Getting Lit with Linda - The Canadian Literature Podcast

2026 - Season 7 Teaser

Sun, 08 Mar 2026 22:22:47 GMT

Announcing our seventh season! We will be somewhat delayed this year, with a start date in the late spring, but we haven't forgotten about you, our dear listeners or authors - we will begin very soon! For now, some of our future guests - specialists of the life and literature of author, Jane Rule - Marilyn Schuster (the godmother of Jane Rule Studies!), Cate Sandilands, and Amber Dean - and the team at Getting Lit With Linda would like to share their best wishes for International Women's Day!

We acknowledge the Canada Council for the Arts for their support. Producer & Host: Linda Morra; Associate Producer: Maia Harris; Music: Raphael Krux.

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The Miracles of Change & Second Chances: Madeleine Thien's "Alchemy"

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:17:41 GMT

Why should we pay attention to scars or scar tissue? After the original injury heals and its pain recedes, should we ignore what’s left behind? In this episode, Linda mulls over these questions while considering Madeleine Thien's "Alchemy," from her collection, Simple Recipes. Don't know Thien's work? Check out her award-winning novel, Do Not Say We Have Nothing (which Linda discussed in Season 1, Episode 3) and her most recent novel, The Book of Records. She also offers her best wishes for the new year, in this, the last episode of Season 6 (2025).

Writer/host/producer: Linda Morra; Associate Producer: Maia Harris; Music: Raphael Krux (The Madness of Linda).

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A Story of Unfitting: Susan Swan's Memoir, Big Girls Don't Cry

Mon, 15 Dec 2025 18:30:04 GMT

Our warmest wishes for the season – and a reminder that this is the last interview for the podcast (there may be one smaller episode at the year’s end, but not an interview), before we open up voting for this year’s GLWL awards: the author featured in your favourite episode will receive a cash prize and medal to honour their involvement.

In this episode, Linda reflects on how boxes are at times about imposed limitations. "Don’t box me in," you might argue – or let’s try to think outside the box (because it’s time for a change!). And it is this -- thinking and living outside the lines (and boxes) -- that Susan Swan’s wonderful new memoir, Big Girls Don’t Cry: A Memoir About Taking Up Space (HarperCollijns), compels us to do, to locate our sense of dignity and agency, to find our sense of self-worth.

Swan is the author of several novels including The Biggest Modern Woman in the World (1983), The Last of The Golden Girls (1989), What Casanova Told Me (2004), and The Wives of Bath (1993), which was made into the film Lost and Delirious (3:45). In this episode, we discuss how taking up space can be positive for women (and men too!), a means to shift beyond the conventions that have hemmed her in (and us) and to find our way out of the boxes that have contained us.

Other points of discussion:

the genre of the memoir
Margaret Atwood and official autobiography
Soren Kierkegaard

Executive Producer: Linda Morra; Associate Producer: Maia Harris; Music by Raphael Krux ("The Madness of Linda") and Kevin MacLeod ("Natural Vibes"); Sound producer: Jason C.

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Ring-Side Seats in a High-Stakes Environment: Brian Stewart’s On the Ground

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 15:00:00 GMT

On a lovely fall afternoon in October, Linda drove up to possibly one of the most charming spots in Quebec, just off-island of Montreal —Hudson, on the unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka. Hudson has much to commend to it, but, in this instance, it was StoryFest, the annual literary program hosted through the Greenwood Centre that invites writers to come and speak to audiences there and that extends back to 2002 (yes, it’s been evolving over twenty years).

Linda drove up to Hudson to interview the journalist, Brian Stewart, about his memoir, On the Ground: My Life as a Foreign Correspondent -- a perfect book for this year's theme, Getting Lit Goes Global. Stewart was, for decades, one of Canada’s most prominent television journalists, acclaimed for his foreign coverage for both CBC’s The National and The Journal. Born in Montreal (welcome back, Brian!), and originally a newspaper reporter, he went on to become foreign correspondent for CBC in London and for NBC in Frankfurt. He worked in 10 war zones, hosted the CBC foreign affairs show Worldview, and interviewed many of the historic figures of his time.

In this interview and in his book, Stewart speaks of the urgency of having journalists on the ground to bear witness to what is happening across the globe and of having journalists as moral witnesses, reminding audiences of the costs globally of famine and war and environmental disaster, of the need for greater political accountability.

With thanks to StoryFest organizers, Julie Gedeon and Sandy Racicot, to Larry Cool for recording sound, and to Jason C. for sound production. Linda Morra, Producer/Host; Maia Harris, Associate Producer; and Raphael Krux, Music.

Just a reminder that voting opens soon for this year’s GLWL prize for best episode or author. Please do vote and honour your favourite writer represented in an episode of season 6, in 2025.

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Taking Out the Imperial Trash - Jovanni Sy's A Taste of Empire

Wed, 19 Nov 2025 04:44:41 GMT

Linda AND students of Bishop's University interview the award-winning Montreal-based playwright, Jovanni Sy, in this episode of Getting Lit With Linda. Linda considers how one of his plays in particular, A Taste of Empire (Talonbooks), obliges us confront the abuses of a system of globalization, wherein the processes involved in maximizing profit are brought to the fore. Even as the sous-chef, also named Jovanni Sy, tries to glamorize the industry of haute cuisine, we as spectators and readers must grapple with an imperialist system that undergirds it, that funnels wealth and resources from all corners of the earth to a centralized core.

Linda also announces a new award, the 2025 Getting Lit With Linda prize, being launched on December 15 of this year. We are inviting our listeners to choose either their favourite writer featured in an episodes of 2025 (Season 6) or their favourite episode in which a writer in the 2025 season was featured. The writer who wins the most votes will be given the GLWL prize of the year, with a small monetary award attached. Details about this award can be found on website, gettinglitwithlinda.com. So please DO take a moment to vote for your favourite author or episode featured this year!

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The Other Problem that Has No Name - The Passenger Seat by Vijay Khurana

Sat, 01 Nov 2025 18:00:00 GMT

Perhaps strangely, Linda applies Betty Friedan’s 1963 feminist critique of patriarchal society The Feminine Mystique, and specifically the text “The Problem That Has No Name,” to The Passenger Seat by Vijay Khurana. An Australian/British author, Khurana wrote this very fine debut novel about the real-life events of two young men from Port Alberni, Northern BC and about their toxic masculinity. This novel thus addresses another problem not yet properly identified, except perhaps in more general ways: disaffected or disconnected young men in Western society, who are situated in that space between adolescence and adulthood, and who are making key decisions about who they will become as they mature.

Linda calls upon Sarah Dowling’s very fine study, Here is a Figure: Grounding Literary Form to examine how that problem has been represented in literature in terms of upright (radicalized white male) figures and prone or supine figures (victims, casualties, gendered subjects). ButThe Passenger Seat suggests a posture that is somewhere in-between. And what is that posture and who is implicated? You’ll have to listen to the episode to find out....

Host/Writer: Linda Morra

Associate Producer: Maia Harris

Music: Raphael Krux

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Digital Trespassing: Human Rights in the Digital Age-- An Interview with Dr. Wendy Wong

Thu, 16 Oct 2025 02:03:30 GMT

Linda met Dr. Wendy Wong at a conference in Kelowna, organized by Dr. Karis Shearer (1:25) and hosted by SpokenWeb (1:20), when Dr. Wong spoke about her book, We, the Data (a nod to the preamble of the United States Constitution, 4:10) -- and, since then, Linda has been obsessed. Being an expert on archival theory in relation to women writers' materials, Linda has digitization - and now datafication (7:45) - very much on the brain (and probably on her computer too).

It led Linda to raise a question in this interview – at what point is datafication a form of digital trespassing? When is it going too far -- and when do we get to say it's gone too far? -- mining the details of our personal lives, even our bodies (as facial recognition technology reminds us), often for capitalist pursuits, without the direct (if not implied) consent of those furnishing the data?

And what's the difference, she also asks Dr. Wong, between libraries and their archives and datafication, another means of preservation? And in her telling response, Dr. Wong reminds us that libraries (3:30) are more important than ever before.

Other points of discussion:

The Daily Show (Tristan Harris, Center for Humane Technology, 6:00)
AI and Chat GPT and existential questions raised (6:50)
algorithms (10:45)

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Equity on a Bookshelf: An Interview with Stephanie Sinclair, Publisher of McClelland & Stewart

Sat, 04 Oct 2025 19:02:21 GMT

Does anyone remember that series, New Canadian Literature (NCL), produced by McClelland & Stewart? In this interview, Linda discusses the very much new and improved series, Kanata Classics (15:06), with Stephanie Sinclair, the publisher of McClelland & Stewart -- with special guest feature, Holly, her cat.

A co-editor in her own right (with her sister, Sara Sinclair), she produced You Were Made for this World (7:55) and A Steady Brightness of Being (8:02, conceived and developed in 2020, before Stephanie began working with McClelland & Stewart). Kanata Classics is Sinclair’s answer to NCL, although Kanata Classics has a much broader view in terms of who is included, represented, and celebrated within its purview - and it has a much broader reach, extending beyond Canadian borders.

Kanata Classics, launched in July of this year, 2025, features six books a year from a range of Indigenous and Canadian writers. Beautifully crafted and produced, with covers and design by Kelly Hill, Kanata Classics in its first year features Halfbreed by Maria Campbell (the restored edition!), Ru by Kim Thúy, Medicine Walk by Richard Wagamese, Bear by Marian Engel, Island by Alistair MacLeod and Nishga by Jordan Abel – and, of course, listeners will remember Linda had interviewed Jordan Abel in Episode 18 of Season 2. Other references include Cody Caetano (2:51), Joshua Whithead (3:30), Jessica Johns (3:34), Billy-Ray Belcourt (2:53) and Niigaan Sinclair (15:40).

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The Truth About Memoirs

Thu, 18 Sep 2025 04:00:46 GMT

In this episode, Linda examines the resurgence of the memoir, and what readers expect - and what she expects - when we pick one up. While the first part of the episode examines the features and history of the memoir, the last part is devoted to the wonderful new memoir by Susan Swan, Big Girls Don't Cry. Highlights of this episode include:

Giller prize long list (.45 sec)\
Lucy Knight and The Salt Path Scandal (1.11)
James Fray A Million Little Pieces (3.35)
Frederick Philip Grove, In Search of Myself (3:30)
The “truth” of memoir (5:44)
Difference between memoir and autobiography (7:34)
Julie Rak and her scholarly book, Boom! (6:12; 8:55)
Guernica Press, Eva Krakow, Voice Lessons (11:52)
ECW Press and a list of its published memoirs (13:00)
Random House and their list of memoirs (12:03, reference to Minelle Mahtani, 12:08)
Atwood and her new memoir, Book of Lives (13:35)
Philippe Lejeune & the autobiographical pact (9:56)
Betty Friedan, The Problem that Has No Name (19:09)

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The Lost City of Atlantis (our future, rather than our past): Cherie Dimaline’s The Marrow Thieves and James Cairns’ In Crisis, On Crisis: Essays in Troubled Times

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 01:06:56 GMT

In this episode, Linda begins by speaking about the Kingston Writers Fest (KWF) - if you are in reasonable distance, you MUST go! The most incredible line-up of authors will be there, including Madeleine Thien, Margaret Atwood, Canisia Lubrin, Nita Prose, and Ian Williams.

She then thinks about Atlantis - what if Atlantis were about our future and not our past? She uses Atlantis as a way of considering the dystopian novel, Cherie Dimaline’s The Marrow Thieves (Penguin Random House). Using James Cairns’ In Crisis, On Crisis: Essays in Trouble Times (Wolsak & Wyne), she thinks about why we read novels that are apocalyptic in nature. Cairns, she notes, refers to Rumaan Alam’s Leave the World Behind (HarperCollins) and shows how we get some measure of satisfaction from reading them. Dimaline’s novel may offer that kind of satisfaction, but it is very much based in Indigenous community and what Daniel Heath Justice would call “embodied sovereignty.”

Other highlights:

The Lost City of Atlantis (2:15; 3:04; 4:22)
Plato (2:50; 3:11)
Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis (4:12)
Thomas More’s Utopia (4:14)
Shakespeare’s Macbeth, hubris, and the tyranny of completion (8:14)
Daniel Heath Justice’s essay, “Go Away Water” (15:29)

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Invitation to Reparative Reading - An Interview with Canisia Lubrin About Code Noir

Tue, 01 Jul 2025 21:04:43 GMT

In this episode, Linda interviews the phenomenal Canisia Lubrin - the acclaimed writer, critic, professor, poet, and editor. Her first book Voodoo Hypothesis (Wolsak & Wynn, 2017) was named a CBC Best Book. Her second book, The Dyzgraphxst (M & S, 2020) won the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Poetry and the overall Literature prize, the Griffin Poetry Prize, and the Derek Walcott Prize. She is also a 2022 Civitella Ranieri Fellow and has held writer residences at Queen’s University and the appointed inaugural 2021 Shaftesbury Writer in Residence at Victoria College, University of Toronto, where she has taught creative writing.

