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WRITER
Jan Redford
On The Edge Of Fear
Title: On The Edge Of Fear
Episode: P059
START: May 01, 2023
ENDS: May 14, 2023
Length: 29'' mins
Host/Producer: Ingrid Rose
Episode: P059
START: May 01, 2023
ENDS: May 14, 2023
Length: 29'' mins
Host/Producer: Ingrid Rose
Jan Redford's End of the Rope: Mountains Marriage and Motherhood, caused ripples when it was released by Penguin Canada in 2018.
Journalist Marni Jackson, who authored The Mother Zone, a shortlisted finalist for the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour in 1993 described it thus:
Climbing mountains becomes a source of both joy and loss for Jan Redford as she finds her own gutsy route through that other wilderness, of marriage and motherhood. Cheryl Strayed, move over: End of The Rope is a rambunctious, funny, heart stopping memoir that carries us along on an electric current of risk and courage.
In conversation with host Ingrid Rose, Jan Redford, rock climber, white water kayaker, mountain biker and mother, explores fear that constant companion in sports as in life. Jan reads from the Epilogue of her 2018 memoir, End of the Rope: Mountains Marriage and Motherhood. She also gives us a sneak peak of her memoir in progress, Who Shall I Be Today? which is a prequel to End of the Rope. Jan reads the chapter, The Move or Big Butt, about an incident from her childhood.
Visit Jan's website. End of the Rope: Mountains, Marriage and Motherhood is widely available, order it from your favourite bookstore or library. We look forward with anticipation to Who Shall I Be Today? A question with deep resonance for us all.
GUEST & WRITER
Lise Weil. Sharon English
Dead And Alive
(Part 2)
An Unprecedented Level of Imagination
Title: Dead And Alive (part 2)
Sub Title: An Unprecedented Level of Imagination
Episode: P058
START: April 17, 2023
ENDS: April 30, 2023
Length: 21' mins
Host/Producer: Carole Harmon
Sub Title: An Unprecedented Level of Imagination
Episode: P058
START: April 17, 2023
ENDS: April 30, 2023
Length: 21' mins
Host/Producer: Carole Harmon
Sharon English and Sharon Simone are writers and friends who have been deeply influenced by the writing of Barry Lopez, in particular his final book, Horizon, which issues the call for "an unprecedented level of imagination" in facing the challenges of warming climate, species extinction, and continuing global conflict.
In this episode of Dead and Alive, Being With Ancestors Sharon English reads her section of this collaborative essay in which she confronts the fate of her family's ancestral homestead in Ontario.
Dark Matter Women Witnessing, an online literary journal founded and edited by Lise Weil of Montreal, Canada: publishes writing and visual art created in response to an age of massive species loss and ecological collapse. it is a home for dreams, visions, and communications with the non-human world—especially those with messages for how we might begin to heal our broken relationship to the earth.
Dead and Alive: Being With Ancestors is a collaboration between Dark Matter Women Witnessing and Writers Radio drawn from the current issue of the journal which showcases writing by Cynthia Travis, Sharon English, Gillian Goslinga and Carole Harmon, as well as a conversation moderated by Lise Weil which threads through the three episodes.
Read Dark Matter Women Witnessing online. If you are a writer, consider submitting to this wonderful journal. You can read about editors Lise Weil and Kristin Flyntz here.
Sharon English is an author and teacher. Her first novel, Night in the World was published in 2022 by Freehand books. A 49th Shelf 2022 Book of the Year
Night in the World is a splendid and searing novel, pressed up against the tremors of our times...astonished by the way Sharon English turns Toronto inside out, making the city a wild and watery landscape, bringing the beyond-the-human close.
Catherine Bush, author of Blaze Island and The Rules of Engagement
Stay Tuned for Part 3 of Dead and Alive, Living With Ancestors featuring Gillian Goslinga and Carole Harmon which will be on air May 15-28, 2023.
In this episode of Dead and Alive, Being With Ancestors Sharon English reads her section of this collaborative essay in which she confronts the fate of her family's ancestral homestead in Ontario.
Dark Matter Women Witnessing, an online literary journal founded and edited by Lise Weil of Montreal, Canada: publishes writing and visual art created in response to an age of massive species loss and ecological collapse. it is a home for dreams, visions, and communications with the non-human world—especially those with messages for how we might begin to heal our broken relationship to the earth.
Dead and Alive: Being With Ancestors is a collaboration between Dark Matter Women Witnessing and Writers Radio drawn from the current issue of the journal which showcases writing by Cynthia Travis, Sharon English, Gillian Goslinga and Carole Harmon, as well as a conversation moderated by Lise Weil which threads through the three episodes.
Read Dark Matter Women Witnessing online. If you are a writer, consider submitting to this wonderful journal. You can read about editors Lise Weil and Kristin Flyntz here.
Sharon English is an author and teacher. Her first novel, Night in the World was published in 2022 by Freehand books. A 49th Shelf 2022 Book of the Year
Night in the World is a splendid and searing novel, pressed up against the tremors of our times...astonished by the way Sharon English turns Toronto inside out, making the city a wild and watery landscape, bringing the beyond-the-human close.
Catherine Bush, author of Blaze Island and The Rules of Engagement
Stay Tuned for Part 3 of Dead and Alive, Living With Ancestors featuring Gillian Goslinga and Carole Harmon which will be on air May 15-28, 2023.
Rosanna Hille
What I Miss
Swimming In Stories
Title: What I Miss
Sub Title: Swimming In Stories
Episode: P057
START: April 03, 2023
ENDS: April 16, 2023
Length: 28'' mins
Narrator Veda Hille
Host/Producer: Ingrid Rose
Sub Title: Swimming In Stories
Episode: P057
START: April 03, 2023
ENDS: April 16, 2023
Length: 28'' mins
Narrator Veda Hille
Host/Producer: Ingrid Rose
Join Ingrid Rose and Veda Hille in celebrating the remarkable life of Veda's mother Rosanna Hille, as revealed in her recently self-published memoir, Swimming in Stories, The River of My Life.
Rosanna Hille's memoir looks back on a life brimful of creativity and adventure. It begins with family history, postwar childhood in Denmark, emigration to Canada, coming of age in a Danish Quaker school, the turbulent 1960s, and meeting her future husband. Then she joins a spiritual group in search of a different kind of life. Raising her children in a rural community, she begins to explore her creativity as a textile artist.
For many people this would be the main story, not for Rosanna Hille. Once her children are grown she embarks on a career in community development. As the chair of Susila Dharma International, a humanitarian, grass-roots inspired NGO that supports community development projects, Rosanna literally travels the globe from rural tribal villages to meetings at the United Nations over her long career.
Now in her seventies, and suffering from Parkinson's, Rosanna has immersed herself in the writing she always wished to pursue and never found time for. Despite her illness, she continues revelling in her indomitable life.
What I Miss, the last chapter of Swimming in Stories, finds Rosanna in her garden at home in Vancouver, contemplating a life of questions, service, connection, and love. It is read by Rosanna's daughter, Veda Hille, a well known Vancouver musician, composer and song-writer.
You can order Swimming in Stories as print or E-Book on Veda Hille's website here.
Rosanna Hille's memoir looks back on a life brimful of creativity and adventure. It begins with family history, postwar childhood in Denmark, emigration to Canada, coming of age in a Danish Quaker school, the turbulent 1960s, and meeting her future husband. Then she joins a spiritual group in search of a different kind of life. Raising her children in a rural community, she begins to explore her creativity as a textile artist.
For many people this would be the main story, not for Rosanna Hille. Once her children are grown she embarks on a career in community development. As the chair of Susila Dharma International, a humanitarian, grass-roots inspired NGO that supports community development projects, Rosanna literally travels the globe from rural tribal villages to meetings at the United Nations over her long career.
Now in her seventies, and suffering from Parkinson's, Rosanna has immersed herself in the writing she always wished to pursue and never found time for. Despite her illness, she continues revelling in her indomitable life.
What I Miss, the last chapter of Swimming in Stories, finds Rosanna in her garden at home in Vancouver, contemplating a life of questions, service, connection, and love. It is read by Rosanna's daughter, Veda Hille, a well known Vancouver musician, composer and song-writer.
You can order Swimming in Stories as print or E-Book on Veda Hille's website here.
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Lise Weil and Cynthia Travis
Dead And Alive (part 1)
Being With Ancestors
Title: Dead And Alive (part 1)
Sub Title: Being With Ancestors
Episode: P056
START: March 20, 2023
ENDS: April 02, 2023
Length: 28' mins
Host/Producer: Carole Harmon
Sub Title: Being With Ancestors
Episode: P056
START: March 20, 2023
ENDS: April 02, 2023
Length: 28' mins
Host/Producer: Carole Harmon
Dark Matter Women Witnessing, an online literary journal founded and edited by Lise Weil of Montreal, Canada publishes writing and visual art created in response to an age of massive species loss and ecological collapse. It is a home for dreams, visions and communications with the non-human world, especially those with messages for how we might begin to heal our broken relationship to the earth.
Dead and Alive: Being With Ancestors is a collaboration between Dark Matter Women Witnessing and Writers Radio. Readings and discussions are drawn from the current issue of the journal. Writing by Cynthia Travis, Sharon English, Gillian Goslinga and Carole Harmon is showcased, as well as a conversation moderated by Lise Weil which will thread through the three episodes.
River of Kin by Cynthia Travis
Cynthia Travis recounts the story of her family's traumatic history on an acreage beside the Colorado River. It is set against the backdrop of the natural history of the river itself and its historic relationship with the Mohave people who still live, and have lived for thousands of years, across the river from what was her family's farm.
River of Kin is a story of misplaced idealism which, by ignoring the eco-system of the Colorado River and imposing modern technology and farming methods, created an ecological disaster instead of the modern triumph of food production her father dreamed of.
This is above all a story of redemption, of learning from past mistakes, of righting wrongs of the past through awareness, community, ritual, and the intention to heal.
Read Dark Matter Women Witnessing online. If you are a writer, consider submitting to this wonderful journal. You can read about editors Lise Weil and Kristin Flyntz here.
Cynthia Travis is a writer, photographer and documentary film-maker. Her blog, Earth Altar, features Full Moon and New Moon posts about her relationships with the animals, plants and insects in her home garden, as well as thoughts on peace building, soil health and the wisdom of the breakdown.
She is the Founder and President of the non-profit peace building organization Everyday Gandhis, dedicated to community reconciliation, trauma healing and ecological restoration in Liberia, West Africa.
River of Kin is drawn from Cynthia's forthcoming book: Atlas of Sorrow: A Natural History of Empire and Family.
Dead and Alive: Being With Ancestors is a collaboration between Dark Matter Women Witnessing and Writers Radio. Readings and discussions are drawn from the current issue of the journal. Writing by Cynthia Travis, Sharon English, Gillian Goslinga and Carole Harmon is showcased, as well as a conversation moderated by Lise Weil which will thread through the three episodes.
River of Kin by Cynthia Travis
Cynthia Travis recounts the story of her family's traumatic history on an acreage beside the Colorado River. It is set against the backdrop of the natural history of the river itself and its historic relationship with the Mohave people who still live, and have lived for thousands of years, across the river from what was her family's farm.
River of Kin is a story of misplaced idealism which, by ignoring the eco-system of the Colorado River and imposing modern technology and farming methods, created an ecological disaster instead of the modern triumph of food production her father dreamed of.
This is above all a story of redemption, of learning from past mistakes, of righting wrongs of the past through awareness, community, ritual, and the intention to heal.
Read Dark Matter Women Witnessing online. If you are a writer, consider submitting to this wonderful journal. You can read about editors Lise Weil and Kristin Flyntz here.
Cynthia Travis is a writer, photographer and documentary film-maker. Her blog, Earth Altar, features Full Moon and New Moon posts about her relationships with the animals, plants and insects in her home garden, as well as thoughts on peace building, soil health and the wisdom of the breakdown.
She is the Founder and President of the non-profit peace building organization Everyday Gandhis, dedicated to community reconciliation, trauma healing and ecological restoration in Liberia, West Africa.
River of Kin is drawn from Cynthia's forthcoming book: Atlas of Sorrow: A Natural History of Empire and Family.
Claudia Casper
The Mercy Journals
Title: The Mercy Journals
Sub Title: Claudia Casper
Episode: P055
START: March 06, 2023
ENDS: March 19, 2023
Length: 25'' mins
Host/Producer: Ingrid Rose
Sub Title: Claudia Casper
Episode: P055
START: March 06, 2023
ENDS: March 19, 2023
Length: 25'' mins
Host/Producer: Ingrid Rose
Allen 'Mercy' Quincy, the protagonist of this novel, writes as he begins his journal:
If I go to my memories directly I'll never survive. I will take the longer road and lay an ambush. I will describe my world. I will tell you about Ruby.
The Mercy Journals is set 1n 2047 in the wake of a third world war. Owing also to runaway effects of climate change and the collapse of nation/states, over a third of the global population has already died.
Former soldier Allen "Mercy" Quincy suffers from PTSD and is haunted by guilt and lingering memories of his family. When he meets a dancer named Ruby, she breathes new life into his carefully constructed existence. He begins to journal.
Here are some great comments from reviewers and readers to entice you:
"Part Lord of the Flies, part Romeo Dallaire's Shake Hands With the Devil, I came out of this book deeply touched by the characters who moved through it, but also more alert. There's a sense of the prescient in this novel - of where we could end up if we're not careful."
Aislinn Hunter, author of The World Before Us
"Not since Margaret Atwood's Snowman have we met such a desperate and compelling hero as Allen Quincy, doing his best to survive in a post-apocalyptic world."
Merilyn Simonds, author of The Convict Lover
"Casper's wry lament for the world is utterly unforgettable. She creates a slow apocalypse and finds real human voices and aching in the collapse and rebirth of society."
Emily Schultz, author of The Blondes
The Mercy Journals (Arsenal 2016) is Claudia Casper's third novel. It won the prestigious Philip K. Dick Award for Science Fiction. Her debut novel, The Reconstruction, was a national best-seller.
Learn more about Claudia on her website and blog. and order her books from your favourite bookstore.
Following its broadcast dates, this program becomes a Podcast on writers radio.ca/podcasts and from your favourite podcast provider.
Writers Radio broadcasts from Halfmoon Bay on the Sunshine Coast in Canada, ancestral land of self governing shíshálh Nation of the Coast Salish peoples. We are grateful for their land stewardship and wisdom teachings.
Carole Harmon
If I go to my memories directly I'll never survive. I will take the longer road and lay an ambush. I will describe my world. I will tell you about Ruby.
The Mercy Journals is set 1n 2047 in the wake of a third world war. Owing also to runaway effects of climate change and the collapse of nation/states, over a third of the global population has already died.
Former soldier Allen "Mercy" Quincy suffers from PTSD and is haunted by guilt and lingering memories of his family. When he meets a dancer named Ruby, she breathes new life into his carefully constructed existence. He begins to journal.
Here are some great comments from reviewers and readers to entice you:
"Part Lord of the Flies, part Romeo Dallaire's Shake Hands With the Devil, I came out of this book deeply touched by the characters who moved through it, but also more alert. There's a sense of the prescient in this novel - of where we could end up if we're not careful."
Aislinn Hunter, author of The World Before Us
"Not since Margaret Atwood's Snowman have we met such a desperate and compelling hero as Allen Quincy, doing his best to survive in a post-apocalyptic world."
Merilyn Simonds, author of The Convict Lover
"Casper's wry lament for the world is utterly unforgettable. She creates a slow apocalypse and finds real human voices and aching in the collapse and rebirth of society."
Emily Schultz, author of The Blondes
The Mercy Journals (Arsenal 2016) is Claudia Casper's third novel. It won the prestigious Philip K. Dick Award for Science Fiction. Her debut novel, The Reconstruction, was a national best-seller.
Learn more about Claudia on her website and blog. and order her books from your favourite bookstore.
Following its broadcast dates, this program becomes a Podcast on writers radio.ca/podcasts and from your favourite podcast provider.
Writers Radio broadcasts from Halfmoon Bay on the Sunshine Coast in Canada, ancestral land of self governing shíshálh Nation of the Coast Salish peoples. We are grateful for their land stewardship and wisdom teachings.
Carole Harmon
Karen McDiarmid
Jane Newman
Impermanence
Title: Impermanence
Episode: P054
START: February 20, 2023
ENDS: March 05, 2023
Length: 41'' mins
Host/Producer: Carole Harmon
Episode: P054
START: February 20, 2023
ENDS: March 05, 2023
Length: 41'' mins
Host/Producer: Carole Harmon
Immersions: KAREN McDIARMID
Ski to Assiniboine: JANE NEWMAN
beauty and terror—flux is at the crossroads
Karen McDiarmid and Jane Newman are friends, visual artists, writers, cold water swimmers and lovers of wilderness adventures at the edge of safety. Both lived in the Canadian Rockies for many years but now live on Cortes Island off the west coast of British Columbia, in Canada.
Karen McDiarmid is a photographer and psychotherapist who has worked in Bhutan, Tibet, the Middle East, and Baffin Island. She spent her childhood summers at a family cottage on Shawnigan Lake, on Vancouver Island, where Immersions re-members her childhood while winter swimming in Shawnigan Lake.
in Banff in the Canadian Rockies, Jane Newman raised a family and maintained an art practice informed by nature and by found materials overlooked and discarded. Jane worked with private and government organizations within the Banff Centre Leadership program, exploring creativity as a resource for problem solving.
Ski to Assiniboine re-members a winter journey which went awry and the death of a dear friend.
Karen McDiarmid's recent artwork includes painting as well as photography; both may be viewed at her Karen McDiarmid Photography & Art website (https://karenmcdiarmid.net/).
Jane Newman's mixed media and assemblage artworks may be viewed on her blog, en plein air (https://janenewman.blogspot.com/).
