http://kootenaycoopradio.com/index.php?/radio-show/show/the_writers_show/ en-us Copyright 2010 Kootenay Coop Radio Kootenay Coop Radio The Writers’ Show talks to nationally published Canadian writers and others in publishing who are based in British Columbia, Canada. The emphasis is on the how-to of the writing process - character development, motivation, writing scenes - and experiences in publishing, including getting work accepted, finding an agent, publicity and reviews. The show is a resource for college-level writing instructors, students of writing, others who write, and readers. Guests include fiction writers, poets, nature writers, agents, and publishers. The show’s purpose is to make listeners aware of writers’ lives and to explain the process of writing to readers and others… The Writers’ Show talks to nationally published Canadian writers and others in publishing who are based in British Columbia, Canada. The emphasis is on the how-to of the writing process - character development, motivation, writing scenes - and experiences in publishing, including getting work accepted, finding an agent, publicity and reviews. The show is a resource for college-level writing instructors, students of writing, others who write, and readers. Guests include fiction writers, poets, nature writers, agents, and publishers. The show’s purpose is to make listeners aware of writers’ lives and to explain the process of writing to readers and others… Kootenay Coop Radio podcasts@cjly.org About In the Shadow of the Glacier, Margaret Cannon of The Globe & Mail wrote, "Vicki Delany has a great narrative voice, fine, well-developed characters and a real eye for the small details that keep a novel in place." In the first thirty minutes of the show, Vicki Delany explains styles within the mystery genre and stories from the road. In the second half, readings recorded for Authors Aloud, the voices of Canadian literature. Readings are by poets Robert Hilles, John Pass, Rhea Tregebov and Terence Young, as well as by John Gould, a writer of very short fiction, and… Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:39:00 PST current affairs, news, Canada, Nelson, British Columbia Audrey Thomas has published eighteen books, both novels and short stories and has won almost every prize going, including the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, B.C., three times. Her body of work is the topic of English theses and research papers. Her books include Intertidal Life, Coming Down from Wa and Isobel Gunn. Topics: her new novel in manuscript; how she works; the soft line between fiction and memory; stories of awards and publishing. About working on a book for years: "Keeping the excitement up is like Viagra of the mind." Mon, 31 Mar 2008 16:37:00 PST current affairs, news, Canada, Nelson, British Columbia Edith Iglauer, author of Fishing with John, turned 91 this March. Bill Schermbrucker talked to her at her home in Garden Bay, B.C. She was a staff writer and frequent contributor to The New Yorker magazine, and is the author of, among other books, Inuit Journey and Dennison's Ice Road. About Bill (William) Shawn editing Fishing with John she said, "He didn't have to do much. I really write my own stuff." Topics: Her New York life, her childhood, her life in B.C., her current project, a memoir. Greetings from Lynne Van Luven, Mary Schendlinger and Geist. Mon, 17 Mar 2008 15:36:00 PST current affairs, news, Canada, Nelson, British Columbia Baba Brinkman is a literary rap artist, with a B.A. with Honours from Simon Fraser University and an M.A. in Medieval and Renaissance English Literature from the University of Victoria. His thesis drew parallels between the worlds of rap music and literary poetry. He is the author of The Rap Canterbury Tales, published by Talon Books. Brinkman was born in the West Kootenays of B.C., and raised in the midst of the province's tree-planting sub-culture. Nelson Before Nine host Randy Morse interviews Baba Brinkman about his artistic evolution and experience with Talon Books. Audio editing credit: Kelley Humphries. The… Mon, 3 Mar 2008 15:15:00 PST current affairs, news, Canada, Nelson, British Columbia John Vaillant, a journalist living in Vancouver, wrote the seminal story for "The New Yorker" that led to the writing of The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness and Greed, published first by Norton in the U.S. and then, with a different edit, by Knopf Canada. The Golden Spruce won the Governor General's award for English non-fiction in 2005. Topics: his learning curve at "The New Yorker", the influence of his agent, the development of an article into a book-length manuscript, working with Louise Dennys at Knopf Canada, what he learned about his writing and himself… Mon, 18 Feb 2008 15:19:00 PST current affairs, news, Canada, Nelson, British Columbia A grab-bag show that includes conversations about how a concept for a book is developed, why you might want to read (or write) personal essays, and what kids are up to who call themselves "Wierdos." Mon, 4 Feb 2008 15:22:00 PST current affairs, news, Canada, Nelson, British Columbia Senior editor at Geist Magazine, published in Vancouver, Mary Schendlinger also draws comics under the name Eve Corbel, teaches writing and editing at UBC and SFU, and edits books for Harbour Publishing and others. Topics: types of editing, from developmental, structural, to copyediting; writing Geist buys; finding an editor; the term "creative non-fiction." If you're a writer, check out The Writer's Toolbox on the Geist site. If you're a teacher, take a look at Geist in the Classroom. Luanne Armstrong, writer and friend, is the interviewer. Mon, 21 Jan 2008 15:23:00 PST current affairs, news, Canada, Nelson, British Columbia George Bowering, a prolific writer, is a poet, novelist, editor, professor and historian, as well as the first Poet Laureate of Canada. Born and raised in B.C., he has earned an international reputation and now lives in Vancouver. Topics: small presses - Pooka, Above Ground Press; about chapbooks; creating restraints in writing - "alphabet" poems, for example; Bowering reads his tribute poems to Matt Cohen, Fred Wah, and P.K. Page; excerpt from the commendation from The Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry. Linda Lee Crosfield, poet and friend, is the interviewer. Mon, 7 Jan 2008 15:25:00 PST current affairs, news, Canada, Nelson, British Columbia Don Gayton is a grasslands ecologist and the author of many books, including Landscapes of the Interior: A Re-exploration of Nature and the Human Spirit and The Wheatgrass Mechanism. He reads from Interwoven Wild: An Ecologist Loose in the Garden, Thistledown Press. The music is Tom Waits. Topics: from journal to prose, book covers, narrative arc in nature writing, discussion of the term "nature writing" as a genre and classification, his editor at Thistledown, Sean Virgo, with whom he had "a wonderful, extended conversation...a rich, rewarding editorial experience." Dick Cannings is a biologist and bird advocate.… Mon, 10 Dec 2007 16:20:01 PST current affairs, news, Canada, Nelson, British Columbia Eileen Delehanty Pearkes is the author of The Geography of Memory: Recovering Stories of a Landscape's First People, Sono Nis Press, and The Glass Seed: The Fragile Beauty of Heart, Mind and Memory, about her mother's Alzheimer's,Timeless Books, 2007. She writes regularly for ascent, a magazine described as "yoga for an inspired life." About the motivation behind The Glass Seed : "I sat down in an act of defiance to write something that I hadn't found anywhere else." Topics: Cleya McDougall, editor at Timeless Books; Kootenay Bay Ashram; poet, thinker and activist Gary Snyder; Scar Tissue, by Michael Ignatieff;… Mon, 26 Nov 2007 17:18:00 PST current affairs, news, Canada, Nelson, British Columbia Patrick Lane was awarded The Lieutenant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence at the 2007 BC Book Prizes. In his continuing series on the memoir, Bill Schermbrucker (Show #24) interviews Patrick Lane at his home in B.C. about his book There is a Season, McClelland & Stewart. "I sat down one August," Patrick Lane says, "and chopped out 400 pages." Others mentioned include his editor -- if you're a writer, follow this link -- Dinah Forbes; poet Brian Brett; poet P.K. Page. Lane's books include Go Leaving Strange, Syllable of Stone and Addicted: Notes from the Belly of the Beast,… Mon, 12 Nov 2007 17:16:00 PST current affairs, news, Canada, Nelson, British Columbia Bill Schermbrucker (Show #24) interviews Kristjana Gunnars at her home in B.C. About her five books of prose, he says: "all ... are short, intense, meditative. They are passionate fictional memoirs based on events in her own life." Gunnars, who describes her work as "cross-genre fiction, poetry, essays," said in this interview, "Every year we have difficult times, and some writing helps us get through them." The Prowler (1989), Zero Hour (1991), The Substance of Forgetting (1992), The Rose Garden: Reading Marcel Proust (1996), and Night Train to Nykobing (1998), the books discussed in this interview, are all published by… Mon, 29 Oct 2007 17:13:00 PST current affairs, news, Canada, Nelson, British Columbia Rhea Tregebov's latest project is an anthology of translations from the Yiddish, Arguing with the Storm: Stories by Yiddish Women Writers, published by Sumach Press. She reads poems from her most recent book of selected and new poems, alive. She teaches in the UBC Creative Writing Program. Topics: tandem translating (working with the original translator); literate vs. literal translation; freelancing as a writer; how she approached writing her first novel, The Knife Sharpener's Bell, coming from Coteau Books in 2009. Discussion of pivotal scenes, connective tissue in a novel, compressing narration, the definition of substantive editing, the… Mon, 15 Oct 2007 17:10:00 PST current affairs, news, Canada, Nelson, British Columbia Having written everything from academic articles to operational manuals for General Motors, Angie Abdou set herself the task of learning to write fiction. Her first book was Anything Boys Can Do, a collection of stories. About her recent novel, published by NeWest Press, Quill & Quire wrote, "The Bone Cage is well paced and readable, memorable for its fresh perspective on the lives of athletes and the obstacles they must overcome." Thanks to Janet Mayfield for helping with the show. Angie Abdou taped students in her creative writing workshop at the Sage Hill Teen experience in Moose… Mon, 1 Oct 2007 16:08:00 PST current affairs, news, Canada, Nelson, British Columbia Pearl Luke's two novels are Burning Ground and Madame Zee, based on the life of a BC cult leader's wife, published by HarperCollins Canada. "There comes a point where you have to organize what you write." A thank-you to Randy Morse, The Writers' Show resource, for entertaining information on foreign rights and literary contests. Topics: Luke's publishing story; literary agent Denise Bukowski ; the difference a book's title makes; a book's ancillary rights (foreign rights); on entering literary contests; the role of the editor in the formation of the final book; three tips for writers; online mentoring. Mon, 17 Sep 2007 16:06:00 PST current affairs, news, Canada, Nelson, British Columbia Lucas Myers is an actor, director, writer and composer. His one-man shows are "Dress", EAST, and THE AMAZING AND IMPERMEABLE CROMOLI BROTHERS. His newest show is "Work", in which he portrays an entire sensitivity training workshop. "The audience has a fantastic faculty for imagination...[I've learned] that all I have to do is shift how I'm sitting, change my voice a bit...and people will go there with me." Irene Mock is the author of Inappropriate Behaviour, a collection of stories. Thanks to David Planedin for technical support. Topics: inhabiting your characters, Asperger Syndrome, use of songs in theatre.… Mon, 10 Sep 2007 17:03:01 PST current affairs, news, Canada, Nelson, British Columbia Andrea MacPherson has written four books: two novels, When She Was Electric (Raincoast, 2003) and Beyond the Blue (Random House, 2007) and two poetry collections, Natural Disasters (Palimpsest Press, 2007) and Away (Signature Editions, 2008). When She Was Electric was listed No. 6 on CBC Canada Reads: People's Choice. She is the reviews editor for Event, the literary magazine and teaches creative writing and English with the University College of the Fraser Valley and Douglas College. Topics: inspiration from ancestors; character voice; the role of the manuscript editor & the lightbulb moment that may have saved… Mon, 25 Jun 2007 16:01:00 PST current affairs, news, Canada, Nelson, British Columbia Fiction writer and consummate book reviewer Bill Schermbrucker was born in Kenya and is the winner of an Ethel Wilson Fiction Award here in B.C. Frequent jurist - Canada Council grants to artists and writers and this year's B.C. Book Prizes fiction jurist - he has fascinating information about how juries are selected and prizes decided. Bill Schermbrucker will run a Memoir Writing workshop in Banff in 2008. Topics: jurying for book awards and prizes; Canada Council & BC grants to artists and writers; the process of reviewing books versus jurying them; the number of book awards… Mon, 18 Jun 2007 16:00:00 PST current affairs, news, Canada, Nelson, British Columbia Associate professor at the University of Victoria, teaching creative non-fiction, Lynne Van Luven is also an editor and anthologist. Her latest project was Nobody's Mother: Life without kids, so popular it was nominated for