This episode of Getting Lit With Linda focuses on her award-winning book, Code Noir (Knopf 2023), for which Lubrin won the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, among other accolades. In consideration of this book and how the reader is invited to engage with it, Linda mulls over Eve Sedgewick's essay, "Paranoid Reading and Reparative Reading, Or You're so Paranoid, You probably Think This Essay is About You." Applying Sedgewick's sense of the "reparative reader," Linda sees Lubrin's Code Noir (based on the real-life set of historical decrees that were passed centuries ago, in 1685 by King Louis XIV of France) as enjoining readers to participate in this way - not with a sense of paranoia (defensive!) but rather with an open and unassuming posture. Because Lubrin's Code Noir reminds us of the possibilities of art, form, and language, and our engagement with them.

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That Kind of Meta: The Double Life of Benson Yu - An Interview with Kevin Chong

Sun, 15 Jun 2025 22:20:50 GMT

In this episode, Linda chats with Kevin Chong about his novel The Double Life of Benson Yu (Simon & Schuster) shortlisted for the 2023 Giller Prize. It's a "meta" novel, in some ways - a concept that Linda explains in this episode - but it also had Linda thinking about the social media platform, Meta (formerly, Facebook). Whatever insights you might glean from this association and from this interview, what is clear is the real and urgent need to re-examine various forms of masculinity. The timing of this episode’s release - Father’s Day - underscores this importance.

In this novel, the main character, Benson Yu, is writing a graphic novel based on his own life, and he tells us as readers what he can't or won't talk about because of his traumatic past and injured masculinity. It's a compelling read that makes us consider character and genre in ways that are quite provocative.

Linda Morra (writer/producer), Maia Harris (associate producer), Rafael Krux (music), Aki Barabadi (marketing)

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We, the Subplot (or Flying Monkeys) - An Interview with Michael Crummey about The Adversary

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 18:00:00 GMT

What are flying monkeys?, Linda wonders - until her friend illuminates their place in relation to narcissists. Narcissism is key to understanding the Widow and Abe Strapp, two deliciously terrible main characters in Michael Crummey's novel, The Adversary (Knopf) -- which just won the Dublin Literary Award for 2025; this psychology is also key to understanding why certain subplot characters choose to orbit around them.

Since the novel may be read as a kind of running commentary on the present political moment, we must remember that we - not just readers, but rather the people who might see our reflections in the "subplot" characters - are important to the kinds of decisions made. The conditions of the subplot are affected by those of the plot - but that may also work in reverse. The interview with Crummey also connects his earlier novel, The Innocents (2019, Random House Canada), and The Adversary to William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience, explaining how these two novels might be read in relation to each other.

Linda Morra (executive producer); Maia Harris (associate producer); Raphael Krux (music)

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Adding People to a Family Isn't a Minus - Recalculating the Math Around Stepmothers (With Rachel McCrum and Amélie Prévost)

Mon, 12 May 2025 01:18:36 GMT

It's Mother's Day - and, while Linda considers how the mother is represented in several books (specifically Rachel Deustch (6:30), Boum (5:50; 6:55), and Mary Thaler (5:47), in their respective works, The Mother, Jellyfish, and Ulfhildr), she turns her attention to the figure of the stepmother, inspired in part by her conversation with the authors of La Belle-Mère/The Stepmother (L'Hexagone) by Rachel McCrum and Amélie Prévost (8:10) while she was at the Imagination Literary Festival (held at the Morrin Centre in Quebec City, 5:33).

C'est la fête des mères - et, tandis que Linda examine la façon dont la mère est représentée dans plusieurs livres (en particulier Rachel Deustch (6:30), Boum (5:50 ; 6:55), et Mary Thaler (5 : 47), dans leurs ouvrages respectifs,The Mother, Jellyfish, and Ulfhildr), elle s'intéresse à la figure de la belle-mère, inspirée en partie par sa conversation avec les auteurs de La Belle-Mère/The Stepmother (L'Hexagone) de Rachel McCrum et Amélie Prévost (8:10) lors de sa participation au festival littéraire Imagination (qui s'est tenu au Morrin Centre à Québec, 5:33).

Host & Writer: Linda Morra; Associate Producer: Maia Harris; Music: Raphael Krux.

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Why Vigilance Matters - Carol Off's At a Loss for Words: Conversation in an Age of Rage

Tue, 06 May 2025 04:50:18 GMT

In this episode, Linda speaks with the award-winning CBC journalist of As it Happens, Carol Off, about her new (and fifth!) book, At a Loss for Words: Conversation in an Age of Rage (Listeners, keep your eye out: A new edition of Off's book will be available in the fall!). Published in 2024, Off wrote the book as a "cautionary tale," as she observes in this interview - and, since then, some important political moments have evolved across the American and Canadian border. The book examines how key words, including freedom, democracy and truth, are being hijacked and weaponized in order to diminish liberal democracy. Linda and Carol speak about Roe v. Wade, the Bathhouse Raids, the outbreak of AIDS, women's rights, Judith Butler, the 2024 American election, Christopher Ruso and the "Strong and Free" organization, Hannah Arendt (25:20), Stephen Colbert's "Truthiness," the results of the 2025 Canadian election, and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale (29.09).

Carol Off reminds us - we are not entitled to our own facts (34:24), and we need to question everything (31:20).

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Revisioning the Three Rs - Michaela Di Cesare's Successions

Tue, 15 Apr 2025 14:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Linda revisits and revisions the three “Rs” – reading, writing, and arithmetic – to reformulate a new triad. Why? Because, in her interview with Michaela Di Cesare about her play Successions, Linda learns more about Anthony, one of the main characters, and his disorder, known as prosopagnosia. Di Cesare explains that she thought of this disorder as a means of representing how patriarchal culture is often blind to women and to their needs. Anthony is literally unable to recognize women’s faces, unable to read their particularities and individual and very human traits. From this point, Linda develops a broader metaphor, beginning with considerations of literacy (see CBC’s recent assessment) to the need to recalibrate our critical reading apparatus – and then Maia Harris suggests Elaine Castillo’s How To Read Now. And that sets the stage for the interview.

If you’d like to see one of Di Cesare’s current plays, Mickey & Joe (Good. Bad. Ugly. Dirty) is set to open at the Mirella & Lino Saputo Theatre from May 17-25 2025.

Executive Producer: Linda Morra; Associate Producer: Maia Harris; Sound Producer: James Healey; Music by Raphael Krux ("The Madness of Linda") and Kevin MacLeod ("Natural Vibes").

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"Now is the Time that Artists Must Get to Work" - Zilla Jones' The World So Wide

Tue, 01 Apr 2025 14:00:00 GMT

As a result of Zilla Jones’ The World So Wide, slated for publication with Cormorant Books on April 26, 2025, Linda reflects on opera (specifically Verdi’s La Forza Del Destino) – historically an elitist art form, but one that Felicity Alexander, the protagonist of Jones’ novel, in part challenges and overcomes through the very successes of her career. The trajectory of that career takes a darker turn when she finds herself in Grenada during the 1983 American invasion of that country – not an untimely revisioning of history in view of the current American political situation (27:40; 28:50).

Linda also speaks about Verdi’s La forza del destino with Renata Tibaldi as Leonore and her father's love for opera (2:15), before she turns to the interview with Zilla Jones to speak about the following:

Opera’s potential as an artform vs. its polarizing, and its elitism as art form (3:20; 12:30); Kathleen Battle (18:46; 19:00)
Arts vs. politics (13:30), and the uses of art in a time like this (6:00; 31:45)
Other authors: Shani Mootoo (Season 3, Episode 26, 6:00); Dionne Brand, Salvaging the Wreck (16:03); Sara Ahmed’s What’s the Use? (5:00; 6:15); Toni Morrison (31:50); Robinson Crusoe (16:15)
Decolonization and racial politics (12:15) and the novel as a colonial construct (16:15)
Felicity as mixed-race heroine (17:30; 33:20; naming of, 39:30)
Grenada (history of, 20:45, and its “Revo,” 23:10; Red Sky Revolution, 23.20); the history of the Panama Canal (27:40)
Jones' research for the novel (24:35)
Gender and racialized motherhood (34:10)

Executive & Sound Producer: Linda Morra; Associate Producer: Maia Harris; Music by Raphael Krux ("The Madness of Linda") and Kevin MacLeod ("Natural Vibes").

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What We Oughta Know ... About Powerful, Internationally-Recognized & Accomplished Women

Sat, 15 Mar 2025 17:22:26 GMT

In this first episode of Season 6 of Getting Lit With Linda, the host – Linda Morra – begins with a few important announcements: GLWL is now being supported by the Canada Council for the Arts! With that support, we have a "special" season that we're calling GETTING LIT GOES GLOBAL. It means we are emphasizing books or topics that take on international proportions or have international repercussions.

Getting Lit With Linda will now also feature an annual prize – more of that in future episodes. And we have a new team on board, featuring Maia Harris (Associate Producer), James Healey (Sound Producer), Aki Barabadi (Marketing Consultant), and Raphael Krux (Music).

Linda begins her discussion with a consideration of Martha Nussbaum’s Anger and Forgiveness, to mull over what to do with our anger (and specifically feminist anger, 21:00). Her guest, Andrea Warner points the way in her fresh and accessible book, We Oughta Know. Warner tells us what we should know, but don’t – that is, she tells us about how much the women she is examining – Celine Dion, Shania Twain, Alanis Morissette, and Sarah McLachlan -- did to work past gendered biases in the music industry to achieve international fame.

Warner reminds us that we need to understand and confront not just misogyny (18:00), and the male gaze (19:00), but also internalized misogyny (16:20), and that we ought to know is how to develop solidarity and love for all of us. And, even when we mess up, we need to remember we are all works in progress (16:40).

Andrea Warner has her own podcast, Pop This!, and has published other books, including The Time of My Life, and Rise Up and Sing: Power, Protest, and Activism in Music. We also speak about the following:

Sabrina Carpenter's Christmas special, A Nonsense Christmas
Lisa Whittington Hill's Girls Interrupted: How Pop Culture is Failing Women (Vehicule Press) and gender inequality in music representation (15:00)
Miss Piggy's anger (22.50)
Celine Dion's VERY AWESOME CANARY YELLOW POWER SUIT

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Season 6: Happy International Women's Day Wishes + Teaser

Sat, 08 Mar 2025 13:24:49 GMT

Happy International Women's Day - this is our Teaser for Season 6, in which a special guest joins Linda Morra to share our International Women's Day wishes with you, the listeners of Getting Lit With Linda!

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The Nine Days Of/Before Christmas - and the Final One of Season 5

Mon, 16 Dec 2024 00:59:43 GMT

n this 78th episode and the final one of season 5, Linda offers the “Nine Days of Christmas” with nine different book recommendations for the holidays. Who makes the cut? Well, we could say you need to listen to find out, but we want you to find the books easily, so here they are with their links:

Alice Zorn’s Colours in her Hands (Freehand Books), Téa Mutonji’s Shut Up You’re Pretty (VS Books, Arsenal), Katherena Vermette’s Real Ones (Hamish Hamilton), Ian Williams', What I Mean to Say (Anansi), Sarah Polley's Run Towards the Danger: Confrontations with a Body of Memory (Penguin), Suzette Mayr’s The Sleeping Car Porter (Coach House Press), Derek Webster’s National Animal (Véhicule Press), Sue Goyette's A Different Species of Breathing (WLUP),and Bart Vautour’s The Truth About Facts (Invisible Publishing)

Other References:

The entire team at Geting Lit With Linda wishes you a wonderful, restful holiday - we will be back in the New Year with some important developments! Stay tuned!

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"But I'm Holding a Pineapple" - An Open Letter to Ivan Coyote

Sun, 01 Dec 2024 16:41:53 GMT

Linda writes an open letter to Ivan Coyote, in response to their book, Care Of: Letters, Connections, and Cures (published by McClelland & Stewart during the pandemic). This important volume of letters is extraordinary and, while we're no longer in the throes of a pandemic, it remains as relevant as ever. With references to WB Yeat's poem "The Second Coming" and an article by Anna Russell that appeared in The New Yorker, this episode highlights the vital contribution this book makes - and it's more than just a pineapple.

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A Ghost Story Without Ghosts: Jenny Haysom's Keep

Sun, 17 Nov 2024 03:31:15 GMT

In this episode, Linda converses with Jenny Haysom (2.48) about her novel Keep (published by Anansi). Featuring three main characters, the narrative is driven by the conflict that emerges when Harriet, an elderly poet, is diagnosed with the onset of dementia and must face selling her house -- and the two home stagers, Eleanor and Jacob, tasked with emptying it of its contents. Both Eleanor and Jacob are drawn into Harriet's world and the questions around what we keep, what we throw away, and what we value and why. It becomes clear why Haysom refers to this Victorian-esque novel as "a ghost story without ghosts."

