What Happened Next: a podcast about newish books

My guest on this episode is Ali Bryan. Ali is the author six novels, including Roost, which was a One Book Nova Scotia selection, The Figgs and The Hill. Her work has won and been nominated for multiple awards, including the Leacock Prize, the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize, the Pushcart Prize, a Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Award, a Commonwealth Short Story Prize, and the BPAA Trade Fiction Book of the Year. Her most recent books are the novels Coq, shortlisted for the Leacock Award for Humour, and The Crow Valley Karaoke Championships—both published in 2023, by Freehand and Henry Holt, respectively—and the young adult novel Takedown, published earlier this year by DCB Young Readers. Kirkus Reviews called Takedown “visceral and violent yet ultimately hopeful.” Ali and I talk about our mutual dislike of aspirational novels, the current literary trend against ambiguity in literary fiction, and the elements of a successful and enjoyable book launch. (Spoiler: a 90-minute reading is not one of those elements.) This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus. Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

My guest on this episode is Hannah Green. Hannah is a writer as well as the poetry editor at the literary journal CV2. Her debut collection, Xanax Cowboy, was published by House of Anansi in 2023 and won the Governor General's Literary Award for Poetry. In its starred review of the book, Quill & Quire called the book “timely and witty” and said “it leaves nothing off stage, hides nothing.” Hannah and I take about a photo from her book launch that went viral, about writing poetry before and after getting sober, and about the unexpectedly long break from writing she took after finishing Xanax Cowboy. This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus. Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

My guest on this Halloween-themed episode is Ainslie Hogarth. Ainslie is the author of two YA horror novels, The Lonely and The Boy Meets Girl Massacre (Annotated), and the adult novel Motherthing, which was a New York Times Best Book of the Year and was included in Cosmopolitan’s list of Best Horror Books of All Time. Her short fiction has been published in Hazlitt, Black Static, and elsewhere. Her most recent book is the novel Normal Women, published by Strange Light in 2023. In its review of the book, Booklist said that “Hogarth has a talent for writing depth and invoking lavish mental pictures.” Ainslie and talk about Halloween, provoking readers, and the perils of trying to remake yourself as a writer. This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus. Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

My guest on this episode is Dan Werb. Dan is an author, epidemiologist and policy analyst whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Salon, and elsewhere. His first book, City of Omens: A Search for the Missing Women of the Borderlands, was published by Bloomsbury Publishing in 2019 and was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for nonfiction. He holds faculty appointments at the University of California San Diego and the University of Toronto, and was the inaugural winner of the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse Avenir Award. He is also the recipient of a Traiblazer Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. In addition to that, Dan is a musician and composer who has performed and recorded as part of various groups and has written music for film.  Dan’s most recent book The Invisible Siege: The Rise of Coronaviruses and the Search for a Cure, was published by Crown Publishing in 2022. That book won the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize. In its starred review of the book, Publishers Weekly called The Invisible Siege “a page-turning and unsettling look at the history of coronaviruses” and a “unique and valuable addition to the expanding body of work on COVID-19.” Dan and I talk about how his musical career does, and doesn’t, connect with his scientific one, about the accelerating threat from strange and destructive new viruses, and about why the joy of winning a major non-fiction book award lasted... about a day and a half. This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus. Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

My guest on this episode is Tamara Faith Berger. Tamara is an author and screenwriter whose books include Lie With Me, which she helped adapt into a feature film, The Way of the Whore (later republished by Coach House Books as Little Cat), Maidenhead, Kuntalini and Queen Solomon. She has been nominated for the Trillium Book Award and won the Believer Book Award. Two films for which she wrote the screenplays will be premiering in 2025. Tamara’s most recent book is the novel Yara, published in 2023 by Coach House Books. The Toronto Star and the Globe & Mail selected it as one of the best books of that year. Publishers Weekly said that “this provocative coming-of-age story … raises questions about sexuality, power, and the intersection of the personal and the political." Tamara and I talk about mainstream Canadian literary culture’s discomfort with her work’s signature combination of deep ideas and frank sexuality, about the complicated experience of publishing a novel that explores Jewish identity and its relationship to Israel in the fall of 2023, and the total coincidence that led to her having two films appearing in one year. This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus. Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