Susan McCaslin
Something Ferried Across
Title: Sussan McCaslin
Sub Title: Something Ferried Across
Episode: P053
START: February 06, 2023
ENDS: February 19, 2023
Length: 26'' mins
Host/Producer: Ingrid Rose
Sub Title: Something Ferried Across
Episode: P053
START: February 06, 2023
ENDS: February 19, 2023
Length: 26'' mins
Host/Producer: Ingrid Rose
Susan McCaslin, Canadian poet, essayist, and literary scholar, lives in Fort Langley, BC, in Canada.
She first met Ted Blodgett in 2011 in Calgary, Alberta, where both read from their recent volumes of poetry published by the University of Alberta Press in its Currents series.
Demeter Goes Skydiving, Susan McCaslin
Apostrophes vii: Sleep, You, a Tree, E.D. Blodgett
I looked up, way up, into the eyes of this gentle giant of a poet, Susan comments in her conversation with Writers Radio host, Ingrid Rose.
When Ted and his wife Irena moved to Surrey, BC, the two poets became friends. Susan was privileged to witness Ted's poetry as it emerged, specifically his prolific output toward the end of his life. Ted said, I don't know where the poems come from.
Susan's most recent published work is Heart Work, Ekstasis Editions, 2020. For an overview of her work visit Susan's website.
Edward Dickinson (Ted) Blodgett (1935-2018) had a long teaching career and published many volumes of poetry. Accomplished musician as well as translator, he received the Governor General Award for Poetry in 1996 for his collection Apostrophes: Woman at a Piano and a Governor General Translation Award for Transfiguration in 1999.
Ted's final book of poetry, Walking Into God, was edited posthumously by Susan McCaslin. Its publication is forthcoming from Fairleigh Dickenson University Press.
Ted's final book of poetry, Walking Into God, was edited posthumously by Susan McCaslin. Its publication is forthcoming from Fairleigh Dickenson University Press.
Edward Feuz
A Story of Enchantment
Donna Stephen
Title: A Story of Enchantment
Episode: P052
START: January 23, 2023
ENDS: February 05, 2023
Length: 27'' mins
Host/Producer: Carole Harmon
Episode: P052
START: January 23, 2023
ENDS: February 05, 2023
Length: 27'' mins
Host/Producer: Carole Harmon
Edward Feuz Jr : A Story of Enchantment is part biography, part personal memoir. It is remarkable in telling the story of client and guide from the point of view of the client, not as journal accounts of mountains climbed, but in remembrance of an enduring life-long friendship. It is full of anecdotes and history.
In 1899 Christian Haesler and Eduard Feuz, mountain guides from Interlaken, Switzerland signed the first seasonal contracts with the Canadian Pacific Railroad to spend the summer guiding in the Canadian Rockies and Selkirk Mountains. This program was part of a CPR campaign to advertise their hotels and back country lodges, reached by travelling to the mountains on their trains.
Other guides followed, and a second generation, including Edward Feuz, Jr.
Donna Stephen tells Edward's story, from his youth in Interlaken to his death, at age 96, and beyond. Edward Feuz Jr. was perhaps the most renowned of the Swiss guides hired by the CPR; he also worked as a private guide. Edward is credited with over a hundred first ascents and new climbing routes, he was never involved with a fatal accident.
Donna Stephen's parents were in love with mountains. They were married in the Canadian Rockies and spent every summer learning how to climb from the Swiss Guides who worked at Lake Louise. This became a lifelong passion which they shared with their daughters, Donna and Cindy. The Stephen family visited every summer and Edward Feuz Jr. took them under his wing. Both girls became climbers, taught by the best.
I’m always amazed by individuals who dedicate part of their lives to commemorating someone whom they admire, not as a job, not for money, grants, or prestige, not to commemorate an ancestor, but in appreciation and gratitude.
Edward Feuz Jr : A Story of Enchantment was published by Rocky Mountain Books and may be ordered from your favourite bookstore or library. It was a finalist for The Jon Whyte Award – Mountain Literature (non-fiction) at the 2022 Banff Mountain Book Competition.
Daughters of Fire
Two Iranian-Canadian Poets in Exile
Shadi Eskandani, Sareh Farmand
Title: Daughters of Fire
Episode: P051
START: January 09, 2023
ENDS: January 22, 2023
Length: 32'' mins
Host/Producer: Ingrid Rose
Episode: P051
START: January 09, 2023
ENDS: January 22, 2023
Length: 32'' mins
Host/Producer: Ingrid Rose
Two Poets write of their homeland, and their dislocation.
Shadi Eskandani and Sareh Farmand are Iranian born Canadian immigrant writers and friends. Join them in readings from their poetry and in conversation with Ingrid Rose.
SAREH was born in Tehran and lived there until she was two; she lived briefly in Germany and Italy, and finally immigrated to Canada.
Her new release, Pistachios In My Pocket was published by At Bay Press of Winnipeg, Manitoba. It was selected by CBC Books as “Best Book of Poetry Selection, 2022.” CBC had this to say:
Here is a new voice to the conversation on global citizenship and multiculturalism, as themes of loss, home, and belonging are explored in a new way through a wide socio-political lens and personal accounts of a family's unique, yet universal experiences...
Order this book from your favourite bookstore, Massey Books, or or At Bay Press.
SHADI writes In her blog post, The Abandonment of Iranian Feminists:
"For decades, the voices of Iranian feminists, especially those living in Iran, have been silenced in many spaces, including the mainstream, the academic left, and activist movements in the west....There has been nowhere, other than amongst ourselves, to express our grief and outrage for what’s been happening in Iran for almost 44 years."
Until age nine Shadi lived under the rule of the Islamic Republic, during the Iran-Iraq war. Now she lives in Toronto, and she writes! Her recently debuted poetry chapbook, Contusions was the 2020 Locked Horn Press Urgency Chapbook winner.
LHP is in San Diego. Canadian orders for Contusions may be placed through Massey Books.
Visit Shadi's website, https://shadieskandani.com/
Carole Harmon
Shadi Eskandani and Sareh Farmand are Iranian born Canadian immigrant writers and friends. Join them in readings from their poetry and in conversation with Ingrid Rose.
SAREH was born in Tehran and lived there until she was two; she lived briefly in Germany and Italy, and finally immigrated to Canada.
Her new release, Pistachios In My Pocket was published by At Bay Press of Winnipeg, Manitoba. It was selected by CBC Books as “Best Book of Poetry Selection, 2022.” CBC had this to say:
Here is a new voice to the conversation on global citizenship and multiculturalism, as themes of loss, home, and belonging are explored in a new way through a wide socio-political lens and personal accounts of a family's unique, yet universal experiences...
Order this book from your favourite bookstore, Massey Books, or or At Bay Press.
SHADI writes In her blog post, The Abandonment of Iranian Feminists:
"For decades, the voices of Iranian feminists, especially those living in Iran, have been silenced in many spaces, including the mainstream, the academic left, and activist movements in the west....There has been nowhere, other than amongst ourselves, to express our grief and outrage for what’s been happening in Iran for almost 44 years."
Until age nine Shadi lived under the rule of the Islamic Republic, during the Iran-Iraq war. Now she lives in Toronto, and she writes! Her recently debuted poetry chapbook, Contusions was the 2020 Locked Horn Press Urgency Chapbook winner.
LHP is in San Diego. Canadian orders for Contusions may be placed through Massey Books.
Visit Shadi's website, https://shadieskandani.com/
Carole Harmon
A Door Is Opening
Part 2
Katherine Govier, Julian Shillcock, Elizabeth Cunningham, Kathryn Alexander
Title: A Door Is Opening part 2
Episode: P050
START: December 26, 2022
ENDS: January 08, 2023
Length: 30'' mins
Host/Producer: Carole Harmon
Episode: P050
START: December 26, 2022
ENDS: January 08, 2023
Length: 30'' mins
Host/Producer: Carole Harmon
We invited contributors to Writers Radio to share with us their thoughts on this theme as we approach 2023.
Shoes are a metaphor for journey and transformation. This was Canadian novelist Katherine Govier’s inspiration when she founded The Shoe Project in 2011. This collaborative project connects women immigrants to Canada with Canadian writing and performance mentors in order to create stories and performances based on experiences of leaving one home to come to another.
From Canmore in the Canadian Rockies Katherine recalls working with women refugees from Afghanistan online during the pandemic, alongside fellow mentors Caroline Adderson, a novelist from Vancouver, and Nan Hughes Poole, a mezzo-soprano who lives in Banff.
Physicist and writer Julian Shillcock joins us from Lausanne, Switzerland with an excerpt from his novel which investigates the question, what does it mean to be mentally healthy or ill?
Poet Elizabeth Cunningham, from Nelson BC, celebrates the life of beloved Canadian landscape painter Doris McCarthy, 1910-2010.
Poet Kathryn Alexander, of Port Moody on the west coast of Canada, takes us on a journey through the annual spiral of light in which a new soul enters the world. We are all light eaters, she concludes.
Our well wishes go out to you, dear listeners and contributors, through the open doorways of our hearts, into the coming year.
Shoes are a metaphor for journey and transformation. This was Canadian novelist Katherine Govier’s inspiration when she founded The Shoe Project in 2011. This collaborative project connects women immigrants to Canada with Canadian writing and performance mentors in order to create stories and performances based on experiences of leaving one home to come to another.
From Canmore in the Canadian Rockies Katherine recalls working with women refugees from Afghanistan online during the pandemic, alongside fellow mentors Caroline Adderson, a novelist from Vancouver, and Nan Hughes Poole, a mezzo-soprano who lives in Banff.
Physicist and writer Julian Shillcock joins us from Lausanne, Switzerland with an excerpt from his novel which investigates the question, what does it mean to be mentally healthy or ill?
Poet Elizabeth Cunningham, from Nelson BC, celebrates the life of beloved Canadian landscape painter Doris McCarthy, 1910-2010.
Poet Kathryn Alexander, of Port Moody on the west coast of Canada, takes us on a journey through the annual spiral of light in which a new soul enters the world. We are all light eaters, she concludes.
Our well wishes go out to you, dear listeners and contributors, through the open doorways of our hearts, into the coming year.
A Door Is Opening
Part 1
Chad Norman, Kate Bird, Jeremy Page and Sarah Knoebber
Title: A Door Is Opening
Episode: P049
START: December 12, 2022
ENDS: December 25, 2022
Length: 21'' mins
Host: Ingrid Rose
Producer: Carole Harmon
Episode: P049
START: December 12, 2022
ENDS: December 25, 2022
Length: 21'' mins
Host: Ingrid Rose
Producer: Carole Harmon
We invited contributors to Writers Radio to share with us their thoughts on this theme as we approach 2023.
In Nova Scotia, Chad Norman, confronts his life as he looks forward to challenges and hopes of a new poetry project.
Kate Bird of Vancouver embarks on an unintentionally solo walking tour which re-invigorates her perspective on life.
In the changing urban environment where he grew up in England, Jeremy Page muses on the meaning of home.
On Galiano Island, off the west coast of Canada, Sarah Knoebber, raps her way out of Covid and looks to the future.
In Nova Scotia, Chad Norman, confronts his life as he looks forward to challenges and hopes of a new poetry project.
Kate Bird of Vancouver embarks on an unintentionally solo walking tour which re-invigorates her perspective on life.
In the changing urban environment where he grew up in England, Jeremy Page muses on the meaning of home.
On Galiano Island, off the west coast of Canada, Sarah Knoebber, raps her way out of Covid and looks to the future.
Fine Tuning
In Music and Life
Gary Sill
Title: Fine Tuning
Episode: P048
START: November 28, 2022
ENDS: December 11, 2022
Length: 30'' mins
Host: Ingrid Rose
Episode: P048
START: November 28, 2022
ENDS: December 11, 2022
Length: 30'' mins
Host: Ingrid Rose
Featured Songs: Fine Tuning • Afghanistan: The Lost City • Dervish Drums.
Gary Sill will entertain you with his music in the third of a three part series featuring the work of producers of Writers Radio.
This program touches on highlights of Gary's musical career as a young rock musician in the band, Wayboard; producing programming for ACCESS educational television and CKUA radio; and as student and assistant to Hidayat Inayat Khan, renowned composer, violinist, conductor and teacher of Universal Sufism. Best known for his piano improvisations, Gary is now embracing new forms of composition and presentation.
In her conversation with Gary, Ingrid Rose probes the spiritual wellspring of all Gary's musical endeavours.
Gary Sill will entertain you with his music in the third of a three part series featuring the work of producers of Writers Radio.
This program touches on highlights of Gary's musical career as a young rock musician in the band, Wayboard; producing programming for ACCESS educational television and CKUA radio; and as student and assistant to Hidayat Inayat Khan, renowned composer, violinist, conductor and teacher of Universal Sufism. Best known for his piano improvisations, Gary is now embracing new forms of composition and presentation.
In her conversation with Gary, Ingrid Rose probes the spiritual wellspring of all Gary's musical endeavours.
Queen of Flowers
Carole Harmon
Title: Queen of Flowers
Episode: P047
START: November 14, 2022
ENDS: November 27, 2022
Length: 25'' mins
Host: Ingrid Rose
Episode: P047
START: November 14, 2022
ENDS: November 27, 2022
Length: 25'' mins
Host: Ingrid Rose
No glasses, playing in the snow; this is a black-and-white photograph of my mother taken by my father before I was born, likely in the first year of their marriage. I hand coloured the print many years later, in the 1970's, when I was her age.
Each fall the writers radio team takes a turn at presenting our own work. This is my turn for 2022. Ingrid and I both chose to write of our mothers; our vivacious mothers had a lot in common. 2022 is the twenty-fifth anniversary of my parent's deaths, two months apart in 1997.
Queen of Flowers weaves my mother's death with snippets of her life, set against the unfolding panorama of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, and our wonderful Queen Elizabeth.
Ingrid's heartfelt piece, The Singer and the Song aired earlier this fall and is now a podcast on our website.
Carole Harmon
Each fall the writers radio team takes a turn at presenting our own work. This is my turn for 2022. Ingrid and I both chose to write of our mothers; our vivacious mothers had a lot in common. 2022 is the twenty-fifth anniversary of my parent's deaths, two months apart in 1997.
Queen of Flowers weaves my mother's death with snippets of her life, set against the unfolding panorama of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, and our wonderful Queen Elizabeth.
Ingrid's heartfelt piece, The Singer and the Song aired earlier this fall and is now a podcast on our website.
Carole Harmon
Jon Whyte, Part 2, Paley, A Ghost Story
Jon Whyte
Title: Jon Whyte, Part 2, Paley, A Ghost Story
Episode: P046
START: October 31, 2022
ENDS: November 13, 2022
Length: 28'' mins
Host: Carole Harmon
Episode: P046
START: October 31, 2022
ENDS: November 13, 2022
Length: 28'' mins
Host: Carole Harmon
Jon Whyte (1941-1992) was a Canadian author whose soul work was poetry but who also wrote books of history about his beloved Canadian Rockies. Unlike many Canadian artists who pursue careers in America and Europe, or in academia, Jon Whyte chose to root his life and work in the Canadian west, its people and history, especially the mountains, and in particular the Bow Valley. He was born in Banff and lived most of his adult life in that small mountain community.
Paley, an epic poem about the death by avalanche of a brilliant young mathematician on April 7, 1933, near Skoki, in the Canadian Rockies is based on an actual event.
When I was planning this series with Jon’s friend and colleague, Brian Patton, we hoped to find a recording of Jon reading his own work, to hear his voice once again, but also because he was a masterful reader.
The Jon Whyte fonds, in the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies in Banff, contains a number of recordings of Jon’s work. Most of them are performances recorded at the Banff Centre, or by CBC, and feature actors.
Paley was the only piece read by Jon we could find, but what a find it was! It is an incomplete recording, missing the introductory biographical paragraph about Paley, and also missing the ending. I have taken the liberty of reading these missing sections to complete the poem
On the Writers Radio website, in the About section, is a page with a longer bio, reading list, and full length recordings of Minisniwapta: Voices of the River and Paley, as included in this program.
Some of Jon’s published work may be found online, and through the library system. Thank goodness for librairies.
The Jon Whyte fonds are housed in the Archives of the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies in Banff.
Paley, an epic poem about the death by avalanche of a brilliant young mathematician on April 7, 1933, near Skoki, in the Canadian Rockies is based on an actual event.
When I was planning this series with Jon’s friend and colleague, Brian Patton, we hoped to find a recording of Jon reading his own work, to hear his voice once again, but also because he was a masterful reader.
The Jon Whyte fonds, in the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies in Banff, contains a number of recordings of Jon’s work. Most of them are performances recorded at the Banff Centre, or by CBC, and feature actors.
Paley was the only piece read by Jon we could find, but what a find it was! It is an incomplete recording, missing the introductory biographical paragraph about Paley, and also missing the ending. I have taken the liberty of reading these missing sections to complete the poem
On the Writers Radio website, in the About section, is a page with a longer bio, reading list, and full length recordings of Minisniwapta: Voices of the River and Paley, as included in this program.
Some of Jon’s published work may be found online, and through the library system. Thank goodness for librairies.
The Jon Whyte fonds are housed in the Archives of the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies in Banff.
Jon Whyte, Part 1, Bard of Banff
Jon Whyte
Title: Jon Whyte, Bard of Banff - Part 1
Episode: P045
START: October 17, 2022
ENDS: October 30, 2022
Length: 35'' mins
Host: Carole Harmon
Episode: P045
START: October 17, 2022
ENDS: October 30, 2022
Length: 35'' mins
Host: Carole Harmon
Jon Whyte (1941 - 1992) was a Canadian author whose soul work was poetry but who also wrote books of history about his beloved Canadian Rockies. Unlike many Canadian artists who pursue careers in America and Europe, or in academia, Jon Whyte chose to root his life and work in the Canadian west, its people and history, especially the mountains, and in particular the Bow Valley. He was born in Banff and lived most of his adult life in that small mountain community.