The discussion also turns toward Haysom's literary debut as a poet and her collection Dividing the Wayside (4.15, published by Palimpsest Press) and the difference between writing poetry and writing novels (4.32).

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Haunted by a Colonial Past - Michel Jean's Qimmik

Sat, 02 Nov 2024 03:16:54 GMT

A bilingual episode/un épisode bilingue. Linda opens with her delight about having won the Women in Podcasting Awards in Education - she effusively thanks her listeners!

What kinds of books haunt us and why? In this episode, Linda considers Eden Robinson's Monkey Beach and Jessica Johns' Bad Cree, but ultimately picks a book that thoroughly haunted her - Michel Jean's Qimmik (published by Libre Expression, not yet translated into English). Author of Kukum (House of Anansi) and editor of Amun:A Gathering of Indigenous Voices, Jean addresses one of the legacies of a colonial past not frequently addressed. Set in Nunavik, the novel traverses two time periods--that are connected in ways that are completely unexpected and deeply moving.

Quels types de livres nous hantent et pourquoi ? Dans cet épisode, Linda choisit un livre qui l'a profondément hantée : Qimmik de Michel Jean (publié par Libre Expression, pas encore traduit en anglais). Auteur de Kukum (House of Anansi) et rédacteur en chef d'Amun:A Gathering of Indigenous Voices, Michel Jean aborde l'un des héritages d'un passé colonial qui n'est pas souvent traité. Situé au Nunavik, le roman traverse deux périodes qui sont reliées de façon tout à fait inattendue et profondément émouvante.

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What I Was Meant to Do - An Interview with Amanda Peters

Thu, 17 Oct 2024 02:23:14 GMT

Linda opens with a word of thanks to her listeners who voted--because she is now a Finalist for the Women in Podcasting Awards.

This episode features an interview, which was live at Word on the Street in Toronto, with the writer of Mi'kmaq and settler descent, who published a novel, The Berry Pickers and, most recently, her short story collection, Waiting for the Long Night Moon (both published by published by Random House). It is a joyful and animated conversation, with an audience that was warm and supportive.

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An Unconventional Love Story in a Brat Summer: Corinna Chong’s Bad Land

Mon, 16 Sep 2024 02:31:57 GMT

Linda speaks with Corinna Chong about her novel, Bad Land, published by Arsenal Pulp Press and long-listed for the Giller Prize. Chong, originally from Calgary, lives in Kelowna, B.C. where she teaches English and fine arts at Okanagan College. She published her first novel, Belinda's Rings, in 2013.

In her opening remarks, Linda explains why she sees the protagonist and main narrator, Regina, as … well, kind of “brat.” She's a fascinating, messy, and lovable character who has buried her life--and the secrets around that life--in the home in which she and her brother, Ricky, were raised ... until he shows up with his daughter, Jez, with a new secret of their own. The tensions that are produced open wide the secrets by the novel's end, revealing both the beauty and violence that have haunted Regina for years.

Other sources of discussion or references include:

Henry James’ What Maisie Knew (14.45)
Aristotle (16:10)
Nabokov, Lolita (18.30)
Sinclair Ross, As For Me and My House (18.30; 19:30)
Unreliable narrators (18:50)
the geode (and archeology (25:25)

And a final reminder! Please vote for us in the Women's Podcasting Awards! Only a few days left!

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Breathing Life into the Drowning Girls

Sun, 01 Sep 2024 20:03:11 GMT

Linda considers the persistence of present-day misogyny, then speaks with Daniela Vlaskalic about her co-written play, The Drowning Girls, which features the women who were victims of a turn-of-the-century serial killer. It was such a famous case, even Agatha Christie mentioned it in one of her novels. To set the stage - pun intended - for this play, Linda outlines the legal and historical situation for women in Canada - obtaining the right to vote was a bare minimum., but even getting bank accounts and mortgages were an ordeal up until only a few decades ago. It's not so surprising that this history informs the present moment, when, for example, women still make less in terms of pay than men and disparaging remarks are being made about single women who have cats in the United States. (Linda is not afraid to mention that she has two cats - Pinky and Moe.) She also briefly alludes to women and legal matters, including her right to get a divorce.

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Being Educated About Being Educated

Thu, 20 Jun 2024 05:48:54 GMT

Linda has been mulling over what an education is, what purposes it serves. She was so curious about it that she begin to reflect on the etymology of the word. The root of “educate” comes from educe, from the Latin, meaning "to lead forth" or "lead out of," which then led her to think, leading out of … what? From where and to where? And who is doing the leading? For whom? And why? Weaving in her personal conversations and experiences alongside different cultural texts – from Valley of the Bird Tail to An Education to Tom Wayman’s “Did I Miss Anything?” – she ultimately focuses on M. NourbeSe Philip’s She Tries Her Tongue, Her Silence Softly Breaks to demonstrate the potential deleterious effects of an “education.” It is not always an innocent or innocuous process.

Also in this episode – our first giveaway ever! We have a book to give away in honour of Indigenous History Month. The first person to write to Linda (gettinglitwithlinda@gmail.com) with the correct response to the question Linda poses in this episode will receive a copy of Willie Poll’s (Metis) My Little Ogichidaa in addition to a gift from Getting Lit With Linda.

In the Takeaway, she notes that this episode is being released during Indigenous History Month, and so she recommends her listeners to visit the website, www.jelisautochtone.ca, which was produced by Dr. Colette Yellow Robe (member of the N. Cheyenne Nation in the USA), in addition to Cherie Dimaline's The Marrow Thieves.

References:

An Education, Scripted by Nick Hornby (3:55)

Willie Poll, My LItle Ochigidaa

Valley of The Bird Tail (4.40)

Emily Carr, Klee Wyck (5.15)

Clarke, Irwin’s expurgation of Klee Wyck (5:30)

Residential schools (6.15)

Re-education Camps, Vietnam (6:50)

Kim Thuy, Ru

Tom Wayman’s “Did I miss Anything?” (8:10)

M, NourbeSe Philip, She Tries Her Tongue, Her Silence Softly Breaks (9.50; 13.10; 15.10 )

Zong! (13:40)

“Discourse on the Logic of Language” (16.50)

Music: Raphael Krux (The Madness of Linda) and Brian Teoh (Finally See the Light)

Assistant Producer: Marco Timpano

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Intergenerational Power: Reclaiming Indigenous parenting

Sun, 02 Jun 2024 01:44:29 GMT

Indigenous mothers, Indigenous children, Indigenous parents – Willie Poll sees you – and she wants you to know that you’re enough.

In this episode of Getting Lit With Linda, Willie Poll (Metis Nation of Ontario) discusses with Linda why she wrote this children’s book, titled My Little Ogichidaa, and the source of inspiration for its creation – in large part, the Moose Hide Campaign (2:00).

The Moose Hide Campaign, which began as a BC-born Indigenous-led grassroots movement to engage men and boys in ending violence towards women and children, has since grown into a nationwide movement of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians from local communities, First Nations, governments, schools, colleges/universities, police forces and many other organizations – all committed to taking action to end this violence.

Willie and Linda also discuss Willie's collaboration with illustrator, Hawlii Pichette, a Mushkego Cree (Treaty 9) urban mixed ancestry artist and illustrator who currently resides in London, Ontario. Linda asks her to explain the title for her book, which means "my little warrior" -- and how being a warrior is not necessarily incompatible with being loving.

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Wishing Happy Anniversary / Birthday Wishes to The Geography of Pluto - An Interview with Christopher DiRaddo

Thu, 16 May 2024 06:17:24 GMT

Linda begins this episode with a brief acknowledgement of the passing of Nobel Prize winner for the short story, Alice Munro – who died a couple of days before this episode was aired. It's a pertinent moment to take pause when the subject of this episode is, in part, about anniversaries - which often include remembering when a beloved person dies or, as was the case only a few days ago, honouring a special person - like mothers on Mothers' Day. Who we choose to so honour and how we do so says a great deal about us, not just the persons we are honouring.

In this episode, Linda interview author Christopher DiRaddo about anniversaries, particularly the 10th one for his first novel, The Geography of Pluto, and his reading series (in Montreal), called The Violet Hour. Among other topics, they also discuss the following:

family, role of and shape (11.40)
Bronski Beat (16.50)
His other book, The Family Way
author Licia Canton (19.10; 21.45) and her support for Christopher
Marisa Portolese's Goose Village (exhibit, 22.32)
the titles and epigraphs of his novels (25.00), one from Le Petit Prince (27.30) and the other from a Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five.

And there is a Takeaway in this episode - appropriately (in view of our discussion about anniversaries and commemoration) referencing the Canada Post stamps that honour graphic novelists in Canada.

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"Learning Gently" about Reconciliation: Andrew Stobo Sniderman & Douglas Sanderson's Valley of the Birdtail

Wed, 01 May 2024 22:34:08 GMT

In this -- the second live episode of Getting Lit With Linda held at the Blue Metropolis Literary Festival and co-sponsored by the Quebec Writers' Federation -- Linda speaks with Andrew Stobo Sniderman and Douglas Sanderson (Amo Binashi, Beaver Clan, of the Opaskwayak Cree Nation) about their book, Valley of the Birdtail: An Indian Reserve, A White Town, and the Road to Reconciliation. The book has been receiving all manner of recognition. Here are some examples of the awards it has garnered:

Winner – 2023 Stubbendieck Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize
Winner – 2023 John W. Dafoe Book Prize
Winner – 2023 High Plains Book Award for Indigenous Writer
Winner – 2022 Manitoba Historical Society Margaret McWilliams Book Award for Local History
Winner – 2023 Quebec Writers’ Federation Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction and Concordia University First Book Prize.

And deservedly so. In this interview, Douglas and Andrew explain how and why we have arrived at the present moment and how there is hope for finding the pathway toward meaningful reconciliation.

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Bad Beauty: Marie Claire Blais' Mad Shadows

Mon, 15 Apr 2024 18:00:27 GMT

What does the work of painter Renoir and his paintings of full-bodied women (2.15; 12.34), and tanning beds (2:30) have to do with the Quebecois author Marie Claire Blais (3:15) and La Belle Bette/Mad Shadows (3:20)? Have a listen to today’s episode to find out …

In this episode, Linda looks at Blais’s Mad Shadows and its historical importance to Quebec. Among other subjects, she also references:

Value Village, Holt Renfrew 1:3; 11:58 )

Sheila Fischman (3:45)

New Yorker (4:47; 16:11)

Margaret Atwood (4:58; 16:24 )

Andre Gide, Andre Breton (5:22; 17:04 )

Karen Kain, Veronica Tennant (6:08; 18:02)

Elle magazine (11:43)

Fluevog Shoes (11:48)

Quel est le rapport entre l'œuvre du peintre Renoir et ses tableaux de femmes épanouies (2.15 ; 12.34), et les lits de bronzage (2:30), et l'auteure québécoise Marie Claire Blais (3:15) et La Belle Bette/Mad Shadows ( 3:20) ? Écoutez l'épisode d'aujourd'hui pour le découvrir...

Dans cet épisode, Linda se penche sur La Belle Bette et son importance historique pour le Québec. Parmi d'autres sujets, elle fait également référence à :

Value Village, Holt Renfrew (1:3 ; 11:58)

Sheila Fischman (3:45)

New Yorker (4:47 ; 16:11)

Margaret Atwood (4:58 ; 16:24 )

André Gide, André Breton (5:22 ; 17:04 )

Karen Kain, Veronica Tennant (6:08 ; 18:02)

Elle magazine (11:43)

Chaussures Fluevog (11:48)

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Plucking Women's Lives (and Messages) from the Shorelines of History

Mon, 01 Apr 2024 17:10:18 GMT

In this episode, Linda and Bryn Turnbull discuss her new historical novel, The Paris Deception - and what it means to represent women's lives historically when there has been inadequate records or representation for them.