My guest on this episode is Paige Maylott. Paige is a writer and gamer who works as an accessibility expert at McMaster University. Her first book, the memoir My Body Is Distant, was published by ECW Press in 2023. That book won an Independent Publisher Book Award for LGBTQ+ Non-Fiction, and was shortlisted for the Rakuten KOBO Emerging Writer Prize in the nonfiction category. Publishers Weekly said that “Maylott’s gripping debut memoir covers her gender transition, divorce, and experiments with online relationships in thrillingly nonlinear fashion.” Paige and I talk about the cultural and personal importance of the early 80s video game Zork, about the decision she made, while writing her memoir, to always show herself in a worse light than anyone else, and about how she struggled with the idea of writing a second memoir—but why she is doing it anyway. This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus. Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

My guest on this episode is Waubgeshig Rice. Waubgeshig is the Anishinaabe author of four books, including the short story collection Midnight Sweatlodge (2011), and the novels Legacy (2014) and Moon of the Crusted Snow (2018). As a journalist, he has worked for various outlets, including CBC Radio One. He also hosted, along Jennifer David, the Storykeepers podcast, which focused on Indigenous writing. He has won the Independent Publishers Book Award, the Northern 'lit' Award, and the Debwewin Citation for Excellence in First Nation Storytelling. Waubgeshig’s most recent book is Moon of the Turning Leaves, published in 2023 by Random House Canada. That novel was a #1 national bestseller and a finalist for the Aurora Award for Best Novel. Book Riot said that Moon of the Turning Leaves is “gripping, to say the least, and it’s a haunting read that’ll linger in the recesses of your mind for quite some time.” Waubgeshig and I talk about how being a very in-demand author is a little bit like touring in a rock band, about the pleasures of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, which he was introduced to by his friend (and the current premier of Manitoba) Wab Kinew, and about how he is not yet closing the door on a possible third book in the series that began with Moon of the Crusted Snow. This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus. Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

My guest on this episode is David Bergen. David is the author of numerous acclaimed novels and short-story collections, including The Case of Lena S, which won the 2002 Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award, and The Time In Between, winner of the 2005 Giller Prize. Four of his books have won the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award. David’s work has also won the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction and the John Hirsch Award, and been nominated for the Manitoba Book of the Year, the Relit Prize, and the International Dublin Literary Award. Four of his books have won the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award. He himself was awarded the Matt Cohen Award in 2018, in honour of a distinguished lifetime contribution to Canadian literature. His most recent novel is Away from the Dead, published in 2023 by Goose Lane Editions. Author and former What Happened Next guest Omar El Akkad called Away from the Dead “a deceptively stunning novel… written by one of Canada’s best.” David and I talk about adding his name to the opposition to the Giller Prize’s association with Scotiabank, about the crime novel he wrote a decade ago that will finally get published next year, and about the advice he wishes he’d given Ron McLean when Ron defended one of David’s books on Canada Reads. (David and I also bond over not yet having read Middlemarch.) This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus. Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

My guest on this episode is Christine Estima. Christine is a journalist, author, and performer whose work has appeared in the New York Times, the Walrus, VICE, the Globe and Mail, Chatelaine, Maisonneuve, and elsewhere. She was shortlisted for the 2018 Allan Slaight Prize for Journalism, longlisted for the 2015 CBC Canada Writes Creative Nonfiction prize, and was a finalist for the 2011 Writers’ Union of Canada short prose competition. She’s also been a contestant on reality TV competition… twice! Christine’s debut book is The Syrian Ladies Benevolent Society, published by House of Anansi Press in 2023 and included in the CBC’s list of Best Canadian Fiction for that year. Maisonneuve said that the book “weaves a haunting tale of how the pain of loss … reverberates across generations." Christine and I talk about dealing with sexist idiots, about how she uses moments of rejection to propel her forward in her writing and her career, and about her new book, a fictional take on a notorious and tragic literary relationship. This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus. Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.  