Jon was instrumental in igniting and spreading culture in Banff as manager of Banff Book and Art Den in its early days, in helping found Summerthought Publications, also in Banff, and as a columnist for the Banff rags: Summit News and Banff Crag and Canyon. He was an environmental activist, acting as the town conscience on many topics.
Host Carole Harmon is joined in this program by Brian Patton who was Jon’s friend and colleague. Brian and Carole will chat about Jon, and Brian will read from Jon’s Crag and Canyon column, Where People and Mountains Meet.
After Jon’s death, Brian compiled a selection of these short essays which were published by Altitude Publishing as Mountain Chronicles.
In her foreword to Mind Over Mountains, a retrospective compilation of Jon's major literary work edited by Henry Vandervlist in 2000 and published by Red Deer Press, Myrna Kostach, a friend and colleague, writes;
Of all the people I know, Jon was the one who most hugely enjoyed his own life—books, friends, conversations, wordplay, dictionaries, food, treks, beasts, ghosts, lore—so much so that his joy spilled over into the lives of any who drew near him…he died too young, he deserved more time, he was hauled away in the middle of a thought, a passion, a meal, and we will never know what it was he was about to tell us, show us, summon us to…he would have made an extraordinary old man. Let us imagine him.
Jon's work is out of print but may be found in libraries, and some titles on line. In the About section of this website is a longer bio, a reading list, and the full production of Jon's last completed work, Minisniwapta: Voices of the River.
Jon was instrumental in igniting and spreading culture in Banff as manager of Banff Book and Art Den in its early days, in helping found Summerthought Publications, also in Banff, and as a columnist for the Banff rags: Summit News and Banff Crag and Canyon. He was an environmental activist, acting as the town conscience on many topics.
Host Carole Harmon is joined in this program by Brian Patton who was Jon’s friend and colleague. Brian and Carole will chat about Jon, and Brian will read from Jon’s Crag and Canyon column, Where People and Mountains Meet.
After Jon’s death, Brian compiled a selection of these short essays which were published by Altitude Publishing as Mountain Chronicles.
In her foreword to Mind Over Mountains, a retrospective compilation of Jon's major literary work edited by Henry Vandervlist in 2000 and published by Red Deer Press, Myrna Kostach, a friend and colleague, writes;
Of all the people I know, Jon was the one who most hugely enjoyed his own life—books, friends, conversations, wordplay, dictionaries, food, treks, beasts, ghosts, lore—so much so that his joy spilled over into the lives of any who drew near him…he died too young, he deserved more time, he was hauled away in the middle of a thought, a passion, a meal, and we will never know what it was he was about to tell us, show us, summon us to…he would have made an extraordinary old man. Let us imagine him.
Jon's work is out of print but may be found in libraries, and some titles on line. In the About section of this website is a longer bio, a reading list, and the full production of Jon's last completed work, Minisniwapta: Voices of the River.
The Singer and the Song
Ingrid Rose
Title: The Singer and the Song
Episode: P044
START: October 03, 2022
ENDS: October 16, 2022
Length: 28'' mins
Host: Carole Harmon
Episode: P044
START: October 03, 2022
ENDS: October 16, 2022
Length: 28'' mins
Host: Carole Harmon
"You called up love as rainmakers call upon the rain" Ingrid Rose writing about her mother in "Embracing Her"
In keeping with our Harvest theme, Ingrid Rose re-members her mother in Embracing Her.
Writers Radio launched in November 2020. On our first anniversary we inaugurated an annual tradition of including work by our three producers: Ingrid Rose, Gary Sill, and myself, Carole Harmon, in our programming so that we reveal ourselves as well as the writers we have represented.
In this episode we celebrate the work of Ingrid Rose.
Embracing Her is a «re-membering» of Ingrid’s mother, Irene Rinna Rose. Ingrid was born into a non-practising Jewish family. Like her father, she was an atheist and involved in left-wing politics until she began to follow a spiritual path.
The program will close with Ingrid’s ekphrastic poem, Song of Songs. This poem was written to accompany the paintings of 50 Jewish artists at the Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery in 2018. This exhibition celebrated Israel’s 70 years of song and dance.
Ingrid Rose is a writer, teacher of writing, and co-host and co-producer of Writers Radio. She was born and raised in London, England but now lives in Vancouver, Canada.
Ingrid has published in Canadian literary journals: CV2; Emerge 2001; the anthology Sustenance, edited by Rachel Rose; and Musicworks Magazine 2011 (a prizewinning story).
The State of Our Father is forthcoming in the anthology Don't Tell: Family Secrets edited by Arlene Paré and Donna McCart Sharkey (Demeter Press 2023).
In keeping with our Harvest theme, Ingrid Rose re-members her mother in Embracing Her.
Writers Radio launched in November 2020. On our first anniversary we inaugurated an annual tradition of including work by our three producers: Ingrid Rose, Gary Sill, and myself, Carole Harmon, in our programming so that we reveal ourselves as well as the writers we have represented.
In this episode we celebrate the work of Ingrid Rose.
Embracing Her is a «re-membering» of Ingrid’s mother, Irene Rinna Rose. Ingrid was born into a non-practising Jewish family. Like her father, she was an atheist and involved in left-wing politics until she began to follow a spiritual path.
The program will close with Ingrid’s ekphrastic poem, Song of Songs. This poem was written to accompany the paintings of 50 Jewish artists at the Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery in 2018. This exhibition celebrated Israel’s 70 years of song and dance.
Ingrid Rose is a writer, teacher of writing, and co-host and co-producer of Writers Radio. She was born and raised in London, England but now lives in Vancouver, Canada.
Ingrid has published in Canadian literary journals: CV2; Emerge 2001; the anthology Sustenance, edited by Rachel Rose; and Musicworks Magazine 2011 (a prizewinning story).
The State of Our Father is forthcoming in the anthology Don't Tell: Family Secrets edited by Arlene Paré and Donna McCart Sharkey (Demeter Press 2023).
Winterkill, Exit Wounds
Marsha Skrypuch and Tariq Malik
Episode: P043
Broadcast dates: September 19 to October 02, 2022
Length: 38'' mins
Host: Carole Harmon
Broadcast dates: September 19 to October 02, 2022
Length: 38'' mins
Host: Carole Harmon
New releases by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch and Tariq Malik share themes of the human consequences of war which continue to play out long after the war has ended.
Winterkill is set during the Holodomor, which means death by starvation in Ukrainian. This was a man made famine created in 1932/33 by Joseph Stalin. The Holodomor starved to death millions of people in Ukraine, rural Russia and Kazakhstan as part of Stalin's plan to modernize agriculture through creating collective farms and eliminating peasant farmers. This genocide went virtually unnoticed in the west.
Exit Wounds follows the forced migration of Tariq and his family from the Punjab following the religious partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. Their home in the village of Kotli was in the epicentre of this conflict; an estimated million people died in this area. Escaping, Tariq's profession of industrial engineer took them to Kuwait and then Iraq. They inadvertently found themselves in war after war. Finally they immigrated to Canada.
Winterkill is published by Scholastic in Canada and the USA. It will be widely available through the library system as well as bookstores.
Exit Wounds will be released in fall 2022 and may be pre-ordered from Caitlin Press.
Listen to previous episodes: Traitors Among Us with Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch and Exit Wounds with Tariq Malik as podcasts on the Writers Radio website.
Winterkill is set during the Holodomor, which means death by starvation in Ukrainian. This was a man made famine created in 1932/33 by Joseph Stalin. The Holodomor starved to death millions of people in Ukraine, rural Russia and Kazakhstan as part of Stalin's plan to modernize agriculture through creating collective farms and eliminating peasant farmers. This genocide went virtually unnoticed in the west.
Exit Wounds follows the forced migration of Tariq and his family from the Punjab following the religious partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. Their home in the village of Kotli was in the epicentre of this conflict; an estimated million people died in this area. Escaping, Tariq's profession of industrial engineer took them to Kuwait and then Iraq. They inadvertently found themselves in war after war. Finally they immigrated to Canada.
Winterkill is published by Scholastic in Canada and the USA. It will be widely available through the library system as well as bookstores.
Exit Wounds will be released in fall 2022 and may be pre-ordered from Caitlin Press.
Listen to previous episodes: Traitors Among Us with Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch and Exit Wounds with Tariq Malik as podcasts on the Writers Radio website.
Airborne
Elizabeth Cunningham
Episode: P042
Broadcast dates: September 05 to September 18, 2022
Length: 30'' mins
Host: Carole Harmon
Broadcast dates: September 05 to September 18, 2022
Length: 30'' mins
Host: Carole Harmon
In the spirit of HARVEST, this autumn’s programs will recall people and events, underscoring their importance which reverberates in today’s world when we remember.
Elizabeth Cunningham of Nelson, British Columbia is a writer, teacher and visual artist who loves collaborating with others. Both her life and her work demonstrate a wide range of interest and commitment, which seem to flow through time and experience.
In this episode we spotlight her 2021 poetry release, Watching the Light Below the Storm. Then Elizabeth and I discuss her creative non-fiction memoir, Marty's Place and her next poetry offering, Airborne which are works in progress, with readings from both.
Marty's Place fits our autumn theme of harvest very well.
Marty's Place was The Village Bookstore owned by Marty Ahvenus. It opened in 1961 in the Gerrard Street Village in Toronto; a creative hub of the 60's and 70's which eventually gave way to the inevitable high-rises of urban renewal. Marty Ahvenus was an early supporter of emerging Canadian authors Margaret Atwood, bpNichol and many others.
Elizabeth worked for Marty in her late teens, and at Coach House Press, working on her own projects among others. Her memoir of these times recalls the early flowering of CanLit which is evident in the blooming garden of Canadian books today.
Two poems from Airborne complete the program, accompanied by Doug Jamieson's original music by the same title.
Watching the Light Below the Storm and Elizabeth's earlier poetry book, A Fragile Grace are available through bookstores or direct from the publisher, Ekstasis Editions.
Elizabeth Cunningham of Nelson, British Columbia is a writer, teacher and visual artist who loves collaborating with others. Both her life and her work demonstrate a wide range of interest and commitment, which seem to flow through time and experience.
In this episode we spotlight her 2021 poetry release, Watching the Light Below the Storm. Then Elizabeth and I discuss her creative non-fiction memoir, Marty's Place and her next poetry offering, Airborne which are works in progress, with readings from both.
Marty's Place fits our autumn theme of harvest very well.
Marty's Place was The Village Bookstore owned by Marty Ahvenus. It opened in 1961 in the Gerrard Street Village in Toronto; a creative hub of the 60's and 70's which eventually gave way to the inevitable high-rises of urban renewal. Marty Ahvenus was an early supporter of emerging Canadian authors Margaret Atwood, bpNichol and many others.
Elizabeth worked for Marty in her late teens, and at Coach House Press, working on her own projects among others. Her memoir of these times recalls the early flowering of CanLit which is evident in the blooming garden of Canadian books today.
Two poems from Airborne complete the program, accompanied by Doug Jamieson's original music by the same title.
Watching the Light Below the Storm and Elizabeth's earlier poetry book, A Fragile Grace are available through bookstores or direct from the publisher, Ekstasis Editions.
Smoke and Mirrors
Sheila Martineau
Episode: P040
Broadcast dates: August 22 to September 04, 2022
Length: 23'' mins
Host: Ingrid Rose
Broadcast dates: August 22 to September 04, 2022
Length: 23'' mins
Host: Ingrid Rose
Smoke and Mirrors, a chapter from Sheila Martineau’s memoir, I Wanted to Tell You This: a memoir of magic, music, and madness, untangles the challenges she endured as the ‘disobedient daughter’ of brilliant but brutal, misguided parents and the strategies she used to combat and escape.
Her father was a professional magician and commercial artist. Her mother was a gold-medal classical pianist. They were high school sweethearts who performed together on stage and married while still in their teens.
Sheila Martineau PhD is a writer, copy editor, book designer, and social researcher who collaborates with artists, architects, and publishers. Her scholarly articles and doctoral dissertation focused on issues relating to childhood trauma.
sheilamartineau.com.
Rewriting Resilience: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Childhood Resilience and the Politics of Teaching Resilience to 'Kids at Risk. (UBC, 1999)
Her father was a professional magician and commercial artist. Her mother was a gold-medal classical pianist. They were high school sweethearts who performed together on stage and married while still in their teens.
Sheila Martineau PhD is a writer, copy editor, book designer, and social researcher who collaborates with artists, architects, and publishers. Her scholarly articles and doctoral dissertation focused on issues relating to childhood trauma.
sheilamartineau.com.
Rewriting Resilience: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Childhood Resilience and the Politics of Teaching Resilience to 'Kids at Risk. (UBC, 1999)
My Elderly Young Child
Clarissa Green
Episode: P040
Broadcast dates: August 08 to August 21, 2022
Length: 31'' mins
Host: Ingrid Rose
Broadcast dates: August 08 to August 21, 2022
Length: 31'' mins
Host: Ingrid Rose
Families, in turn, are knit together or torn apart by the stories we tell ourselves and each other.
Clarissa Green understands the world-creating power of stories. The author, who died in August, 2020 after seeing her book to publication, practised as a family therapist in Vancouver for decades, specializing in the dilemmas of adult children and their frail, elderly parents.
Clarissa reads from her book Grownupedness, a meditation on what she learned, both in her clinical practice and in her own family. Her particular interest is in the way that adult children and their parents all yearn to be seen by other family members as competent, mature adults. Hence the playful title of this remarkable book, Grownupedness.
These are deftly sketched accounts of family pain, laughter and renewal as families respond to the traumas of aging and the looming presence of death. Green, who worked hard in local creative writing programs and writers’ groups to perfect her craft as a storyteller, brings these fraught moments of family dynamics to life with vivid descriptions and telling anecdotes.
Clarissa Green understands the world-creating power of stories. The author, who died in August, 2020 after seeing her book to publication, practised as a family therapist in Vancouver for decades, specializing in the dilemmas of adult children and their frail, elderly parents.
Clarissa reads from her book Grownupedness, a meditation on what she learned, both in her clinical practice and in her own family. Her particular interest is in the way that adult children and their parents all yearn to be seen by other family members as competent, mature adults. Hence the playful title of this remarkable book, Grownupedness.
These are deftly sketched accounts of family pain, laughter and renewal as families respond to the traumas of aging and the looming presence of death. Green, who worked hard in local creative writing programs and writers’ groups to perfect her craft as a storyteller, brings these fraught moments of family dynamics to life with vivid descriptions and telling anecdotes.
The GhostBrush
Katherine Govier
Episode: P039
Broadcast dates: July 25 to August 07, 2022
Length: 30 mins
Host: Carole Harmon
Broadcast dates: July 25 to August 07, 2022
Length: 30 mins
Host: Carole Harmon
Katherine Govier's historical novel, The Ghost Brush celebrates the life of Oei (hey you) the daughter, student, assistant and eventually fellow artist of Katsushika Hokusai, the most famous artist of the Edo period (1603 - 1867) in Japan . In The Ghost Brush Oei is a ghost narrator of her own life.
There is in this book a mystery to be solved; an intimate look at Edo, a closed culture poised on the brink of opening itself to the west; a portrait of a lifelong relationship between father and daughter; and a view into a closed and secret culture in which women were currency and citizens were not permitted to accrue wealth.
Oei became an acknowledged painter in her own time despite the restrictive social rules women lived under in the Edo period. Her significant contributions to Hokusai's later works are now acknowledged by some scholars, including attributions for some paintings credited to her father. Nevertheless her death and the fate of her paintings continues to be shrouded in mystery.
The sequel to The Ghost Brush, The Red Fuji, in which the ghost of Oei continues to search for her lost paintings is in a long lineup somewhere between finished manuscript and bookstores. We will announce a release date in our Writers Radio newsletter when we know it.
The Ghost Brush was published by Harper Collins. In the US it was titled The Print Maker's Daughter.
An extended edition of the book is available as an e-book from Apple Books and Kodo in the collection Katherine Govier Three Book Bundle In this edition there is another character, Rebecca, who becomes obsessed with Oei and joins the hunt for her lost paintings and for answers to questions of attribution of Hokusai's later works.
Find out more about this author and her other novels on her website: katherinegovier.com
There is in this book a mystery to be solved; an intimate look at Edo, a closed culture poised on the brink of opening itself to the west; a portrait of a lifelong relationship between father and daughter; and a view into a closed and secret culture in which women were currency and citizens were not permitted to accrue wealth.
Oei became an acknowledged painter in her own time despite the restrictive social rules women lived under in the Edo period. Her significant contributions to Hokusai's later works are now acknowledged by some scholars, including attributions for some paintings credited to her father. Nevertheless her death and the fate of her paintings continues to be shrouded in mystery.
The sequel to The Ghost Brush, The Red Fuji, in which the ghost of Oei continues to search for her lost paintings is in a long lineup somewhere between finished manuscript and bookstores. We will announce a release date in our Writers Radio newsletter when we know it.
The Ghost Brush was published by Harper Collins. In the US it was titled The Print Maker's Daughter.
An extended edition of the book is available as an e-book from Apple Books and Kodo in the collection Katherine Govier Three Book Bundle In this edition there is another character, Rebecca, who becomes obsessed with Oei and joins the hunt for her lost paintings and for answers to questions of attribution of Hokusai's later works.
Find out more about this author and her other novels on her website: katherinegovier.com
The Ancestral Gift
Reclaiming the Commons
Heather Menzies
Episode: P038
Broadcast dates: July 11 to July 24, 2022
Length: 28'' mins
Host: Ingrid Rose
Broadcast dates: July 11 to July 24, 2022
Length: 28'' mins
Host: Ingrid Rose
Much of Heather Menzies' adult life has been spent writing, researching, teaching and giving talks throughout the world about critical issues of our time. Understanding herself to be a seeker, and feeling the limits of the current academic discourse, she welcomed the inner debate between her intellectual self and the self that knew there were other experiential ways of "knowing".