Linda considers the Indigo Girls and their song about Virginia Woolf - and listening attentively to the voices of women through time. Turnbull alludes to The Monuments Men (both the movie and the book) and her novel as an equivalent for women to such a story. Among other topics, we address

necessary deceptions (18.56)
significant visual art work still missing since the Second World War (21.30)
women are scapegoats during Second World War (27)

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"Radical Self-Inclusion" - An Interview with Michael V. Smith

Sat, 16 Mar 2024 03:21:31 GMT

Michael V. Smith is a deeply loving, insightful poet and performer – who uses intimacy and humour as tools to explore pain. In this interview, Linda chats with him about power dynamics and bullying, as they address his poetry collection, Queers Like Me (published by Book*hug in 2023)

Here are some of the subjects we covered:

on the nature of creative writing and genre (6.15)
poetic technique, poetic devices, and poetic voice (verbatim poems: 6.45, 8.00, 42.43)
Facebook poem and writing about his father (9.35, 10.48, 27.50, 32.20)
depictions of masculinity (21.40 mistake with bike/book; 12.05, 21.25)
The Floating Man (13.03, 27.10)
Agnes Varda (12.12)
Eloise Marseille (4.18)
working across genres (16.25)
Michael reads from “Grandma Cooper’s Corpse” (20.25)
humour and contrast (22.42, 24.25)
poetry and knowledge - the function of poetry (37.00)
his chapbook (23.45)
dynamics of power and bullying (32, 32.40, 33.40)
the importance of nuance (34.50)
gay marriage (36.08)
Bronwen Wallace (38.30)
Lorna Crozier (39.20)
His memoir, My Body is Yours (40.38, published by Arsenal Pulp Press)
radical inclusion (46.54)

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Radical Self-Love, with Eloise Marseille

Sat, 02 Mar 2024 00:12:44 GMT

Eloise Marseille is the first guest for Season 5 - yes, season 5! - and, this time, it's English AND French (starting at the 31.55 mark for the French interview). Marseille is a wonderful Quebecoise graphic novelist, whose candid and humorous book, Naked: The Confessions of a Normal Woman / Confessions d'une Femme Normale examines sexuality and self-love--especially as it bears on women, cis- and trans-. Linda begins with a reference to the feminist theory courses she teaches and some of the theorists, like Kimberlé Crenshaw, and how sometimes students say "do we need feminist theory any more?" Linda wants to unplug students from the Matrix (a reference to the film starring Keanu Reeves) and show them the gritty reality in which we live - yes, we STILL need feminism and Marseille is leading the way/the charge!

With thanks to James Healey, the recording engineer who set up the studio; Raphael Krux for music; and Marco Timpano, Sarah Henzi, and Benoit Cantin for giving this episode an advance listen!

****

Eloise Marseille est la première invitée de la saison 5 - oui, la saison 5 ! - et, cette fois, c'est en anglais ET en français (à partir de 31.55 pour l'entretien en français). Marseille est une merveilleuse écrivaine, dont le livre candide et humoristique, Naked: The Confessions of a Normal Woman / Confessions d'une Femme Normale, examine la sexualité et l'amour de soi, en particulier en ce qui concerne les femmes, cis et trans. Linda commence par évoquer les cours de théorie féministe qu'elle donne et certaines théoriciennes, comme Kimberlé Crenshaw, et comment les étudiants disent parfois "avons-nous encore besoin de la théorie féministe?" Linda veut débrancher les étudiants de la Matrice (référence au film avec Keanu Reeves) et leur montrer la réalité crue dans laquelle nous vivons - oui, nous avons ENCORE besoin du féminisme et Marseille montre la charge!

Merci à James Healey, l'ingénieur du son qui a installé le studio, à Raphael Krux pour la musique, et à Marco Timpano, Sarah Henzi, et Benoit Cantin pour avoir écouté cet épisode en avant-première!

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Season 4 - Holiday Wishes ... and Some Hints for Season 5

Sat, 23 Dec 2023 04:47:58 GMT

Linda wishes her listeners a very happy holiday - and offers a hint about what to expect for at least the first episode of Season 5! Have a restful, joyful period. Getting Lit With Linda returns on March 1, 2024.

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These Short Cuts Go a Long Way - The SpokenWeb Podcast

Fri, 15 Dec 2023 15:29:13 GMT

In this episode, Linda chats with Dr. Katherine McLeod about her role in the SpokenWeb Podcast, particularly Short Cuts. The conversation covers so much ground in such a short period! We discuss the following:

The Short Cuts podcast (6.20, 9:21, 14.05, 18:47)
Women poets, such as Gwendolyn MacEwan, Phyllis Webb (15:27), Muriel Rukeyser, Maxine Gadd, Margaret Atwood (8.22; 8.54; 10:03), Daphne Marlatt (18:55), Dionne Brand (11:23), and Brand with Lee Maracle (a member of the Stó:lō Nation; 12.05; 15:25)
Feminist practices of listening (9:20)
Holding the sound (11:00)
CBC Radio, the history of; women writers and (15:49) and the radio program “Anthology” (16:28)
The federal funding body, called SSHRC (4.32; 6.05)
Smaro Kamboureli and the TransCanada Institute (16:07)
The Director of SpokenWeb, Jason Camlot (2:45, 17:33; 22.03) (see Linda's previous episode with Camlot, who is also a poet, here)
CanLit Across Media (17:40)
The Women and Words Conference (20:54)

We talked about SpokenWeb’s beginnings, but here is another example. And, if you're curious, here is a sample of McLeod talking about “holding the sound” in a ShortCuts episode. And if you want to hear the recording of Dionne Brand speaking with Lee Maracle, try going here.

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Feminist Killjoys - An Interview with Erin Wunker

Wed, 29 Nov 2023 16:03:12 GMT

Linda is thrilled to have been able to conduct this interview with one of the foremost feminist scholars in Canada right now—Erin Wunker. They speak about her book Notes from a Feminist Killjoy, published by book*hug, and the important work it undertakes in relation to the labour of being a “feminist killjoy.”

Don’t know what a feminist killjoy is? Give this interview a listen to find out more.

Here are only some of the key points of the discussion:

· About Erin Wunker (2.46)

· About the book itself: Notes from a Feminist Killjoy (book*hug press) (1.41)

· The meaning of the title (4.39)

· What is a killjoy? (1.47)

· Sarah Ahmed, as a thinker and community-engaged intellectual (1.58, 5.40, 8.10, 30.08)

· About the feminist killjoy (6.20, 7.09, 9.46, 19.40, 24.56) and intersectional feminism (15.57)

· Betty Friedan (25.00)

· The style of writing (25.30)

· Collection action, allyship, friendship (18.55)

· The podcast We Can Do Hard Things (Glennon Doyle, 13.08)

· Catherine MacKinnon (30.14, 38.04)

· Tarana Burke, #MeToo, and Jian Ghomeshi (32.58)

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Milestones: A Sixtieth and Live Episode - An interview with Catherine Hernandez and Eva Crocker

Fri, 17 Nov 2023 19:39:52 GMT

In this episode -- recorded live in Tiohtià:ke in the DeSeve Cinema at Concordia University -- Linda interviews award-winning authors, Catherine Hernandez and Eva Crocker. Linda begins by thanking celebrated Montreal-based author, Christopher DiRaddo, who is the director of the Violet Hour and who opens the event with a territorial acknowledgement and with an introduction to the authors. The Violet Hour and the Association of English-Language Publishers of Quebec (AELAQ) co-sponsored the event, so Linda also recognizes the superb professionalism of the team at AELAQ, including Rebecca West, Alex Sweny, and Elise Moser. She also thanks Stephen Burgess, the audio-visual technician who helped to record the event that day.

The interview begins with Hernandez and considerations of her three novels, Scarborough (Arsenal Pulp Press), Crosshairs (Simon & Schuster), and The Story of Us (HarperCollins). They also speak about her amazing Wild Strawberry Homestead. Then, Eva Crocker joins them on the stage and so they also discuss her two novels, Back in the Land of the Living (House of Anansi) and All I Ask (House of Anansi).

A question period follows the two interviews, as members in the audience also interact with Hernandez and Crocker. It's a longer episode than usual (which is why there is only ONE this month!), but you will appreciate why: the interview is at turns funny, moving, and warm.

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An Entry Without an Exit: Dionne Brand's A Map to the Door of No Return

Sun, 15 Oct 2023 02:29:34 GMT

In this episode, Linda reflects on Dionne Brand's magnificent A Map to the Door of No Return: Notes to Belonging, reprinted by Vintage (a division of Random House) in 2023 - but initially published over twenty years ago. That's the staying power of this particular volume - the "Door of No Return" is a particularly harrowing metaphor and, as Linda notes, there are many expressions that use "doors" in contemporary usage. Just not like this book does! A prolific and accomplished writer and professor, Brand is referring to the Black diaspora vis-a-vis the Black Atlantic slave trade.

To set up this discussion, Linda considers her personal fascination with "doors" (consider the gorgeous doors of the Atwater Library in Montreal) and then how they have been used in other works -- like that of Complaint! by Sara Ahmed or The Diamond Grill by Fred Wah or The Door by Margaret Atwood -- and then compares them to how the image is used in Brand's literary text.

In the Takeaway, Linda gives a shout-out to the annual Read Quebec Book Fair, that this year is taking place from November 3 to November 4th in the McConnell Building Atrium of Concordia University. Please join her there, where she will be interviewing Catherine Hernandez and Eva Crocker live!

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And this is how we get here - Keith Barker's This is How We Got Here

Sun, 01 Oct 2023 21:46:44 GMT

Linda speaks with Métis playwright, actor, and director, Keith Barker about his play, This is How We Got Here (Playwrights Canada Press) It is a moving interview, as Barker explains the origins and shape of this play.

Their discussions touch on the following subjects (among others!):

current and past productions of the play (3.00; 28.15; 34.10, 36.00)
loss and trauma (1.14, 1.50, 4.30, 6.10, 12.56, 19.20, 33.58)
structure of This is How We Got Here (1.20, 22.28, 23.25)
representations of grief (3.50, 25.08)
structure and shape of the play (5.48, 9.05)
fox figure (10.04, 17.01, 18.58, 20.45, 25.10, 33.00, 36.00)
play’s epigraph (from Jonathan Livingston Seagull, 10.30, 13.16, 15.40)
discussion of suicide (11.51, 21.40)
figures from nature (17.58)
Catholicism (20.45)
meaning of the title of the play (37.50)

Linda also invites Barker to read from his play, which he does, selecting the first scene related to the fox figure (25.25).

With a special thanks to James Healey, the podcasting studio manager - and Barker's cats, who also made an appearance in this interview!

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Taking Exception to Narratives of Exceptionality - Japanese-Canadian Internment Camps & Canadian Literature

Mon, 18 Sep 2023 16:56:12 GMT

In this episode, Linda begins by speaking about the kinds of assumptions made about her because of her Italian-Canadian immigrant background - and then expands that consideration to show how making such assumptions can actually be harmful. Case in point? The Christie-Pitts riot on August 16, 1933. There have been two graphic novels written about this riot: one simply titled Christie Pitts and the other titled The Good Fight.

A second case in point is the Japanese-Canadian internment camps during the Second World War. She considers four works of literature in Canada that address this subject:

Joy Kogawa's Obasan
Frances Itani's Requiem
Kerri Sakamoto's One Hundred Million Hearts
Mark Sakamoto's Forgiveness: A Gift from my Grandparents

Then, for the Takeaway, she invites scholar, Jennifer Andrews, who addresses narratives of exceptionality and demonstrates what function they serve (and whose) and why they persist. Using her book, Canada Through American Eyes (published by Palgrave in 2023), Jennifer chats with Linda about how narratives of exceptionality are rehearsed in both the United States and Canada - and why we need to challenge them.

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Manatees and Magical Thinking - Amy Jones' Novel, Pebble & Dove

Sat, 02 Sep 2023 03:52:34 GMT

This episode focuses on Amy Jones (2.13), author of Every Little Piece of Me (2.27), We're All in This Together (2.27), What Boys Like (2.37), and Pebble & Dove (2.45), published by McClelland & Stewart -- and the focus of this episode.

We also discussed Amy’s appearance at Word on the Street (.39 and 9.08) and her forthcoming appearance at the Eden Mills Literary Festival (5.12 and 8.53) on September 9th (see this link for tickets to the event).

Linda interviews Amy, during which time they chat about

Family – what it means (7.56), dysfunctional families (9.46), and family secrets (11.00)
Multiple points of view in narrative form (13.25)
Motherhood (and templates thereof) (18.45)
Balancing family and careers, and the impact of family on art (20.30)
Manatees (22.25)
Did we say manatees? (22.25 -- or just the entire episode!)

If you'd like to know more about how to support manatees and the seagrass programs that are important to their survival, visit the Save the Manatee Program.

Hosted by Linda Morra, Co-produced by Linda Morra and Marco Timpano, Music by Raphael Krux, Studio (Concordia University) with James Healey

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People (Do) Change; (C’mon) People, Change - Vivek Shraya's People Change

Tue, 15 Aug 2023 15:58:08 GMT

In this episode, Linda first celebrates with her co-producer, Marco Timpano, that the podcast has been named a Finalist for the People's Choice Podcast Awards. Then she chats about the new Barbie movie around which there has been so much hype. She differentiates between change and transformation in relation to gender, and then applies this to the wonderful literary work of Vivek Shraya, including People Change. If you haven't seen her How to Fail as a Popstar, join the club: Linda wasn't able to get tickets, but she was able to hear her speak about this work at the Vancouver Literary Festival and read it in book form. Linda also makes reference to her song, Showing Up - have a listen here (at the 4.17 mark).