the B.C. Booksellers' Choice Award, about which she says, "The fun was plotting it out, making a proposal that would get someone's attention." She started in journalism, has worked as a books editor, commentator, critic for CBC radio. Topics: the art and craft of writing creative non-fiction (also called literary journalism), the role of the editor, what makes a memoir work, the… Mon, 11 Jun 2007 15:59:00 PST current affairs, news, Canada, Nelson, British Columbia About writing short stories: "To me, the short story is the poem of fiction." His poetry and prose have been widely nominated, including the recent BC Book Prize nomination for his poetry collection Moving Day. He reads from his collection of stories Rhymes with Useless, nominated for the Danuta Gleed Award, and talks about the international success of The Claremont Review, a journal for writers aged 13-19 that he co-founded. Orca Book Publishers is bringing out the best of The Claremont Review this fall. Topics: defeating the internal critic; where inspiration comes from; The Claremont Review; the… Mon, 4 Jun 2007 15:58:00 PST current affairs, news, Canada, Nelson, British Columbia A freelance writer for more than twenty years, Vivien Bowers writes elementary and secondary school material, as well as non-fiction books and magazine articles for children and adults. Wow Canada, a book based on her family's travels, has sold over 100,000 copies. About her book In the Path of an Avalanche she wrote in an email: "You do get more respect when you write an adult book. Less money, but more respect." About being a freelancer: "I think guts is a big part of it." Vivien Bowers has won the Science In Society Journalism Award in the Childrens Book category… Mon, 28 May 2007 16:56:00 PST current affairs, news, Canada, Nelson, British Columbia Author of five fiction books and published internationally, is set in Florence during the Renaissance, China during the Boxer Rebellion, Canada during the smallpox epidemic. How does she do it and why? A quote from the show: "I can't write in a linear way. I have to write according to the kind of mood that particular day and where I want to go that particular day in my imagination." She reads from her novel Beyond Measure. Topics: Banff Wired Writing Studio, creating authentic-feeling historical settings, Canada's interlibrary loan service, language rhythm, setting parameters to work within, dealing… Mon, 14 May 2007 15:55:00 PST current affairs, news, Canada, Nelson, British Columbia Morty Mint distributes Ripleys and founded Mint Publishers Group. Living in Nelson part-time, he has begun representing local writers, including Anne DeGrace (Show #16), and has generously contributed information and expertise to the community through participating in various Oxygen Arts projects and other book events. He was the president of Penguin USA & Penguin Canada. A quote from the show: "Publishers in Canada are overwhelmed with manuscripts. The editors of these houses don't have time to edit books." Topics: Canada Council publishers' grants, book pricing, The Writers' Union of Canada (TWUC) report on writers' satisfaction with publishers;… Mon, 7 May 2007 15:53:01 PST current affairs, news, Canada, Nelson, British Columbia Diane Morriss is the publisher at Sono Nis Press, in Winlaw, a small press that has been publishing books for 39 years. Well-regarded for their mainstay transportation books - railway, aviation and nautical - Sono Nis continues to evolve and now has a small line of children's books, garnering awards. A fact of publishing: "Most people don't know, but bookstores have up to a year to return books to a publisher, so we never know what the bottom line is for a book because a sale isn't really a sale." Topics: the chain bookstore (Chapters/Indigo) from the… Mon, 23 Apr 2007 15:50:00 PST current affairs, news, Canada, Nelson, British Columbia A long-time light on the Canadian literary scene, Leona Gom has written six books of poetry, her poems widely anthologized. She turned to fiction and won the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize for her first novel Housebroken, and later went on to write the Vicky Bauer mysteries. She reads from her latest novel Hating Gladys. Topics: the difficulty of rewriting when it comes to novels, the advantages of publishing with a small press, why she stopped writing poetry, on writing mysteries, dealing with submissions while an editor at Event, the literary magazine. Thu, 12 Apr 2007 15:47:00 PST current affairs, news, Canada, Nelson, British