In conversation with writers radio host Ingrid Rose, she tells the remarkable story of an early experience as a child, her connection to something much larger than her known world, and reads from her book, Reclaiming the Commons for the Common Good, A memoir and manifesto about re-connection with her Highland Scottish ancestors who had lived by the laws of the Commons until the English "Clearances" drove them from the land they knew in their bones.
In conversation with writers radio host Ingrid Rose, she tells the remarkable story of an early experience as a child, her connection to something much larger than her known world, and reads from her book, Reclaiming the Commons for the Common Good, A memoir and manifesto about re-connection with her Highland Scottish ancestors who had lived by the laws of the Commons until the English "Clearances" drove them from the land they knew in their bones.
Out of Africa, Out of the Fire
Jane Mortifee
Episode: P037
Broadcast dates: June 27 to July 10, 2022
Length: 24'' mins
Host: Ingrid Rose
Broadcast dates: June 27 to July 10, 2022
Length: 24'' mins
Host: Ingrid Rose
Jane Mortifee’s 2018 novel, Out of the Fire, could be read as a balm for the troubled, chaotic times we find ourselves in. It tells of a quest for forgiveness and healing from the ravages of vengeance, bitterness and hate.
On the riverbank near an African village, a violent act sets into motion fates that intertwine and continue to bring anguish and torment through to the next generation. How can reconciliation and forgiveness ever bring healing when grief, revenge and destiny continue to play out their purpose? When a devastating fire rips through the village, lives are lost and survivors are changed forever.
The scene Jane Mortifee reads for this writers radio program takes place several years after the fire. A meeting between the young woman, Ntombi, and young man, Mantla, in the first flush of awareness of their mutual attraction. The story is as much about the characters as it is the potency of the tribal earth which is Africa and the powerful spiritual healers. The trials undertaken through different destinies to find resolution.
On the riverbank near an African village, a violent act sets into motion fates that intertwine and continue to bring anguish and torment through to the next generation. How can reconciliation and forgiveness ever bring healing when grief, revenge and destiny continue to play out their purpose? When a devastating fire rips through the village, lives are lost and survivors are changed forever.
The scene Jane Mortifee reads for this writers radio program takes place several years after the fire. A meeting between the young woman, Ntombi, and young man, Mantla, in the first flush of awareness of their mutual attraction. The story is as much about the characters as it is the potency of the tribal earth which is Africa and the powerful spiritual healers. The trials undertaken through different destinies to find resolution.
Man and This Mysterious Universe
Shamcher Bryn Beorse
Episode: P036
Broadcast dates: June 13 to June 26, 2022
Length: 44'' mins
Host: Carole Harmon
Broadcast dates: June 13 to June 26, 2022
Length: 44'' mins
Host: Carole Harmon
Join host Carole Harmon in conversation with Carol Sill in part 2 of a 2 part series. Carol Sill is the publisher of Man and This Mysterious Universe and the previously unpublished memoir of Shamcher Bryn Beorse, A Sufi Went To War.
In our last episode we explored Beorse’s experiences in World War 2 as related in his wartime memoir, A Sufi Went to War, which was completed in 1979 but only published in May 2022 by Alpha Glyph Publications.
At the same time Beorse was leading MI5 agents through the mountains of Norway at night, plotting to kidnap Hitler with high level Allied and German officials, and seeing action himself he was scribbling in his notebook the beginnings of Man and This Mysterious Universe which was published in 1949 and re-released in 2015, by Alpha Glyph Publications.
Shamcher was the student and friend of Sufi mystic Inayat Khan who had encouraged him to write what they both saw as a book for future humanity.
A celebrated musician in his native India, Inayat Khan spread the spiritual and practical message of love, harmony and beauty through his music and teachings in Europe and America between 1910 and 1926.
Carol Sill edits and publishes The Shamcher Bulletin, a newsletter on Substack. She also publishes a newsletter of her own writing on Substack, Personal Papers: Writing from the Intersection of Imagination and Reality.
A Sufi Went to War, Man and Man and This Mysterious Universe and other titles by Shamcher Bryn Beorse are published by Alpha Glyph Publications on Salt Spring Island, BC, Canada. All titles are available on Amazon.
In our last episode we explored Beorse’s experiences in World War 2 as related in his wartime memoir, A Sufi Went to War, which was completed in 1979 but only published in May 2022 by Alpha Glyph Publications.
At the same time Beorse was leading MI5 agents through the mountains of Norway at night, plotting to kidnap Hitler with high level Allied and German officials, and seeing action himself he was scribbling in his notebook the beginnings of Man and This Mysterious Universe which was published in 1949 and re-released in 2015, by Alpha Glyph Publications.
Shamcher was the student and friend of Sufi mystic Inayat Khan who had encouraged him to write what they both saw as a book for future humanity.
A celebrated musician in his native India, Inayat Khan spread the spiritual and practical message of love, harmony and beauty through his music and teachings in Europe and America between 1910 and 1926.
Carol Sill edits and publishes The Shamcher Bulletin, a newsletter on Substack. She also publishes a newsletter of her own writing on Substack, Personal Papers: Writing from the Intersection of Imagination and Reality.
A Sufi Went to War, Man and Man and This Mysterious Universe and other titles by Shamcher Bryn Beorse are published by Alpha Glyph Publications on Salt Spring Island, BC, Canada. All titles are available on Amazon.
A Sufi Went To War
Shamcher Bryn Beorse
Episode: P035
Broadcast dates: May 30 to June 12, 2022
Length: 36'' mins
Host: Carole Harmon
Broadcast dates: May 30 to June 12, 2022
Length: 36'' mins
Host: Carole Harmon
Carol Sill in conversation with Carole Harmon
Airdate: May 30 - June 12, 2022 - at the top of each hour, every hour
Join host Carole Harmon in conversation with Carol Sill, publisher of the previously unpublished memoir of Shamcher Bryn Beorse, A SUFI WENT TO WAR.
Shamcher (his Sufi name) was a Norwegian engineer, economist, author, and Sufi who distinguished himself in WW2 as spy, strategist and soldier often working with MI 5 and resistance fighters.
Carol Sill became Shamcher's close friend and student in his later years when he lived in Bremerton, Washington on the west coast of the USA. Since Shamcher's death in 1980 Carol has worked as archivist and publisher to bring his published and unpublished manuscripts of philosophy, essays, fiction, and memoir to the public.
Carol hesitated to publish A Sufi Went to War, which Shamcher completed in 1979, in a time of relative world peace. The war in Ukraine has revealed a need for fresh perspectives and a more nuanced understanding of history.
Shamcher Bryn Beorse was the student and friend of sufi mystic Inayat Khan. A celebrated musician in his native India, Inayat Khan spread the spiritual and practical message of love, harmony and beauty through his music and teachings in Europe and America between 1910 and 1926.
Shamcher recalled:
After one of Sufi Inayat’s talks, a listener asked, “Should a Sufi be a pacifist?”
Said Inayat, “If people of goodwill lay down their arms today, they will be forced into war, forced to fight—not FOR their ideals but AGAINST them.”
Three of Inayat’s children shortly afterwards distinguished themselves in World War II. I went over the hill to serve, though pacifists screamed at me.
In this episode Carol reads the chapter, To Kidnap a Head of State.
This was an actual plot to kidnap Hitler in the midst of World War 2 which, had it succeeded, would have ended the war. It is by no means the only incident of espionage, daring and mysterious occurrences in A Sufi Went to War which may be ordered on Amazon.
Carol Sill edits and publishes The Shamcher Bulletin, a newsletter on Substack. She also publishes a newsletter of her own writing on Substack, Personal Papers: Writing from the intersection of imagination and reality.
A Sufi Went to War, and other titles by Shamcher Bryn Beorse are published by Alpha Glyph Publications on Salt Spring Island, BC, Canada.
Airdate: May 30 - June 12, 2022 - at the top of each hour, every hour
Join host Carole Harmon in conversation with Carol Sill, publisher of the previously unpublished memoir of Shamcher Bryn Beorse, A SUFI WENT TO WAR.
Shamcher (his Sufi name) was a Norwegian engineer, economist, author, and Sufi who distinguished himself in WW2 as spy, strategist and soldier often working with MI 5 and resistance fighters.
Carol Sill became Shamcher's close friend and student in his later years when he lived in Bremerton, Washington on the west coast of the USA. Since Shamcher's death in 1980 Carol has worked as archivist and publisher to bring his published and unpublished manuscripts of philosophy, essays, fiction, and memoir to the public.
Carol hesitated to publish A Sufi Went to War, which Shamcher completed in 1979, in a time of relative world peace. The war in Ukraine has revealed a need for fresh perspectives and a more nuanced understanding of history.
Shamcher Bryn Beorse was the student and friend of sufi mystic Inayat Khan. A celebrated musician in his native India, Inayat Khan spread the spiritual and practical message of love, harmony and beauty through his music and teachings in Europe and America between 1910 and 1926.
Shamcher recalled:
After one of Sufi Inayat’s talks, a listener asked, “Should a Sufi be a pacifist?”
Said Inayat, “If people of goodwill lay down their arms today, they will be forced into war, forced to fight—not FOR their ideals but AGAINST them.”
Three of Inayat’s children shortly afterwards distinguished themselves in World War II. I went over the hill to serve, though pacifists screamed at me.
In this episode Carol reads the chapter, To Kidnap a Head of State.
This was an actual plot to kidnap Hitler in the midst of World War 2 which, had it succeeded, would have ended the war. It is by no means the only incident of espionage, daring and mysterious occurrences in A Sufi Went to War which may be ordered on Amazon.
Carol Sill edits and publishes The Shamcher Bulletin, a newsletter on Substack. She also publishes a newsletter of her own writing on Substack, Personal Papers: Writing from the intersection of imagination and reality.
A Sufi Went to War, and other titles by Shamcher Bryn Beorse are published by Alpha Glyph Publications on Salt Spring Island, BC, Canada.
Layers of Exile
Lawrence Feuchtwanger
Episode: P034
Broadcast dates: May 16 to May 29, 2022
Length: 34'' mins
Host: Ingrid Rose
Broadcast dates: May 16 to May 29, 2022
Length: 34'' mins
Host: Ingrid Rose
Lawrence Feuchtwanger joins Ingrid Rose to discuss his work and read from his poetry book, Refugee Song, and from his unpublished novel, Skin.
Lawrence writes: …of the sweetness. tenderness, disillusionment and bitterness of growing up and coming of age amidst the tumult and aching beauty of South Africa
…of the legacy of wanderings and displacements of my parents, and their parents, and their parents’ parent’s parents, exiles and refugees from a hostile European anti-Semitism
…of my own self-imposed exile, drifting through continents and countries—from South Africa to England, through Europe and overland from Cairo back to Johannesburg and from there to Canada, to Vancouver and now here, Gabriola Island, grateful to live and write on the traditional lands of the Snuneymuxw First Nation.
Refugee Song is available from the publisher, Signature Editions or your favourite bookstore.
Lawrence writes: …of the sweetness. tenderness, disillusionment and bitterness of growing up and coming of age amidst the tumult and aching beauty of South Africa
…of the legacy of wanderings and displacements of my parents, and their parents, and their parents’ parent’s parents, exiles and refugees from a hostile European anti-Semitism
…of my own self-imposed exile, drifting through continents and countries—from South Africa to England, through Europe and overland from Cairo back to Johannesburg and from there to Canada, to Vancouver and now here, Gabriola Island, grateful to live and write on the traditional lands of the Snuneymuxw First Nation.
Refugee Song is available from the publisher, Signature Editions or your favourite bookstore.
Traitors Among Us
Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
Episode: P033
Broadcast dates: May 02 to May 15, 2022
Length: 35'' mins
Host: Carole Harmon
Broadcast dates: May 02 to May 15, 2022
Length: 35'' mins
Host: Carole Harmon
Marsha Skrypuch in conversation with Carole Harmon
Airdate: May 2 - 15, 2022 - at the top of each hour, every hour
Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch writes about war from a young person’s point of view. She is the author of more than twenty books for young people; many shine a spotlight on the complicated history of WW2 and its aftermath, still being enacted today in the war in Ukraine.
Her protagonists are children and teens who must cope with the horrors of war as active participants, finding their way with resilience, courage, and wit. Traitors Among Us is based on the very real Soviet 'Silence Camps' in the Soviet Zone and Soviet Union following the end of WW2. Krystia and Maria, teen-age sisters from a small town in Ukraine, have separately survived harrowing wartime situations. As the book opens it is 1945. WW2 is over, but not the repercussions of the war. Krystia and Maria, together at last, have sought asylum in the American Zone—a transient and short lived interlude of safety.
Marsha’s books are widely available in bookstores and libraries in audio, book form and e-book. They are published by Scholastic in Canada and the US.
Airdate: May 2 - 15, 2022 - at the top of each hour, every hour
Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch writes about war from a young person’s point of view. She is the author of more than twenty books for young people; many shine a spotlight on the complicated history of WW2 and its aftermath, still being enacted today in the war in Ukraine.
Her protagonists are children and teens who must cope with the horrors of war as active participants, finding their way with resilience, courage, and wit. Traitors Among Us is based on the very real Soviet 'Silence Camps' in the Soviet Zone and Soviet Union following the end of WW2. Krystia and Maria, teen-age sisters from a small town in Ukraine, have separately survived harrowing wartime situations. As the book opens it is 1945. WW2 is over, but not the repercussions of the war. Krystia and Maria, together at last, have sought asylum in the American Zone—a transient and short lived interlude of safety.
Marsha’s books are widely available in bookstores and libraries in audio, book form and e-book. They are published by Scholastic in Canada and the US.
The People's Poet
Fiona Tinwei Lam
Episode: P032
Broadcast dates: April 18 to May 01, 2022
Length: 23'' mins
Host: Ingrid Rose
Broadcast dates: April 18 to May 01, 2022
Length: 23'' mins
Host: Ingrid Rose
Fiona Tinwei Lam is a well loved Vancouver poet who became the City of Vancouver's sixth Poet Laureate in 2022.
In conversation with Ingrid Rose, Fiona discusses her legacy project, City Poems Contest, in which youth, emerging, and established poets are invited to create poems. These poems would foster greater understanding about significant historical, cultural and ecological sites on the unceded traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tseil-Waututh peoples now known as the City of Vancouver.
The winners will be announced in June, 2022. In 2023, these winning poems will be offered as source material for City Poems Contest Phase Two, in which film makers will compete to turn winning poems into video-poems.
Fiona Tinwei Lam is the author of Intimate Distances (finalist for the City of Vancouver Book Prize), Enter the Chrysanthemum and Odes & Laments. She also authored the illustrated children's book, The Rainbow Rocket.
Visit Fiona's website, https://fionalam.net/, to learn more about City Poems Contest (and how to order her books!)
A position such as Poet Laureate can overshadow the work of the poet so honoured. In this Writers Radio episode Fiona reads poems about the evolving life of a young family.
Intimate and sometimes raw poems about family—challenges of motherhood are described from the vantage points of a daughter and of a mother.
Listen and enjoy!
The winners will be announced in June, 2022. In 2023, these winning poems will be offered as source material for City Poems Contest Phase Two, in which film makers will compete to turn winning poems into video-poems.
Fiona Tinwei Lam is the author of Intimate Distances (finalist for the City of Vancouver Book Prize), Enter the Chrysanthemum and Odes & Laments. She also authored the illustrated children's book, The Rainbow Rocket.
Visit Fiona's website, https://fionalam.net/, to learn more about City Poems Contest (and how to order her books!)
A position such as Poet Laureate can overshadow the work of the poet so honoured. In this Writers Radio episode Fiona reads poems about the evolving life of a young family.
Intimate and sometimes raw poems about family—challenges of motherhood are described from the vantage points of a daughter and of a mother.
Listen and enjoy!
Love and Death
Jeremy Page
Episode: P031
Broadcast dates: April 04 to April 17, 2022
Length: 30'' mins
Host: Carole Harmon
Broadcast dates: April 04 to April 17, 2022
Length: 30'' mins
Host: Carole Harmon
Jeremy Page in conversation with Carole Harmon
Airdate: April 4 - 17, 2022 - at the top of each hour, every hour
Jeremy Page is a writer, editor, playwright and translator. He was Director of the Centre for Language Studies at the University of Sussex.
Carole Harmon comments:
I'm struck by the fellowship of writers who pursue similar means of reaching readers and listeners. Jeremy is founding editor of the long running literary journal, Frogmore Papers, and a member of Needlewriters, a co-operative which showcases writers from Sussex and Kent in England. My co-producer, Ingrid Rose, studied at the University of Sussex. Small world.
Dance Me To The End Of Love is the story Jeremy has chosen to read for Writers Radio listeners. The famous Leonard Cohen song is like a recurring minor character in a story which traces love and loss, illness, death, and renewal in the relationship of two friends and their beloveds.
Jeremy's writing is influenced by the writing of philosopher and journalist Albert Camus, one of the Twentieth Century's great writers. His 1947 novel La Peste foreshadowed the 1949-53 polio epidemic and our own Covid-19 Pandemic.
This story has another resonance with the time we are living in. Leonard Cohen's inspiration in writing Dance Me To the End Of Love; "arose from a photograph that I saw when I was a child, of some people in striped pyjamas prison uniforms with violins playing beside a smoke stack and the smoke was made out of gypsies and children, and this song arose out of that photograph." Leonard Cohen
The program closes with Jeremy reading two poems from his latest collection, The Naming and The Return.
Airdate: April 4 - 17, 2022 - at the top of each hour, every hour
Jeremy Page is a writer, editor, playwright and translator. He was Director of the Centre for Language Studies at the University of Sussex.