In the Takeaway, she connects Shani Mootoo's Cerebus Blooms at Night and Moving Foreward Sideways Like a Crab to the notion of transformation.

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Morality & Well-Meaning - #BelievingWomen in Erum Shazia Hasan's We Meant Well

Sat, 01 Jul 2023 21:29:16 GMT

Erum Shazia Hasan’s We Meant Well (ECW Press) – Linda raves about this debut novel by Erum Shazia Hasan. In this novel, Maya’s colleague, Marc, has been accused of assaulting a local girl in Likanni, and so Maya is called from Los Angeles to deal with the crisis. The pressures are mounting for Maya as she tries to contend with this situation, grapple with her complex past, and grapple with her present personal life, which threatens to collapse.

In this interview, Hasan talks about how difficult it is to doubt colleagues or people we like or trust, and who have done noble things – things which stand in contrast to the accusations that have been levelled at them. Linda then probes Hasan’s aesthetic choices about this narrative and discusses the following with her:

Origins of the novel in Haiti (2.36)
#MeToo and #Believe Women movements (20.45; 22.23)
Experience and process of writing this novel (5.32)
C. S. Richardson (4.28)
Characterization of protagonist, Maya (7.11; 15.27)
Home country vs. Home culture (8.20, 17.25)
Third-wave feminism and Western feminism (8:59)
Role of trauma in decision-making (11.14)
Moral question related to boundaries (11.50)
Intersectionality (13.43)
Personal vs political violences (18.03)
Love and desire (19.20)
Intentions and “we meant well” (24.03)

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Wider Circles of Love and Faith - Lisa Moore's This is How We Love

Thu, 15 Jun 2023 17:00:45 GMT

Linda and Lisa Moore converse about her most recent novel, This is How We Love (House of Anansi). Their conversation traverses various subjects, including the formal aspects of the novel, the job of the novelist (5.40), questions of genre (6.40), the use of Audible, the importance of editors (with a nod to Melanie Little, Lisa's editor, 10.30)and the complexities of loving. One of the most fascinating turns in this discussion relates to Lisa's point about the democracy of loving and voice (8.40 and 27.23), her understanding that reading literature is an anti-capitalist endeavour (16.20). The interview is a wonderful introduction to a compelling, exquisite novel, in which every page is rich in detail and affective complexity.

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Bleed - The Unmasking of the Medical System in Endo-Patient Care

Sun, 04 Jun 2023 03:32:10 GMT

As a fellow endo-patient, Linda makes herself vulnerable in this episode, talking frankly with the author, Tracey Lindeman, by whom she was so inspired. Lindeman, who authored Bleed: Destroying Myths and Misogyny in Endometriosis Care (published by ECW Press in 2023), uses personal experience, interviews, and research to take a deep dive into the healthcare system and the medical treatment (or lack thereof) of endo-patients.

Some of the topics covered include:

medical gaslighting
support and advice for endo-patients
advice for medical doctors

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It Really is All About Our Mothers

Tue, 16 May 2023 03:29:18 GMT

In this episode, in honour of Mother’s Day, Linda considers four different books that feature discussions about mothers, in whatever form they assume. She tackles four different genres -- non-fiction, the short story, poetry, and a novel/thriller -- to consider how loving and caring actions are given and received - or withheld. The four works include:

Hannah McGregor, A Sentimental Education (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 4.45)
Margaret Atwood, Old Babes in the Wood (McClelland & Stewart, 11.04)
Jenny Boychuk Antonyms for Daughter (Signal, 13.53)
Charlene Carr’s Hold My Girl (Harper Collins, 16.23)

In the Takeaway, she recommends Kim Thúy's Secrets from my Vietnamese Kitchen: Simple Recipes from my Many Mothers (Penguin Random House, 19.05) – or really, anything by her!

Linda also references the Almodóvar film, All About My Mother (2.05) and Italian novelist, Alessandro Baricco, and one of his books, Silk (19.47)

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"And the Oscar Goes to ..." - Film Adaptation of Canadian and Indigenous Novels

Tue, 02 May 2023 04:27:10 GMT

Her guest, Bil Antoniou - Toronto theatre actor and podcast host of Bad Gay Movies and My Criterions - discusses with Linda a series of Canadian and Indigenous novels that have been adapted to the screen, including the most recent Oscar award-winning movie, Women Talking, directed by Sarah Polley (original novel by Miriam Toews).

They also discuss the following:

Yann Martel's Life of Pi (Knopf)
Jane Rule's The Desert of the Heart (Talon)
Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient (Penguin Random House)
and Mordecai Richler's Barney Version (Penguin Random House)

The winner of the adaptation award? Listen to find out!

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She Shoots, She Soars - Changing the Face of Hockey & Its Representation in Literature

Sun, 16 Apr 2023 01:05:01 GMT

Linda begins by taking up The Hockey Jersey (1.48; 3.15; 3.22) by Jael Richardson (1.58; 4.45; 26.17; 28.38), whom she interviews in this episode.The Hockey Jersey is a kind of response to The Hockey Sweater by Quebecois writer, Roch Carrier (4.18; 10.15; 14.55). Written in collaboration with the Toronto-based hockey player, Eva Perron (31.37), and with illustrations by Chelsea Charles (6.18), this book was the source of discussion between Linda and Richardson for this episode and how this children’s book, commissioned and supported by Scotiabank (3.20; 4.07, 5.42, 7.22), is directed toward changing the face of hockey.

Linda includes two other voices -- those of settler scholars, Jamie Dopp (9.51) and Sam McKegney (14.55), who also contribute to the vibrant discussion about the history of hockey in literature, both in settler and Indigenous communities.

Some other highlights?:

Illustrations by Chelsea Charles (6.18)
The politics of representation (7.35; 26.17; 28.38)
The Indigenous Hockey Research Network (14.30; 24.19)
Decolonizing Sport and Indigenous communities (22.28)
the Habs hockey player, Maurice Richard (4.22; 14.53; 17.17)
the origins and history of hockey in literature, including Ralph Connor's Glengarry School Days (19.50; 21.18) and Hugh McLennan's Two Solitudes (19.58; 21.23)

The episode didn’t quite make it to include a very interesting discussion with Dr. McKegney about Beardy’s Blackhawks, so check out this page for more about that. She includes other remarks by McKegney (36.15) and Dopp (33.09) about other literary books that invoke the sport of hockey, including Indian Horse by Anishnaabe novelist, Richard Wagamese (36.15).

Written & Hosted by Linda Morra

Co-produced by Linda Morra & Marco Timpano

Music by Raphael Krux

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Not Fooling Around - Jason Camlot's Vlarf

Sat, 01 Apr 2023 22:17:29 GMT

In this episode, Linda interviews Jason Camlot about his new collection of poetry, Vlarf - and it includes references to all manner of Victorian writing/writers, such as the following:

Oscar Wilde
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
John Ruskin

While there is much play and whimsy in this episode, it takes a deep dive into what went into making this collection of Victorianist flarf (and what "flarf" actually is).

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Five Books Worth Leaving Behind the Sunscreen for During the Winter Break

Wed, 15 Mar 2023 18:26:39 GMT

Linda doesn't care if she has to take less sunscreen when she goes on vacation - if it means she gets to pack an extra couple of books. What five books would she recommend?:

Linda also references Mordecai Richler (at 3.43 and 13.20) and Alice Munro (4.36), the production of MacDonald's Fall on Your Knees at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, and MacDonald's term as the inaugural Mordecai Richler writer in residence at Concordia University. Check out MacDonald's "Dispatches" from the latter period, which are downright funny, offering welcome critique of Richler's masculinist tendencies.

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It Begins with a Conversation - Eden Robinson's Monkey Beach

Wed, 01 Mar 2023 15:27:44 GMT

Season 4 opens with Linda's announcement of the podcast's new website and then shifts to a discussion about her literary journey - how she came to focus first on Canadian literature and then Indigenous literatures, which all started with a vital conversation. Her first book in the latter field was Eden Robinson's Monkey Beach - and it was a game-changer, sending her off to read and understand a field about which she knew very little when she started her post-graduate studies. With brief nods to Robinson's extraordinary trajectory of writing (including Son of a Trickster), Linda explains why this novel remains a personal favourite. In the Takeaway, she addresses the fact that there is a corresponding movie for Monkey Beach, which has an ending that is arguably different than that of the novel - or is it? You'll have to read the novel and watch the film to know why ....

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February 2023 - A Season is Around the Corner (Teaser)

Sun, 19 Feb 2023 15:58:42 GMT

Linda informs listeners of a slight change in this year's scheduling of podcast episodes - but otherwise, welcome listeners to Season 4 of Getting Lit With Linda!

Written by Linda Morra

Co-produced by Linda Morra & Marco Timpano

Music by Raphael Krux.

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Empathy, Sympathy, and the Literary Litmus Test

Sat, 31 Dec 2022 22:34:22 GMT

In this last episode of the season, Linda considers how empathy is often considered a function of literature and may be ideally represented -- as it is in Catherine Hernandez's Scarborough published by Arsenal Pulp Press. In order to explore how this should work, she considers the Classical orator, Cicero (and Aristotle's Poetics and Horace's Ars Poetica) to show how there is a long tradition of arguing that rhetoric and "good literature" should be able to teach, to delight, and to move us.

Other highlights include:

references to Brené Brown (2.30)
the difference between empathy and sympathy (2.45)
literature and empathy (3.00)
references to Cicero, Aristotle, Horace (4.05)
discussion of Hernandez's Scarborough (5.40)

In the Takeaway, she considers the novel - a thriller - Truth is a Flightless Bird by Akbar Hussain and published by Iskanchi Press. And then she offers her best wishes for the new year.

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Season's Greetings - From GLWL Guests 2022

Sat, 17 Dec 2022 12:21:03 GMT

In this episode of Getting Lit With Linda, the guests over the course of the 2022 year offer their reading recommendations and their wishes to you for the holidays--including Stephen Collis, Ali Hassan, Terri Favro, Gillian Sze, Marco Timpano, Amanda Barker, Isabella Wang, Amy Spurway, Chantel Lavoie, and Kate Ready. This is our second-last episode of the season (one more before December 31) before we sign off for a break--we will be back at the end of February 2023 for Season Four!

Warmest holiday wishes to all!

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To Discover or to Divine

Thu, 24 Nov 2022 20:54:12 GMT

In this episode, Linda considers the moment she came across the handwritten memoir of Jane Rule at the University of British Columbia Archives and Rare books. She considers the idea of "discovering" or "divining" in the archive and how that relates to meeting poet and instructor, Sheryda Warrener, who invited her to look at the work of her students during one of Linda's visits to the archive. Two poets from that exhibit--Graeme Kennedy and MacKenzie Sewell--are highlighted in this episode, along with Warrener and her collection, Test Piece (Coach House Books, 2022). The other students who took that class are Bayleigh Marelj, Sinead Tebbutt, Stephanie Okoli, Faria Malik, Ava Kucharski, and Charis Young.

Episode highlights:

the nature of "discovery" and "divining"
the importance of process (over "creative product")
a consideration of ekphrasis

In the Takeaway, she recommends Montreal's Salon du Livre, taking place in Montreal at the moment of this episode's release - and tonight's event (as part of "Salon Dans La Ville"), Sean Michaels and David Mitchell (hosted by the Quebec Writers' Federation) at the Atwater Library.

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The Baggage of Atlas: Amy Spurway's Crow

Thu, 10 Nov 2022 18:50:51 GMT

** Explicit language in this episode

Linda opens this episode on a celebratory note – the fact that Getting Lit with Linda won in the category of Outstanding Education Series in the Canadian Podcast Awards. We are grateful to our listeners, voters, and guests on the show! (And Linda recommends reaching out to her producer, Marco Timpano, if you want more information about podcasting in general!)

In this episode, Linda begins with a reflection on the “weight of Atlas” in relation to Greek mythology (no, not the band “The Weight of Atlas” that did a cover of one of Taylor Swift’s songs) and how we use it in the present. She ties that reflection to the themes of Amy Spurway’s Crow (Goose Lane Books), winner of the "IPPY Award for Best First Book - Fiction and Margaret and John Savage First Book Award for Fiction" and the subject of this episode. The narrator, also named Crow, has returned back to her home on the East Coast of Canada, where she must learn that adapting to her environment is no longer enough—real transformation is required, which happens when one puts down the weight--our past baggage--that one has been unnecessarily carrying. The episode also involves:

Linda's promise to examine other East Coast writers, like Michael Crummey, Lisa Moore, Joel Thomas Hynes, Donna Morrissey, and Alistair MacLeod (5.35);
Discussions about Spurway’s Crow (GooseLane Books), with selections from the audiobook, available on Kobo (6.07);
references to authors Heather O'Neill and Kevin Lambert and their rendering of class (12.43).

In the Takeaway (15.10), Linda discusses with actor and audiobook narrator, Amanda Barker, about what is involved in this kind of work—and especially in relation to Crow, for which she was the reader.

