whom kindly read at the launch and allowed us to record their performance. https://www.literaryartswindsor.ca/tag/equinox-2022-artists/We encourage you to check out the music from Flower Face here: https://www.flowerface.com/ And Madeline Doornaert here: https://www.soulcitymusiccoop.com/madelinedoornaert

Cindy Hunter Morgan is the author of Harborless, a book of poems informed by Great Lakes shipwrecks, which was published by Wayne State University Press. It was a 2018 Michigan Notable Book and the winner of the 2017 Moveen Prize in Poetry. Apple Season won the Midwest Writing Center's 2012 Chapbook Contest, and The Sultan, The Skater, The Bicycle Maker won The Ledge Press 2011 Poetry Chapbook Award. She writes regularly for Murder Ballad Monday, a blog devoted to the exploration of the murder ballad tradition in folk and popular music. Her work has appeared in a variety of journals, including Tin House Online, Passages North, Salamander, Sugar House Review, The Pinch, and West Branch. Cindy Hunter Morgan writes occasionally for Murder Ballad Monday, a blog devoted to the exploration of the murder ballad tradition in folk and popular music. She is a co-founder of Filmetry: A Festival of Film and Poetry. For several years, Hunter Morgan taught poetry and book arts at Michigan State University. She now heads up communications for Michigan State University Libraries. Her new poetry collection, Far Company, will be released by Wayne State University Press in May 2022. https://www.wsupress.wayne.edu/books/detail/far-companyhttps://www.cindyhuntermorgan.com/