Carole Harmon comments:
I'm struck by the fellowship of writers who pursue similar means of reaching readers and listeners. Jeremy is founding editor of the long running literary journal, Frogmore Papers, and a member of Needlewriters, a co-operative which showcases writers from Sussex and Kent in England. My co-producer, Ingrid Rose, studied at the University of Sussex. Small world.
Dance Me To The End Of Love is the story Jeremy has chosen to read for Writers Radio listeners. The famous Leonard Cohen song is like a recurring minor character in a story which traces love and loss, illness, death, and renewal in the relationship of two friends and their beloveds.
Jeremy's writing is influenced by the writing of philosopher and journalist Albert Camus, one of the Twentieth Century's great writers. His 1947 novel La Peste foreshadowed the 1949-53 polio epidemic and our own Covid-19 Pandemic.
This story has another resonance with the time we are living in. Leonard Cohen's inspiration in writing Dance Me To the End Of Love; "arose from a photograph that I saw when I was a child, of some people in striped pyjamas prison uniforms with violins playing beside a smoke stack and the smoke was made out of gypsies and children, and this song arose out of that photograph." Leonard Cohen
The program closes with Jeremy reading two poems from his latest collection, The Naming and The Return.
Between Two
Daniela Elza
Episode: P030
Broadcast dates: March 21 to April 03, 2022
Length: 31'' mins
Host: Carole Harmon
Broadcast dates: March 21 to April 03, 2022
Length: 31'' mins
Host: Carole Harmon
Daniela Elza in conversation with Carole Harmon.
Daniela Elza's poems explore the space between two: people, species, media, times.
In this episode poems from her 2020 release the broken boat probe the break-down of her twenty year marriage.
We also discuss Daniela's collaborations with other artists.
Poems from milk tooth bane bone led to a melding of talents with Soressa Gardner in the album, crow morphologies.
Soressa Gardner (SelfDeconstructy Music) is a vocalist, laptop composer/improvisor, and sometimes songwriter.
Both artists have intense and unusual relationships with crows. The resulting spoken word/sound creations are haunting: the thin noose of light, from the album, wraps up the program.
Read/Hear more:
the broken boat is available from Mother Tongue Publishing and your preferred bookstore, as are some other titles by Daniela.
milk tooth bane bone (Leaf Press 2013), and other books by Daniela Elza, are available directly from Daniela's website, Strange Places.
crow morphologies, and other works by Soressa Gardner, are available through Soressa's bandcamp page.
Daniela Elza's poems explore the space between two: people, species, media, times.
In this episode poems from her 2020 release the broken boat probe the break-down of her twenty year marriage.
We also discuss Daniela's collaborations with other artists.
Poems from milk tooth bane bone led to a melding of talents with Soressa Gardner in the album, crow morphologies.
Soressa Gardner (SelfDeconstructy Music) is a vocalist, laptop composer/improvisor, and sometimes songwriter.
Both artists have intense and unusual relationships with crows. The resulting spoken word/sound creations are haunting: the thin noose of light, from the album, wraps up the program.
Read/Hear more:
the broken boat is available from Mother Tongue Publishing and your preferred bookstore, as are some other titles by Daniela.
milk tooth bane bone (Leaf Press 2013), and other books by Daniela Elza, are available directly from Daniela's website, Strange Places.
crow morphologies, and other works by Soressa Gardner, are available through Soressa's bandcamp page.
Memoir In Pieces
Kate Bird
Episode: P029
Broadcast dates: March 07 to March 20, 2022
Length: 23 mins
Host: Ingrid Rose
Broadcast dates: March 07 to March 20, 2022
Length: 23 mins
Host: Ingrid Rose
Kate Bird in conversation with Ingrid Rose
Kate Bird's first camera was a gift from her father, with whom she came to share his love of photography. Through every hardship and many moves in a troubled life, Kate’s father preserved the photographs he’d taken in his early years as an outdoorsman, and his collection of 1940s black-and-white negatives came to her.
Kate Bird's career as a librarian and researcher has been shaped by her love of photographs and their ability to capture both life at its most dramatic and the quiet beauty of the world. Her collection of essays, A Memoir In Pieces, is about family history, memory and photography.
In this Writers Radio episode Kate reads excerpts from two essays: Archival Record AN1940s, which was shortlisted for the Malahat Review’s 2021 Constance Rooke CNF Prize, and About Face.
Photo enthusiasts take note:
Kate Bird researched, edited and authored three books of photographs published by Greystone Books between 2016 and 2019. They can be ordered from the publisher or your favourite bookstore.
• Vancouver in the Seventies: Photos From A Decade That Changed the City
• City On Edge: A Rebellious Century of Protests, Riots, and Strikes.
• Magic Moments in BC Sports: A Century in Photos
Checkout the podcasts of previous episodes!
Subscribe to the Writers Radio free program announcement newsletter!
Kate Bird's first camera was a gift from her father, with whom she came to share his love of photography. Through every hardship and many moves in a troubled life, Kate’s father preserved the photographs he’d taken in his early years as an outdoorsman, and his collection of 1940s black-and-white negatives came to her.
Kate Bird's career as a librarian and researcher has been shaped by her love of photographs and their ability to capture both life at its most dramatic and the quiet beauty of the world. Her collection of essays, A Memoir In Pieces, is about family history, memory and photography.
In this Writers Radio episode Kate reads excerpts from two essays: Archival Record AN1940s, which was shortlisted for the Malahat Review’s 2021 Constance Rooke CNF Prize, and About Face.
Photo enthusiasts take note:
Kate Bird researched, edited and authored three books of photographs published by Greystone Books between 2016 and 2019. They can be ordered from the publisher or your favourite bookstore.
• Vancouver in the Seventies: Photos From A Decade That Changed the City
• City On Edge: A Rebellious Century of Protests, Riots, and Strikes.
• Magic Moments in BC Sports: A Century in Photos
Checkout the podcasts of previous episodes!
Subscribe to the Writers Radio free program announcement newsletter!
Exit Wounds
Tariq Malik
Episode: P028
Broadcast dates: February 21, 2022 to March 06, 2022
Length: 27'' mins
Host Ingrid Rose
Broadcast dates: February 21, 2022 to March 06, 2022
Length: 27'' mins
Host Ingrid Rose
After-effects of Colonialism
Broadcast Dates: February 21 - March 6, 2022
1947
In one of its final colonial acts on the Indian sub-continent, Great Britain partitioned disputed Punjab into Indian and Pakistani territories. Ten million people were dislocated and millions died as Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, and other religious minorities, who had lived together Were forced to abandon their homes.
Tariq Malik
was born into this chaos in Kotli, a village in Western (Pakistani) Punjab in 1951. The effects of this displacement and violence have shaped his life.
As an adult Tariq, who'd become a chemical engineer, moved to Kuwait to support his family, as his father had done before him. Harsh desert sands with buried corpses and land mines continue to inspire his present day writing.
Tariq emigrated to Canada and now lives in Vancouver. He writes poetry, historical fiction, and short stories about his own experiences of displacement, and that of others.
Exit Wounds, (poetry) will be released by Caitlin Press in fall 2022.
Rainsongs from Kotli, (short stories), is available from Amazon.
Tariq's poems are included in Unmooring the Komagata Maru – Charting Colonial Trajectories, (UBC Press, 2019)
Nights of Kleptomania, (poetry) and Chanting Denied Shores, (fiction), can be ordered from the author: Tariq Malik
Broadcast Dates: February 21 - March 6, 2022
1947
In one of its final colonial acts on the Indian sub-continent, Great Britain partitioned disputed Punjab into Indian and Pakistani territories. Ten million people were dislocated and millions died as Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, and other religious minorities, who had lived together Were forced to abandon their homes.
Tariq Malik
was born into this chaos in Kotli, a village in Western (Pakistani) Punjab in 1951. The effects of this displacement and violence have shaped his life.
As an adult Tariq, who'd become a chemical engineer, moved to Kuwait to support his family, as his father had done before him. Harsh desert sands with buried corpses and land mines continue to inspire his present day writing.
Tariq emigrated to Canada and now lives in Vancouver. He writes poetry, historical fiction, and short stories about his own experiences of displacement, and that of others.
Exit Wounds, (poetry) will be released by Caitlin Press in fall 2022.
Rainsongs from Kotli, (short stories), is available from Amazon.
Tariq's poems are included in Unmooring the Komagata Maru – Charting Colonial Trajectories, (UBC Press, 2019)
Nights of Kleptomania, (poetry) and Chanting Denied Shores, (fiction), can be ordered from the author: Tariq Malik
Squall - Part 2
Poems in the Voice of Mary Shelley
Chad Norman
Episode: P027
START: February 07, 2022
ENDS: February 20, 2022
Length: 26'' mins
Host Carole Harmon
START: February 07, 2022
ENDS: February 20, 2022
Length: 26'' mins
Host Carole Harmon
In PART 1 we hear of Percy Shelley's drowning in 1822 at age 29 in the Ligurian sea, off the coast of the town of Viareggio, Italy, when his sailing boat capsized in a storm. We also hear how Chad Norman came to write Squall in the voice of Mary Shelley.
PART 2
Squall: Poems in the Voice of Mary Shelley
Chad Norman discusses his experience as a man attempting to plumb the psyche of a woman he greatly admires who has been dead for over two hundred years.
Chad also elaborates on the fate of Mary Shelley following her husband's death; she struggles as a single mother and author, one he believes is undervalued to this day.
Frankenstein ; or, The Modern Prometheus, published in 1818, is Mary Shelley's best known work. She went on to publish several other novels. The Last Man, 1826, was prescient. Set in late twenty-first century Europe, a mysterious pandemic sweeps across the globe resulting in the near extinction of humanity.
Squall is beautifully illustrated with black-and-white line drawings by Judith S. Bauer of Parrsboro Nova Scotia.
Published by Guernica Editions as part of the Essential Poets Series, Squall may be ordered from the publisher, your favourite bookstore or online. It is not available as an e-book.
If you are intrigued to delve into the writing of Mary Shelley, various compilations and individual novels are available in print. Both Kindle and Apple Books have inexpensive editions of the Collected Works.
PART 2
Squall: Poems in the Voice of Mary Shelley
Chad Norman discusses his experience as a man attempting to plumb the psyche of a woman he greatly admires who has been dead for over two hundred years.
Chad also elaborates on the fate of Mary Shelley following her husband's death; she struggles as a single mother and author, one he believes is undervalued to this day.
Frankenstein ; or, The Modern Prometheus, published in 1818, is Mary Shelley's best known work. She went on to publish several other novels. The Last Man, 1826, was prescient. Set in late twenty-first century Europe, a mysterious pandemic sweeps across the globe resulting in the near extinction of humanity.
Squall is beautifully illustrated with black-and-white line drawings by Judith S. Bauer of Parrsboro Nova Scotia.
Published by Guernica Editions as part of the Essential Poets Series, Squall may be ordered from the publisher, your favourite bookstore or online. It is not available as an e-book.
If you are intrigued to delve into the writing of Mary Shelley, various compilations and individual novels are available in print. Both Kindle and Apple Books have inexpensive editions of the Collected Works.
Squall - Part 1
Poems in the Voice of Mary Shelley
Chad Norman
Episode: P026
START: January 24, 2022
ENDS: February 06, 2022
Length: 28'' mins
Host Carole Harmon
START: January 24, 2022
ENDS: February 06, 2022
Length: 28'' mins
Host Carole Harmon
Squall, Part 1: Poems in the Voice of Mary Shelley
In Mary Shelley's Tempest, his introduction to Squall, Poems in the Voice of Mary Shelley, George Elliott Clarke wrote:
I've known Chad Norman for thirty years. He's written fine work before, but Squall is one of his best....Certainly Mary Woolstonecraft Shelley is rendered brilliantly herein, both as the creator of a masterpiece, Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus (1818) and as the critical curator of a spouse-maker's legacy.
Mary Shelley's husband, Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, drowned at age 29 in the Ligurian sea, off the coast of the town of Viareggio, Italy, when his sailing boat capsized in a storm. The Shelleys' relationship was passionate, scandalous, haunted by tragedy; a union of artists as well as a marriage.
Percy Shelley’s body, recovered after days in the ocean, was burned on the beach by public order for health reasons. Women weren’t allowed to attend such occasions but Mary was given and preserved Percy’s charred heart in a box.
It is this which imaginatively locates each of the poems in Squall; on that beach, with that box, as Chad Norman re-imagines Mary Shelley reviewing her marriage in light of this final tragedy.
Clarke also comments in Mary Shelley's Tempest,
we witness Mary Shelley in communion with her own soul...
Squall, PART 2: Poems in the Voice of Mary Shelley, Airing February 07, 2022
My zoom conversation with Chad Norman about writing Squall was long and fascinating. We couldn't seem to stop talking. I have broken this conversation into three parts: two episodes about the writing of the book and a separate section (to be put on Writer's Radio website as an additional podcast) about the trials of launching his book during a pandemic.
The first episode explores the germination of Squall and the process of writing it. The second episode focuses Chad's experience as a man attempting to plumb the psyche of a woman he greatly admires who has been dead for over two hundred years. Chad locates this investigation squarely within the wave of the women's liberation movement of which Mary Shelley's mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, was a forerunner.
Squall is beautifully illustrated with black-and-white line drawings by Judith S. Bauer of Parrsboro Nova Scotia.
Published by Guernica Editions as part of their Essential Poets Series, Squall may be ordered from the publisher or your favourite bookstore or online. It is not available as an e-book.
If you are intrigued to delve into the writing of Mary Shelley both Kindle and Apple Books have inexpensive editions of the Collected Works and various compilations are available in print editions.
In Mary Shelley's Tempest, his introduction to Squall, Poems in the Voice of Mary Shelley, George Elliott Clarke wrote:
I've known Chad Norman for thirty years. He's written fine work before, but Squall is one of his best....Certainly Mary Woolstonecraft Shelley is rendered brilliantly herein, both as the creator of a masterpiece, Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus (1818) and as the critical curator of a spouse-maker's legacy.
Mary Shelley's husband, Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, drowned at age 29 in the Ligurian sea, off the coast of the town of Viareggio, Italy, when his sailing boat capsized in a storm. The Shelleys' relationship was passionate, scandalous, haunted by tragedy; a union of artists as well as a marriage.
Percy Shelley’s body, recovered after days in the ocean, was burned on the beach by public order for health reasons. Women weren’t allowed to attend such occasions but Mary was given and preserved Percy’s charred heart in a box.
It is this which imaginatively locates each of the poems in Squall; on that beach, with that box, as Chad Norman re-imagines Mary Shelley reviewing her marriage in light of this final tragedy.
Clarke also comments in Mary Shelley's Tempest,
we witness Mary Shelley in communion with her own soul...
Squall, PART 2: Poems in the Voice of Mary Shelley, Airing February 07, 2022
My zoom conversation with Chad Norman about writing Squall was long and fascinating. We couldn't seem to stop talking. I have broken this conversation into three parts: two episodes about the writing of the book and a separate section (to be put on Writer's Radio website as an additional podcast) about the trials of launching his book during a pandemic.
The first episode explores the germination of Squall and the process of writing it. The second episode focuses Chad's experience as a man attempting to plumb the psyche of a woman he greatly admires who has been dead for over two hundred years. Chad locates this investigation squarely within the wave of the women's liberation movement of which Mary Shelley's mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, was a forerunner.
Squall is beautifully illustrated with black-and-white line drawings by Judith S. Bauer of Parrsboro Nova Scotia.
Published by Guernica Editions as part of their Essential Poets Series, Squall may be ordered from the publisher or your favourite bookstore or online. It is not available as an e-book.
If you are intrigued to delve into the writing of Mary Shelley both Kindle and Apple Books have inexpensive editions of the Collected Works and various compilations are available in print editions.
Loss and Resilience
Colette Gagnon, Margot Blum and
Meharoona Ghani
Meharoona Ghani
Episode: P025
START: January 10, 2022
ENDS: January 23, 2022
Length: 34'' mins
Host Carole Harmon
START: January 10, 2022
ENDS: January 23, 2022
Length: 34'' mins
Host Carole Harmon
All living beings: humans, creatures, Earth itself experience trauma and loss. The ability to endure is the resilience each must activate, which has sustained life on Earth for billions of years.
Colette Gagnon’s memoir based poetry memorializes her family. The dead can dream us, she writes in For Leaving.
Colette dedicates her poems to family members and events: the death of her mother, the violent death of her brother Phil, and childhood events explored in her longer narrative piece, Lure dedicated to her Father and brother Phil.
Margot Blum’s poems are set within our collective entrapment by Covid. Past and present intertwine—invocations of lost love remembered with overarching perspectives of who, where, and when we are.
Meharoona Ghani’s intricate sestinas chart her experiences as a long time sufferer of Multiple Sclerosis. Her concurrent spiritual journey weaves body mind and spirit as she struggles with the ideal and experience of divine guidance.
Colette Gagnon and Margot Blum live and write in Vancouver, Meharoona on Vancouver Island, Canada.
Colette Gagnon’s memoir based poetry memorializes her family. The dead can dream us, she writes in For Leaving.
Colette dedicates her poems to family members and events: the death of her mother, the violent death of her brother Phil, and childhood events explored in her longer narrative piece, Lure dedicated to her Father and brother Phil.
Margot Blum’s poems are set within our collective entrapment by Covid. Past and present intertwine—invocations of lost love remembered with overarching perspectives of who, where, and when we are.
Meharoona Ghani’s intricate sestinas chart her experiences as a long time sufferer of Multiple Sclerosis. Her concurrent spiritual journey weaves body mind and spirit as she struggles with the ideal and experience of divine guidance.
Colette Gagnon and Margot Blum live and write in Vancouver, Meharoona on Vancouver Island, Canada.