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Top Five Picks for a Haunting Hallowe-'en

Thu, 27 Oct 2022 15:53:15 GMT

What does it really mean to be haunted? Is being haunted always a sinister experience? For this Hallowe'en episode, Linda considers

memory and loss
trauma
and the nature of haunting and feeling haunted

She considers, for example, Emily Bronte's nineteenth-century British novel Wuthering Heights (and Kate Bush's song, "Wuthering Heights" based on the novel) or Mary Shelley's Frankenstein as examples outside of literature in Canada. But then she counts down to her top five books that either haunt her or delineate haunting experiences.

Which five works of literature in Canada make the cut? You'll have to listen to find out ...

In the "Takeaway" section, she recommends Miram Toews' All My Puny Sorrows - an extraordinary novel that challenges us about what our responsibility to others is and means.

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The Stories Behind the Strike: Kevin Lambert's Querelle of Roberval

Fri, 07 Oct 2022 06:06:36 GMT

In this episode, Linda reflects on a strike in which she was a participant and the real complexities of its participants and affiliated institutions as a way into Kevin Lambert's marvellous new book, Querelle of Roberval (Biblioasis). Invoking the proportions and form of Greek tragedy, Lambert locates the conflict of this book in a small town in Quebec and shows how its participants all have complex motivations for their actions--including hatred, lust, and revenge.

In the Takeaway, Linda highly recommends a column by Casey Plett called "Balls Out: A Column on Being Transgendered" (which appeared in McSweeney's Internet Tendency.), a poignant and engaging series about the process of transitioning.

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Ali Hassan Brings Home the Bacon -- and the Joy

Thu, 15 Sep 2022 21:56:25 GMT

Is there Bacon in Heaven? Maybe – but there’s certainly bacon on earth, Ali Hassan reminds us, and he enjoys it—and he doesn’t mean it simply literally either. In his new book--a memoir titled Is There Bacon in Heaven? (Simon & Schuster) -- he looks at what is good here on earth and how to locate those moments of goodness—in addition to those of humour and comedy and joy. In this interview, Linda and he talk about the fundamentals of his memoir, the boundaries of comedy, and the power of humour—to restore relationships and connect us meaningfully to others.

Some of the topics we broach?:

9/11 and crossing the border;
the purposes of comedy;
the difference between writing for the page and for the stage.

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Who's on First? Frances Brooke's The History of Emily Montague, with Dr. Kate Ready

Fri, 02 Sep 2022 02:58:27 GMT

Ever wonder what was the "first" book of Canadian literature? How do we even know how to define what that would be? In this episode, Linda chats with eighteenth-century British literature scholar, Dr. Kathryn Ready, about what is sometimes claimed as the first book of Canadian literature--Frances Brooke's The History of Emily Montague. Linda and Dr. Ready may -- or may not -- have tussled over whether this book is British or Canadian, but what they absolutely do is consider the finer aspects of the novel and its global investments.

Linda opens with a consideration of "firsts" (referencing Abbott and Costello's comedy routine, "Who's on First?," 1.05) and then turns to Dr. Ready who speaks about the following:

epistolary narratives, tradition of letter-writing (4.25; 5.15)
Samuel Richardson's Pamela (4.35, 6.30)
Frances Brooke (8.25)
travel writing (11.25)
aesthetic of the sublime and beautiful (11.40)
the Seven Years War (12.05)

And so much more ....

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Bad Boundaries & Good Relationships: Thomas King & Natasha Donovan

Fri, 19 Aug 2022 04:10:49 GMT

In this episode, Linda reflects on why we say boundaries are "bad" and how "good relationships" stand in contrast. Using Thomas King (author of The Inconvenient Indian, Medicine River, Green Grass, Running Water) and Natasha Donovan's graphic novel, Borders (published by Little Brown, 6.55), Linda explores "bad boundaries" -- and bad borders -- in relation to the Blackfoot nation. She also refers to Daniel Rück’s The Laws and the Land (4.00) and Benjamin Hoy’s A Line of Blood and Dirt (5.55) to explain her thinking around boundaries and borders. Some of her musings encompass the following:

What are bad boundaries? (2.43; 5.05; 10.40)
The Canadian-American Border; Blackfoot territory (8.30; 9.00; 12.19; 14.18; 15.00)
Mapping and cartography as expressions of power (8.40)
National imagined identities (9.00)
Blackfoot culture (9.58)
Relationships (between the mother-daughter, mother-narrator in the story, 11.00; 15.25; 16.35)
Stories and their importance (15.40)

The Takeaway is about Joshua Whitehead's Full Metal Indigiqueer published by Talon Press (17.00), with reference to Making Love to the Land by Penguin Random House. She makes reference to the difference between Transgender and Two Spirit, the former referreing to someone whose gender identity differs from the sex assigned at birth, the latter to an Indigenous person who identifies as possessing both a masculine and a feminine spirit.

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Night Vigils & Varieties of Looking

Fri, 05 Aug 2022 01:12:27 GMT

Linda opens on a celebratory note: Getting Lit With Linda has received two separate nominations for the Canadian Podcasting Awards, one in the category of Outstanding Educational Series and another in the category of Outstanding Arts Podcast. She also includes a tribute to the late Steven Heighton (2.39), whom she remembers fondly.

Linda and Gillian Sze -- the guest for this episode -- chat about her new book, Quiet Night Think (ECW Press) and participate in “quiet thinking” and "looking," especially when there are competing demands on one's time and competing expectations. They discuss other writers, with an emphasis on Li Bai (701-7662 AD; 5.11, 16.27, 24.09) and Emily Dickinson or “Em” (12.28, 16.27, 24.11, 25.11). They also chat about the following:

Caregiving, night vigils (19.32; 23.00)
Origins, parenting, immigrant parents (25.35, 26.28)
Structure and genre of the collection (20.27, 21.39)
Learning Mandarin (7.22)
Poetry and relationships (8.28 ; her father, 9.45, 27.03)
the Chinese generation poem (8.39)
Ekphrastic poetry (14.12)
looking, and the nature of looking (cosmic, artistic; the flaneur;13.20, 17.30, 18.12)
Cezanne (17.50)
Fountain pens (18.38)
Canlit and questions of gender (25.50)
Sitting in the Moon, postpartum care (4.57, 16.45, 33.18)
Insomnia (17.00)

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Leos, Lovers, Loss - and Lunar Tides

Thu, 21 Jul 2022 17:32:32 GMT

In this loving and lovely interview that took place in Montreal during the lunar eclipse of May 15-16, 2022, Linda interviews Shannon Webb-Campbell (a member of the Qalipu Mi’kmaq First Nation) about her new book of poetry, Lunar Tides (Book*hug). The conversation ranges from Montreal as a city for "Leos & lovers" (3.30), to themes of maternal loss and longing (4.45 and 6.15), to the following:

1.0 Book*hug, and its other authors, including Shani Mootoo (author of Cane Fire) (1.0)
Following Webb Campbell on Instagram (1.50)
Lunar Tides (4.30)
Her poem, “You were never a visitor to this world" (9.00)
Her poem, "Time: A Biography" (5.25, 8.50, 14.35)
Birthing poetry (9.50)
Webb-Campbell's new novel (12.04)
the ACCUTE conference (13.21)
Lee Maracle (13.30)
Duo Concertante (19.30) and "Ecology of Being"
the film based on "Ecology of Being) (21.00)

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Indigenous Voices Awards - "Where Your Heart is Leading You"

Sun, 19 Jun 2022 09:38:25 GMT

In this episode, while I am away in Germany, I reflect upon the upcoming Indigenous Voices Awards, which is set to take place on June 21st (and this occasions an early release of the episode!).

After a quick opening teaser with the most extraordinary Dene storyteller and writer -- and the MC of this year's IVAs -- Richard van Camp, I then hold a brief interview with Cree-Metis scholar/professor and co-organizer of the IVAS, Deanna Reder (2.50) who explains the history of the awards and talks about this year's event.

I also had the opportunity to speak to two dynamite short-listed writers:

Tenille Campbell (13.15), the Dene-Metis author of Nedi Nazu who elegantly discusses how women need to give themselves permission to love themselves.
Lisa Boivin (18.14), a member of the Deninu Kue, who speaks about her children's book, We Dream Medicine Dreams, and her departure from scholarly work to write children’s literature.

And last (and certainly not least!), I speak with the magnificent Haisla/Heltsuk writer, Eden Robinson (22.13), one of this year's jurors for the IVAs, about the responsibilities of being a juror (and yes, you will hear her contagious laugh!)

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The Robot Keepers - Part 2 of an Interview with Terri Favro

Thu, 09 Jun 2022 20:06:12 GMT

This is the second part of Linda's interview with Terri Favro, who opens this part with her thoughts about gender and the genre of science fiction, making reference to

Linda and she then turn their attention to the challenges of writing a trilogy (3.45) and the effects of the pandemic on writing her last instalment, The Sisters Sputnik (ECW). The two consider the Spanish Flu (9.35, 10.45, 12.23) and Sacco and Vanzetti (12.07), early Italian immigrants who were accused of theft and murder -- and explain the kind of anti-Italian sentiment that had a bearing on Favro's family (and many Italian immigrants). She speaks about how, first, she learned how stories were important to la bella figura (16.34) -- an Italian expression that captures the idea of holding a respectable outward form to the world (even if one's private life was a mess!), and, second, how her father was a source of inspiration as a "robot keeper" (19.37). That robot, incidentally, she adds, made an appearance on Johnny Carson (the "unimate," 25 and 29.12).

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There's Motive For You, Part 2 - An Interview with Marissa Stapley

Fri, 27 May 2022 22:17:47 GMT

In this second part of this episode, Linda chats with Marissa Stapley, whose book Lucky (published by Simon & Schuster and available on Audible) was just picked up as the first Canadian book on Reese's Book Club picks. Linda has a personal response to this book, which she references as she speaks about Stapley's interview with Shelagh Rogers on The Next Chapter. She also asks Stapley about the kind of research she undertakes to write this kind of book, and the characters about whom she writes.

If you'd like to hear Stapley live -- or learn from her -- she is speaking and giving a master class (insert: Linda wishes she could be in Toronto for this!) at MOTIVE, on June 3 to June 5, at the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto.

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There's Motive For You - An Interview with Roland Gulliver

Fri, 27 May 2022 02:59:33 GMT

If you love crime and mystery writing, you will love MOTIVE - the Crime & Mystery Festival slated to take place between June 3 and June 5, 2022 at the Harborfront Centre in Toronto. The line-up of authors either speaking or giving workshops is nothing short of impressive: it features writers from Canada, of the ilk of Thomas King (who will be interviewed by CBC's Shelagh Rogers), but also international writers like Gunnar Staalesen, Thomas Enger,and Ilaria Tuti. I had the opportunity to chat with Roland Gulliver, the Director of The International Festival of Authors, of which Motive is an offshoot. We spoke about the fact that this is the first time since 2020 (any clues why?) that the event will be held onsite -- although there will be some hybrid events as well. I asked him about some of the writers being featured -- and he had a hard time whittling the list down, but he did happen to mention the following writers:

And many more.

I've bought my tickets already (for online, hybrid events)! Don't miss out on MOTIVE!

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Robots & Radioactivity: An Interview with Terri Favro

Thu, 05 May 2022 17:26:24 GMT

Linda chats with Terri Favro, an Toronto-based, Italian-Canadian author who is poised to release her next novel, The Sisters Sputnik, a sequel to her acclaimed speculative fiction novel, Sputnik's Children. They have a leisurely conversation -- in this, the first part of their two-part interview -- discussing all manner of subjects, from

the importance of storytelling
to the appropriate terminology for robots
to growing up in an era of nuclear uncertainty (and not so unlike now either).

There is also a lengthier discussion about Eli Mandel's Station Eleven (published by HarperCollins) and the wonderful audiobook version read by Kirsten Potter (around the 30-minute mark). Stay tuned for part 2 of this episode!

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Biographer's Regret - Alice Munro and the Autobiographer's Right

Thu, 21 Apr 2022 23:12:14 GMT

What do you want to know for? This is the question Linda considers as she writes her biography about Jane Rule - one that Nobel-Prize winning writer, Alice Munro, has considered many times as she weaves autobiography and fiction in her work, specifically in the book under discussion in this episode, The View from Castlerock. Linda discuses:

Questions of biography (2.32, 19.00)
Jane Rule (3.00)
Alice Munro's autobiographical impulses (3.10, 6.33)
Munro's Dear Life (4.30)
Munro's The View from Castle Rock (5.08, 8.00, 9.32)
Her story, "What Do You Want to Know For" (19.32)

In the Takeaway, Linda looks at Zoe Whittall's book, The Spectacular (published by HarperCollins) -- which it really is. She does consider the polarized reviews, and then suggests why it may be that some were positive and others not as much. Ultimately, she sees Whitall's book as falling within the tradition of the short story cycle, the very genre in which Munro specializes.