Columbia Treading Water, Anne DeGrace's first book, sold so well it had to be reprinted. Wind Tails, her second novel, was published by McArthur & Co in September 2007. On this show Anne DeGrace reads from the new book, still in manuscript, and talks about its form and how her writing practice has had to change. Topics: the difficulties in writing a novel commpared to stories; self-publishing, considerations; the editor Verna Relkoff; agent Morty Mint; where the idea for the new novel originated; about covers, where they come from; reads from her manuscript entitled Wind Tails. Thu, 29 Mar 2007 15:46:00 PST current affairs, news, Canada, Nelson, British Columbia Empress of Asia, nominated for this year's Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, was a work-in-progress for several years and has been sold to Picador in the U.S. Its second draft was 800 pages long. About the role of his agent, Anne McDermid, in the book's success: "She gave me some very good feedback. All her suggestions made so much sense. Some of the stuff was hard to hear. You work on your draft for a year or two and then you hear the hardest one. She didn't think the readers would enjoy the narrative voice...it means changing pretty much every word...… Thu, 15 Mar 2007 15:44:00 PST current affairs, news, Canada, Nelson, British Columbia Kathy Page is noted for complex characters and compelling narrative, as well as suspense, both psychological and existential. Quotes from the show about work on her novel, Alphabet: "I found the manuscript a year later and could see instantly where it had gone wrong. I had made the book too complicated and it was kind of diluting itself into all these other lives." Her Last two novels are Alphabet and Story of My Face. Kathy Page is from Britain and has won many awards for her writing. She is a faculty member, fiction and narrative prose, at the Banff Wired… Thu, 1 Mar 2007 15:42:00 PST current affairs, news, Canada, Nelson, British Columbia About why certain books are designated by reviewers as gloomy or difficult or about angry people: "Everyday moral conundrums make people uncomfortable; the closer [the book] is to the personal life of the reader, the more personally they take it." Bad Imaginings, Sitting Practice, A History of Forgetting, Pleased to Meet You. Caroline Adderson has won many prizes for her writing & unusual themes. Caroline Adderson was the recipient of the 2007 Marian Engel Award (Rogers Writers Trust), a prize worth $15,000. Topics: consciousness of craft; the Banff experience and working with editor Jennifer Glossop; Andreas Schroeder's… Wed, 7 Feb 2007 15:41:00 PST current affairs, news, Canada, Nelson, British Columbia George K. Ilsley was born and raised in Nova Scotia and is a graduate of Acadia University and Osgoode Hall Law School of York University. And being young and foolish at the time (according to his website), he chose not to become a lawyer. George K. Ilsley was resident, October through December 07, at Berton House Writer's Retreat in the Yukon. His two books are Random Acts of Hatred (stories) and Manbug, nominated for the LitBlog Prize. His website is a must-see. Topics: entomology; Microsoft culture; cover design; insight while listening to your computer reading your… Thu, 1 Feb 2007 15:40:00 PST current affairs, news, Canada, Nelson, British Columbia Widely anthologized novelist, poet, story-writer Steve Guppy lives in Nanaimo and teaches poetry and fiction workshops at Malaspina University-College. On writing: "What I really like, to be honest, is that very subjective thing of having characters in my head. To me it's like a massive crossword puzzle." His last two books are The Work of Mercy (short stories), 2006, which includes "Downwind", short-listed for the Journey Prize; The Fire Thief, a novel. Topics: mining your life vs researching history; reviews and reviewers in Canada; Hanford Nuclear facility potential impact on B.C.; what's exciting about writing; method of… Thu, 18 Jan 2007 15:38:00 PST current affairs, news, Canada, Nelson, British Columbia Carol Windley was born in Tofino on the west coast of Vancouver Island and grew up in B.C. and Alberta. In 2002, she won a Western Magazine award for "What Saffi Knows," the opening story in the collection Home Schooling, which was shortlisted for the 2006 Giller prize. Her other books are Breathing Under Water, a novel, and Visible Light, a collection of stories. Carol Windley won the 2007 Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, BC Book Awards, for Home