Life and Art
Cornelia Hoogland and Ted Goodden
Episode: P024
START: December 27, 2021
ENDS: January 09, 2021
Length: 24'' mins
Host: Ingrid Rose
START: December 27, 2021
ENDS: January 09, 2021
Length: 24'' mins
Host: Ingrid Rose
Host Ingrid Rose
COSMIC BOWLING
Cornelia Hoogland & Ted Goodden
The collaboration between poet Cornelia Hoogland and artist Ted Goodden, who live on Hornby Island off the west coast in Canada, began as a life partnership.
Now it’s expressed through their interwoven artistic responses to the 64 archetypes, or hexagrams, of the Chinese Book of Changes, or I Ching, the oldest system of classical divination, and one of the oldest books in the world.
Imagine 64 wise texts informing AND responding to Ted Goodden’s sixty-four small clay figures of a naked man holding a ball, embracing a ball, leaning on a ball, throwing a ball, and so on...
Imagine Cornelia Hoogland responding to both sculptures and hexagrams in the context of her own life with sixty-four six line poems.
First an exhibition, now a book: Cosmic Bowling
Cosmic Bowling is available through Guernica Editions, your favourite bookstore, or online retailer
COSMIC BOWLING
Cornelia Hoogland & Ted Goodden
The collaboration between poet Cornelia Hoogland and artist Ted Goodden, who live on Hornby Island off the west coast in Canada, began as a life partnership.
Now it’s expressed through their interwoven artistic responses to the 64 archetypes, or hexagrams, of the Chinese Book of Changes, or I Ching, the oldest system of classical divination, and one of the oldest books in the world.
Imagine 64 wise texts informing AND responding to Ted Goodden’s sixty-four small clay figures of a naked man holding a ball, embracing a ball, leaning on a ball, throwing a ball, and so on...
Imagine Cornelia Hoogland responding to both sculptures and hexagrams in the context of her own life with sixty-four six line poems.
First an exhibition, now a book: Cosmic Bowling
Cosmic Bowling is available through Guernica Editions, your favourite bookstore, or online retailer
Winter Spell
9 writers remember and muse on the turning of the year
Episode: P023, Start:December 13, 2021
ENDS: December 26, 2021
Length: 35'
Host: Carole Harmon
ENDS: December 26, 2021
Length: 35'
Host: Carole Harmon
9 writers remember and muse on the turning of the year
Broadcast dates: Dec. 13 - 26. 2021
To celebrate the coming season we invited writers who participated in one of our programs during the past year to share memories or musings on the turning of the year in any of its manifestations as celebration, contemplation, cycle and renewal.
• Medwyn McConachy: Winter in the North
• Chris Kammler: When I Rise
• Sonya Lea: Solstice Celebration
• Sarah Knoebber: Burrowing Through
• Una Suseli O'Connell: Kris Kringle and Associates
• H.C Phillips: Return Instinct
• Julian Shillcock: Christmas Story
• Zoe Dagneault: Christmas 85
• Jacinda Oldale & Raw Honey: This Year
Broadcast dates: Dec. 13 - 26. 2021
To celebrate the coming season we invited writers who participated in one of our programs during the past year to share memories or musings on the turning of the year in any of its manifestations as celebration, contemplation, cycle and renewal.
• Medwyn McConachy: Winter in the North
• Chris Kammler: When I Rise
• Sonya Lea: Solstice Celebration
• Sarah Knoebber: Burrowing Through
• Una Suseli O'Connell: Kris Kringle and Associates
• H.C Phillips: Return Instinct
• Julian Shillcock: Christmas Story
• Zoe Dagneault: Christmas 85
• Jacinda Oldale & Raw Honey: This Year
Three Contemplations
Kurt Trzcinski, David Miller and Garry Ward
Episode: P022
START: November 29, 2021
ENDS: December 12, 2021
Length: 25'' mins
Host: Carole Harmon
START: November 29, 2021
ENDS: December 12, 2021
Length: 25'' mins
Host: Carole Harmon
Poetry + Essay + Jazz Poetry
Kurt Trzcinski composes a poem suite upon visiting Glacier Bay Alaska.
David Miller collaborates with pocket gophers.
Garry Ward riffs on life and music.
Broadcast dates: November 29 - December 12
KURT TRZCINSKI lives in Victoria on Vancouver Island, Canada. His work and studies as a biologist lead him far afield. With the mind of a scientist and the heart of a poet, his Glacier Bay Suite takes us deep into the intermingled reality we live in of personal/global, human/other than human, climate change/adaptation.
DAVID MILLER lives on twenty acres of cultivated wilderness surrounded by urban sprawl of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. His humorous essay on how to deal with pocket gophers without becoming a murderer is a reminder there are other ways of being with the abundant life around us.
GARRY WARD lives in New Westminster, BC. He is a self-described prairie boy who ran away from home to join the band. Fellow Traveller is a jazz poem in which he is reader and musician, writer and composer. It's from his chapbook, Life After Midnight: a collection of jazz poetry.
Kurt Trzcinski composes a poem suite upon visiting Glacier Bay Alaska.
David Miller collaborates with pocket gophers.
Garry Ward riffs on life and music.
Broadcast dates: November 29 - December 12
KURT TRZCINSKI lives in Victoria on Vancouver Island, Canada. His work and studies as a biologist lead him far afield. With the mind of a scientist and the heart of a poet, his Glacier Bay Suite takes us deep into the intermingled reality we live in of personal/global, human/other than human, climate change/adaptation.
DAVID MILLER lives on twenty acres of cultivated wilderness surrounded by urban sprawl of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. His humorous essay on how to deal with pocket gophers without becoming a murderer is a reminder there are other ways of being with the abundant life around us.
GARRY WARD lives in New Westminster, BC. He is a self-described prairie boy who ran away from home to join the band. Fellow Traveller is a jazz poem in which he is reader and musician, writer and composer. It's from his chapbook, Life After Midnight: a collection of jazz poetry.
Celebrating One Year On Air
Ingrid Rose, Carole Harmon and Gary Sill
Episode: P021
START: November 15, 2021
ENDS: November 28 12, 2021
Length: 38'' mins
Hosts, Ingrid Rose, Carole Harmon and Gary Sill
START: November 15, 2021
ENDS: November 28 12, 2021
Length: 38'' mins
Hosts, Ingrid Rose, Carole Harmon and Gary Sill
Celebrating One Year On Air
Writers Radio celebrates its first anniversary.
Our thanks to the forty writers who joined us this year and to our listeners in 100 + countries!
LISTEN! November 15 - 28 at the top of each hour
Ingrid, Gary and Carole are so delighted to reach this milestone. For this anniversary episode we offer our own work, as well as a conversation between the three producers, musing on where we have been and where we are going.
Ingrid Rose reads Under the Weather, which reflects so clearly our common anxieties within a planetary perspective at this unique time in our planet's history.
Gary Sill presents his piano composition, Orpheus Rising which he composed for the Sonic Boom Festival in Vancouver in 2019. On that occasion it was performed by Michael Parkes but in this rendition Gary has orchestrated the performance using computer software.
Carole Harmon reads two 'eco poems' as Ingrid has styled them. Paradesa is a poem inspired by Columbia Icefield in the Canadian Rockies. Congress With Fire is a tiny story set at Grassi Lakes, also in the Canadian Rockies.
Writers Radio airs around the world through our website and radio aggregators who have widened our distribution to worldwide listeners of English speaking radio.
We average between 650 and 1000 listeners for each episode with an average listening time of over 30 minutes. Listeners in Canada, the USA and Germany comprise our largest audience but we have listeners in the UK, Ethiopia, France, India, Bolivia and many other countries.
Writers Radio celebrates its first anniversary.
Our thanks to the forty writers who joined us this year and to our listeners in 100 + countries!
LISTEN! November 15 - 28 at the top of each hour
Ingrid, Gary and Carole are so delighted to reach this milestone. For this anniversary episode we offer our own work, as well as a conversation between the three producers, musing on where we have been and where we are going.
Ingrid Rose reads Under the Weather, which reflects so clearly our common anxieties within a planetary perspective at this unique time in our planet's history.
Gary Sill presents his piano composition, Orpheus Rising which he composed for the Sonic Boom Festival in Vancouver in 2019. On that occasion it was performed by Michael Parkes but in this rendition Gary has orchestrated the performance using computer software.
Carole Harmon reads two 'eco poems' as Ingrid has styled them. Paradesa is a poem inspired by Columbia Icefield in the Canadian Rockies. Congress With Fire is a tiny story set at Grassi Lakes, also in the Canadian Rockies.
Writers Radio airs around the world through our website and radio aggregators who have widened our distribution to worldwide listeners of English speaking radio.
We average between 650 and 1000 listeners for each episode with an average listening time of over 30 minutes. Listeners in Canada, the USA and Germany comprise our largest audience but we have listeners in the UK, Ethiopia, France, India, Bolivia and many other countries.
Big Reader
Susan Olding
Episode: P020
START: November 01, 2021
ENDS: November 14 12, 2021
Length: 30'' mins
Host: Ingrid Rose
START: November 01, 2021
ENDS: November 14 12, 2021
Length: 30'' mins
Host: Ingrid Rose
Big Reader; essays
Susan Olding
"If these essays were glass bells and you struck them one by one with your favourite pen, they would ring with the purest, clearest notes, each chapter in its singularity contributing to the gorgeous orchestral music that this book is. Olding has found exactly the right balance between the details of her life and the wide reach of research and obsession..."
Lorna Crozier, Canadian poet
Susan Olding "turns to the library to read her own life". Her literary essays reference books she has read, their effect on her at the time she read them and their continuing influence. The titles of the essays reference the location or circumstance germane to reading each book. Books read become her lifelong companions and teachers.
In this episode Susan chats with Ingrid Rose about her essay, Beach Reading which cycles around her recurring encounters with Doris Lessing's famous book, The Golden Notebook.
Big Reader was released in May, 2021 and may be ordered from the publisher, Freehand Books, your favourite bookstore, or online from Chapters Indigo or Amazon.
Susan Olding's previous book Pathologies: A Life in Essays, was selected by 49th Shelf and Amazon.ca as one of 100 Canadian books to read in a lifetime.
Susan Olding
"If these essays were glass bells and you struck them one by one with your favourite pen, they would ring with the purest, clearest notes, each chapter in its singularity contributing to the gorgeous orchestral music that this book is. Olding has found exactly the right balance between the details of her life and the wide reach of research and obsession..."
Lorna Crozier, Canadian poet
Susan Olding "turns to the library to read her own life". Her literary essays reference books she has read, their effect on her at the time she read them and their continuing influence. The titles of the essays reference the location or circumstance germane to reading each book. Books read become her lifelong companions and teachers.
In this episode Susan chats with Ingrid Rose about her essay, Beach Reading which cycles around her recurring encounters with Doris Lessing's famous book, The Golden Notebook.
Big Reader was released in May, 2021 and may be ordered from the publisher, Freehand Books, your favourite bookstore, or online from Chapters Indigo or Amazon.
Susan Olding's previous book Pathologies: A Life in Essays, was selected by 49th Shelf and Amazon.ca as one of 100 Canadian books to read in a lifetime.
Liberty's Children
Judith Lapadat and Gail Madjzoub
Episode P019
STARTS: October 18, 2021
ENDS: October 31, 2021
Length: 29'
Host, Carole Harmon
STARTS: October 18, 2021
ENDS: October 31, 2021
Length: 29'
Host, Carole Harmon
Liberty's Children
Gail Madjzoub
CRIMSON INK : A Novel of Modern Iran
1955-2011
Based on historical facts, Crimson Ink traces the multi-generational interweaving of three Iranian families through decades of great social change and upheaval. The novel is grounded in Gail's knowledge and experience of living within an extended Iranian Baha'i family over the course of her twenty year marriage.
The setting of Gail's reading is in the city of Shiraz, Iran. It’s early Autumn of 1955. The country is gradually emerging from the throes of its most recent clergy-led pogrom against its largest religious minority, the Baha’is.
Six year old Fareshteh and her mother Farah set the stage for the turbulent events to come.
Judith Lapadat
THE AGE OF GRANDCHILDREN
Judith Lapadat's coming of age novel takes place in the imagined near future, in a world ravaged by climate change. Best friends Becca and Honor have grown up in an all-female collective sheltering beneath the ruins of a bombed university.
Honor is a runner who carries trade packages to the wall surrounding their shelter, Becca is her watcher. Mother Stella is their group leader in this closed society. Judith's readings take place over a two day period which will awaken the girls to aspects of their world they have never suspected.
One of our intentions at Writers Radio is to welcome writers from beyond our immediate community and aquaintance. Writing is a solitary practice so groups like Salish Sea Writers and Oceanside Writers Group on Vancouver Island, which both Judith Lapadat and Gail Madjzoub participate in, are invaluable for developing manuscripts.
Crimson Ink may be ordered through bookstores or Amazon.
The Age of Grandchildren is the first novel in the Beyond Hope Series for which Judith is looking for a publisher.
Both authors are hard at work on sequels
Music and audio production
Gary Sill
Gail Madjzoub
CRIMSON INK : A Novel of Modern Iran
1955-2011
Based on historical facts, Crimson Ink traces the multi-generational interweaving of three Iranian families through decades of great social change and upheaval. The novel is grounded in Gail's knowledge and experience of living within an extended Iranian Baha'i family over the course of her twenty year marriage.
The setting of Gail's reading is in the city of Shiraz, Iran. It’s early Autumn of 1955. The country is gradually emerging from the throes of its most recent clergy-led pogrom against its largest religious minority, the Baha’is.
Six year old Fareshteh and her mother Farah set the stage for the turbulent events to come.
Judith Lapadat
THE AGE OF GRANDCHILDREN
Judith Lapadat's coming of age novel takes place in the imagined near future, in a world ravaged by climate change. Best friends Becca and Honor have grown up in an all-female collective sheltering beneath the ruins of a bombed university.
Honor is a runner who carries trade packages to the wall surrounding their shelter, Becca is her watcher. Mother Stella is their group leader in this closed society. Judith's readings take place over a two day period which will awaken the girls to aspects of their world they have never suspected.
One of our intentions at Writers Radio is to welcome writers from beyond our immediate community and aquaintance. Writing is a solitary practice so groups like Salish Sea Writers and Oceanside Writers Group on Vancouver Island, which both Judith Lapadat and Gail Madjzoub participate in, are invaluable for developing manuscripts.
Crimson Ink may be ordered through bookstores or Amazon.
The Age of Grandchildren is the first novel in the Beyond Hope Series for which Judith is looking for a publisher.
Both authors are hard at work on sequels
Music and audio production
Gary Sill
Towne Crier, Troubadour
Kevin Spenst
P018, October 04 to October 17, 2021
Length: 21'
Length: 21'
Host, Ingrid Rose
Towne Crier, Troubadour
In conversation, Ingrid Rose and Vancouver poet Kevin Spenst explore the territory of poem as performance, not on a stage but beyond cultural venues, in city and forest, from park benches and on poetry walks as reader's words interact with listeners in life. During Covid, Kevin performed over thirty physically distanced pop-up readings in person while most of the world was on Zoom.
And then he reads: surprising, hilarious, heart stopping poems with lines such as "...you can blame my tin ear for heeding the metallurgy of the dead" (from Hearts Amok: A Memoir in Verse).
In Ignite, Kevin sounds his father's schizophrenia; with wit and compassion.
Kevin is the poetry mentor at Simon Fraser University Continuing Education, The Writers Studio. His books may be ordered from your favourite bookstore or the publisher, Anvil Press and include: Hearts Amok: A Memoir In Vers" and Incite; Jabbering With Bing Bong.
Visit Kevin's website for upcoming encounters you may wish to attend.
Music and audio production, Gary Sill
Towne Crier, Troubadour
In conversation, Ingrid Rose and Vancouver poet Kevin Spenst explore the territory of poem as performance, not on a stage but beyond cultural venues, in city and forest, from park benches and on poetry walks as reader's words interact with listeners in life. During Covid, Kevin performed over thirty physically distanced pop-up readings in person while most of the world was on Zoom.
And then he reads: surprising, hilarious, heart stopping poems with lines such as "...you can blame my tin ear for heeding the metallurgy of the dead" (from Hearts Amok: A Memoir in Verse).
In Ignite, Kevin sounds his father's schizophrenia; with wit and compassion.
Kevin is the poetry mentor at Simon Fraser University Continuing Education, The Writers Studio. His books may be ordered from your favourite bookstore or the publisher, Anvil Press and include: Hearts Amok: A Memoir In Vers" and Incite; Jabbering With Bing Bong.
Visit Kevin's website for upcoming encounters you may wish to attend.
Music and audio production, Gary Sill
The Causes
Cathy Stonehouse
P017, September 20 to October 03, 2021
Length: 26'
Length: 26'
Host, Ingrid Rose
Host, Ingrid Rose
"The Causes"
Cathy Stonehouse is known for her poetry, short stories, and critical writing. These skills are keenly focused in her debut novel, The Causes.
Jose´Ramirez is a nineteen year old conscript in Argentina's invasion of Islas Malvinas in 1982. In English this archipelago, off the coast of Argentina in the south Atlantic, is known as the Falkland Islands.
Cathy was a teenager in England when this conflict broke out. The British fleet, with a rousing send off by Margaret Thatcher, sailed 8000 miles across the Atlantic to protect what had been a British Protectorate since 1841.
This strange war, which was never actually declared, saw extreme armed combat for 72 days. In the way of modern wars, it also never really ended. Argentina considers Islas Malvinas a province of Argentina and Britain still administers its Protectorate.
This clash of realities mirrors the experience of some of the Argentinian combatants, including the novel's protagonist, José, who were tortured by their own officers as the conflict overlapped with Argentina's ongoing Dirty War.
Whether declared or not, the multi-faceted effects of war are born by those who fight them, their families, and the societies in which they live. This is what Cathy writes about.