For more scholarship about celebrity autobiography and memoirs in Canada, check out Katja Lee's Limelight: Canadian Women and the Rise of Celebrity Autobiography (WLUP, shortlisted for the Gabrielle Roy Prize in 2020), or Lorraine York and Katia Lee's Celebrity Cultures in Canada (UTP 2016).

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Just Sayin'/Not Saying, Part 2: An Interview with Stephen Collis

Thu, 07 Apr 2022 07:39:20 GMT

In this episode, the second part of her interview with Stephen Collis, Linda goes in greater depth about Collis's poetry, speaking to him about his most recent collection of poetry, A History of the Theories of Rain (Talon Books).

In the Takeaway section, Linda refers to Canada Reads and considers the results of this year's competition, with reference to:

Michelle Good's Five Little Indians
Catherine Hernandez's Scarborough

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"Just Sayin' / Not Saying": An Interview with Stephen Collis (Part 1)

Thu, 24 Mar 2022 08:57:40 GMT

In this episode, Linda interviews Stephen Collis about his most recent collection of poetry, A History of the Theories of Rain (Talon Books). The next episode is the second part of that interview. For now, just a couple of points of clarification: SFU, the acronym that Collis and Linda use in this interview, stands for Simon Fraser University. Also, they refer to the SLAPP suit by which Collis was confronted. For those of you who may have never heard of this before, a SLAPP suit is a civil lawsuit or counterclaim that alleges defamation but is really initiated for the purposes of intimidating, burdening, punishing, or harassing – and usually it is filed against people or organizations who speak out about issues of public interest.

Linda and Stephen cover several topics, including

10.40 his activism
13.13 Kinder Morgan
14.00 Collis’s poetry as used in a legal setting
16.12 A History of the Theories of Rain
16.23 grief
19. Greta Thunberg and recent political shortcomings

In the Takeaway portion of the podcast, Linda introduces her listeners to the young poet, Isabella Wang, whose collection, Pebble Swing (Nightwood Editions), and the poetry that appeared in The Capilano Review, showcase a burgeoning talent.

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"Of What Use is Poetry at a Time Like This?" An Interview with Shani Mootoo

Wed, 09 Mar 2022 07:50:18 GMT

In today's episode - for International Women's Day - Linda chats with Shani Mootoo about her forthcoming book of poetry, Cane Fire (Book *Hug) and the collaborative nature of its production. We also discuss the following:

her archival materials at Simon Fraser University (20.58)
erotic poetry (22.45)
working in different genres (26.26)
her forthcoming memoir (34.27)
Oeno Gallery (34.27)
the Ukrainian invasion and poetry (47.53)

And so much more! Please stay tuned for the forthcoming onsite exhibit at Simon Fraser University in which one of the archival materials from Shani Mootoo's archive will be featured.

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Ever Receding Fruit: Wayde Compton, the Black Archive, and the Call for a Black Cultural Centre

Mon, 28 Feb 2022 20:07:13 GMT

In this episode, Linda has the great pleasure of chatting with Wayde Compton, the writer, scholar, publisher, and current Chair of Creative Writing at Douglas College (in New Westminster, BC). He is the author of several books, including 49th Parallel Psalm (finalist for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize); Performance Bond; After Canaan: Essays on Race, Writing, and Region (finalist for the City of Vancouver Book Award); the graphic novel, The Blue Road; and The Outer Harbour (winner of the City of Vancouver Book Award). He has also edited two anthologies: Bluesprint: Black British Columbian Literature and Orature and The Revolving City: 51 Poems and the Stories Behind Them (finalist for the City of Vancouver Book Award).

During this interview, we also speak about

the Black population in Vancouver compared to that of Nova Scotia (17.15)
May Ayin (22)
the Black Cultural Archive (4.30 and 8)
What to read (and his own reading patterns, 30)

Compton is a co-founder of the Hogan’s Alley Memorial Project (8), an organization formed to raise awareness about the history of Vancouver’s black community, and was one of the co-founders of Commodore Books (11.40), with Karina Vernon and David Chariandy. For February, he has been an active social media presence, for Black History Month. If you follow him on Twitter—and if you don’t, we highly recommend that you do at @WaydeCompton – you’ll know that he’s been tweeting stories about people of African descent in Vancouver.

So, just in time for Black History Month, we hope you enjoy this interview with Wayde Compton.

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You Have to Decide: Rita Wong's Forage and Clayton Thomas-Muller's Life in the City of Dirty Water

Fri, 11 Feb 2022 00:59:57 GMT

Linda is delighted to be back for her third season of Getting Lit With Linda!

In this first episode of the season, she considers the movie, Don't Look Up (dir. by Adam McKay, 1.13, 2.49), the nature of satire (with reference to Mordecai Richler, 2.00, and Jonathan Swift, 2.11), and the looming environmental crisis. It's a topic that poet, Rita Wong (4.32) has addressed unflinchingly in her work, especially forage (published by Nightwood Editions, winner of the Dorothy Livesay Prize, 6.09). Linda recalls getting in touch with Wong when her former student, Morgan Cohen (5.25), used her work in an independent study (which has since gone on to be published). In so doing, Linda is shocked to discover Wong's legal entanglement (7.44), but, in the process, she realizes and is inspired by Wong, who has made a clear decision to be a land protector.

Appropriately, Clayton Thomas-Muller's book, Life in the City of Dirty Water (16.30) came to her attention while working on this episode--his work as an activist emerges from the realization that self-healing is essential to the process. This fascinating book has since been shortlisted for the Canada Reads competition, which includes the following writers this year:

Michelle Good's Five Little Indians
Catherine Hernandez's Scarborough
Esi Edugyan's Washington Black and
Omar El Akkad's What Strange Paradise

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Holiday Wishes & A Gift from the Archives - An Interview with Ali Hassan (from 2020)

Sat, 25 Dec 2021 05:54:47 GMT

Linda and several of this season's contributors--Chantel Lavoie, Marco Timpano, Amanda Barker, and Michael Nest--render their book recommendations for the holidays:

Ivan Coyote's Care Of
Margaret Atwood's The Door,
David Chariandy's I've Been Meaning to Tell You
Zoe Whittall's The Best Kind of People
Anne-Marie MacDonald's Fall on your Knees),

Linda offers her listeners a gift for the holidays - from the archives, her previously-unpublished interview with Ali Hassan, the host of Canada Reads. The interview, from 2020 (and Canada Reads 2020-2021), alludes to the background of the pandemic, which (alas!) remains relevant. Drawing back the curtain to allow us see the inner workings of Canada Reads, Ali Hassan offers interesting insights about this national literary competition and about his role in it.

Happy holidays everyone - The third season of Getting Lit with Linda will return in early February 2022.

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"Show Me Yours"

Fri, 17 Dec 2021 19:19:57 GMT

In this episode, Linda considers Richard Van Camp, a Dene author who wrangles with what masculinity is, what it looks for those who identify as men, and how and why that may (or should) change. Published by Great Plains Publications, The Moon of Letting Go is the book of focus in this episode, particularly the story, "Show me Yours" (7.27) - and yes, it means exactly what you think it does, but maybe not showing exactly what you think it might. Linda refers to one of the preeminent scholars of Van Camp's work, Dr. Sam McKegney (6.01), and cites from his work, The Burden of Peace (University of Regina Press, 2021), to explore what Van Camp is trying to accomplish in this work.

In the Takeaway portion, she links the concept of masculinity that in part informs her understanding of Brian Fawcett's Cambodia: A Book for People Who Find Television to Slow (Talon Books) (13.10), published in 1986. Clearly, it's not a recent book - but it was so prescient in terms of what it anticipated about the effects of corporatization and the media, and it does so in a voice that is savvy, smart, and satirical.

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The Quebec Writers' Federation Finalists & the Janet Savage Blachford Prize for Children's and Young Adult Literature

Thu, 18 Nov 2021 20:00:40 GMT

As #winterstormwarnings arrive, perhaps you may want to curl up with some of the writers' books that were shortlisted for the Quebec Writers' Federation awards - Linda speaks to some of the writers shortlisted for the Janet Savage Blachford Prize for Children's and Young Adult Literature, in addition to one of the poets shortlisted for the A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry. She also spoke about the QWF Gala and the times she slipped on floor-length ballgowns over her jeans for the Governor General's Awards before entering Rideau Hall in Ottawa. So she asked the writers interviewed for this episode how they felt about being shortlisted. Here are the writers who are featured in this episode:

Monique Polak (Room for One More, Kar-Ben Books)
Su J Sukol (Zee by Nimbus Publishing)
Nadine Neema (Journal of a Traveling Girl by Wandering Fox, Heritage House Press)
Sarah Venart (I am the Big Heart by Brick Books)

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"Sharing the Light" - Interview with Mitali Ruths

Thu, 04 Nov 2021 19:10:22 GMT

Linda opens this episode with a dedication to her nephew -- and then "shares the light" of Diwali with children's literature author, Mitali Ruths, with whom she chats about her book Archie Celebrates Diwali. Published this year by Charlesbridge Archie Celebrates Diwali is based on an epic, Ramayana, and focuses on the South-Asian festival of lights (3.45, 8.45, and 10.30). Mitali addresses Diwali's origins (3.45 and 4.37), how it is celebrated (15.11), and the reasons for writing this story (7.30, 8.45, 10.30 and 18.30). She makes reference to Sanjay Patel's Ramayana: Divine Loophole (8.27); the significance of Archie's name (a reference to archana and to the Emmy-winning British actress, Archie Panjabi, 20); her fabulous illustrator, Parwinder Singh (4 and 4.15); and, more generally, the plot and meaning of the book (20.30). Mitali also locates this book as one among several in a renaissance of South-Asian stories (9.35).

Special shout-outs (among others) to:

HG Literary Group (11.28)
Victoria Wells (11.28)
her publisher, Charlesbridge (12.28 and 16.09)
the Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (10.33)

At 26.10, Mitali makes a special offer to listeners of the podcast -- and I want "in" on that too!

Join me on the next episode when I chat with some of the finalists for the Quebec Literary prizes (hosted by the Quebec Writers' Federation).

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The Body / Book in the Doghouse

Thu, 28 Oct 2021 22:59:11 GMT

Happy Hallowe-en! This episode tackles a book that deals with ghosts, gruesome accidents, and murder -- Kevin Lambert's You Will Love What You Have Killed, translated by Donald Winkler (published by Biblioasis 2020) from the French (Tu Aimeras Ce Que Tu As Tué, 5.40). Linda begins this episode with a personal anecdote about a dead body that was found in a dog house (on the property of her parents' neighbours): she uses this narrative to explore the idea of the "repressed," that is, those emotions or moments or stories we would prefer to forget. Lambert, she argues, not only does not allow us to forget the repressed, he insists we grapple with its elements--it makes for a disorienting and yet bewitching read, as even Le Devoir in its review of the book noted (11.43)! Like reigning horror writer from Quebec, Patrick Senecal (5.16), Lambert is skilfully eliciting a sense of our horror, highlighting its effects by locating the events of the book in Chicoutimi, Quebec (6.26) and toppling stereotypical notions of romance, or picturesque rural areas as featured in books like Maria Chapdelaine (7.00).If you want to read other reviews about Lambert's book, you can visit CBC book reviews here or Xtra here).

In the Takeaway section, Linda praises other translations from the French, those of Virginia Pesamapeo Bordeleau 's Blue Bear Woman (published by Inanna) and The Lover, The Lake (Freehand Books) (13.30).

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"A Certain Kind of Activism": Witnessing and Jordan Abel's "Nishga"

Thu, 14 Oct 2021 22:19:46 GMT

In this episode, multiple award-winning Nisga'a author Jordan Abel and host Linda Morra discuss his most recent book, Nishga (published by McClelland & Stewart in 2020), the intergenerational legacies of trauma for residential school survivors, and the importance of not only listening to, but also "witnessing" their stories. He speaks about his relationship with his father's art and the kinds of "activism" that writing might perform.

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Paper Postcards - Eden Robinson's "Traplines"

Fri, 01 Oct 2021 01:51:35 GMT

Linda focuses on Indigenous writers in this podcast in view of Orange Shirt Day (every child matters!) and the inaugural National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. She recommends several writers (some of them featured on 49th shelf), including Cherie Dimaline and Joshua Whitehead.

Postcards may offer glossy images of success or experiences that aren't real - instead, sometimes those images may obscure the turbulent underside of our lives. Beginning with her experience with depression (trigger warning), Linda addresses how misunderstandings arise from expectations about what one should feel and what one actually feels; she thus considers the Apple TV character, Ted Lasso, and his sage advice, "Be curious, not judgemental." She then looks at Eden Robinson's magnificent (and painful) story, "Traplines" (from the book of the same name, Traplines, published by Penguin/Random House) in which the narrator, Will, must navigate an abusive context (more trigger warnings) and try to discern how to act and what is options really are. All of this is rendered more complex by his deep sense of hunger (real and otherwise).