My guest on this episode is Carl Wilson. Carl is the music critic at Slate and also writes for The Globe and Mail, Hazlitt, The New York Times Magazine and many other online and print publications. His work has been included in two of Da Capo Books' annual Best Music Writing collections. Carl’s first book was Let’s Talk about Love: A Journey to the End of Taste, which Carl himself describes as being about “aesthetic conflict, class, and Céline Dion.” That book was originally published in 2007 by Bloomsbury as part of the 33 1/3 series of books about popular music. An expanded edition was published in 2014 that included essays by  Nick Hornby, Krist Novoselic, Ann Powers, Mary Gaitskill, Sheila Heti and others, as well as a new afterword by Carl. The LA Review of Books said that  "Let's Talk About Love...is not just a critical study of one Céline Dion album, but an engaging discussion of pop criticism itself." Carl and I, of course, talk about Céline’s recent performance at the Paris Olympics, about the unlikely popular and academic success of Let’s Talk About Love, and about the two book-length works he wants to complete—one a biography of a beloved writer and singer-songwriter, the other an argument for the legitimacy of crying as a critical response to great art. This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus. Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

My guest on this episode is Peter Darbyshire. Peter is an author, journalist, and communications professional whose debut novel, Please, won the KM Hunter Award for Best Emerging Artist and the ReLit Award for Best Novel. He is also the author of the novel The Warhol Gang and the story collection Has the World Ended Yet? He works as Communications Officer for BC’s Provincial Health Services Authority. I’m doing something slightly different in this episode, because Peter actually has three books that are about to be published: The Mona Lisa Sacrifice, The Dead Hamlets and The Apocalypse Ark, which are all part of his Cross series of supernatural thrillers. All three books are being published in October by Wolsak & Wynn. However, all three were previously published by another indie press in 2013, 2015, and 2016, respectively. The Vancouver Sun said, in its review of the Cross series, that Darbyshire “writes with the unfettered delight of a gluttonous reader trapped in a library in his own mind, drawing promiscuously from myth, folk tale, religious texts and apocrypha, literature, music and philosophy.” Peter and I talk about how running the COVID-19 social media response for a provincial health authority gave him a new perspective on the apocalypse, about the process of getting the Cross series reprinted—and why it needed to be—and about how the stretch of time since his last new work of fiction speaks to something of a crisis of faith when it comes to his own writing‑but also a sense of liberation. This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus. Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

My guest on this episode is Michael Christie. Michael is the author of the 2012 story collection, The Beggar's Garden, which was longlisted for the Giller Prize, shortlisted for the Writers' Trust Prize for Fiction, and won the Vancouver Book Award. His 2015 novel If I Fall, If I Die was also longlisted for the Giller Prize, as well as the Kirkus Prize, and was selected as a New York Times Editors' Choice Pick, and was on numerous best-of-the-year lists. His essays and book reviews have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Globe & Mail. Michael’s most recent novel is Greenwood, which was published in 2019 by McClelland & Stewart. That books was a national bestseller and won the Le Prix du Livre de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines and the 2020 Arthur Ellis Award for Excellence in Canadian Crime Writing. It was also shortlisted for the 2020 Forest of Reading Evergreen Award, the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, and the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize, and longlisted for the Giller Prize, and was a 2023 Canada Reads Finalist. The New York Times Book Review called Greenwood “superb” and said it “penetrates to the core of things.” Michael and I talk about how his writing career has been influenced by his previous semi-pro skateboarding career, about converting Greenwood into a TV series, and about how while working on his new novel, he had to resist the temptation to copy the narrative formula that had worked so well in Greenwood. This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus. Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