By choosing an Argentinian protagonist Cathy steps outside the usual narrative around the colonial history of these islands which were whaled by American, Scandinavian and European ships from the mid 1700's onward. These islands are among the wildest and inaccessible places on Earth. The indigenous population is birds.
In their conversation Cathy and Ingrid Rose discuss the process of writing this novel which has been gestating since Cathy was a teenager.
Mysterious, gripping, poetic and magic-realist, The Causes is a love story for a threatened planet, set in Argentina, Spain, the UK and the South Atlantic. (from the author's website)
Host, Ingrid Rose
"The Causes"
Cathy Stonehouse is known for her poetry, short stories, and critical writing. These skills are keenly focused in her debut novel, The Causes.
Jose´Ramirez is a nineteen year old conscript in Argentina's invasion of Islas Malvinas in 1982. In English this archipelago, off the coast of Argentina in the south Atlantic, is known as the Falkland Islands.
Cathy was a teenager in England when this conflict broke out. The British fleet, with a rousing send off by Margaret Thatcher, sailed 8000 miles across the Atlantic to protect what had been a British Protectorate since 1841.
This strange war, which was never actually declared, saw extreme armed combat for 72 days. In the way of modern wars, it also never really ended. Argentina considers Islas Malvinas a province of Argentina and Britain still administers its Protectorate.
This clash of realities mirrors the experience of some of the Argentinian combatants, including the novel's protagonist, José, who were tortured by their own officers as the conflict overlapped with Argentina's ongoing Dirty War.
Whether declared or not, the multi-faceted effects of war are born by those who fight them, their families, and the societies in which they live. This is what Cathy writes about.
By choosing an Argentinian protagonist Cathy steps outside the usual narrative around the colonial history of these islands which were whaled by American, Scandinavian and European ships from the mid 1700's onward. These islands are among the wildest and inaccessible places on Earth. The indigenous population is birds.
In their conversation Cathy and Ingrid Rose discuss the process of writing this novel which has been gestating since Cathy was a teenager.
Mysterious, gripping, poetic and magic-realist, The Causes is a love story for a threatened planet, set in Argentina, Spain, the UK and the South Atlantic. (from the author's website)
Whiteness Is Not An Ancestor
The Way Forward
Kate Regan phd, Christina Greené
S106, September 06 to September 19, 2021
Length: 27'
Length: 27'
Host, Carole Harmon
Not So Nice: Confessions of an "Innocent" White Woman
Alaska born and raised Kate Regan begins her essay with a question:
What is the myth of whiteness that those of us born with white skin must journey through and learn from?
Sharing with the listener from personal soul work and experiences from her professional career working with companies and organizations as diverse as Lucas Films, UN leadership development program, American Express and JFK University, Kate explores the meaning of conscience in it's original Greek and Latin meaning of knowledge within oneself.
Weltschmerz
German born, and an immigrant to the USA, Christina Greené comes from a family which has suffered unspeakable persecution and hardship. The title of her essay means world pain, the weight of the world in one's heart. Christina was guided in a loving way by her maternal grandmother, Hulda, to understand the tragedies of the past. Hulda's family were Kulags, peasant farmers in the Volhynia region of Ukraine, who suffered from Stalin's inhumane and murderous program of land annexation in the 1930's.
Who alive today does not feel Weltschmerz? And yet, despite the tragedies of the past, Christina’s essay focuses on healing.
Listen at the top of each hour:
August 25 - Sept. 5
Not So Nice: Confessions of an "Innocent" White Woman
Alaska born and raised Kate Regan begins her essay with a question:
What is the myth of whiteness that those of us born with white skin must journey through and learn from?
Sharing with the listener from personal soul work and experiences from her professional career working with companies and organizations as diverse as Lucas Films, UN leadership development program, American Express and JFK University, Kate explores the meaning of conscience in it's original Greek and Latin meaning of knowledge within oneself.
Weltschmerz
German born, and an immigrant to the USA, Christina Greené comes from a family which has suffered unspeakable persecution and hardship. The title of her essay means world pain, the weight of the world in one's heart. Christina was guided in a loving way by her maternal grandmother, Hulda, to understand the tragedies of the past. Hulda's family were Kulags, peasant farmers in the Volhynia region of Ukraine, who suffered from Stalin's inhumane and murderous program of land annexation in the 1930's.
Who alive today does not feel Weltschmerz? And yet, despite the tragedies of the past, Christina’s essay focuses on healing.
Listen at the top of each hour:
August 25 - Sept. 5
Traces On The Page
Jen Currin
P016, August 23 to September 05, 2021
Length: 27'
Length: 27'
Host, Ingrid Rose
In conversation with Ingrid Rose, Jen reflects on the challenge she has encountered in writing her recent short story collection, Hider/Seeker:
...we can get maybe 10% or even less of lived experience onto the page.
This quest to capture the ineffable nature of relationship permeates all Jen's work, as beloved poet and now as a teller of tales.
Listen at the top of each hour:
August 25 - Sept. 5
Hider/Seeker was published in 2018 by Anvil Press. This book and Jen's award-winning poetry titles: School, The Inquisition Yours, Hagiography, and The Sleep of Four Cities are available through local bookstores and online suppliers such as Amazon.
In conversation with Ingrid Rose, Jen reflects on the challenge she has encountered in writing her recent short story collection, Hider/Seeker:
...we can get maybe 10% or even less of lived experience onto the page.
This quest to capture the ineffable nature of relationship permeates all Jen's work, as beloved poet and now as a teller of tales.
Listen at the top of each hour:
August 25 - Sept. 5
Hider/Seeker was published in 2018 by Anvil Press. This book and Jen's award-winning poetry titles: School, The Inquisition Yours, Hagiography, and The Sleep of Four Cities are available through local bookstores and online suppliers such as Amazon.
Legacy
A Fine Balance
S105, August 09 to August 22, 2021
Length: 26'
Length: 26'
Host, Ingrid Rose
CAROLE HARMON:
In Mountain Light — Walking With My Grandfather
In this essay Carole explores her family's role in the colonial history of the Canadian Rockies where she was raised in a family of landscape photographers and worked as a photographer and publisher for many years.
I didn't intend to write about the plight of aboriginal people in Canada, Carole says. I began to think about boundaries. The National Parks were supposedly created for ALL Canadians but the National Parks Act excluded aboriginal people from these, their ancestral lands. Aboriginal people in Canada, after so many horrific injustices, even now being revealed, are still seen and treated as 'other' by mainstream Canadian society.
In her essay Carole explores her own photography as an example of transgressing boundaries.
UNA SUSELI O'CONNELL
The Cuckoo That Laid the Golden Egg—The Legacy of Nazi Gold in Switzerland
Una writes extensively about family history based on letters and diaries left by both sides of her family. Whereas Carole Harmon's family legacy is photographs, Una's is words.
Una's Swiss mother taught her, 'gold is good, gold will save your life'. Coming from a poor family in then impoverished Switzerland this belief of Una's mother is understandable. Instead the paralyzing spectre of want led to fear and imprudence.
This is an essay which explores how a country ignored its cultural heritage and values in order to secure prosperity and security, It reveals how thin and mutable the boundaries between victim and perpetrator actually are.
Una's family memoir, The Absent Prince explores the effect of war and other cultural values which shatter families by isolating and removing the men from family life. It can be ordered internationally through Amazon and more widely in the UK.
If you are new to this series, listen to our PODCAST of the Introduction to the series: Lisa Iversen, the editor, in conversation with Ingrid Rose.
Read more about the book: reviews, links to past online events on CAB Publishing website.
CAROLE HARMON:
In Mountain Light — Walking With My Grandfather
In this essay Carole explores her family's role in the colonial history of the Canadian Rockies where she was raised in a family of landscape photographers and worked as a photographer and publisher for many years.
I didn't intend to write about the plight of aboriginal people in Canada, Carole says. I began to think about boundaries. The National Parks were supposedly created for ALL Canadians but the National Parks Act excluded aboriginal people from these, their ancestral lands. Aboriginal people in Canada, after so many horrific injustices, even now being revealed, are still seen and treated as 'other' by mainstream Canadian society.
In her essay Carole explores her own photography as an example of transgressing boundaries.
UNA SUSELI O'CONNELL
The Cuckoo That Laid the Golden Egg—The Legacy of Nazi Gold in Switzerland
Una writes extensively about family history based on letters and diaries left by both sides of her family. Whereas Carole Harmon's family legacy is photographs, Una's is words.
Una's Swiss mother taught her, 'gold is good, gold will save your life'. Coming from a poor family in then impoverished Switzerland this belief of Una's mother is understandable. Instead the paralyzing spectre of want led to fear and imprudence.
This is an essay which explores how a country ignored its cultural heritage and values in order to secure prosperity and security, It reveals how thin and mutable the boundaries between victim and perpetrator actually are.
Una's family memoir, The Absent Prince explores the effect of war and other cultural values which shatter families by isolating and removing the men from family life. It can be ordered internationally through Amazon and more widely in the UK.
If you are new to this series, listen to our PODCAST of the Introduction to the series: Lisa Iversen, the editor, in conversation with Ingrid Rose.
Read more about the book: reviews, links to past online events on CAB Publishing website.
Lost Coast Writers
P015, July 26 to August 08, 2021
Length: 31'
Length: 31'
Host, Ingrid Rose
A special summer episode curated by Susan Dambroff:
writers from Lost Coast Writers Retreat in northern California
Susan Dambroff - Introduction
Chris Kammler - The Whistlin' Gal
Jeff DeMark - Guatemala
Chris Kammler - Spring Again 1 & 2
Chris Orr - The Library of Kisses
A special summer episode curated by Susan Dambroff:
writers from Lost Coast Writers Retreat in northern California
Susan Dambroff - Introduction
Chris Kammler - The Whistlin' Gal
Jeff DeMark - Guatemala
Chris Kammler - Spring Again 1 & 2
Chris Orr - The Library of Kisses
Whiteness Is Not An Ancestor
Honouring The Past
S104, July 12 to July 25, 2021
Length: 23'
Length: 23'
"Honouring The Past"
program 4 of 6
Summer Starr & Sharon Halfnight
In her introduction to the anthology Lisa Iversen writes:
In the collective field of the soul, everyone and everything belongs. This knowingness provides a necessary resource when there are experiences of injustice....Bringing visibility to both perpetrators and victims of injustice, whether past or present, is necessary to heal inheritances of collective trauma.
In this episode one writer explores her ancestral history while another looks at today's challenges and imagines the future.
Summer Starr
Whiteness in Colonial America: My Family's Legacy
Summer writes:
...for most of my life, as far as I knew, we were just Californians. This lack of history put the focus on the now, on the immediate, and the past held very little interest for me...My concept of family history was only a couple of generations back. That all changed in the summer of 2019.
Sharon Halfnight
White Walking
Sharon begins her essay:
I welcomed the invitation to contribute an essay to this book on whiteness before I had any idea about what it might require of me. It's been a tussle, a full body-mind-soul wrestling with what whiteness means in this context and what it means to me. There has been no comfort in this inquiry.
Host, Carole Harmon, Music and Audio Production, Gary Sill
If you are new to this series, listen to our podcast of the introduction to the series: Lisa Iversen, the editor, in conversation with Ingrid Rose.
Read more about the book: reviews, links to past online events on CAB Publishing website.
program 4 of 6
Summer Starr & Sharon Halfnight
In her introduction to the anthology Lisa Iversen writes:
In the collective field of the soul, everyone and everything belongs. This knowingness provides a necessary resource when there are experiences of injustice....Bringing visibility to both perpetrators and victims of injustice, whether past or present, is necessary to heal inheritances of collective trauma.
In this episode one writer explores her ancestral history while another looks at today's challenges and imagines the future.
Summer Starr
Whiteness in Colonial America: My Family's Legacy
Summer writes:
...for most of my life, as far as I knew, we were just Californians. This lack of history put the focus on the now, on the immediate, and the past held very little interest for me...My concept of family history was only a couple of generations back. That all changed in the summer of 2019.
Sharon Halfnight
White Walking
Sharon begins her essay:
I welcomed the invitation to contribute an essay to this book on whiteness before I had any idea about what it might require of me. It's been a tussle, a full body-mind-soul wrestling with what whiteness means in this context and what it means to me. There has been no comfort in this inquiry.
Host, Carole Harmon, Music and Audio Production, Gary Sill
If you are new to this series, listen to our podcast of the introduction to the series: Lisa Iversen, the editor, in conversation with Ingrid Rose.
Read more about the book: reviews, links to past online events on CAB Publishing website.
Home and Away
Coming To Terms With Loss And Identity
P014, June 28 to July 11, 2021
Length: 31'
Length: 31'
Host, Ingrid Rose
Mara Alper:
What Do You Take When You Don't Know Where You're Going?
Mara discovers...it isn't a dream but a powerful ceremony.
Janice Masur:
Shalom Uganda: A Jewish Community on the Equator
Janice remembers her childhood community.
Daniela Cohen:
Hilda and Justice
Daniella asks, can a lost home ever be refound?
Carol Groumoutis:
Home is Where You Are (Greek)
Carol affirms in her poem, the Greek would never not be Greek.
Mara Alper:
What Do You Take When You Don't Know Where You're Going?
Mara discovers...it isn't a dream but a powerful ceremony.
Janice Masur:
Shalom Uganda: A Jewish Community on the Equator
Janice remembers her childhood community.
Daniela Cohen:
Hilda and Justice
Daniella asks, can a lost home ever be refound?
Carol Groumoutis:
Home is Where You Are (Greek)
Carol affirms in her poem, the Greek would never not be Greek.
Whiteness Is Not An Ancestor
Words Can Kill
S103, June 14 to June 27, 2021
Length: 24'
Length: 24'
Sonya Lea:
Bloodlines
A Legal Lynching and a Family's Reckoning
Sabine Olsen:
It Cannot Be Condoned
Whiteness and the Legacy of War
Host, Ingrid Rose
The hanging in 1936 of Rainey Bethea, a young black man, for the rape and murder of an elderly white woman was the last public execution in America. Sonya Lea’s family participated in this event in various ways. In her essay, Bloodlines: A Legal Lynching and a Family's Reckoning, Sonya brings this event to light through her struggle, first to know, then to understand. Sonya is a writer of memoir and fiction who has lived in both the USA and Canada. She presently lives in Banff, in the Canadian Rockies.
Sabine's essay was developed from an interview with Lisa Iversen. Sabine is a Reiki master who emigrated to Canada from Munich, a birthplace she shares with Adolf Hitler. Reflecting on the speeches and rallies which swept Hitler to power in 1930's Germany, Sabine decries the increasing use of hate speech today. She writes: ...that's how it starts, a little bit, a little bit more, it gets bolder and bolder and before you know it there's a monster you can't control. Sabine lives near Abbotsford, west of Vancouver, Canada.
Bloodlines
A Legal Lynching and a Family's Reckoning
Sabine Olsen:
It Cannot Be Condoned
Whiteness and the Legacy of War
Host, Ingrid Rose
The hanging in 1936 of Rainey Bethea, a young black man, for the rape and murder of an elderly white woman was the last public execution in America. Sonya Lea’s family participated in this event in various ways. In her essay, Bloodlines: A Legal Lynching and a Family's Reckoning, Sonya brings this event to light through her struggle, first to know, then to understand. Sonya is a writer of memoir and fiction who has lived in both the USA and Canada. She presently lives in Banff, in the Canadian Rockies.
Sabine's essay was developed from an interview with Lisa Iversen. Sabine is a Reiki master who emigrated to Canada from Munich, a birthplace she shares with Adolf Hitler. Reflecting on the speeches and rallies which swept Hitler to power in 1930's Germany, Sabine decries the increasing use of hate speech today. She writes: ...that's how it starts, a little bit, a little bit more, it gets bolder and bolder and before you know it there's a monster you can't control. Sabine lives near Abbotsford, west of Vancouver, Canada.
The Octopus Has
Three Hearts (short stories)
Three Hearts (short stories)
Of Rats And Men
P013, May 31 to June 13, 2021
Length: 26'
Length: 26'
Rachel Rose: excerpt from Of Rats and Men
Interview, Ingrid Rose, Host, Carole Harmon
Rachel's stories explore cause and effect, inter-species bonding, and shine a glaring spotlight on the experience of being “other". The protagonists in her stories are individuals who have been harmed in life, who live on the margins of society. Their animal friends are creatures we also think of as other: rats for instance. Rachel is the author of poetry, prose, and now short story. She is a teacher, writing mentor and community activist who lives in Vancouver, Canada.
Interview, Ingrid Rose, Host, Carole Harmon
Rachel's stories explore cause and effect, inter-species bonding, and shine a glaring spotlight on the experience of being “other". The protagonists in her stories are individuals who have been harmed in life, who live on the margins of society. Their animal friends are creatures we also think of as other: rats for instance. Rachel is the author of poetry, prose, and now short story. She is a teacher, writing mentor and community activist who lives in Vancouver, Canada.
Whiteness Is Not An Ancestor
Essays on Life and Lineage
by White Women
by White Women
Roots Borders and Belonging
S102, May 17 to May 30, 2021
Length: 26'
Length: 26'
Karin Konstantynowicz:
Roots Borders and Belonging
June Blue Spruce:
Warning: Whiteness May Be Hazardous to Your Health
Host, Carole Harmon
Karin Konstantynowicz and her family emigrated to Canada from Eastern Europe following World War 2. Their roots are in contested territory which has changed its name, and its overlords many times. Starting with the idea of an "invasive species", Karin muses on the nature of identity and belonging and the experiences she and her family had as new immigrants to the Canadian prairies. Karin is a teacher, crisis counsellor, broadcaster and writer who lives in Vancouver, Canada.