Then, in the Takeaway, Linda recommends Naomi Fontaine's Manikanetish (translated by Luise von Flotow, published by House of Anansi), which was shortlisted for the Governor General's Award. You can find a longer review of this book in the Montreal Review of Books.

She also thanks some of her listeners, including Arpita Ghosal at SesayArts Magazine.

If you are suffering from depression, please reach out and get support. You are not alone.

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Wayson Choy's The Jade Peony - Connecting Across Generations & Genders

Fri, 17 Sep 2021 02:18:36 GMT

Remember Shirley Temple, that Hollywood cinema's icon of idealized (white) girlhood? Linda looks up a short clip, "On the Good Ship Lollipop," and feels uncomfortable (trigger warning here) and explains why she and some of her students shared that experience. She considers the importance of contextualizing or historicizing our responses to cultural artefacts -- but, even so, there is good reason to feel uncomfortable about Temple's childhood performances. That's not necessarily the case for our interpretation of the heroine of the first part of Wayson Choy's The Jade Peony.

Topics include:

Shirley Temple's "On the Good Ship Lollipop"
Wayson Choy's The Jade Peony
Chinatown, Vancouver
Patriarchy and the male gaze
Repatriation of Chinese bones

In the Takeaway section, she looks at Madelaine Caritas Longman's marvellous debut collection, The Danger Model (McGill Queen's Press), which unsurprisingly won the Concordia First Book Prize by the Quebec Writers' Federation.

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When the Body Complains - Jane Rule's Taking My Life and Sara Ahmed's Complaint!

Mon, 06 Sep 2021 05:06:08 GMT

In this episode, addressing Jane Rule's Taking My Life (Talon Books), Linda discusses why bodies "complain" and what it means when they do. In the Takeaway section, she reviews Sara Ahmed's new book, Complaint (Duke University Press). In Complaint!, Ahmed examines institutional harassment and bullying, and how to read complaints that are lodged against such institutions. In the entirety of the episode, Linda is discussing how we respond to different forms of "grooming" (Ahmed) or bodily coercion - and why indeed the body complains.

If you want to know more generally about Jane Rule, please visit the Queer Legends podcast, in which Shawn Dearn interviews Linda Morra about her life and work.

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"What Blossoms Long For" - Chantel Lavoie

Thu, 19 Aug 2021 15:40:50 GMT

In this episode, and as part of the Sealey challenge, Linda interviews poet and scholar, Chantel Lavoie, about her love for the poetry of Margaret Atwood - in particular, the collections Morning in the Burned House (Penguin Random House), The Door (Penguin Random House), and Dearly (HarperCollins).

Lavoie is herself a poet, as Linda notes at the outset of the episode: she published Where The Terror Lies with Quattro Books in 2012 and This is About Angels, Women, and Men with Manfield Press in 2019. Linda reflects on her first meeting with Lavoie, several years ago, when she had won the Books in Canada Prize, and cites from Lavoie's poems that won that year.

Lavoie and Linda also invent a new cocktail - called the "Atwood martini."

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Thomas King's One Good Story, That One: Relationships & Stories

Thu, 05 Aug 2021 22:51:19 GMT

We develop relationships with people and communities as we share stories with them--in fact, that is a sign of our role or place within the community--but we don't get to demand to hear them, especially when we are not a part of that community. In this episode, Linda examines Thomas King's collection, One Good Story, That One (published by HarperCollins), and particularly the story of the same title, with this idea in mind. She considers his literary technique in relation to Van Gogh's Starry Night (you can check out the painting in this Van Gogh immersive exhibition) and then his other story and graphic novel, Borders. The latter is relevant in relation to the Takeway portion of the podcast, in which she interviews her former student Darrin Prine about the genre. Darrin introduced her to Spice & Wolf (by Isuna Hasekura, with illustrations by Jū Ayakura), and in this section, he also makes reference to Goblin Slayer (by Kumo Kagyu), Watchmen (by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon), Middlewest (by Skottie Young and Jorge Corona), and Full Metal Alchemist (by Hiromu Arakawa).

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Our Daily Heroes: Nino Ricci's Lives of the Saints

Sat, 24 Jul 2021 20:49:27 GMT

In reflecting about her father and her visit with him to his small Italian village some years ago, Linda draws comparisons with Nino Ricci's Lives of the Saints (Penguin/Random House), in which the young male protagonist, Vittorio, must work out how he feels about his mother who flies in the face of the strict moral codes of the Italian town. With reference to other Italian-Canadian writers -- Terri Favro, Connie Guzzo-McParland, Pier Giorgio Di Cicco -- and also the audio book read by Marco Timpano (with great thanks to Penguin/Random House for permissions), the television version of Ricci's novel and Frances Mayes, Under the Tuscan Sun, and Madelena, the episode addresses the patriarchal conditions for women in Italy, but also what it means to see our parents as more than just parents, but as people with their own lives, dreams, and regrets. In the Takeaway section -- and perhaps a counterpoint to the episode's discussion -- Linda looks at and recommends Dior's Petit Dictionnaire de La Mode, which she picked up at the recent Dior Exhibit at the McCord Museum in Montreal, Quebec.

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Literature Heals and Connects Us: Heather O'Neill's "Messages in Bottles"

Thu, 08 Jul 2021 14:00:55 GMT

In this episode, Heather O'Neill's short story, "Messages in Bottles" (from Daydreams of Angels, published by HarperCollins in 2014) becomes the focal point of a discussion about why distance does not necessarily impede intimacy--sometimes, in fact, it helps us to be or feel more closely connected--and in that process, literature may play an important part. In her takeaway, Linda chats about her newest "discovery," Souvankham Thammavongsa's Found (Pedlar Press 2007). Check out this video with Thammavongsa speaking about and reading from Found.

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Bonus Episode: Interview with Lori Schubert, Executive Director of the Quebec Writers' Federation

Fri, 25 Jun 2021 02:02:56 GMT

Linda sits in the backyard of Lori Schubert, the Executive Director of the Quebec Writers' Federation, to chat with her about the organization's history, her role in it, and the programs it offers to its members across the province of Quebec, including its database of Quebec writers and its awards. And the two just enjoy a beautiful day outside, at the end of a long period of pandemic restrictions....

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How Remembering Defines You - Lorena Gale's Je Me Souviens

Fri, 25 Jun 2021 01:42:28 GMT

In this episode, Linda remembers how she met actor and writer Lorena Gale in Vancouver, British Columbia - and how acts of remembering define who you are, as Gale's play, Je Me Souviens (Talon Press), renders clear; she connects the history and significance of license plates in Quebec to Gale's journey of self-discovery to show how Gale navigates carefully the challenges of identity in the province -- both when Gale lived there and then in retrospect. In the take-away section, Linda considers the collection, Chronicling the Days: Dispatches from a Pandemic, a project conceived by the Quebec Writers' Federation and produced in conjunction with Guernica Press, as an early provincial-based response to the pandemic. (With apologies for the recording's lack of clarity this episode!)

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Bonus Episode: Interview with Marco Timpano, Author of 25 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started My Podcast

Thu, 10 Jun 2021 22:28:12 GMT

In this episode, Linda chats with her co-producer (yes, that's right - her co-producer) and long-standing friend, Marco Timpano, about his career as a podcaster, and his recent publication, 25 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started My Podcast. He reads from the book and, drawing upon his own experiences as a podcaster, explains some of the things he really wished he did know.

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The Languages & Sounds That Are Home: Kaie Kellough's Magnetic Equator

Thu, 10 Jun 2021 16:00:49 GMT

In this episode, Linda begins with the sound of her father's old espresso machine, to explain how she sees -- or hears -- sound working in Magnetic Equator (published by McClelland & Stewart) by international poet, novelist, and sound performer Kaie Kellough. You can hear a sample of his sound poetry here. This episode includes a small excerpt read by Kellough himself (with permission by Kellough).

In the "take-away" section, Linda talks about a biography she recently read by Sherrill Grace, about Canadian author Timothy Findley (published by Wilfrid Laurier University Press).

If you'd like to know more about sound poetry, and about Kaie Kellough as a sound poet, check out Adam Sol's blog post about Kellough on "How a Poem Moves."

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Bonus Episode: Interview with Michael Nest, author of Cold Case North

Thu, 27 May 2021 21:44:02 GMT

Linda chats with author, Michael Nest, about Cold Case North, a finalist for the Crime Writers of Canada for its 2021 Best True Crime Award. We chat about the challenges involved in researching the disappearance of Jim Brady (Metis) and Absolom Halkett (Cree), the fundamental nature of collaboration in this kind of endeavour, and what it might look like this in this kind of moment and context.

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Bonus Episode: Interview with Dr. Deanna Reder (Cree Métis), collaborator behind Cold Case North

Thu, 27 May 2021 19:30:09 GMT

Bonus Episode: Linda chats with Dr. Deanna Reder about the history related to James Brady (Métis) and Abby Halkett, the community that experienced this traumatic loss, and the making of this book.

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Cold Case North is Smoking Hot

Thu, 27 May 2021 18:40:00 GMT

Linda discusses the narrative of Cold Case North (published by the University of Regina Press) -- an investigation that was poorly conducted and re-opened by ... a Cree-Métis scholar, Dr. Deanna Reder, Eric Bell, and Michael Nest. Shortlisted by the Crime Writers of Canada for the 2021 Best True Crime Award, Cold Case North is a powerful, moving account of how and why the Métis leader James Brady and Cree Band Councillor Absolom Halkett disappeared and their case remains unresolved. Dr. Deanna Reder reads from sections of the book as part of the episode.

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Apocalypse Now (and Then) - Saleema Nawaz's Songs for the End of the World

Thu, 27 May 2021 18:30:14 GMT

Linda considers the two central meanings of apocalypse in view of recent global events, environmental crises, and political upheavals. She uses these two meanings to approach Saleema Nawaz's Songs for the End of the World (published by McClelland & Stewart). In the "Takeaway" section of the podcast, she continues to pursue the idea of revelation in relation to Klara DuPlessis's Hell Light Flesh (published by Palimpsest Press).

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Hiatus / Teaser Episode

Tue, 25 May 2021 03:52:05 GMT

We are so grateful for the really enthusiastic response we have had to the podcast! We're coming right back - but, in response to some of our listeners's requests, we have provided you with a list of some of the writers (and a little time to read their books!) that Linda will be discussing in future episodes.

Have some other suggestions for us? Drop us a line at gettinglitwithlinda@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter (@LLitWith) and Instagram!

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Episode 3: My Body is a Record - Madeleine Thien's Do Not Say We Have Nothing

Sun, 23 May 2021 15:02:35 GMT

Our bodies hold memory: they contain narratives that exceed the present moment and extend back generations. This episode calls upon writer and host Linda's personal experience to understand and explore Madeleine Thien's remarkable novel, Do Not Say We Have Nothing, published by Knopf (a division of Penguin Random House). The Take-Away for this episode involves two collections by the Italian-Canadian poet, Gianna Patriarca -- Italian Women and Other Tragedies and Daughters for Sale, both published by Guernica Press.

Episode Credits:Writer and host: Linda Morra

Associate Producers: Linda Morra and Marco TimpanoMusic: Rafael Krux

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Episode 2: This is the Present Me - Rawi Hage's DeNiro's Game

Thu, 20 Aug 2020 15:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Linda begins by focusing on one of her personal favourites: DeNiro's Game by the award-winning, Quebec-based author, Rawi Have (with reference to two of his other novels). The "Take-away" section briefly recommends Megan Gail Coles's Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward's Gun Club published by the House of Anansi, while promising to look at other East-Coast writers in Canada in the future, including Alistair MacLeod, Michael Crummey, Lisa Moore, Donna Morrissey, and Michael Winter.

Episode Credits: Linda Morra: Host, Writer, Associate Producer Marco Timpano: Associate Producer Raphael Krux: Music

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Episode 1: Not All About Atwood

Wed, 19 Aug 2020 15:00:00 GMT

What does it mean to "Get Lit with Linda"? This episode introduces listeners to Linda and what she will be chatting about in future episodes--Canadian and other literary forms. Sometimes, she will also chat with literary writers and icons, to develop a broad sense of what "getting literature" really means.

Episode Credits:Linda Morra: Host & Writer, Associate ProducerMarco Timpano: Associate ProducerRaphael Krux: Music

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Introduction to Getting Lit with Linda

Thu, 09 Jul 2020 12:00:00 GMT

Using her expertise as a seasoned literature professor, Linda M. Morra develops provocative, timely insights about books from Canada and elsewhere to show why stories are relevant for all of us. Hosted and written by Linda Morra, produced by Linda Morra and Marco Timpano. Our podcast launches on August 19, 2020!

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