Schooling. Topics: the art of rewriting, the experience of the Giller nomination, the way she works. Thu, 4 Jan 2007 15:36:00 PST current affairs, news, Canada, Nelson, British Columbia A collage of the season's shows, with selected remarks about the work of writing as well as the publishing process, from titles to reviews. Music by New West, Bad Livers, Leonard Cohen, Ron Sexsmith and ... oh...Vangelis. Thu, 21 Dec 2006 15:34:01 PST current affairs, news, Canada, Nelson, British Columbia Cynthia Flood has published three books of fiction, My Father Took a Cake to France, Talonbooks -- the title story won The Journey Prize -- The Animals in Their Elements, Talonbooks and Making a Stone of the Heart, Key-Porter. She has won the National Magazine Award Gold Medal for Fiction, The Western Magazine Award and others. She reads from her work-in-progress, a novel. About writing fiction: "If you made a list of productive ways to spend your time, sitting in a room inventing people when there are already plenty of people in the world...I mean, what is this about?"… Thu, 23 Nov 2006 15:31:00 PST current affairs, news, Canada, Nelson, British Columbia Almeda Glenn Miller, the former owner of Goldrush Books in Rossland, B.C., is the author of Tiger Dreams. She teaches creative writing at Selkirk College in Castlegar. In this program she reads from her manuscript If Anwar Had Lived. Topics: The rocky road to publishing. Need an agent or not? Linear narrative vs complex, the challenges. Finding writing/publishing community. Being published while living in a small town. Also in this interview: Raincoast Books; Selkirk College, Castlegar campus; Event literary magazine, Douglas College; University of Eastern Washington; B.C. Arts Council Grants. Thu, 26 Oct 2006 15:17:00 PST current affairs, news, Canada, Nelson, British Columbia Tom Wayman's poetry and other writing has been published in literary magazines across the world. He has published eighteen books of poetry and is widely respected by students of writing wherever he teaches. In this program, he reads from his first collection of fiction, Boundary Country. Topics: Publishing in Canada, the last twenty years (a rant); the differences between writing poetry and fiction; reads from a fictional send-up of the community meeting; working with an editor, point of view, common mistakes in writing. Links for literary journals that take submissions: The Hudson Review, The Ontario Review,… Thu, 12 Oct 2006 15:14:01 PST current affairs, news, Canada, Nelson, British Columbia John Lent's most recent book So It Won't Go Away is a sequel to his story sequence, Monet's Garden, shortlisted for the BC Book Prizes' 2006 Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. He talks about publishing with small presses. The show includes music by John Lent from the CD Shadow Moon. Find out more on the website Lent Fraser Wall. John Lent is the Regional Dean of English in the North Okanagan. Topics: the joy of writing; publishing with small presses; reviews; the state of fiction reviewing in Canada; the writer's inspiration. Links: B.C. Book Prizes. The Ethel… Thu, 28 Sep 2006 14:59:00 PST current affairs, news, Canada, Nelson, British Columbia Anne Fleming's Pool-Hopping and Other Stories was short-listed for the Governor-General's Award, the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize and the Danuta Gleed Award. In this program she reads from Anomaly, her first novel, and discusses writing scenes, what she cut and why. She teaches at UBC Okanagan. Topics: Point of view. Rewriting scenes. The trouble with titles, the story of trip across Canada, stopping at every phone booth. Editors. Agents. The role of the ukelele in the writing process. Links: The Governor General's Awards; The Writers' Union of Canada Danuta Gleed Award; the literary magazine, The New Quarterly;… Thu, 14 Sep 2006 14:56:00 PST current affairs, news, Canada, Nelson, British Columbia Bill Gaston's story collection Mount Appetite was nominated for the 2002 Giller Prize and the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. Gaston received a second Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize nomination for his novel Sointula (2004). He reads from his new collection, Gargoyles. Point of view. Setting scenes. Using broad strokes for political targets in fiction. Reviews: the good, the bad, the ugly. Links: Books in Canada, the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers program. Thu, 31 Aug 2006 14:52:00 PST current affairs, news, Canada, Nelson, British Columbia