June Blue Spruce comes from a long line of doctors in the USA. In her essay June probes the racist roots of the AMA and prevalent racism within the medical system in America. She delves into her own conflicted history as an activist, and a gay woman working within this system. June is a reformer, health worker, and writer who lives in Seattle, USA.
Roots Borders and Belonging
June Blue Spruce:
Warning: Whiteness May Be Hazardous to Your Health
Host, Carole Harmon
Karin Konstantynowicz and her family emigrated to Canada from Eastern Europe following World War 2. Their roots are in contested territory which has changed its name, and its overlords many times. Starting with the idea of an "invasive species", Karin muses on the nature of identity and belonging and the experiences she and her family had as new immigrants to the Canadian prairies. Karin is a teacher, crisis counsellor, broadcaster and writer who lives in Vancouver, Canada.
June Blue Spruce comes from a long line of doctors in the USA. In her essay June probes the racist roots of the AMA and prevalent racism within the medical system in America. She delves into her own conflicted history as an activist, and a gay woman working within this system. June is a reformer, health worker, and writer who lives in Seattle, USA.
Petra
P012, May 3 to May 16, 2021
Length: 24'
Length: 24'
Shaena Lambert: Petra (historical fiction)
Interview, Ingrid Rose, Host, Carole Harmon
Petra is a novel, not a biography of Petra Kelly. Yet, in its pages fictional and real characters are inspired by and closely follow the lives and events of that time. In 1980's Germany, NATO plans to deploy nuclear missiles which are expected to face off against those of the USSR. The Berlin Wall still stands. World War 3 seems almost inevitable. A charismatic young woman named Petra Kelly, half German, half American, inspires, charms and reasons her way to the forefront of the Peace Movement and becomes a founding member of the German Green Party. Shaena is a fiction writer and teacher who lives in Vancouver, Canada.
Interview, Ingrid Rose, Host, Carole Harmon
Petra is a novel, not a biography of Petra Kelly. Yet, in its pages fictional and real characters are inspired by and closely follow the lives and events of that time. In 1980's Germany, NATO plans to deploy nuclear missiles which are expected to face off against those of the USSR. The Berlin Wall still stands. World War 3 seems almost inevitable. A charismatic young woman named Petra Kelly, half German, half American, inspires, charms and reasons her way to the forefront of the Peace Movement and becomes a founding member of the German Green Party. Shaena is a fiction writer and teacher who lives in Vancouver, Canada.
Whiteness Is Not An Ancestor
Essays on Life and Lineage
by White Women
by White Women
Introduction
S101, April 19 to May 2, 2021
Length: 23'
Length: 23'
Lisa Iversen with host Ingrid Rose
Length: 23 mins
Using the lens of inherited trauma and family history, Whiteness Is Not an Ancestor offers a hopeful, humanizing path for dismantling whiteness.
For over two decades, family constellations facilitator and therapist Lisa Iversen has been working with groups, including descendants of ancestors who have perpetrated harm or been victimized in circumstances of injustice. In this collection of essays, she brings together twelve white women who explore the role of whiteness in collective movements of immigration, colonialism, slavery, and war. Through genealogical research, family documents, and deep reflection, these writers from the US, Canada, and the UK disentangle themes of innocence, grief, race, privilege, and belonging in their families and ancestries.
Each essayist shares moving stories and anecdotes from their life, adding historical and cultural context to current conversations about white women's role in creating and sustaining whiteness.
Length: 23 mins
Using the lens of inherited trauma and family history, Whiteness Is Not an Ancestor offers a hopeful, humanizing path for dismantling whiteness.
For over two decades, family constellations facilitator and therapist Lisa Iversen has been working with groups, including descendants of ancestors who have perpetrated harm or been victimized in circumstances of injustice. In this collection of essays, she brings together twelve white women who explore the role of whiteness in collective movements of immigration, colonialism, slavery, and war. Through genealogical research, family documents, and deep reflection, these writers from the US, Canada, and the UK disentangle themes of innocence, grief, race, privilege, and belonging in their families and ancestries.
Each essayist shares moving stories and anecdotes from their life, adding historical and cultural context to current conversations about white women's role in creating and sustaining whiteness.
Finding Gold In New York
P011, April 5 to April 18, 2021
Length: 20'
Length: 20'
Rosanna Hille: excerpts from Finding Gold in New York, read by Christina Marie Moth, a young Danish Canadian poet (memoir)
Interview Ingrid Rose, Host Carole Harmon
After raising a family, Rosanne embarked on a 20 year career working for an NGO and traveling the world helping people. Now she is returning to her early love of story and writing with a memoir about her remarkable life. Finding Gold in New York recounts Rosanna's first visit to the United Nations, and her amusing adventure in the city. Rosanna lives in Vancouver, Canada.
Interview Ingrid Rose, Host Carole Harmon
After raising a family, Rosanne embarked on a 20 year career working for an NGO and traveling the world helping people. Now she is returning to her early love of story and writing with a memoir about her remarkable life. Finding Gold in New York recounts Rosanna's first visit to the United Nations, and her amusing adventure in the city. Rosanna lives in Vancouver, Canada.
The Absent Prince
P010, March 22 to April 4, 2021
Length: 22'
Length: 22'
Una Suselli O’Connell: excerpts from The Absent Prince (memoir)
Host, Carole Harmon
Una's family memoir is based on journals and correspondence of several generations of her family. Primarily set in the twentieth century, it focuses the universal theme of war and its devastating effects on family life. One legacy of war is a cultural pattern which has arisen of men being physically absent, or emotionally unavailable, in family life, not only through actually fighting a war, but by continuing this pattern of absence through work and educational customs.
Una is an educator and writer who lives in Hertfordshire, near London, England.
Host, Carole Harmon
Una's family memoir is based on journals and correspondence of several generations of her family. Primarily set in the twentieth century, it focuses the universal theme of war and its devastating effects on family life. One legacy of war is a cultural pattern which has arisen of men being physically absent, or emotionally unavailable, in family life, not only through actually fighting a war, but by continuing this pattern of absence through work and educational customs.
Una is an educator and writer who lives in Hertfordshire, near London, England.
Transpoetic Imaginings
P009, March 8 to March 21, 2021
Length: 22'
Length: 22'
Liam ‘Captain’Snowden: poetry and improvisation,
Julian Gunn: poetry and improvisation
Guest host and interviewer: Medwyn McConachy
Producer, Ingrid Rose
For Transpoetic Imaginings guest host Medwyn McConachy crafted a lively mix of improvised poetry, conversation, interview and readings to showcase the work of transgender poets Liam, "Captain" Snowdon and Julian Gunn.
Both poets, who are friends, live in Victoria, on Vancouver Island in Canada. Captain is a Somatic Sex Educator, Anti-Violence Worker, and poet. Julian is a poet and English instructor at Camosun College. Medwyn is a multi-media artist and writer who lives on Saltspring Island in Canada.
Julian Gunn: poetry and improvisation
Guest host and interviewer: Medwyn McConachy
Producer, Ingrid Rose
For Transpoetic Imaginings guest host Medwyn McConachy crafted a lively mix of improvised poetry, conversation, interview and readings to showcase the work of transgender poets Liam, "Captain" Snowdon and Julian Gunn.
Both poets, who are friends, live in Victoria, on Vancouver Island in Canada. Captain is a Somatic Sex Educator, Anti-Violence Worker, and poet. Julian is a poet and English instructor at Camosun College. Medwyn is a multi-media artist and writer who lives on Saltspring Island in Canada.
Mothering in the Time of Covid
P008, Feb 22 to March 7, 2021
Length: 33'
Length: 33'
Barbara Baydala: She Emerges, Woman With Kind Eyes Says Stay Home, Round the Block (poetry)
Zoe Dagneault: In Her Shoes (auto-fiction)
Host, Carole Harmon
Who are the souls entering our world at this challenging time of pandemic, global climate crisis, and social unrest? How can we nurture and raise them to face the challenges of their future?
Barbara became a grandmother six months before the Covid Pandemic was announced. In a trilogy of moving poems Barbara shares her experiences with her newborn grand-daughter. Barbara is a poet who writes from Langley, south of Vancouver, Canada.
Through her auto-fiction short story Zoe Dagneault takes us into her world of a parent who grapples with how much to reveal, and how to contextualize world events for her precocious and empathic daughter. Zoe is a writer and editor, she lives in Burnaby, Canada.
Zoe Dagneault: In Her Shoes (auto-fiction)
Host, Carole Harmon
Who are the souls entering our world at this challenging time of pandemic, global climate crisis, and social unrest? How can we nurture and raise them to face the challenges of their future?
Barbara became a grandmother six months before the Covid Pandemic was announced. In a trilogy of moving poems Barbara shares her experiences with her newborn grand-daughter. Barbara is a poet who writes from Langley, south of Vancouver, Canada.
Through her auto-fiction short story Zoe Dagneault takes us into her world of a parent who grapples with how much to reveal, and how to contextualize world events for her precocious and empathic daughter. Zoe is a writer and editor, she lives in Burnaby, Canada.
What the Mouth Wants
Mushrooms And Memory
P007, Feb 8 to Feb 21, 2021
Length: 23'
Length: 23'
Monica Meneghetti: reading from Mushrooms and Memory in her memoir, What The Mouth Wants: A Memoir Of Food, Love And Belonging.
Interview by Ingrid Rose, host Carole Harmon
My Mom beamed herself to me, Monica writes in Mushrooms and Memory, an excerpt from her memoir which explores the intersections of loss, memory and sensuality. Monica lost her mother at age sixteen, yet her body, alive with sensual memory, summons details her mind has buried.What the Mouth Wants (Dagger Editions, 2017) was a Lambda Literary Award finalist and tied as the Bi Book Award winner in 2017.
Monica lives, loves, writes, teaches, and translates from the Italian in Vancouver, Canada.
Interview by Ingrid Rose, host Carole Harmon
My Mom beamed herself to me, Monica writes in Mushrooms and Memory, an excerpt from her memoir which explores the intersections of loss, memory and sensuality. Monica lost her mother at age sixteen, yet her body, alive with sensual memory, summons details her mind has buried.What the Mouth Wants (Dagger Editions, 2017) was a Lambda Literary Award finalist and tied as the Bi Book Award winner in 2017.
Monica lives, loves, writes, teaches, and translates from the Italian in Vancouver, Canada.
The Origin of Other: A Grimm of Poems
P006, Jan 25 to Feb 7, 2021
Length: 26'
Length: 26'
Cathie Borrie reads re-imagined fairytales from The Brothers Grimm (poetry)
Interview by Ingrid Rose
Host Carole Harmon, Music and audio production, Gary Sill
Cathie Borrie’s re-working of the Brothers Grimm fairy tales surprise with unexpected reversals in both plot and character. Stories which terrified and informed generations of children persist in our collective unconscious and are as relevant today as they have ever been.
Cathie Borrie has a background in public health and law; she has published both memoir and poetry and lives in Vancouver, Canada.
Interview by Ingrid Rose
Host Carole Harmon, Music and audio production, Gary Sill
Cathie Borrie’s re-working of the Brothers Grimm fairy tales surprise with unexpected reversals in both plot and character. Stories which terrified and informed generations of children persist in our collective unconscious and are as relevant today as they have ever been.
Cathie Borrie has a background in public health and law; she has published both memoir and poetry and lives in Vancouver, Canada.
Reality - Perception
P005, Jan 11 to 24, 2021
Length: 35'
Length: 35'
Julian Shilcock: Lest it Should Fall (poetry) and The Past Has Long Fingers (fiction)
Hannah Phillips: Object-Obsess-Compulse (lyric prose) and Rebellion in the Night (poetry)
Host, Carole Harmon, Music and audio production, Gary Sill
There is an uncanny connection between the work of these two writers who have never met but whose concerns with society and mental health, and their deep grounding in science, creates a resonance. Listen in and see if you agree.
Julian Shillcock is a physicist and writer currently living and working in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Hannah Phillips, Australian by birth, is a neuro-scientist and writer currently living in Port Moody, near Vancouver, Canada.
Hannah Phillips: Object-Obsess-Compulse (lyric prose) and Rebellion in the Night (poetry)
Host, Carole Harmon, Music and audio production, Gary Sill
There is an uncanny connection between the work of these two writers who have never met but whose concerns with society and mental health, and their deep grounding in science, creates a resonance. Listen in and see if you agree.
Julian Shillcock is a physicist and writer currently living and working in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Hannah Phillips, Australian by birth, is a neuro-scientist and writer currently living in Port Moody, near Vancouver, Canada.
Rapp’n & Riff’n
P004, Dec 28, 2020 to Jan 10, 2021
Length: 19'
Length: 19'
Jacinda, ‘Jake’ Oldale: A New Energy (poem) and Beneath the Surface (song)
Susan Dambroff and Chris Kammler: Afternoon (improv performance piece)
Sarah Knoebber: We Are Not in Danger & Rap Nap (poetry)
Carole Harmon: How Can We Attend to That Part of Us Which is Dangerous?
Host, Ingrid Rose, produced by Carole Harmon, Music and audio production, Gary Sill
A collage of sounds and words rings in the New Year of 2021 with exuberant observations on life in chaotic times.
Jacinda Oldale, poet, songwriter and foodoula (she cooks for new mothers) lives in Burnaby, Canada. Susan Dambroff and Chris Kammler live in the Bay Area in California and often perform together. Sarah Knoebber is an artist and bodyworker who is rebuilding her house on Galiano Island off the Vancouver coast in Canada. In this program she and Carole Harmon riff off each other.
Susan Dambroff and Chris Kammler: Afternoon (improv performance piece)
Sarah Knoebber: We Are Not in Danger & Rap Nap (poetry)
Carole Harmon: How Can We Attend to That Part of Us Which is Dangerous?
Host, Ingrid Rose, produced by Carole Harmon, Music and audio production, Gary Sill
A collage of sounds and words rings in the New Year of 2021 with exuberant observations on life in chaotic times.
Jacinda Oldale, poet, songwriter and foodoula (she cooks for new mothers) lives in Burnaby, Canada. Susan Dambroff and Chris Kammler live in the Bay Area in California and often perform together. Sarah Knoebber is an artist and bodyworker who is rebuilding her house on Galiano Island off the Vancouver coast in Canada. In this program she and Carole Harmon riff off each other.
On Being Twin
P003, Dec 14 to 27, 2020
Length: 28'
Length: 28'
Kathryn Alexander: On Being More Than One and Less Than One, and The Wave (poetry)
Ingrid Rose: The Walk (memoir)
Host, Carole Harmon, Music and audio production, Gary Sill
This episode features two writers with twin brothers. Each explores what it is to be a twin.
Kathryn Alexander is a poet and educator who lives in Port Moody, Canada.
Ingrid Rose, originally from London, England teaches and writes in Vancouver, Canada.
Ingrid Rose: The Walk (memoir)
Host, Carole Harmon, Music and audio production, Gary Sill
This episode features two writers with twin brothers. Each explores what it is to be a twin.
Kathryn Alexander is a poet and educator who lives in Port Moody, Canada.
Ingrid Rose, originally from London, England teaches and writes in Vancouver, Canada.
In Honour Of
Layerting, My Elderly Child
P002, Nov 30 to Dec 13, 2020
Length: 34'
Length: 34'
Medwyn McConachy: Layering (poetry)
Clarissa Green: In Search of My Elderly Young Girl (memoir)
Interview by Ingrid Rose
Host, Carole Harmon, Music and audio production, Gary Sill
This is a program which honours lost friends. Medwyn's poem was written after the loss of a long time partner and friend. Medwyn is a multi-media artist, witch, poet and memoirist who lives on Saltspring Island, Canada.
Clarissa passed away in the summer of 2020 following her long struggle with cancer. Friends arranged for the posthumous publication of her memoir, Grownupedness. Clarissa was a well loved writer and therapist in Vancouver, Canada.
Clarissa Green: In Search of My Elderly Young Girl (memoir)
Interview by Ingrid Rose
Host, Carole Harmon, Music and audio production, Gary Sill
This is a program which honours lost friends. Medwyn's poem was written after the loss of a long time partner and friend. Medwyn is a multi-media artist, witch, poet and memoirist who lives on Saltspring Island, Canada.
Clarissa passed away in the summer of 2020 following her long struggle with cancer. Friends arranged for the posthumous publication of her memoir, Grownupedness. Clarissa was a well loved writer and therapist in Vancouver, Canada.
Writers Radio - Live Today
P001, Nov 16 to 29, 2020
Length: 18'
Length: 18'
Barbara Baydala: All on This Depends (poetry)
Carole Harmon: Yarrow’s Offering (poetry)
Carole Harmon’s long poem, Yarrow’s Offering is read by actors from across Canada: Nancy Beatty, Barbara Parker, Colette Gagnon, Bart Robinson, David Miller, and the poet herself.
Host and introduction to Yarrow’s Offering, Ingrid Rose, Music and audio production, Gary Sill
Carole is a Canadian poet, memoirist and photographer and one of the founders and producers of Writers Radio. She lives in Halfmoon Bay, BC.
Barbara is a poet and historian who writes with wry humour from deep observation of human nature and its foibles from Langley, south of Vancouver, Canada.
Carole Harmon: Yarrow’s Offering (poetry)
Carole Harmon’s long poem, Yarrow’s Offering is read by actors from across Canada: Nancy Beatty, Barbara Parker, Colette Gagnon, Bart Robinson, David Miller, and the poet herself.
Host and introduction to Yarrow’s Offering, Ingrid Rose, Music and audio production, Gary Sill
Carole is a Canadian poet, memoirist and photographer and one of the founders and producers of Writers Radio. She lives in Halfmoon Bay, BC.
Barbara is a poet and historian who writes with wry humour from deep observation of human nature and its foibles from Langley, south of Vancouver, Canada.
Writers Radio broadcasts the same program at the beginning of each hour for two weeks. Then that program is replaced with a new one and the previous program appears here in the podcasts library.
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