My guest on this episode is Deborah Dundas. Deborah is a writer and journalist who has worked as a television producer and as the Books Editor for the Toronto Star, where she is currently an opinion editor. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including Maclean’s, the Globe and Mail, the National Post, Canadian Notes and Queries, the Belfast Telegraph, and the Sunday Independent. She also teaches Creative Non-Fiction at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies. Deborah’s first book is On Class, which was published by Biblioasis Books in 2023. That book was A Hamilton Review of Books Best Book of 2023 and was shortlisted for the 2024 Speaker’s Book Award. The Winnipeg Free Press called On Class “a nifty, provocative little book.” Deborah and I talk about her work on the most picked-over and discussed literary story of the decade, which are the revelations about the late Alice Munro and her family, and about how she initially wanted to say no to working on that story. We talk about some of the progress and great conversations about class she has seen witnessed publishing her book, and how she feels just a little less like an outsider in Canada’s literary culture.   This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus. Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.  

My guest on this episode is Jackie Khalilieh. Jackie is a writer and former teacher whose first book, the YA novel Something More, was published by Tundra Books in 2023. That novel was shortlisted for the Ruth & Sylvia Shwartz Award, as well as the Snow Willow Award, and was selected for several Best of the year lists, including by the New York Public Library and Audible Books Canada. Publishers Weekly called Something More a “thought-provoking and thoroughly entertaining debut that centers questions of identity via a fresh lens." Jackie and I talk about how her identities as a person with autism and a Palestinian-Canadian inform the kinds of stories she wants to tell, about some of the negative response her book has received from readers who perhaps wanted its autistic main character to conform to a particular ideal, and about how she can’t on GoodReads without stripmining the site for data and projections about her own writing career.   This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus. Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

My guest on this episode is Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer. Kathryn is the author of the novels All the Broken Things, Perfecting, and The Nettle Spinner, as well as the story collection, Way Up, which won the Danuta Gleed Award. Her work has been published in Granta Magazine, Maclean’s Magazine, The Walrus, Joyland, This Magazine, and elsewhere. Her fiction has won a Danuta Gleed Award and been nominated for The Amazon First Novel Award, the Toronto Book Award, CBC Canada Reads, and the Relit Award.  Kathryn’s most recent book is Wait Softly Brother, which was published by Wolsak & Wynn in 2023 and was longlisted for the Giller Prize. The Toronto Star said that Wait Softly Brother is “rich with the true stuff of imagined lives, and the imagined stuff of true lives,” and “is a glorious enchantment indeed.” Kathryn and I talk about how the enormous emotional, existential, and even geographic changes she has gone through in past decade have impacted her writing—for the better—about how Wait Softly Brother came out of a very public writing experiment after she started to think her career was over, and about her compulsive need to transform every experience into the seed for more writing. This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus. Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.  

My guest on this episode is Kelly S. Thompson. Kelly is a former Logistics Officer in the Canadian Armed Forces who began writing about her military experiences in a blog for Chatelaine magazine. She wrote about those experiences again in her debut book, Girls Need Not Apply, which was published in 2019 by McClelland & Stewart, named a Globe and Mail Top 100 Book, and became an instant bestseller. Kelly teaches Creative Nonfiction at the University of King’s College. Her most recent book, the memoir Still, I Cannot Save You, was published by McClelland & Stewart in 2023, and was also an instant bestseller. It was shortlisted for the 2024 Evelyn Richardson Non-Fiction Award. Rachel Matlow, author of Dead Mom Walking, wrote that “with this heartwrenching yet hopeful book, Kelly has turned her loss and grief into something beautiful.” Kelly and I talk about how her current writing practice is informed by her years in the military and by her experiences with chronic illness, about the worst response to her writing she has ever received, and about how publishing Still, I Cannot Save You has led to some expected, but no less agonizing difficulties with her extended family. A quick warning: this conversation covers some very difficult and traumatic territory, such as addiction and domestic abuse.   This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus. Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

My guest on this episode is Rollie Pemberton. Rollie is a writer, rapper, producer, poet and activist who performs under the name Cadence Weapon. His album Parallel World won the 2021 Polaris Music Prize and his writing has been published in Pitchfork, The Guardian, Wired, Toronto Life, and Hazlitt. Rollie has also acted as Poet Laureate for his hometown of Edmonton, Alberta. He also recently released a song and a video celebrating that city’s hockey team and its run for the Stanley Cup. Rollie’s debut book is the memoir Bedroom Rapper: Cadence Weapon on Hip-Hop, Resistance and Surviving the Music Industry, which was published by McClelland & Stewart in 2022. The Toronto Star called Bedroom Rapper “an intriguing window into a creative mind that takes creativity and the constant betterment of that creativity very seriously.” Rollie and I talk about his relentlessly curatorial approach to art and the world, about the need for more and better artistic criticism, and about why he thinks books and writing will soon eclipse music as his central creative pursuit. This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus. Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

My guest on this first episode of The Walrus era is John Vaillant. John is a Vancouver author and journalist whose acclaimed, award-winning nonfiction books, The Golden Spruce and The Tiger, were national bestsellers. His debut novel, The Jaguar’s Children, was a finalist for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the International Dublin Literary Award. John has written for, among others, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, National Geographic, and... The Walrus. John’s most recent book is Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast, which was published by Knopf Canada in 2023. Fire Weather was a national bestseller, and won the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize For Political Writing, the Baillie Gifford Prize For Nonfiction, and the 2024 J.W. Dafoe Book Prize, in addition to being a finalist for the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize, a National Book Award, the Hubert Evans Prize, and a Pulitzer Prize. The Guardian called the book “an urgent warning—and an all-consuming read.” John and I talk about how the devastating things he writes about in Fire Weather really are our new reality, about the fact that he is still talking publicly about the book almost every single day—even a year after it was published—and about why the novel he had been planning to write instead of Fire Weather will probably remain unwritten.   This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus. Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.  

My guest on this episode is Alissa York. Alissa is the author of the novels Mercy, Effigy (which was shortlisted for the Giller Prize), Fauna and The Naturalist (which was winner of the Canadian Author’s Association Fiction Award, and the  short fiction collection, Any Given Power.  Alissa’s essays and articles have appeared in The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, Brick magazine and elsewhere, and she teaches at Humber College, where she is the coordinator for the Creative Writing program. Full disclosure, we used to have offices right across the hall from each other at Humber. Alissa’s most recent book is Far Cry, which was published by TK in 2023 by Random House Canada. The Toronto Star said Far Cry is “dazzling and brilliant” and called it “a transfixing, glorious novel.” Alissa and I talk about the Humber Creative Writing program, how she makes herself disconnect from social media, and most other social things, when she is working on a book, and where she begins when she is starting a new novel.   Alissa York: alissayork.com Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

My guest on this episode is Cody Caetano. Cody is a writer and an off-reserve member of Pinaymootang First Nation. He also works as a literary agent at CookeMcDermid. Cody’s debut memoir, Half-Bads in White Regalia, was published Penguin Canada’s Hamish Hamilton imprint in 2023 and was a national bestseller. It won the 2023 Indigenous Voices Award for Best Published Prose, was shortlisted for the 2023 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction, and was longlisted for the Toronto Book Award, the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour, and Canada Reads. It was named one of the best books of the year by The Globe and Mail and CBC Books. The Toronto Star said about Half-Bads in White Regalia that “Caetano’s voice leaps off the page with a rhythmic, hip-hop style right from the first page.” Cody and I talk about some of his pre-publishing jobs, and how they relate to his current ones, about how he handles being someone from a very different background than most people in the book world, and what it’s like to be a writer who is also an agent—someone who knows how the sausage gets made.  Cody Caetano: codycaetano.com Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact