The Biblio File Hosted by Nigel Beale Podcasts

PodcastDirectory / Arts and Entertainment / Arts
PodcastDirectory / Regions / /

Twenty to Forty minute interviews with authors, publishers, booksellers, book experts. Primary Format : Arts Language : Unknown Also Listed as: City : Ottawa State/Province : ON User Tags: User Votes: RSS Feed Website People found this Podcast Searching for: View this Podcast on a Google Map. Podcast iTunes Link Text Only listing of The Biblio File Hosted by Nigel Beale Podcasts Methings.com listings of The Biblio File Hosted by Nigel Beale Podcasts If you like this podcast, you might also like:

Phil Hall on this Governor General's Award-winning poetry collection, Killdeer Photo: Canada Council. I met recently with Phil Hall, whose latest collection of poems, Killdeer, has just won the Canadian Governor General's Literary Award for English Poetry. It's a sensitive, engaging, revealing work that incorporates narrative essay, life philiosophy and literary criticism into its stanzas. In sharp contrast to  the arrogant, impenetrable and solipsistic, Hall's poetry is humbly presented, accessible, beautiful, pastoral, reflective and at times profound. Listen h ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Jonathan Rose on British Publishing House J.M. Dent & Sons Prof. Johnathan Rose Joseph Malaby Dent (30 August 1849 – 9 May 1926) was the British book publisher who gave the world the Everyman's Library series. After a short,  unsuccessful career as an apprentice printer he took up bookbinding, and shortly thereafter founded  J. M. Dent and Company, in 1888, publishing the works of Lamb, Goldsmith, Austen, Chaucer, and Tennyson among others. Printed in short runs on handmade paper, these books enjoyed some success, but it wasn't unti ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Mark Kingwell on Glenn Gould Glenn Gould was a world renowned classical pianist and an 'eccentric genius'— a 'solitary, headstrong, hypochondriac virtuoso.'  Abandoning stage performances in 1964, he concentrated instead on mastering recordings, radio, television, and print. His sudden death at age fifty stunned the world, but his music and legacy continues. Philosopher/critic Mark Kingwell sees Gould as a philosopher of music whose contradictory, mischievous, and deliberately provocative ideas ruled his li ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Douglas Gibson on Stories, Storytelling and Storytellers Douglas Gibson was, for more than 40 years, a noted Canadian editor and publisher whose skills both as writer and salesman put him at the pinnacle of his profession. Douglas Gibson Books, the first editorial imprint of its kind in Canada, has over the years  published much of the best writing that has ever come out of this country. Stories About Storytellers is Gibson's memoir. In a series of short profiles, he tells us tales about some of the authors he has worked with during an illu ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author/Journalist Andrew Cohen on Lester B. Pearson Lester "Mike" Pearson was an extraordinary politician. He was also an extraordinary athlete, diplomat, leader, teacher, writer and student. And yet, despite all of this, and, the fact that during his lifetime he was the world's best known Canadian, many are today unaware of the important role he played in creating modern Canada with its enviable social programs and economic safeguards. Andrew Cohen's biography of Pearson, part of Penguin's Extraordinary Canadians series, sets out to rectif ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Dan Boice on the Mitchell Kennerley Imprint A complicated, fascinating, largely unknown man who did a great deal for American literary publishing, Mitchell Kennerley was born in 1878 in Burslem, England. He arrived in the United States in 1896 to help set up publisher John Lane's U.S. offices. After an unhappy parting, Kennerley set off to publish various small literary magazines, and in 1906 launched his own imprint under which he published literary criticism, modern drama, fiction, and poetry, including Modern Love, first book off ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Emilie Buchwald, co-founder of Milkweed Editions on its History and Collecting Founded in Minnesota in 1980 by Emilie Buchwald and R.W. Scholes, Milkweed Editions is one of the nation's leading independent, nonprofit literary publishers, releasing between fifteen and twenty new books each year in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and children's literature. Much of its nonfiction is addresses critical environmental issues and works to expand ecological consciousness. Milkweed’s authors come from Minnesota and around the world. Today more than one million Milkweed boo ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Randy Bachman on collecting guitars, vinyl, and books Hard not to like Randy Bachman. He's smart, friendly, interested, passionate...and a collector. Why a collector? Because in 1976 his favourite guitar was stolen from a Toronto hotel room, and he wanted to get it back. What? A late-1950s orange Gretsch guitar, the Chet Atkins model.Bachman used it -- "my first real professional guitar" -- on the Guess Who hit Shakin' All Over, and later for Bachman-Turner Overdrive's Takin' Care of Business. He has yet to find it. Not all was lost however. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Allan Kornblum on the Coffee House Press Coffee House started out as the Toothpaste Press in Iowa in the early 1970s. Founded by Allan Kornblum after taking a University of Iowa typography course with the famed printer Harry Duncan, this small publishing house dedicated itself to producing poetry pamphlets and letterpress books. After 10 years, Kornblum closed the press, moved to Minneapolis, reopened it as a nonprofit organization, and began publishing trade books. . In the early 1990s, books such as Donald Duk by Frank Chin an ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Stan Bevington, Founder of the Coach House Press on which of his books to Collect In 1965, Stan Bevington, moved to Toronto from Edmonton, rented an old coach house, installed an antique Challenge Gordon platen press and set up Coach House Press. Over the years his small publishing house introduced the world to the early works of bpNichol, Michael Ondaatje, Margaret Atwood, George Bowering, Frank Davey, Ann-Marie MacDonald, Anne Michaels and many other important Canadian writers. Known for its experimental production techniques and innovative designs, Coach House has pu ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | George Walker on his Presses, and creating and collecting Wood Engravings George Walker is a wood engraver, book artist, author, illustrator and educator who has taught courses at the Ontario College of Art & Design since 1985. For over twenty years he has exhibited his wood engravings and limited edition books internationally. Among many book projects, George has illustrated two hand-printed editions written by Neil Gaiman. He is the author of The Inverted Line (2000 Porcupine's Quill), ImagesFrom the Neocerebellum (Porcupine's Quill 2007), The Woodcut Arti ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Joanna Skibsrud on The Sentimentalists as object, and the controversy surrounding its publication Johanna Skibsrud's debut novel The Sentimentalists won the 2010 Scotiabank Giller Prize and the 2009 Alcuin Award for best designed work of prose fiction, the first book ever to achieve this double win. Skibsrud has also published two books of poetry, including Late Nights with Wild Cowboys in 2008. The Sentimentalists was written for her Master's thesis at Concordia University.She is currently pursuing a Ph.D.  and lives in Tuscon Arizona.  The Sentimentalists was first publish ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Etgar Keret on his film Jellyfish Etgar Keret is an Israeli writer known for his short stories, graphic novels, and scriptwriting for film and television. His first work, a collection of short stories, was largely ignored when it was published in 1992. His second book, Missing Kissinger, a collection of fifty very short stories, was a hit. The story "Siren", which deals with paradoxes in modern Israeli society, is included in the curriculum for the Israeli matriculation exam in literature. Keret has co-authored several comi ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Cheryl Torsney on: Why Collect? Whilst in Texas recently I did what all crazed literary tourists do, I checked around for listings of interesting conferences that were taking place at the time, in the area. The Popular Culture Association was holding one in San Antonio, and this is where I caught up with Cheryl Torsney, (at the time Dean of Hiram College, now Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at the State University of New York at New Paltz), who was delivering a paper called Collecting as Pedagogy. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Cheryl Torsney on: Why Collect? Whilst in Texas recently I did what all crazed literary tourists do, I checked around for listings of interesting conferences that were taking place at the time, in the area. The Popular Culture Association was holding one in San Antonio, and this is where I caught up with Cheryl Torsney, (at the time Dean of Hiram College, now Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at the State University of New York at New Paltz), who was delivering a paper called Collecting as Pedagogy. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | James Keeline on collecting Tom Swift books Interested from an early age in space technology, James Keeline  liked to take apart radios as a young boy. He was also interested in computers. While in school he worked for a used bookstore. He ended up managing the place and running its web site and computer network. He also started researching and writing about children's series books. His particular interest and expertise is the Stratemeyer Syndicate and its founder Edward Stratemeyer. I met James recently in San Antonio to talk ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | James Keeline on collecting Tom Swift books Interested from an early age in space technology, James Keeline  liked to take apart radios as a young boy. He was also interested in computers. While in school he worked for a used bookstore. He ended up managing the place and running its web site and computer network. He also started researching and writing about children's series books. His particular interest and expertise is the Stratemeyer Syndicate and its founder Edward Stratemeyer. I met James recently in San Antonio to talk ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Kathy Doyle Thomas On the Success of Half Price Books Whilst in the Lone Star state recently, I had the opportunity to meet and talk with Kathy Doyle Thomas, Executive Vice President at Half Price Books in Dallas. The company has been in business now for almost 40 years and has enjoyed considerable success, some say at the expense of independent used bookstores. I met with Doyle, who, incidentally serves as Chairman of the Retail Advertising Marketing Association (RAMA), a division of the National Retail Federation, about this and other topic ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Cathy Henderson and Richard Oram on the history and collecting of books published by Alfred A. Knopf Inc.   The Harry Ransom Center holds the Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. archive, which includes books published under the Borzoi imprint and books from Alfred A. and Blanche Knopf’s personal library. The Ransom Center’s Associate Director for Exhibitions and Fleur Cowles Executive Curator, Cathy Henderson, and Associate Director and Hobby Foundation Librarian, Richard Oram, collaborated on The House of Knopf, a book that contains collected documents from the Knopf, Inc. archive and is pa ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Top Ten Literary Destinations in Texas Charles Lohrmann is the editor of  Texas Highways, the official travel magazine of Texas. It "encourages recreational travel within Texas and tells the Texas story to readers around the world. Renowned for its photography, statewide events coverage, top weekend excursions, off-the-beaten path discoveries, and scenic destinations, Texas Highways helps readers discover the treasures of the Lone Star State."  I met with Charles recently in Austin and asked him for his top ten litera ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Book Scholar George Parker on The Ryerson Press This from the Loyalist Research Network website: GEORGE L. PARKER was born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, and schooled in Lunenburg and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. He attended Mount Allison University and Pennsylvania State University, and received his Ph. D. from the University of Toronto. He is Professor Emeritus of the Royal Military College of Canada, Kingston, Ontario, where he taught from 1967 to 1997. He lives in Halifax. Professor Parker has contributed articles on Canadian a ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Gaspereau Press co-founder Andrew Steeves Gaspereau Press was established in February 1997 as a registered partnership by Andrew Steeves and Gary Dunfield. That year, the Press published the first issue of its literary quarterly, The Gaspereau Review, and three trade titles. In 2000, Gaspereau relocated to Kentville, Nova Scotia, where a printing press and bindery equipment were installed, enabling the firm to produce its own books. By 2004, the Press had nine full-time employees and was publishing 10 titles annually. Gaspereau's ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | If you think hockey is violent now, listen to this: Charlie Foran on Maurice 'Rocket' Richard From his website: "Charlie Foran was born and raised in Toronto. He holds degrees from the University of Toronto and the University College, Dublin, and has taught in China, Hong Kong, and Canada. He has published ten books, including four novels [and a biography of Mordecai Richler Mordecai: The Life & Times], and writes regularly for magazines and newspapers in Canada and elsewhere...Charlie has also made radio documentaries for the CBC program Ideas and recently co-wrote the TV docu ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Alex Ross on Modern, Classical and Popular Music According to Wikipedia: Alex Ross  was born in 1968 and has been the music critic at The New Yorker magazine since 1996. He graduated from Harvard University in English summa cum laude for a thesis on James Joyce, and was a DJ at college radio station, WHRB. His first book, The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century, a cultural history of music since 1900, was released in the U.S. in 2007. The book was a National Book Critics Circle Award winner, and placed on the New York ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Michael Gnarowski on the Contact Press Professor, poet, editor and critic, Michael Gnarowski was born in Shanghai, China in 1934. He received his Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Ottawa in 1967. While an undergraduate at McGill, he contributed to, and co-edited, Yes (1956-1970) magazine. He also wrote for and/or edited Le Chien d'or/The Golden Dog (1970-1972), Delta, Golden Dog Press (1971-1985), and Tecumseh Press, and was series editor for McGraw-Hill Ryerson's Critical Views on Canadian Writers Series (1969- ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Vincent Lam Douglas 050309-170715.mp3 Vincent Lam is a Canadian born member of the expatriate Chinese community of Vietnam. He is an emergency physician in Toronto, and lectures at the University of Toronto. He has also worked in international air evacuation and expedition medicine in the Arctic and Antarctic. His first book, Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures, won the 2006 Scotiabank Giller Prize. We met recently in Ottawa, during the federal election, to talk about his most recent book, a biography of Tommy Douglas, part of P ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Margaret Lock on Lock's Press Locks' Press, according to the  Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild's Ottawa Chapter website, "was founded in 1979. Since then it has printed eleven books, fifteen pamphlets, and twenty-four broadsides. The editions are small, 30 to 80 copies. The press prints mainly illustrated editions of unusual but enduring texts, ranging from classical Greece to the early twentieth century. Fred is the editor and has provided translations for about a third of the titles (from Greek, Latin ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Rare Book School Director Michael Suarez: On the importance of Open Shop Antiquarian bookstores Michael Suarez is Director of Rare Book School, Professor of English, University Professor, and Honorary Curator of Special Collections at the University of Virginia. A Jesuit priest, he holds four masters degrees (two each in English and theology) and a D.Phil. in English from Oxford. I caught up with him in Boston recently at the ABAA Antiquarian Bookfair. Our ad hoc conversation took place in an echoey alcove, so, please forgive the dreadful audio. The content of what Michael has to say ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | French Writer Broadcaster Olivier Barrot on Gallimard Journalist and writer Olivier Barrot has presented the literary program Un livre, un jour (A Book a Day) daily on channels France 3 and TV 5 Monde since 1991. In 2009, the year in which he celebrated his 4,000th program, he created Un livre toujours (Always a Book), a weekly program devoted to paperback books. Along with Thierry Taittinger, Olivier Barrot is the co-founder and has been co-director of the magazine Senso since 2001. He has worked as a journalist for Le Monde, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Antiquarian Book Dealer Tom Boss on Copeland & Day, Stone & Kimball, and more... Tom Boss is the owner of Thomas G. Boss Fine Books in Salem, Mass. He has been in business in the Greater Boston area since 1974, specializing in Art Deco, Arts & Crafts, and Art Nouveau books, livres d'artiste, fine bindings, press and illustrated books, the eighteen-nineties,  and the decorative arts, as well as in fine art, posters and graphics in these areas.  He also stocks and publishes reference books relating to these ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Interview with ECW Publisher Jack David ECW Press is a North American small press book publisher located in Toronto, Ontario. It was founded by Jack David and Robert Lecker in 1974 as a Canadian literary magazine called Essays on Canadian Writing. Its first books belonged primarily to two series - the Annotated Bibliography of Canada's Major Authors (ABCMA) and Canadian Writers and Their Works (CWTW). Throughout the 1980s ECW published a wide range of Canadian literary refere ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Joseph Boyden on Gabriel Dumont and Louis Riel Joseph Boyden (born 31 Oct 1966) is, Wikipedia tells us, a Canadian novelist and short story writer. "He grew up in Willowdale, North York, Ontario and attended the Jesuit-run Brebeuf College School." His father Raymond Wilfrid Boyden, was a medical officer who was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and was the highest-decorated medical officer of World War II. Of Irish, Scottish and Métis decent, Boyden writes a ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | John Ralston Saul on Penguin's Extraordinary Canadians, Lafontaine and Baldwin John Ralston Saul was elected President of International PEN in October 2009. His award-winning essaysand novels have had an impact on political and economic thought in many countries. Declared a “prophet” by TIME magazine, he is included in the prestigious Utne Reader’s list of the world’s 100 leading thinkers and visionaries. His works have been translated into 22 languages in 30 countries. & ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Adrian Harrington, past president of ILAB talks about challenges facing the antiquarian book trade Adrian Harrington (born 1948, Chelsea, England) is a noted antiquarian bookseller who specialises in first editions written by Winston Churchill, Arthur Conan Doyle, Graham Greene, J.K.Rowling and, particularly, Ian Fleming. He is a Past President of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association (ABA), 2001–2003, and the immediate past President of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB). He has exhibited at major international bo ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Richard Charkin, Executive Director of Bloomsbury talks about the challenges of book publishing, and great book publishers Richard Charkin began his career in 1972 as Science Editor of Harrap & Co. He has since held many senior positions in the publishing world with companies such as Pergamon Press, Oxford University Press, Reed International/Reed Elsevier, and Current Science Group. At Macmillan Publishers Limited he served as Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck. He was also Chairman of Macmillan India Ltd. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Richard Charkin, Executive Director of Bloomsbury talks about the challenges of book publishing, and great book publishers Richard Charkin began his career in 1972 as Science Editor of Harrap & Co. He has since held many senior positions in the publishing world with companies such as Pergamon Press, Oxford University Press, Reed International/Reed Elsevier, and Current Science Group. At Macmillan Publishers Limited he served as Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck. He was also Chairman of Macmillan India Ltd. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Interview with John Randle on The Whittington Press Born in the mind of John Randle at the age of 14 when he first entered his school's press room, the Whittington Press started life in a disused gardener’s cottage in 1971.  Its first book, Richard Kennedy’s A Boy at the Hogarth Press, was printed on weekends during 1971-1972 on an 1848 Columbian. Matrix -  the Randle’s revered annual publication on fine press printing - started ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Legendary Gordon Graham talks about his career and what makes a great publisher   W. Gordon Graham was born ninety some years ago in Scotland. He attended university in Glasgow and after graduation enlisted in the army; he was awarded the Military Cross and Bar for active service in Burma. He started his postwar career as a freelance newspaper correspondent in Bombay writing for, among other publications: Business Week,  Chemical Engineering Record, the Christian Science Monitor, and the Glasgow Herald. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Roderick Cave on The Golden Cockerel Press Roderick Cave with George lll at the British Library The Golden Cockerel Press is one of most important, productive English private presses in the history of fine printing. In 2002 Oak Knoll Press and the British Library co-published the first extensive study of the Golden Cockerel. Written by Roderick Cave, the book is based on interviews and the Press' widely-scattered archives.  Responsible in large part for a revival in woo ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Richard Greene on his GG Award winning book of poetry Boxing the Compass Richard Greene's Boxing the Compass recently won the Governor General's Award for English Poetry.  Here's how the jury saw it: "Richard Greene’s Boxing the Compass leaves us feeling unmoored, adrift across time and voice. The matchless long poem at its heart pulls us back to our always-moving selves, on an always-moving earth. We follow him in his offbeat but strangely familiar travels." Here's my review of ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | 2010 Governor General's Literary Award Winner Dianne Warren on: Cool Water "Dianne Warren is best known for her short stories and plays. One of her three published plays, Serpent in the Night Sky, was a GG finalist in 1992, and she has written several radio dramas for CBC. She has published three short story collections – one of which, Bad Luck Dog (1993), won three Saskatchewan Book Awards. Her stories can also be found in numerous anthologies, journals and magazines. A long-time resident of Saskatchewan, she bring ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Prof. Iain Stevenson on the history of 20th Century British Publishing Houses Iain Stevenson has worked with Longman, Macmillan, Pinter, Leicester University Press, Wiley, and The Stationery Office.  In 1986 he founded the environmental publisher Belhaven Press. He created the award winning MA in Publishing Studies at City University London and was a Professor in the Department of Journalism and Publishing there between 1999 and 2006. He is active on the governing and advisory board of the Publishers Association. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author Alexander MacLeod: On Light Lifting Alexander MacLeod was born in Inverness, Cape Breton Alexander MacLeod was born in Inverness, Cape Breton and raised in Windsor, Ontario. His award-winning stories have appeared in a variety of leading journals, some have been selected for The Journey Prize Anthology. He holds degrees from the University of Windsor, the University of Notre Dame, and McGill. He currently lives in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia and teaches at Saint Mary’s U ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Toby Faber on the History, and Collecting, of Faber and Faber Previously managing director of Faber and Faber, Toby Faber is now a non-executive director of the firm and Chairman of its sister company Faber Music. An author in his own right, Faber has written two books Fabergé's Eggs and Stradivari’s Genius: Five Violins, One Cello, and Three Centuries of Enduring Perfection, both successful, neither of them published by Faber. Born in Cambridge, England, in 1965, he lives in London with his wif ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Canadian book designer and illustrator Frank Newfeld on: Which of his books to Collect from Brian Busby’s The Dusty Bookshelf Frank Newfeld  is a Canadian book designer, illustrator, art director and educator. He has designed over 650 books and won more than 170 Canadian and international awards,  is a former Vice-President of Publishing at McClelland & Stewart and  Head of the Illustration Program at Sheridan College,  and Co-founder of the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Audio Interview with Robert Baldock: On the Yale University Press, London Robert Baldock started working at Yale University Press in London as a history editor in 1985. After serving as editorial director of the publisher’s humanities division, and deputy m.d.,   he was promoted to Managing Director in 2004. His authors on the biography, history, politics, music and religion lists have included Roy Porter, Richard Evans and Diarmuid MacCulloch. Prior to Yale he worked at Weidenfeld & Nicolson and the H ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Book Historian Michael Winship: On Collecting Ticknor and Fields; Houghton, Mifflin "The best book published by Ticknor and Fields Life of William Hickling Prescott, by George Ticknor (1864) Michael Winship is a bibliographer and historian of the book – with special expertise in pre-1940 American publishing and book trade history.  He edited and completed the final three volumes of Bibliography of American Literature, for which he received the bibliography prize of the International League of Antiquarian Books ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Librarian Carl Spadoni: On the history, and collecting, of McClelland and Stewart Jack McClelland, [1967] Carl Spadoni is the Director of the William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections, McMaster University Library.  In 1999, he was awarded the Marie Tremaine Medal by the Bibliographical Society of Canada for outstanding service to Canadian bibliography and for distinguished publication. He is the author of seven books including the Bibliography of McClelland and Stewart Ltd. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Prof. Ruth Panofsky: On the history, and collecting of, MacMillan Company of Canada Photograph of ‘St Martin’s House’, 70 Bond Street, Toronto, home of Macmillan of Canada Ruth Panofsky is Professor of English at Ryerson University in Toronto where she specializes in Canadian Literature and Culture, focusing on Canadian authorship and publishing history. She is the author of The Force of Vocation: The Literary Career of Adele Wiseman and is currently preparing a SSHRC-funded history of the Macmillan ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | McGill University Rare Book Librarian Richard Virr on Book Collecting Richard Virr is the Head and Curator of Manuscripts at the Rare Books and Special Collections Division of the McGill University Library. We met recently in Montreal to talk about book collecting, characteristic traits of the book collector, and different kinds of collections, including the Stone and Kimball collection that was purchased by McGill in 1972. It holds most of the books published by Stone & Kimball (1893-1897) of Cambridge, Chicago and New York, a publisher important primar ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Prof. Mac Johnson on Collecting Rare Prints W.McAllister (Mac) Johnson is a retired professor of art history at the University of Toronto. Some years ago he donated his collection of close to 1000 scholarly, art historical titles to the Carleton University Library in Ottawa.  The collection is unusual, in that it was assembled not by titles, but by categories of art-historical scholarship, including works on provenance and association ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Giller Prize Founder Jack Rabinovitch: On How to Pick the 'Best' Novels, and the merits of M.G. Vassanji Jack Rabinovitch is a philanthropist best known for founding the annual Scotia Bank Giller Prize (named after his late wife, Doris Giller, a former literary columnist and editor at the Toronto Star)for best Canadian novel. Rabinovitch, a reporter and speechwriter who later turned to business, making his fortune in food retailing and real estate,  was an executive with Trizec Corporation where he helped develop close to six million square feet of hotel, commercial and retail space ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Giller Prize Founder Jack Rabinovitch: On How to Pick the 'Best' Novels, and the merits of M.G. Vassanji Jack Rabinovitch is a philanthropist best known for founding the annual Scotia Bank Giller Prize (named after his late wife, Doris Giller, a former literary columnist and editor at the Toronto Star)for best Canadian novel. Rabinovitch, a reporter and speechwriter who later turned to business, making his fortune in food retailing and real estate,  was an executive with Trizec Corporation where he helped develop close to six million square feet of h ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Curator Leslie Morris on New Directions publishing house Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | David R. Godine on the History, and collecting, of his publishing House Publisher and book collector David R. Godine is the founder and president of a small, independent, eponymous publishing house, located in Boston, Massachusetts. It produces between twenty and thirty titles per year and maintains an active reprint program. Bio: After receiving degrees from Roxbury Latin School, Dartmouth College, and Harvard University, Godine worked for Leonard Baskin, the renowned typographer and printmaker, and master printer Harold McGrath. Going solo in 1970, fro ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | David R. Godine on the History, and collecting, of his publishing House Publisher and book collector David R. Godine is the founder and president of a small, independent, eponymous publishing house, located in Boston, Massachusetts. It produces between twenty and thirty titles per year and maintains an active reprint program. Bio: After receiving degrees from Roxbury Latin School, Dartmouth College, and Harvard University, Godine worked for Leonard Baskin, the renowned typographer and printmaker, and master ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Tim Inkster, Publisher, Co-Founder of the Porcupine's Quill, on it's history, and collecting its books Porcupine’s Quill; and why it wont do business with Heather Reisman Elke and Tim Inkster have made an important and enduring contribution to Canadian literature. In 1974 they founded The Porcupine’s Quill (PQL), a publishing house based in Erin, Ontario. Renowned for excellence in design and production, and for taking risks with new, unpublished authors, the firm has helped kick-start the careers of many of Canada’s best known writers . PQL publications have won numerou ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Mark Samuels Lasner on Collecting The Bodley Head Collector, bibliographer, and typographer Mark Samuels Lasner is Senior Research Fellow at the University of Delaware Library and a recognized authority on the literature and art of the late Victorian period. A graduate of Connecticut College, he is the author or co-author of  among other works, The Bookplates of Aubrey Beardsley (Rivendale Press, 2008), A Bibliography of Enoch Soames (Rivendale Press, 1999), The Yellow Book: A Checklist and Index (Ei ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Mark Samuels Lasner on Collecting The Bodley Head Collector, bibliographer, and typographer Mark Samuels Lasner is Senior Research Fellow at the University of Delaware Library and a recognized authority on the literature and art of the late Victorian period. A graduate of Connecticut College, he is the author or co-author of  among other works, The Bookplates of Aubrey Beardsley (Rivendale Press, 2008), A Bibliography of Enoch Soames (Rivendale Press, 1999), The Yellow Book: A Checklist and Index (Eighteen Nineties Society, 1998), A ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Professor David Staines on Northrop Frye and Evaluative Criticism David Staines is a Canadian literary critic, university professor (English at the University of Ottawa), writer, and editor.  He specializes in three literatures: medieval, Victorian and Canadian. He is editor of the scholarly Journal of Canadian Poetry (since 1986) and general editor of McClelland and Stewart’s New Canadian Library series (since 1988). His essay collections, include The Canadian Imagination (1977), a book that introduced Canadia ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Professor David Staines on Northrop Frye and Evaluative Criticism David Staines is a Canadian literary critic, university professor (English at the University of Ottawa), writer, and editor.  He specializes in three literatures: medieval, Victorian and Canadian. He is editor of the scholarly Journal of Canadian Poetry (since 1986) and general editor of McClelland and Stewart’s New Canadian Library series (since 1988). His essay collections, include The Canadian Imagination (1977), a book that introduced Canadian literature and literary critici ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Bob Fleck on Oak Knoll Books   Oak Knoll Books – specialists in books on books – was founded in 1976 by Bob Fleck, a chemical engineer by training, who let his hobby get the best of him. Oak Knoll Press, the publishing arm of the business was established two years later.   Today, the thriving company maintains an inventory of about 23,000 titles. Specialities include books about bibliography, book collecting, book design, book illustration, book selling, bookbinding, bookplates, children’ ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Bob Fleck on Oak Knoll Books   Oak Knoll Books – specialists in books on books – was founded in 1976 by Bob Fleck, a chemical engineer by training, who let his hobby get the best of him. Oak Knoll Press, the publishing arm of the business was established two years later.   Today, the thriving company maintains an inventory of about 23,000 titles. Specialities include books about bibliography, book collecting, book ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Richard Holloway on Organized Religion Photo: Nigel Beale. Richard Holloway is a Scottish writer/broadcaster  and former Bishop of Edinburgh in the Scottish Episcopal Church who was educated at Kelham Theological College and the Union Theological Seminary, New York City. Between 1959 and 1986 he was curate, vicar and rector at parishes in England, Scotland and the United States, at which point he became the Bishop of Edinburgh, a position he resigned from in 2000. Now an outspoken commentator on religious belief in the mode ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Richard Holloway on Organized Religion Photo: Nigel Beale. Richard Holloway is a Scottish writer/broadcaster  and former Bishop of Edinburgh in the Scottish Episcopal Church who was educated at Kelham Theological College and the Union Theological Seminary, New York City. Between 1959 and 1986 he was curate, vicar and rector at parishes in England, Scotland and the United States, at which point he became the Bishop of Edinburgh, a position he resigned from in 2000. Now an outspoken commentato ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Adam Thorpe on the Real Robin Hood   Poet, playwright and novelist Adam Thorpe was born in Paris in 1956 and grew up in India, Cameroon and England. After graduating from Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1979, he started a theatre company and toured villages and schools before moving to London where he taught Drama and English Literature. Thorpe lives in France with his wife and three children. His most recent books are a collection of short stories, Is This The Way You Said? (2006); a poetry collection, Birds wi ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Adam Thorpe on the Real Robin Hood   Poet, playwright and novelist Adam Thorpe was born in Paris in 1956 and grew up in India, Cameroon and England. After graduating from Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1979, he started a theatre company and toured villages and schools before moving to London where he taught Drama and English Literature. Thorpe lives in France with his wife and three children. His most recent books are a collection of short stories, Is This The Wa ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Poet/Critic Carmine Starnino: On Canadian Poems and Poets Good and Bad Photo: Gaspereau Press. "Good reviewing," writes Carmine Starnino in the not-to-be-missed introduction to his A Lover’s Quarrel Essays and Reviews, "- reviewing that believes in literary failure – is invaluable because by calling one poem good and another less good, and adducing clear reasons for those claims, it offers one writerly interpretation of a particular achievement, and invites the reader to sypathetically tag along; his or her senses momentarily borrowing the review ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Allen and Pat Ahearn on Books to Collect "The Quill & Brush was established in 1976 as an outgrowth of a part-time business run by Allen and Patricia Ahearn who started collecting and cataloging books in the early 1960s. The Ahearns have over 45 years of experience in the field. At present the Quill & Brush is operated by Allen and Pat and their two daughters, Beth Fisher and Sue Regan. The Quill & Brush specializes in first editions of literature, mystery/detective fiction and poetry, as well as collectible books i ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Canadian author Jane Urquhart performing a reading of a poem called The Literary Club Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nicholson Baker: On the Future of the Book Photo: Nigel Beale. Nicholson Baker (born January 7, 1957) is an American writer of fiction and non-fiction. As a novelist he often focuses on describing the minute physical detail of our surroundings, straws and escalators for example, writing on provocative topics such as voyeurism, phone sex  and planned assassination.  Enthusiasts laud his ability to explore and illuminate the human psyche, critics call him a boring gadfly. Much of his non-fic ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nicholson Baker: On the Future of the Book Photo: Nigel Beale. Nicholson Baker (born January 7, 1957) is an American writer of fiction and non-fiction. As a novelist he often focuses on describing the minute physical detail of our surroundings, straws and escalators for example, writing on provocative topics such as voyeurism, phone sex  and planned assassination.  Enthusiasts laud his ability to explore and illuminate the human psyche, critics call him a boring gadfly. Much of his non-fiction deals with the printed word, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nigel Beale Interviews Author/Comedian A.L. Kennedy on: How to be Funny Writer, comedian A. L. Kennedy lives and works in Glasgow and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. In 2003 she was nominated by Granta magazine as one of 20 'Best of Young British Novelists'. Her novel Day (2007), won the Costa Book of the Year Award. She reviews and contributes to most of the major British newspapers, and has been a judge for both the Booker Prize for Fiction (1996) and The Guardian First Book Award (2001).   Her first book, Night Geometry and the Garscad ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author/Comedian A.L. Kennedy on: How to be Funny Writer, comedian A. L. Kennedy lives and works in Glasgow and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. In 2003 she was nominated by Granta magazine as one of 20 'Best of Young British Novelists'. Her novel Day (2007), won the Costa Book of the Year Award. She reviews and contributes to most of the major British newspapers, and has been a judge for both the Booker Prize for Fiction (1996) and The Guardian First Book Award (2001). &nbs ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Librarian Marie Korey on: The History of the Book A small college cannot hope to have a large library, but if it sets to work along the right lines it may aspire to the possession of a fine one… A book may be a thing of beauty, and an example of a great craft which we must not allow to die. The means of craft and the aspiration toward beauty live on in our College library. — Robertson Davies, the Founding Master Since its inception in 1963, the Library at Massey College has ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nigel Beale Interviews Librarian Marie Korey on: The History of the Book A small college cannot hope to have a large library, but if it sets to work along the right lines it may aspire to the possession of a fine one… A book may be a thing of beauty, and an example of a great craft which we must not allow to die. The means of craft and the aspiration toward beauty live on in our College library. — Robertson Davies, the Founding Master Since its inception in 1963, the Library at Massey College has developed special collections in the History of ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Canadian Journalist Robert Fulford: On Book Reviewing Photo: Nigel Beale. " Robert Fulford is a Toronto author, journalist, broadcaster, and editor. He writes a weekly column for The National Post and is a frequent contributor to Toronto Life, Canadian Art, and CBC radio and television. His books include Best Seat in the House: Memoirs of a Lucky Man (1988), Accidental City: The Transformation of Toronto (1995), and Toronto Discovered (1998)." This is how the man describes himself on his website. I’d only add that I think he is the bes ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Professor Kevin Gilmartin: On Critic William Hazlitt Kevin Gilmartin is a professor of English at California Institute of Technology, and visiting professor at the Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies at York University in England.  He is the author of Print Politics: The Press and Radical Opposition in Early Nineteenth-Century England (Cambridge, 1996) and Writing against Revolution: Literary Conservatism in Britain, 1790-1832 (Cambridge, 2007), and the co-editor with James Chandler of Romantic Metropo ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nigel Beale Interviews Professor Kevin Gilmartin: On Critic William Hazlitt Kevin Gilmartin is a professor of English at California Institute of Technology, and visiting professor at the Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies at York University in England.  He is the author of Print Politics: The Press and Radical Opposition in Early Nineteenth-Century England (Cambridge, 1996) and Writing against Revolution: Literary Conservatism in Britain, 1790-1832 (Cambridge, 2007), and the co-editor with James Chandler of Romantic Metropolis: The Urban Scene of British C ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Richard Coxford on Fine Press Books: History and Collecting Richard Coxford is the proprietor of Bytown Bookshop in Ottawa, Canada. He has been collecting fine/press books for many years. We talk here about their history, and the joys and challenges of hunting them down. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nigel Beale Interviews Richard Coxford on Fine Press Books: History and Collecting Richard Coxford is the proprietor of Bytown Bookshop in Ottawa, Canada. He has been collecting fine/press books for many years. We talk here about their history, and the joys and challenges of hunting them down. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Librarian Richard Landon: On Collecting Rare Books Richard Landon is Director of the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library and Professor of English. He has taught courses on aspects of the history of the book and bibliography for many years in the University of Toronto’s Graduate Department of English and the Faculty of Information. Among his recent publications are Bibliophilia Scholastica Floreat (2005), Ars Medica (2006), ‘Two Collectors: Thomas Grenville and Lord Amherst of Hackney’ in Commo ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nigel Beale Interviews Rare Book Librarian Richard Landon Richard Landon is Director of the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library and Professor of English. He has taught courses on aspects of the history of the book and bibliography for many years in the University of Torontoâs Graduate Department of English and the Faculty of Information. Among his recent publications are Bibliophilia Scholastica Floreat (2005), Ars Medica (2006), âTwo Collectors: Thomas Grenville and Lord Amherst of Hackneyâ in Commonwealth of Books (2007), âThe Elixir of Life: ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nigel Beale Interviews Copyright Expert Bill Patry: On Orphans and Pirates In 1841 Thomas Babington Macaulay observed that âit is good that authors should be remunerated; and the least exceptionable way of remunerating them is by a monopoly. Yet monopoly is an evil. For the sake of the good we must submit to the evil; but the evil ought not to last a day longer than is necessary for the purpose of securing the good.â In his new book Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars, highly regarded copyright lawyer Bill Patry   concurs with Macaulay, arguing that ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Copyright Expert Bill Patry: On Orphans and Pirates In 1841 Thomas Babington Macaulay observed that “it is good that authors should be remunerated; and the least exceptionable way of remunerating them is by a monopoly. Yet monopoly is an evil. For the sake of the good we must submit to the evil; but the evil ought not to last a day longer than is necessary for the purpose of securing the good.” In his new book Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars, highly regarded copyright lawyer Bill Patry ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author Jane Urquhart: On Lucy Maud Montgomery Published in 1908, Anne of Green Gables is the first in a series of bestselling novels by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery. Although often dark and complex, and at times racy, the ‘Anne’ novels are today considered by most to be children’s books. Inspired by similar girls’ stories of the time, and her own childhood experiences in rural Prince Edward Island, Montgomery’s writing has affected generations of women around the world, perhaps none more so than a ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Cory Doctorow: On the Future of the Book Copyright activist, speaker, teacher (how about ’speacher’…or ’spreacher’), columnist, science fiction novelist, short story writer, co-editor of  Boing Boing,  and the very manifestation of articulate dynamism, Cory Doctorow was in town recently to promote his novel Little Brother (free download here), a fast paced, current-day 1984-like polemic calling for teens to subvert security measures, especially those used ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nigel Beale Interviews author activist Cory Doctorow: On the Future of the Book Copyright activist, speaker, teacher (how about âspeacherââor âspreacherâ), columnist, science fiction novelist, short story writer, co-editor of  Boing Boing,  and the very manifestation of articulate dynamism, Cory Doctorow was in town recently to promote his novel Little Brother (free download here), a fast paced, current-day 1984-like polemic calling for teens to subvert security measures, especially those used by governments that claim to "defend my freedom by tea ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Kate Pullinger on: The Mistress of Nothing (last night at Art Matters) Kate Pullinger is a novelist who also writes for film and various digital platforms. Born in Cranbrook British Columbia she went to high school on Vancouver Island, dropped out of McGill University, worked for a year in a copper mine in the Yukon, traveled, and eventually settled in London. Pullinger has written two short story collections; her  novels include When the Monster Dies (1989), Where Does Kissing End? ( ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nigel Beale Interviews 2009 GG Award Winning author Kate Pullinger on: The Mistress of Nothing (last night at Art Matters) Kate Pullinger is a novelist who also writes for film and various digital platforms. Born in Cranbrook British Columbia she went to high school on Vancouver Island, dropped out of McGill University, worked for a year in a copper mine in the Yukon, traveled, and eventually settled in London. Pullinger has written two short story collections; her  novels include When the Monster Dies (1989), Where Does Kissing End? (1992), A Little Stranger and mos ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author Yann Martel on: What Stephen Harper is Reading Block head? Listen here as  famed author of Life of Pi and self proclaimed political gadfly Yann Martel 1) Absorbs a barrage of punishing jabs I throw at him over his latest book What is Stephen Harper Reading? and 2) Punches back at a Canadian Prime Minister whom he considers to be a visionless, ‘fact’-mired, fiction-eschewing ideologue. Subscribe to The Biblio File Podcast here &n ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Larry Thompson: On the Process of Letterpress Printing established Greyweathers Press   several years ago because of  a "love of beautifully designed type     skillfully arranged on a well-proportioned page."   His original plan was to print letterpress books only, however, as his enterprise evolved ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nigel Beale Interviews fine press owner Larry Thompson: On the Process of Letterpress Printing established Greyweathers Press   several years ago because of  a "love of beautifully designed type     skillfully arranged on a well-proportioned page."   His original plan was to print letterpress books only, however, as his enterprise evolved Larry became interested in relief block prints and now includes these in his work. Editorial focus is on the literature both of 19th and early 20th century British and American writers   &nb ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nigel Beale Interviews Author Yann Martel on: The importance of leaders reading fiction Block head? Listen here as  famed author of Life of Pi and self proclaimed political gadfly Yann Martel 1) Absorbs a barrage of punishing jabs I throw at him over his latest book What is Stephen Harper Reading? and 2) Punches back at a Canadian Prime Minister whom he considers to be a 'fact'-mired, fiction-eschewing ideologue without a vision. Subscribe to The Biblio File Podcast here Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Bookseller Don Lindgren on Collecting Cooking Books Researching ‘literary’ Portland (Maine) before trekking down there, I came across mention of Rabelais Book shop.  What an interesting concept it’s built upon:  the vertical integration of new titles on food, wine, gardening and farming, with rare out-of-print  books. Patrons therefore inhabit several distinct categories: Book lovers and collectors from around the globe, food lovers and cooks from around the block. Situated in Portland’s East End ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Tor Books Publisher Tom Doherty After working his way up through the publishing trade during the 1950s and 1960s, Tom Doherty became publisher of Tempo Books in 1972 and later Ace Books. In 1980 he established his own publishing firm Tom Doherty Associates Inc., with the help of several investors including silent partner Richard Gallen (of Dell Emerald Books fame), and with it the Tor Books imprint. Early Tor titles included Norton’s Forerunner; Fred Saberhagen&rsquo ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nigel Beale Interviews Tor Books Publisher Tom Doherty After working his way up through the publishing trade during the 1950s and 1960s, Tom Doherty became publisher of Tempo Books in 1972 and later Ace Books. In 1980 he established his own publishing firm Tom Doherty Associates Inc., with the help of several investors including silent partner Richard Gallen (of Dell Emerald Books fame), and with it the Tor Books imprint. Early Tor titles included Nortonâs Forerunner; Fred Saberhagenâs Water of Thought; Poul Andersonâs Winners, Starship, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | S.F. Editors David Hartwell and kathryn Cramer David Hartwell has worked as a Science Fiction and Fantasy editor for Signet, Berkley Putnam, Pocket (where he founded the Timescape imprint and created the Pocket Books Star Trek publishing line), and Tor (where he headed Tor’s Canadian publishing initiative, and introduced many Australian writers to the US market). Since 1995, his title at Tor/Forge Books has been "Senior Editor." He chairs the board of directors of the World Fantasy Convention and ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nigel Beale Interviews S.F. Editors David Hartwell and kathryn Cramer David Hartwell has worked as a Science Fiction and Fantasy editor for Signet, Berkley Putnam, Pocket (where he founded the Timescape imprint and created the Pocket Books Star Trek publishing line), and Tor (where he headed Torâs Canadian publishing initiative, and introduced many Australian writers to the US market). Since 1995, his title at Tor/Forge Books has been "Senior Editor." He chairs the board of directors of the World Fantasy Convention and is an administrator of the ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Rocky Stinehour, Founder, The Stinehour Press Posted in AUDIO Publisher Interviews on October 27th, 2009 Roderick ‘Rocky’ Stinehour is a very pleasant, accomplished gentleman from Vermont. He’s also recognized internationally as a printer of high repute and a designer of beautiful, scholarly books. His career spans over much change in printing technology and the way in which books are produced and distributed. In 1950, after graduating from Dartmouth College, he, al ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nigel Beale Interviews Rocky Stinehour, Founder, The Stinehour Press Posted in AUDIO Publisher Interviews on October 27th, 2009 Roderick âRockyâ Stinehour is a very pleasant, accomplished gentleman from Vermont. Heâs also recognized internationally as a printer of high repute and a designer of beautiful, scholarly books. His career spans over much change in printing technology and the way in which books are produced and distributed. In 1950, after graduating from Dartmouth College, he, along with his wife and brother, established The Stinehour Pres ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Book Artist Claire Van Vliet Claire Van Vliet is the owner of the Janus Press founded in 1955 located, since 1966, in Newark, Vermont. Janus Press has to date produced approximately 100 publications — books, pamphlets, and broadsides- , many of them designed, illustrated, type-set, printed (sometimes on paper made by the artist), and bound by Van Vliet herself  in a well-equipped studio, printshop, bindery of her own design. Born in Ottawa, Canada, she has l ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nigel Beale Interviews Book Artist Claire Van Vliet Claire Van Vliet is the owner of the Janus Press founded in 1955 located, since 1966, in Newark, Vermont. Janus Press has to date produced approximately 100 publications â books, pamphlets, and broadsides- , many of them designed, illustrated, type-set, printed (sometimes on paper made by the artist), and bound by Van Vliet herself  in a well-equipped studio, printshop, bindery of her own design. Born in Ottawa, Canada, she has lived in the United States since 1947. After gradua ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Poet Galway Kinnell NB Authors Galway Kinnell was born February 1, 1927 in Providence, Rhode Island. He has been hailed as one of the most influential American poets of the latter half of the 20th century. Educated at Princeton and Rochester Universities, he served in the United States Navy, after which he spent several years traveling, in Europe and the Middle East. His first book of poems, What a Kingdom It Was, was published in 1960, followed by Flower Herding on Mount Monad ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nigel Beale Interviews Poet Galway Kinnell NB Authors Galway Kinnell was born February 1, 1927 in Providence, Rhode Island. He has been hailed as one of the most influential American poets of the latter half of the 20th century. Educated at Princeton and Rochester Universities, he served in the United States Navy, after which he spent several years traveling, in Europe and the Middle East. His first book of poems, What a Kingdom It Was, was published in 1960, followed by Flower Herding on Mount Monadnock (1964). Upon his retu ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Curator Jerry Fielder: On Karsh Yousuf Karsh (1908-2002) was born in Armenia in 1908. His photographer uncle, George Nakash, brought him to Canada in 1924. After apprenticing in Boston with John H. Garo, Karsh settled in Ottawa in 1932, where he began his professional career. By 1936 he was photographing visiting statesmen and dignitaries, among them President Franklin Roosevelt. His December, 1941 portrait of a bulldoggish Winston Churchill, symbolizing Britain’s w ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nigel Beale Interviews Karsh Curator Jerry Fielder Yousuf Karsh (1908-2002) was born in Armenia in 1908. His photographer uncle, George Nakash, brought him to Canada in 1924. After apprenticing in Boston with John H. Garo, Karsh settled in Ottawa in 1932, where he began his professional career. By 1936 he was photographing visiting statesmen and dignitaries, among them President Franklin Roosevelt. His December, 1941 portrait of a bulldoggish Winston Churchill, symbolizing Britainâs wartime resolve, brought Karsh international attention. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Cartoon Historian Brad MacKay Writer, journalist, comic reader, intermittent blogger, and over-tired family man Brad Mackay is the author most recently of a biographical essay which appears in The Collected Doug Wright Volume One (Drawn and Quarterly, 2009). First of a two-volume set,  the book – designed by well known Canadian cartoonist Seth -  presents a comprehensive look at the life and career of one of the most-read, best-loved ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nigel Beale Interviews Cartoon Historian Brad MacKay Writer, journalist, comic reader, intermittent blogger, and over-tired family man Brad Mackay is the author most recently of a biographical essay which appears in The Collected Doug Wright Volume One (Drawn and Quarterly, 2009). First of a two-volume set,  the book â designed by well known Canadian cartoonist Seth -  presents a comprehensive look at the life and career of one of the most-read, best-loved cartoonists of the 1960s. The work draws from thousands of pieces of a ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author David Mitchell This from the incom­par­able Brit­ish Council’s con­tem­por­ary writers web­site: Born in South­port in 1969, David Mitchell grew up in Mal­vern, Worcester­shire, study­ing for a degree in Eng­lish and Amer­ican Lit­er­at­ure fol­lowed by an MA in Com­par­at­ive Lit­er­at­ure, at the Uni­ver­sity of Kent. He lived for a year in Sicily ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nigel Beale Interviews Author David Mitchell This from the incomÂparÂable BritÂish Councilâs conÂtemÂporÂary writers webÂsite: Born in SouthÂport in 1969, David Mitchell grew up in MalÂvern, WorcesterÂshire, studyÂing for a degree in EngÂlish and AmerÂican LitÂerÂatÂure folÂlowed by an MA in ComÂparÂatÂive LitÂerÂatÂure, at the UniÂverÂsity of Kent. He lived for a year in Sicily before movÂing to Hiroshima, Japan, where he taught EngÂlish to techÂnical stuÂdents for eight years, before returnÂing to E ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Booksellers Joshua and Phyllis Heller What’s the dif­fer­ence between a First Edi­tion, a Fine Press Edi­tion and an Artists’ Book? Joshua and Phyl­lis Heller work with me to help define the bound­ar­ies.  The two of them estab­lished Joshua Heller Rare Books, Inc. in Wash­ing­ton DC, in 1985. The com­pany spe­cial­izes in “con­tem­por­ary fine print­ing and beau­ti ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nigel Beale Interviews Booksellers Joshua and Phyllis Heller Whatâs the difÂferÂence between a First EdiÂtion, a Fine Press EdiÂtion and an Artistsâ Book? Joshua and PhylÂlis Heller work with me to help define the boundÂarÂies.  The two of them estabÂlished Joshua Heller Rare Books, Inc. in WashÂingÂton DC, in 1985. The comÂpany speÂcialÂizes in âconÂtemÂporÂary fine printÂing and beauÂtiÂfully illusÂtrated books, the Private Press MoveÂment, modÂern fine bindÂings, and books about books. [Their] much admired cataà ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Morgan Librarian John Bidwell John Bid­well is Astor Cur­ator of Prin­ted Books and Bind­ings at thePier­pont Mor­gan Lib­rary, before which he was Cur­ator of Graphic Arts in the Prin­ceton Uni­ver­sity Lib­rary. He has writ­ten extens­ively on the his­tory of paper­mak­ing in Eng­land and America.  The Prin­ted Books and Bind­ings col­lec­tion at the Mor­gan con­tains w ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nigel Beale Interviews Morgan Librarian John Bidwell John BidÂwell is Astor CurÂator of PrinÂted Books and BindÂings at thePierÂpont MorÂgan LibÂrary, before which he was CurÂator of Graphic Arts in the PrinÂceton UniÂverÂsity LibÂrary. He has writÂten extensÂively on the hisÂtory of paperÂmakÂing in EngÂland and America.  The PrinÂted Books and BindÂings colÂlecÂtion at the MorÂgan conÂtains works spanÂning WestÂern book proÂducÂtion from the earliÂest prinÂted ephÂemÂera to importÂant first ediÂtio ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Professor Joseph Khoury: on Succession in King Lear and Hamlet Charles H. Cameron as King Lear (1872) / print by A.L. Coburn, ca. 1915, Photo by Julia Margaret Cameron Shakespeare wrote Hamlet before James l came to the throne. Events in the play reflect many of the real world concerns that  Englishmen had about being ruled by a foreigner. At the play’s end, Denmark’s line of  rulers is extinguished, and a foreigner (Fortinbras) takes the throne.  James was married to Anna of D ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nigel Beale Interviews Professor Joseph Khoury: on Succession in King Lear and Hamlet Charles H. Cameron as King Lear (1872) / print by A.L. Coburn, ca. 1915, Photo by Julia Margaret Cameron Shakespeare wrote Hamlet before James l came to the throne. Events in the play reflect many of the real world concerns that  Englishmen had about being ruled by a foreigner. At the playâs end, Denmarkâs line of  rulers is extinguished, and a foreigner (Fortinbras) takes the throne.  James was married to Anna of Denmark, some feared that if he were to attempt a milita ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author Denise Mina on: The Crime Mystery Crime novelist Denise Mina is the author of a trilogy of novels set in Glasgow: Garnethill (1998), which won the Crime Writers’ Association John Creasey Memorial Dagger; Exile (2000); and Resolution (2001).     Sanctum (2002), is the story of a forensic psychiatrist, convicted of killing a serial killer. The Field of Blood (2005) is the first in a new series, the second in the series, The Dead Hour, was ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nigel Beale Interviews Author Denise Mina on: The Crime Mystery Crime novelist Denise Mina is the author of a trilogy of novels set in Glasgow: Garnethill (1998), which won the Crime Writersâ Association John Creasey Memorial Dagger; Exile (2000); and Resolution (2001).     Sanctum (2002), is the story of a forensic psychiatrist, convicted of killing a serial killer. The Field of Blood (2005) is the first in a new series, the second in the series, The Dead Hour, was published in 2006, and the third, Slip of the Knife, in 2007.   M ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author Terry Griggs on: Farce Noir Terry Griggs is the author of a collection of short stories, Quickening, which was nominated for a Governor General’s Award, and two novels, The Lusty Man, and Rogues’ Wedding, shortlisted for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Award. She has also written two books for children, Cat’s Eye Corner, shortlisted for a Mr. Christie’s Book Award and a Red Cedar Award, and most recently a sequel, The Silver Door. In 2003 she received ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nigel Beale Interviews Author Terry Griggs Terry Griggs is the author of a collection of short stories, Quickening, which was nominated for a Governor Generalâs Award, and two novels, The Lusty Man, and Roguesâ Wedding, shortlisted for the Rogers Writersâ Trust Fiction Award. She has also written two books for children, Catâs Eye Corner, shortlisted for a Mr. Christieâs Book Award and a Red Cedar Award, and most recently a sequel, The Silver Door. In 2003 she received the Marian Engel Award. Born on Manitoulin Island in Lake ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Karl Seigler Publisher, Talonbooks, on Literary Book Publishing Karl Siegler is a founding member of the Association of Book Publishers of British Columbia and the Literary Press Group of Canada; he has served as president of the Association of Canadian Publishers twice, and was one of the founding members of the Simon Fraser Centre for Studies in Publishing and its Masters in Publishing Program. He’s also the publisher at Talonbooks. Talonbooks has published Canadian poetry and drama since the publishing house was established in 1963. Accordi ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nigel Beale Interviews Author Ha Jin on: The Writer as Migrant Ha Jin was born in China in 1956. After Tiananmen Square, he emigrated to the United States. Unlike most exiled writers Ha Jin was not established in his native language; he had no audience in Chinese, and so chose to write in English.   He has published three collections of poetry, including Between Silences and Facing Shadows, and three collections of short fiction, Ocean of Words, received the PEN/Hemingway Award, and Under the Red Flag, won the Flannery OâConnor Award. His nov ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author Ha Jin on: The Writer as Migrant Ha Jin was born in China in 1956. After Tiananmen Square, he emigrated to the United States. Unlike most exiled writers Ha Jin was not established in his native language; he had no audience in Chinese, and so chose to write in English.   He has published three collections of poetry, including Between Silences and Facing Shadows, and three collections of short fiction, Ocean of Words, received the PEN/H ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nigel Beale Interviews Author Donald Antrim on Creative Writing Workshops This past Spring at the Blue Met Writers Festival, Donald Antrim conducted a workshop entitled: Fiction and Memoir: "Writing Ourselves" It was designed to explore the âchallenging and often frustrating process of reading into oneâs own work;â and to identify aspects of that work which may have been underdeveloped, unnoticed, or even, avoided. As the syllabus put it: "Fiction and memoir are not, as a rule, brought together in workshops. And yet many of the concerns tha ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author Donald Antrim on Creative Writing Workshops This past Spring at the Blue Met Writers Festival, Donald Antrim conducted a workshop entitled: Fiction and Memoir: "Writing Ourselves" It was designed to explore the ‘challenging and often frustrating process of reading into one’s own work;’ and to identify aspects of that work which may have been underdeveloped, unnoticed, or even, avoided. As the syllabus put it: "Fiction and memoir are not, as a rule, brought together i ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Professor Rohan Maitzen on George Eliot’s Middlemarch Originally from Vancouver, Professor Rohan Maitzen has an Honours B.A. in English and History from the University of British Columbia and an M.A. and Ph.D. in English from Cornell University.  Since 1995, she has been a member of Dalhousie University’s English Department. Her main teaching area is the Victorian novel; she has a particular admiration for George Eliot and assigns her greatest novel, Middlemarch, whenever possible. I had the pleasure of ‘meeting’ Roha ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nigel Beale Interviews Poet, Typographer, Book Designer Robert Bringhurst JMV Born in Los Angeles in 1946, Robert Bringhurst is an award winning Canadian poet, typographer and author. Perhaps best known for  The Elements of Typographic Style â a reference book of typefaces, glyphs and the visual and geometric arrangement of type, he is also a respected translator of poetic works from Haida into English.  He lives on Quadra Island, near Campbell River, B.C. We met recently in Ottawa to talk about his definition of the book as articulated in The Surfa ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Poet, Book Designer Robert Bringhurst JMV Born in Los Angeles in 1946, Robert Bringhurst is an award winning Canadian poet, typographer and author. Perhaps best known for  The Elements of Typographic Style – a reference book of typefaces, glyphs and the visual and geometric arrangement of type, he is also a respected translator of poetic works from Haida into English.  He lives on Quadra Island, near Campbell River, B.C. We met recently in Ottawa to talk about hi ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author A.B. Yehoshua A.B. Yehoshua was born in 1936 to a fifth-generation Jerusalem family of Sephardi origin. His first book of stories, "Mot Hazaken" (The Death of the Old Man) was published in 1962. He was an important member of the "new wave" generation of Israeli writers who differed from earlier writers by focusing on the individual rather than the group.  Franz Kafka, Shmuel Yosef Agnon, and William Faulkner  were all formative influences.  ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nigel Beale Interviews Author A.B. Yehoshua A.B. Yehoshua was born in 1936 to a fifth-generation Jerusalem family of Sephardi origin. His first book of stories, "Mot Hazaken" (The Death of the Old Man) was published in 1962. He was an important member of the "new wave" generation of Israeli writers who differed from earlier writers by focusing on the individual rather than the group.  Franz Kafka, Shmuel Yosef Agnon, and William Faulkner  were all formative influences.  Author of nine novels, t ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author M.G. Vassanji: On Mordecai Richler M G Vassanji was born in Kenya and raised in Tanzania. Before coming to Canada in 1978, he attended MIT and the University of Pennsylvania, where he specialized in theoretical nuclear physics. From 1978-1980 he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Atomic Energy of Canada, and from 1980 to 1989 he was a research associate at the University of Toronto. During this period he developed a keen interest in medieval Indian literature and history, co-founded and edited ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nigel Beale Interviews Author M.G. Vassanji: On Mordecai Richler M G Vassanji was born in Kenya and raised in Tanzania. Before coming to Canada in 1978, he attended MIT and the University of Pennsylvania, where he specialized in theoretical nuclear physics. From 1978-1980 he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Atomic Energy of Canada, and from 1980 to 1989 he was a research associate at the University of Toronto. During this period he developed a keen interest in medieval Indian literature and history, co-founded and edited a literary magazine (The Toronto ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author Zoe Heller on: The Believers This from Contemporary Writers: " Zoe Heller was born in London in 1965 and educated at Oxford University and Columbia University, New York.  She is a journalist who, after writing book reviews for various newspapers, became a feature writer for The Independent.  She wrote a weekly confessional column for the Sunday Times for four years, but now writes for the Daily Telegraph and earned the title ‘Columnist of the Year’ in 2002.  ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nigel Beale Interviews Author Zoe Heller This from Contemporary Writers: " Zoe Heller was born in London in 1965 and educated at Oxford University and Columbia University, New York.  She is a journalist who, after writing book reviews for various newspapers, became a feature writer for The Independent.  She wrote a weekly confessional column for the Sunday Times for four years, but now writes for the Daily Telegraph and earned the title âColumnist of the Yearâ in 2002. She is the author of two novels: Ever ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author Nino Ricci on Pierre Trudeau Nino Ricci’s first novel, the best-selling Lives of the Saints, won international acclaim and a host of awards, including, in Canada, the Governor General’s Award for Fiction and the Books in Canada First Novel Award, and in England, the Betty Trask Award and the Winifred Holtby Prize.  It was followed by In A Glass House and Where She Has Gone, which completed the trilogy that Lives of the Saints began, Testament, co-winner ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nigel Beale Interviews Author Nino Ricci on Pierre Trudeau Nino Ricciâs first novel, the best-selling Lives of the Saints, won international acclaim and a host of awards, including, in Canada, the Governor Generalâs Award for Fiction and the Books in Canada First Novel Award, and in England, the Betty Trask Award and the Winifred Holtby Prize.  It was followed by In A Glass House and Where She Has Gone, which completed the trilogy that Lives of the Saints began, Testament, co-winner of the Trillium Award, and, The Origin of ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Historian Margaret MacMillan on How to Write History Margaret MacMillan was educated at the University of Toronto and at Oxford, where she obtained a B. Phil. in politics and a D. Phil. for a thesis on the British in India between 1880 and 1920. Her books include Women of the Raj, Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World, which won the 2003 Governor General’s Award, the Samuel Johnson Prize, the PEN Hessell Tiltman Prize, the Duff Cooper Prize and was a New York Times Editors’ Choice for 2002 ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nigel Beale Interviews Margaret MacMillan on How to Write History Margaret MacMillan was educated at the University of Toronto and at Oxford, where she obtained a B. Phil. in politics and a D. Phil. for a thesis on the British in India between 1880 and 1920. Her books include Women of the Raj, Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World, which won the 2003 Governor Generalâs Award, the Samuel Johnson Prize, the PEN Hessell Tiltman Prize, the Duff Cooper Prize and was a New York Times Editorsâ Choice for 2002, Nixon in China, The Uses and Abuses of Hi ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author Meir Shalev Meir Shalev, (pictured above with his sister) one of Israel’s most celebrated novelists,was born in 1948 in Nahalal, Israel’s first moshav. He is a bestselling author in Israel, Holland, and Germany; and he has been translated into more than twenty languages. His novels include A Pigeon and a Boy, Fontanelle, Alone In the Desert, But A Few Days, and Esau. Russian Romance (The Blue Mountain) is one of the top five bestsellers in Israeli publishi ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nigel Beale Interviews Author Meir Shalev Meir Shalev, (pictured above with his sister) one of Israelâs most celebrated novelists,was born in 1948 in Nahalal, Israelâs first moshav. He is a bestselling author in Israel, Holland, and Germany; and he has been translated into more than twenty languages. His novels include A Pigeon and a Boy, Fontanelle, Alone In the Desert, But A Few Days, and Esau. Russian Romance (The Blue Mountain) is one of the top five bestsellers in Israeli publishing history. Shalev is often compared to Ga ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Bookseller Henrietta Dax, Clarke's Bookshop, Cape Town Clarke’s Bookshop, the most famous in Cape Town, specializes in selling southern African books to universities and libraries that teach and have an interest in same. Established in 1956 by Anthony Clarke, the Long Street shop today remains much the same as it was 50 plus years ago:  filled with book-lined, wooden-floored rooms spread over two levels containing an eclectic mix of new and used, rare, out-of-print, academic and popular books sold t ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nigel Beale Interviews Bookseller Henrietta Dax, Clarke's Bookshop, Cape Town Clarkeâs Bookshop, the most famous in Cape Town, specializes in selling southern African books to universities and libraries that teach and have an interest in same. Established in 1956 by Anthony Clarke, the Long Street shop today remains much the same as it was 50 plus years ago:  filled with book-lined, wooden-floored rooms spread over two levels containing an eclectic mix of new and used, rare, out-of-print, academic and popular books sold to customers local and institutions fo ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author Margie Orford: On Bibliotherapy Crime novelist,  film director, children’s author and award winning journalist, Margie Orford was born in London and grew up in Namibia and South Africa. She has studied under J M. Coetzee, and worked in publishing with the African Publishers Network. In 1999 she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and while in New York she worked on a groundbreaking archival retrieval project, WOMEN WRITING AFRICA: The Southern Volume.  She lives in Cape T ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nigel Beale Interviews Author Margie Orford: On Bibliotherapy Crime novelist,  film director, childrenâs author and award winning journalist, Margie Orford was born in London and grew up in Namibia and South Africa. She has studied under J M. Coetzee, and worked in publishing with the African Publishers Network. In 1999 she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and while in New York she worked on a groundbreaking archival retrieval project, WOMEN WRITING AFRICA: The Southern Volume.  She lives in Cape Town, where we met recently to discus ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | M.G Vassanji on his Critics In a recent conversation I had with him, Canadian critic, editor and short story writer John Metcalf hauls off on both the Giller Prize and two time winner M.G. Vassanji;  the former for boosterism and an inability to distinguish between good and bad literature ( for placing two-time winner Alice Munro in the same category as Vassanji), and the latter for being a person who, ‘there’s no question,’ can’t " handle the English language". I met with Vassanji recen ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Open Letter's Chad Post: on Publishing in Translation Open Letter is the University of Rochester’s literary publishing house. ‘ It is dedicated to connecting readers with great international authors and their works. Publishing twelve books a year and running an online literary website called Three Percent, Open Letter is one of only a handful of U.S. organizations with a commitment to cultivating an appreciation for international literature.’ ‘Chad W. Post is the directo ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nigel Beale Interviews Open Letter's Chad Post: On Translation Open Letter is the University of Rochesterâs literary publishing house. â It is dedicated to connecting readers with great international authors and their works. Publishing twelve books a year and running an online literary website called Three Percent, Open Letter is one of only a handful of U.S. organizations with a commitment to cultivating an appreciation for international literature.â âChad W. Post is the director of Open Letter, a press dedicated to publishing literature in tra ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author Damon Galgut on South Africa Credit: book.co.za Damon Galgut is a writer based in Cape Town.  He wrote his first novel, A Sinless Season (1984), when he was seventeen. Small Circle of Beings (1988), a collection of short stories, was followed by The Beautiful Screaming of Pigs (1991), the story of a young white man on military service who suffers a nervous breakdown. The Quarry (1995), was made into a film by a Belgian production company. The Good Doctor (2003), is set in ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nigel Beale Interviews Author Damon Galgut Credit: book.co.za Damon Galgut is a writer based in Cape Town.  He wrote his first novel, A Sinless Season (1984), when he was seventeen. Small Circle of Beings (1988), a collection of short stories, was followed by The Beautiful Screaming of Pigs (1991), the story of a young white man on military service who suffers a nervous breakdown. The Quarry (1995), was made into a film by a Belgian production company. The Good Doctor (2003), is set in post-Apartheid South Africa, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nigel Beale Interviews Author Andre Brink This from contemporary writers: One of South Africaâs most distinguished writers, Andrà Brink was born in 1935. Poet, novelist, essayist and teacher, he began work as a University lecturer in Afrikaans and Dutch Literature in the 1960s. He began writing in Afrikaans, but when censored by the South African government, began to also write in English and became published overseas. He remains a key figure in the modernisation of the Afrikaans language novel.   His book, A Dr ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author Andre Brink on His Life This from contemporary writers: One of South Africa’s most distinguished writers, André Brink was born in 1935. Poet, novelist, essayist and teacher, he began work as a University lecturer in Afrikaans and Dutch Literature in the 1960s. He began writing in Afrikaans, but when censored by the South African government, began to also write in English and became published overseas. He remains a key figure in the modernisation of the Afrikaans ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nigel Beale Interviews Stephen Johnson, Managing Director of Random House Struik Stephen Johnson is Managing Director of the recently formed South African publishing firm Random House Struik. We talk here about the merger, the independence of SABC (the state owned South African Broadcasting Corporation), Cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro, Random House Struikâs political power, Apartheidâs banning of Anna Sewellâs Black Beauty, the current governmentâs under-funding of libraries, political corruption and the loss of early promise, Apartheid by other means, freedom, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Stephen Johnson, Managing Director of Random House Struik Stephen Johnson is Managing Director of the recently formed South African publishing firm Random House Struik. We talk here about the merger, the independence of SABC (the state owned South African Broadcasting Corporation), Cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro, Random House Struik’s political power, Apartheid’s banning of Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty, the current government’s under-funding of libraries, political corruption and the loss o ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | John Metcalf on Negative Reviewing I recently interviewed Canadian critic/editor/writer John Metcalf on his love of Books and Book Collecting. The same afternoon we talked also about the process of book reviewing,  whether or not the use of insult and/or invective is ever justified and if so, when. John is known as a ‘blunt’ critic; one who tells his unsugared truths directly, who is not reticent to attack ‘with savagery’ books he feels 'insult' him. The conversation refers, among other things, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nigel Beale Interviews Franschhoek Literary Festival Director Jenny Hobbs JENNY HOBBS is a novelist and freelance journalist who lives in Franschhoek, South Africa. She is the author of four novels, Thoughts in a Makeshift Mortuary, The Sweet-Smelling Jasmine, The Telling of Angus Quain, and Video Dreams, four non-fiction books, and short stories published and broadcast locally and by the BBC. She reviewed books for many years and has written for and worked on TV book programmes, both as a presenter and interviewer. Sheâs also the Literary Director of th ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Franschhoek Literary Festival Director Jenny Hobbs JENNY HOBBS is a novelist and freelance journalist who lives in Franschhoek, South Africa. She is the author of four novels, Thoughts in a Makeshift Mortuary, The Sweet-Smelling Jasmine, The Telling of Angus Quain, and Video Dreams, four non-fiction books, and short stories published and broadcast locally and by the BBC. She reviewed books for many years and has written for and worked on TV book programmes, both as a presenter and interviewer. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nigel Beale Interviews Frye Festival Chair Dawn Arnold Dawn Arnold is Chair of the Frye Festival in Moncton, New Brunswick. Jane Urquhart, Wayne Johnston, Neil Smith, Alexandre Jardin and Miriam Toews are among the many authors who will participate in this yearâs ten day event. Dawn and I talk here about the history of the Festival, Northrop Fryeâs thoughts on imagination and new worlds, the benefits to children of learning more than one language, how writing affects understanding, Moncton strip clubs, Acadie, French language childrensâ au ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Frye Festival Chair Dawn Arnold Dawn Arnold is Chair of the Frye Festival in Moncton, New Brunswick. Jane Urquhart, Wayne Johnston, Neil Smith, Alexandre Jardin and Miriam Toews are among the many authors who will participate in this year’s ten day event. Dawn and I talk here about the history of the Festival, Northrop Frye’s thoughts on imagination and new worlds, the benefits to children of learning more than one language, how writing affects understanding, Moncton strip clu ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Pittsburgh Post Gazette Books Editor Bob Hoover Pittsburgh Post Gazette Books Editor Bob Hoover has written about books with the paper for more than 20 years. We talk here, at a noisy diner in the shadow of the Heinz ketchup factory, about the role of a books editor, Pittsburgh’s lively literary arts scene, blogs, the 800-900 review copies Bob receives each month, and keeping readers current about everything book related. We also talk about Bob’s connection with authors Dav ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Nigel Beale Interviews Pittsburgh Post Gazette Books Editor Bob Hoover Pittsburgh Post Gazette Books Editor Bob Hoover has written about books with the paper for more than 20 years. We talk here, at a noisy diner in the shadow of the Heinz ketchup factory, about the role of a books editor, Pittsburghâs lively literary arts scene, blogs, the 800-900 review copies Bob receives each month, and keeping readers current about everything book related. We also talk about Bobâs connection with authors David McCullough and Michael Chabon, and his disconnect wi ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | John Metcalf on Book Collecting John Metcalf is best known as a writer/editor who has worked with many of Canada’s foremost short story writers including Michael Winter, Terry Griggs, Steven Heighton, and Caroline Adderson. Born in Carlisle, England, and educated at the University of Bristol, he emigrated to Canada in 1962. In addition to writing his own novels, short stories and essays, he for years edited the work of others at the Porcupine’s Quill. He is currently Senior Editor with Canadian Notes and Queri ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author Priscila Uppal On Canadian Elegies, and Mourning Poet, author, Priscila Uppal, an English professor too at York University, challenges traditional psychological and anthropological models of mourning in her new book We Are What We Mourning: The Contemporary English-Canadian Elegy, suggesting that Canadians mourn differently. Traditional models define successful mourning in terms of detachment from the loved one who has died; the ability to cut the strings of grief, and to step into the ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File Interview with Priscila Uppal, by Nigel Beale: On Canadian Elegies, and mourning Poet, author, Priscila Uppal, an English professor too at York University, challenges traditional psychological and anthropological models of mourning in her new book We Are What We Mourning: The Contemporary English-Canadian Elegy, suggesting that Canadians mourn differently. Traditional models define successful mourning in terms of detachment from the loved one who has died; the ability to cut the strings of grief, and to step into the roles of mothers and fathers vacated by the de ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author Chris Cleave on: Little Bee Chris Cleave was born in London and spent his early years in Cameroon. He studied Experimental Psychology at Balliol College, Oxford, and now writes a column for the Guardian newspaper. His debut novel Incendiary won a 2006 Somerset Maugham Award, was shortlisted for the 2006 Commonwealth Writers Prize, and is now a feature film. Chris lives in London with his wife and two children. We met recently to talk about his engagin ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File Interview with Chris Cleave, by Nigel Beale: On Little Bee Chris Cleave was born in London and spent his early years in Cameroon. He studied Experimental Psychology at Balliol College, Oxford, and now writes a column for the Guardian newspaper. His debut novel Incendiary won a 2006 Somerset Maugham Award, was shortlisted for the 2006 Commonwealth Writers Prize, and is now a feature film. Chris lives in London with his wife and two children. We met recently to talk about his engaging, important new novel Little Bee. Topics discussed include mask ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Luise von Flotow on Literary Translation Luise von Flotow is an associate professor in Translation Studies at the University of Ottawa with a special interest in translation and gender. In 1992, her translation Deathly Delights was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award. Her most recent book is the English translation of Girls Closed In by Quebec author France Theoret. I spoke with Luise in her office several weeks ago about Canada as a mecca for translation, efforts to convince government of the potential for this ind ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File: Interview with Jessa Crispin, Founder, Editor Bookslut, by Nigel Beale. Jessa Crispin is editor and founder of Bookslut.com " a monthly web magazine and daily blog dedicated to those who love to read. We provide a constant supply of news, reviews, commentary, insight, and more than occasional opinions." Author Jana Martin describes her this way:  "Certainly sheâs a reader, a great reader, and she knows how to make one good party after another, whether in a beer-poster-clad upstairs room at the Hopleaf or Bookslut. Sheâs a hostess for a ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Blogger Jessa Crispin on: Bookslut Jessa Crispin is editor and founder of Bookslut.com " a monthly web magazine and daily blog dedicated to those who love to read. We provide a constant supply of news, reviews, commentary, insight, and more than occasional opinions." Author Jana Martin describes her this way:  "Certainly she’s a reader, a great reader, and she knows how to make one good party after another, whether in a beer-poster-clad upstairs room at the Hoplea ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File Interview with Keith Fiels, Executive Director, American Library Association by Nigel Beale I was in Chicago recently and met with Keith Michael Fiels, Executive Director (since July 2002) of the American Library Association. According to  The ALA Constitution  the purpose of ALA is ââto promote library service and librarianship.â Stated mission is âTo provide leadership for the development, promotion and improvement of library and information services and the profession of librarianship in order to enhance learning and ensure access to information for all.â In 1 ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Keith Fiels, Executive Director, American Library Association I was in Chicago recently and met with Keith Michael Fiels, Executive Director (since July 2002) of the American Library Association. According to  The ALA Constitution  the purpose of ALA is “…to promote library service and librarianship.” Stated mission is “To provide leadership for the development, promotion and improvement of library and information services and the profession of librarianship in order to enhance learn ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File Interview with Levi Stahl: On the role of a University Press Publicity Manager A lifelong resident of Illinois, Levi Stahl works at the University of Chicago Press. For the past three years he has maintained a literary blog, Iâve Been Reading Lately. He has written for the Poetry Foundation, the Chicago Reader, the Bloomsbury Review, the New-York Ghost, the Quarterly Conversation, and McSweeneyâs Internet Tendency. His short fiction has recently been published in the New York Moon. Levi is also an editor with Joyland - Chicago edition (heâs currently accepting ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Levi Stahl: On the role of a University Press Publicity Manager A lifelong resident of Illinois, Levi Stahl works at the University of Chicago Press. For the past three years he has maintained a literary blog, I’ve Been Reading Lately. He has written for the Poetry Foundation, the Chicago Reader, the Bloomsbury Review, the New-York Ghost, the Quarterly Conversation, and McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. His short fiction has recently been published in the New York Moon. Levi is also an editor with Joyland - Ch ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Rain Taxi Editor Eric Lorberer Mr. Wikipedia tells us: "Rain Taxi is a Minneapolis-based book review and literary organization. In addition to publishing its quarterly print edition, Rain Taxi maintains an online edition with distinct content, sponsors the Twin Cities Book Festival, hosts readings, and publishes chapbooks through its Brainstorm Series. Rain Taxi’s mission is “to advance independent literary culture through publications and programs that foster awareness and a ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File Interview with Rain Taxi Editor Eric Lorberer, by Nigel Beale Mr. Wikipedia tells us: "Rain Taxi is a Minneapolis-based book review and literary organization. In addition to publishing its quarterly print edition, Rain Taxi maintains an online edition with distinct content, sponsors the Twin Cities Book Festival, hosts readings, and publishes chapbooks through its Brainstorm Series. Rain Taxiâs mission is âto advance independent literary culture through publications and programs that foster awareness and appreciation of innovative writing.â ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Used Bookstore Owner Kathy Stransky Kathy Stransky co-owner, with her husband, of Midway Used and Rare Books on University Avenue in St. Paul Minnesota for the past 27 years, talks about the impact of the Internet, Half Price Books moving in down the street, high tech book scouts, rapid transit, and thieves, on her business. Gloom and doom? Yes, it’s been hard, but still, despite diminishing returns, nothing can beat doing what you love for a living. Nothing can beat the complete joy o ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File Interview with Used Bookstore Owner Kathy Stransky, by Nigel Beale Kathy Stransky co-owner, with her husband, of Midway Used and Rare Books on University Avenue in St. Paul Minnesota for the past 27 years, talks about the impact of the Internet, Half Price Books moving in down the street, high tech book scouts, rapid transit, and thieves, on her business. Gloom and doom? Yes, itâs been hard, but still, despite diminishing returns, nothing can beat doing what you love for a living. Nothing can beat the complete joy of reading either, says Stransky. Lis ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | ABC Canada Literacy Foundation President Margaret Eaton Today is Family Literacy Day! Literacy is defined as “the ability to understand and employ printed information in daily activities at home, at work and in the community - to achieve one’s goals, and to develop one’s knowledge and potential.” Four out of 10 adult Canadians, age 16 to 65 - representing 9 million Canadians - struggle with low literacy according to Statistics Canada. This means they are denied the pleasures and bene ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File Interview with ABC Canada Literacy Foundation President Margaret Eaton, by Nigel Beale Today is Family Literacy Day! Literacy is defined as âthe ability to understand and employ printed information in daily activities at home, at work and in the community - to achieve oneâs goals, and to develop oneâs knowledge and potential.â Four out of 10 adult Canadians, age 16 to 65 - representing 9 million Canadians - struggle with low literacy according to Statistics Canada. This means they are denied the pleasures and benefits of, among other things, reading literature. Lite ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Antiquarian Book Dealer Robert Rulon-Miller Robert Rulon-Miller is an antiquarian book dealer who lives, if not in a mansion, then at the very least in a great big house on Summit Avenue, one of the toniest in St. Paul, Minnesota. Not that toiling as a bookseller is anyway to get rich quick. He has worked hard for many years in the business, specializing in 'Rare, Fine & Interesting Books in Many Fields; 1st Editions, Americana; LIterature; Fine & Early Printing; Travel; and the History of La ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Librarian Rosemary Furtak: On Artist Books Rosemary Furtak has been librarian at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis for 25 year. She is co-curator of ‘Text Messages’, an exhibit on artist’s books currently showing (until April 2009) at the Center. We talk here about her early championing of the artist book genre (her definition being: "a book that refuses to behave like a book (like the 35,000 books that sit in the stacks"), the line between books and art, and words and art, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File Interview with Antiquarian Rare Book Dealer Robert Rulon-Miller, by Nigel Beale <span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3115/3159264084_5a94f03d54.jpg?v=0"/></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Robert Rulan-Miller is an antiquarian book dealer who lives, if not in a mansion, then at the very least in a great big house </span> ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File Interview with Walker Center Librarian Rosemary Furtak, by Nigel Beale Rosemary Furtak has been librarian at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis for 25 year. She is co-curator of âText Messagesâ, an exhibit on artistâs books currently showing (until April 2009) at the Center. We talk here about her early championing of the artist book genre (her definition being: "a book that refuses to behave like a book (like the 35,000 books that sit in the stacks"), the line between books and art, and words and art, and librarians and curatorsâand ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File Interview with Victoria Glendinning, by Nigel Beale: On Biography Photo by NB Biographer, critic, broadcaster and novelist Victoria Glendinning was born in Sheffield, and educated at Somerville College, Oxford, where she read Modern Languages. She worked as a teacher and social worker before becoming an editorial assistant for the Times Literary Supplement in 1974. President of English PEN, she was awarded a CBE in 1998. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and holds honorary doctorates from the universities of Southampton, Ulster, Dubl ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Victoria Glendinning: On Biography Photo by NB Biographer, critic, broadcaster and novelist Victoria Glendinning was born in Sheffield, and educated at Somerville College, Oxford, where she read Modern Languages. She worked as a teacher and social worker before becoming an editorial assistant for the Times Literary Supplement in 1974. President of English PEN, she was awarded a CBE in 1998. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and holds honorary ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File Interview with actress Tanja Jacobs, by Nigel Beale: On playing Winnie in Samuel Beckett's Happy Days Now Photo By Steve Payne "Tanja Jacobs is a well known actress, director, teacher and coach. She has worked in the professional theatre since 1981, and performed at most major theatres in Canada. She has been nominated for ten Dora Mavor Moore Awards and has won twice.  As a director, her credits include 1002 Nights, Johannâs Cabinet of Wonders, Goddess, and Mid-Life Crisis . On television, besides her role as federal employee SM3 ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Actress Tanja Jacobs: On playing Winnie in Samuel Beckett's Happy Days Now Photo By Steve Payne "Tanja Jacobs is a well known actress, director, teacher and coach. She has worked in the professional theatre since 1981, and performed at most major theatres in Canada. She has been nominated for ten Dora Mavor Moore Awards and has won twice.  As a director, her credits include 1002 Nights, Johann’s Cabinet of Wonders, Goddess, and Mid-Life Crisis . On television, besides h ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File Interview with Poet Christian Mcpherson, by Nigel Beale Born, raised and currently resident in Ottawa, Canada, Christian McPhersonâs poetry has appeared in a variety of print and online journals. He has won the John Spenser Hill Award and the Ottawa Public Library Short story Award. We met recently to discuss his first published collection called Poems that Swim from my Brain like Rats leaving a Sinking Ship. Please listen here as we talk, among other things, about death, the misery of TV news, and a light hearted approach to life: Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Poet Christian Mcpherson Born, raised and currently resident in Ottawa, Canada, Christian McPherson’s poetry has appeared in a variety of print and online journals. He has won the John Spenser Hill Award and the Ottawa Public Library Short story Award. We met recently to discuss his first published collection called Poems that Swim from my Brain like Rats leaving a Sinking Ship. Please listen here as we talk, among other things, about death, the misery of TV news, and a light ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author Ross Raisin Ross Raisin is a young British author born in Keighley, Yorkshire. He has studied at the University of London, worked as a trainee wine bar manager and completed a  postgraduate degree in creative writing at Goldsmith's College. His debut novel Out Backward (God's Own Country in England) was published in 2008, and shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. It features Sam Marsdyke, a disturbed adolescent living in a harsh rural environment, a ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File Interview with Ross Raisin, by Nigel Beale Ross Raisin is a young British author born in Keighley, Yorkshire. He has studied at the University of London, worked as a trainee wine bar manager and completed a  postgraduate degree in creative writing at Goldsmith's College. His debut novel Out Backward (God's Own Country in England) was published in 2008, and shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. It features Sam Marsdyke, a disturbed adolescent living in a harsh rural environment, and tracks his journey from an od ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author Nadeem Aslam Nadeem Aslam was born in Pakistan in 1966, moved to the UK as a teenager and now lives in London. He studied Biochemistry at the University of Manchester, but left to become a writer. His first novel, Season of the Rainbirds (1993) won a Betty Trask Award and the Authors’ Club First Novel Award, and was shortlisted for the Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the Whitbread First Novel Award. His second novel, Maps for Lost Lover ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File Interview with Nadeem Aslam, by Nigel Beale Nadeem Aslam was born in Pakistan in 1966, moved to the UK as a teenager and now lives in London. He studied Biochemistry at the University of Manchester, but left to become a writer. His first novel, Season of the Rainbirds (1993) won a Betty Trask Award and the Authorsâ Club First Novel Award, and was shortlisted for the Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the Whitbread First Novel Award. His second novel, Maps for Lost Lovers (2004), which took 11 years to ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File Interview with Anne Enright, by Nigel Beale: On what constitutes a good short story This is part three of a series of interviews conducted with three acclaimed short storywriters: Rebecca Rosenblum, Nam Le, and Anne Enright. In each case we riff off those qualities which Flannery OâConnor thought best constituted a good short story. Iâve listed some of them here.  Anne Enright was born in Dublin in 1962, studied English and Philosophy at Trinity College, Dublin, and went on to study for an MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. She is a for ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author Anne Enright, by Nigel Beale: On what constitutes a good short story This is part three of a series of interviews conducted with three acclaimed short storywriters: Rebecca Rosenblum, Nam Le, and Anne Enright. In each case we riff off those qualities which Flannery O’Connor thought best constituted a good short story. I’ve listed some of them here.  Anne Enright was born in Dublin in 1962, studied English and Philosophy at Trinity College, Dublin, and went on to study for an MA in Creative W ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File Interview with Joe Dunthorne, by Nigel Beale Joe Dunthorne is a graduate of the Creative Writing Masters at UEA, where he was awarded the Curtis Brown Prize. His poetry has been published in Reactions 5, Magma, Smiths Knoll and Tears in the Fence. His work has been featured on Channel 4, BBC Radio 3, 4 and in The Guardian and Vice magazine. We met recently at the IFOA in Toronto to discuss his debut novel, Submarine, why the behavior of teenage boys is often seen as abominable, the importance of getting laid, ambiguous characters, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author Joe Dunthorne Joe Dunthorne is a graduate of the Creative Writing Masters at UEA, where he was awarded the Curtis Brown Prize. His poetry has been published in Reactions 5, Magma, Smiths Knoll and Tears in the Fence. His work has been featured on Channel 4, BBC Radio 3, 4 and in The Guardian and Vice magazine. We met recently at the IFOA in Toronto to discuss his debut novel, Submarine, why the behavior of teenage boys is often seen as abominable, the importance of getti ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File Interview with Bruno Racine, President, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, by Nigel Beale Bruno Racine was appointed President of the National Library of France on April 2 2007. Over the years he has held many senior postions within the French government including: Director General Cultural Affairs for the City of Paris (1988-1993), Director of lâAcadÃmie de France à Rome (1997-2002), and Chairman du Centre Pompidou (2002-2007). He is also a writer. Non-fiction books include his best selling: Art of living in Rome and Art of living in Tuscany. His novel the Governor of Mor ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Bruno Racine, President, Bibliothèque Nationale de France Bruno Racine was appointed President of the National Library of France on April 2 2007. Over the years he has held many senior postions within the French government including: Director General Cultural Affairs for the City of Paris (1988-1993), Director of l’Académie de France à Rome (1997-2002), and Chairman du Centre Pompidou (2002-2007). He is also a writer. Non-fiction books include his best selling: Art of living in ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File Interview with Amitav Ghosh, by Nigel Beale AMITAV GHOSH is one of Indiaâs best-known writers. His books include The Circle of Reason, The Shadow Lines, The Glass Palace, Incendiary Circumstances and The Hungry Tide. Born in Calcutta in 1956 Ghosh studied in Dehra Dun, New Delhi, Alexandria and Oxford. His first job was at the Indian Express newspaper in New Delhi. He earned a doctorate at Oxford before he wrote his first novel, which was published in 1986. He is married to the writer, Deborah Baker, and has two children, Lila and ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author Amitav Ghosh on: Sea of Poppies AMITAV GHOSH is one of India’s best-known writers. His books include The Circle of Reason, The Shadow Lines, The Glass Palace, Incendiary Circumstances and The Hungry Tide. Born in Calcutta in 1956 Ghosh studied in Dehra Dun, New Delhi, Alexandria and Oxford. His first job was at the Indian Express newspaper in New Delhi. He earned a doctorate at Oxford before he wrote his first novel, which was published in 1986. He is married to the writer, Deborah ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File Interview with Junot Diaz, by Nigel Beale Junot DÃaz was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and is the author of Drown and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao which won the John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the 2008 Pulitzer Prize. He is the fiction editor at the Boston Review and the Rudge (1948) and Nancy Allen professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. We met recently at the IFOA in Toronto, a ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author Junot Diaz Junot Díaz was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and is the author of Drown and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao which won the John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the 2008 Pulitzer Prize. He is the fiction editor at the Boston Review and the Rudge (1948) and Nancy Allen professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Tec ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | test <a href="http://www.podcastalley.com/"> My Podcast Alley feed!</a> {pca-b5b78563d48ab47e57f7409ec3bc00dc} Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | test <a href="http://www.podcastalley.com/"> My Podcast Alley feed!</a> {pca-b5b78563d48ab47e57f7409ec3bc00dc} Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File: Interview with Nam Le, Author of The Boat, and winner of the 2008 Dylan Thomas Prize, by Nigel Beale. Nam Le has won this yearâs Â60,000 Dylan Thomas Prize. It recognizes the best young writer in the English-speaking world with the goal of ensuring that the inspirational nature of Dylanâs writing lives on. I met with Nam in Toronto recently at the IFOA. This is part two of a series of interviews conducted with three acclaimed short storywriters: Rebecca Rosenblum, Nam Le, and Anne Enright. In each case we riff off those qualities which Flannery OâConnor thought best constituted ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author Nam Le on: The Short Story Nam Le has won this year’s £60,000 Dylan Thomas Prize. It recognizes the best young writer in the English-speaking world with the goal of ensuring that the inspirational nature of Dylan’s writing lives on. I met with Nam in Toronto recently at the IFOA. This is part two of a series of interviews conducted with three acclaimed short storywriters: Rebecca Rosenblum, Nam Le, and Anne Enright ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File: Interview with Joseph Boyden 2008 Giller Prize Winner by Nigel Beale. Joseph Boyden has just won  The 2008 Giller Prize  for his novel Through Black Spruce.  We talk here about the novel, and the psychic distance Joseph requires to write novels about Northern Ontario and the Cree; the similarities between North and South, James Bay and New Orleans; snowmobiling over vast amounts of snow-covered bush, isolation in the wilderness; bridges between communities, oral culture, First Nation humour, respect for myths and legends, and soapboxes. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author Joseph Boyden Joseph Boyden has just won  The 2008 Giller Prize  for his novel Through Black Spruce.  We talk here about the novel, and the psychic distance Joseph requires to write novels about Northern Ontario and the Cree; the similarities between North and South, James Bay and New Orleans; snowmobiling over vast amounts of snow-covered bush, isolation in the wilderness; bridges between communities, oral culture, First Nation humour, re ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File: Tips on how to run a successful used book Sale. Interview with Beryl Barr Friends of the Tompkins County Public Library, founded in 1946, is a not-for-profit organization for people interested in books and libraries. Its purpose is to stimulate public interest in the library, purchase library materials, and support other cultural and educational programs in Tompkins County. Each year since inception the Friends have held a book sale in Ithaca New York. It now ranks among the ten largest (250,000 to 300,000 books, CDs, records, etc. per year) in the Unit ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | How to run a successful used Book Sale with Beryl Barr Friends of the Tompkins County Public Library, founded in 1946, is a not-for-profit organization for people interested in books and libraries. Its purpose is to stimulate public interest in the library, purchase library materials, and support other cultural and educational programs in Tompkins County. Each year since inception the Friends have held a book sale in Ithaca New York. It now ranks among the ten l ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Aleksandar Hemon on The Lazarus Project Listen to my interview with Aleksandar Hemon on his National Book Award nominated novel The Lazarus Project here at The Quarterly Conversation. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File: How to Make Paper for Books: Interview with David Curruthers by Nigel Beale Posted in AUDIO:Book People David Curruthers, owner proprietor of St. Armand Papers in Montreal takes us through the process of how he produces paper that is used in the letterpress    printing of books. We talk here ( please see bottom of this post) about pure fibre rags,   old jute coffee bags, cover stock, denim   and blue paper, beaters   pulp vat-like structures for pulp   and ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | How to Make Paper for Books David Curruthers Posted in AUDIO:Book People David Curruthers, owner proprietor of St. Armand Papers in Montreal takes us through the process of how he produces paper that is used in the letterpress    printing of books. We talk here ( please see bottom of this post) about pure fibre rags,   old jute coffee bags, cover stock, denim   ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File: Interview with Poet Michael Lista: Danger and James Joyce Posted in AUDIO: Poets   I first heard about Michael Lista in a workshop conducted by Meeka Walsh, Editor of Border Crossings magazine. She raved about him: "Michael is a remarkably gifted young poet who lives in Montreal. He has a special interest in the points of intesection between science and poetics." These points live dramatically in the person of Louis Slotin, a scientist from Winnipeg involved in the Manhattan project and development of the atomic bomb, and L ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Poet Michael Listaon: Bloom, Danger and James Joyce Posted in AUDIO: Poets   I first heard about Michael Lista in a workshop conducted by Meeka Walsh, Editor of Border Crossings magazine. She raved about him: "Michael is a remarkably gifted young poet who lives in Montreal. He has a special interest in the points of intesection between science and poetics." These points live dramatically in the person of Louis Slotin, a scientist from Winnipeg involved in the Manhattan p ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File: What Constitutes a Good Short Story (1): Interview with Rebecca Rosenblum This is part one of a series of interviews conducted with three acclaimed short storywriters: Rebecca Rosenblum, Nam Le, and Anne Enright. In each case we riff off those qualities which Flannery OâConnor thought best constituted a good short story. Iâve listed some of them here.   We start with Rebecca Rosenblum, author of Once, " a collection of sixteen stories portraying the constricted and confused lives of the rootless twenty-somethings â students, office techies, waitress ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author Rebecca Rosenblum on What Constitutes a Good Short Story (1): This is part one of a series of interviews conducted with three acclaimed short storywriters: Rebecca Rosenblum, Nam Le, and Anne Enright. In each case we riff off those qualities which Flannery O’Connor thought best constituted a good short story. I’ve listed some of them here.   We start with Rebecca Rosenblum, author of Once, " a collection of sixteen stories portraying the constricted and confused lives of the rootless t ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | What Makes Vampires so Appealing? with Patricia McCarthy Patricia K. Macarthy is author of The Crimson Series, three books, to date, about vampires. We talk here about what makes Vampires so appealing to so many people, about their being symbolic of man’s desire for supremacy, women’s desire to be consumed, about the fringe elements of society, the attraction of eternal youth and immortality, confidence, the perfect villian whose weapon is seduction, alpha males, power, the lack of conscience, film, Halloween, the dra ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File: What Makes Vampires so Appealing? Interview with Patricia McCarthy by Nigel Beale Patricia K. Macarthy is author of The Crimson Series, three books, to date, about vampires. We talk here about what makes Vampires so appealing to so many people, about their being symbolic of manâs desire for supremacy, womenâs desire to be consumed, about the fringe elements of society, the attraction of eternal youth and immortality, confidence, the perfect villian whose weapon is seduction, alpha males, power, the lack of conscience, film, Halloween, the draw of fantasy, the defiance of ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author Margaret Visser: on The Gift of Thanks Margaret Visser (born May 11, 1940) is a writer/broadcaster who lives in Toronto, Barcelona, and France. Her subject matter is the history, anthropology, and mythology of everyday life. Born in South Africa, she attended school in Zambia, Zimbabwe, France (the Sorbonne) and Canada. She taught Greek and Latin at York University for 18 years. Her books include Much Depends on Dinner, The Rituals of Dinner, The Way We Are, and The Geometry of ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File Interview with Margaret Visser on The Gift of Thanks Margaret Visser (born May 11, 1940) is a writer/broadcaster who lives in Toronto, Barcelona, and France. Her subject matter is the history, anthropology, and mythology of everyday life. Born in South Africa, she attended school in Zambia, Zimbabwe, France (the Sorbonne) and Canada. She taught Greek and Latin at York University for 18 years. Her books include Much Depends on Dinner, The Rituals of Dinner, The Way We Are, and The Geometry of Love; all have been best sellers. Many have won ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author Miriam Toews on: The Flying Troutmans This from Random House: "Miriam Toews…was born in 1964 in the small Mennonite town of Steinbach, Manitoba. She left Steinbach at eighteen, living in Montreal and London and touring Europe before coming back to Manitoba, where she earned a B.A. in film studies at the University of Manitoba. Later she packed up with her children and partner and moved to Halifax to attend the University of King’s College, where she received a bachelor’s degree in journalism. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File Interview with Miriam Toews, author The Flying Troutmans This from Random House: "Miriam Toewsâwas born in 1964 in the small Mennonite town of Steinbach, Manitoba. She left Steinbach at eighteen, living in Montreal and London and touring Europe before coming back to Manitoba, where she earned a B.A. in film studies at the University of Manitoba. Later she packed up with her children and partner and moved to Halifax to attend the University of Kingâs College, where she received a bachelorâs degree in journalism. Upon returning to Winnipeg wit ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Craig Poile co-owner of Collected Works on How to run a successful Independent Bookstore Listen here to my conversation with Craig Poile, co-owner of Collected Works, a successful, innovative independent bookstore based in Ottawa, Canada. We talk, among others things, about a rudimentary webcam-teleconferencing system dubbed ‘Great Talking Head,’ that Craig has set up to get big name authors, such as Julian Barnes and Peter Carey, and their fans, together in his bookstore; about bookseller-publisher relations, in-store writing workshops and print-on-demand. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Les Petriw: What Small Publishers and Authors should look for in a Distribution company   Distribution is a critical spoke in the publishing cycle, and yet it’s surprising the scant amount of thought many small publishers give to how their books will eventually be sold, and how much it will cost to get their titles into the stores. Most new titles issued by small/self publishers wont ever be stocked on the shelves of chain superstores, not even for a short tryout period. Only a tiny fraction of these titles are ever selected directly by discount merchandisers or sup ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Harlan Coben on the Business of Publishing Books Harlan Coben’s latest novel HOLD TIGHT debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list — and simultaneously debuted at #1 in the London Times. Winner of the Edgar Award, Shamus Award and Anthony Award – the first author to win all three – international bestselling author Harlan Coben’s critically-acclaimed novels have been called "ingenious" (New York Times), "poignant and insightful" (Los Angeles Times), "consistently entertaining" (Houston Chronicle), "su ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Japp Blonk on Sound Poetry Jaap Blonk is a self-taught composer, vocal performer and sound poet. As a vocalist, Blonk has performed around the globe exciting audiences with his powerful stage presence and childlike improvisation. Live electronics have over the years extended the scope and range of his concerts. Besides working as a soloist, he has collaborated with many musicians and ensembles, including Maja Ratkje, Mats Gustafsson, Nicolas Collins, Joan La Barbara, The Ex, the Netherlands Wind Ensemble and the Ebon ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author Lindsey Davis on: Historical Crime Fiction Lindsey Davis was born and raised in Birmingham, read English at Oxford, then joined the civil service, which she left in 1985.She started writing about Romans in The Course of Honour, the remarkable true love story of the Emperor Vespasian and his mistress Antonia Caenis. Her research into First Century Rome inspired The Silver Pigs, the first outing for Falco and Helena, which was published in 1989. Starting as a spoof using a Roman ‘informer’ as a classic, me ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File: Interview with Lindsay Davis, Historical Crime Fiction Author, by Nigel Beale. Lindsay Davis was born and raised in Birmingham, read English at Oxford, then joined the civil service, which she left in 1985.She started writing about Romans in The Course of Honour, the remarkable true love story of the Emperor Vespasian and his mistress Antonia Caenis. Her research into First Century Rome inspired The Silver Pigs, the first outing for Falco and Helena, which was published in 1989. Starting as a spoof using a Roman âinformerâ as a classic, metropolitan private eye, the s ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File Interview with Rawi Hage: Deniro's Game, Winner of the 2008 IMPAC Award, by Nigel Beale Rawi Hage was born in Beirut, Lebanon, and lived through nine years of that countryâs civil war. He immigrated to Canada in 1992. He is a writer, a visual artist, and a curator whose debut novel, De Niroâs Game (2006), was shortlisted for the 2006 Scotiabank Giller Prize and the 2006 Governor Generalâs Award for English fiction. It has just won the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. House of Anansi Press will publish Rawiâs eagerly anticipated second novel, Cockroach, in fall 2008. He lives in Mo ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author Rawi Hage on: Deniro's Game Rawi Hage was born in Beirut, Lebanon, and lived through nine years of that country’s civil war. He immigrated to Canada in 1992. He is a writer, a visual artist, and a curator whose debut novel, De Niro’s Game (2006), was shortlisted for the 2006 Scotiabank Giller Prize and the 2006 Governor General’s Award for English fiction. It has just won the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. House of Anansi Press will publish Rawi’s eagerly anticipated second novel ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Ed Pettit on Edgar Allan Poe Photo of Ed and Edgar from here. Edward Pettit is a freelance book reviewer and writes the Bibliothecary blog.  He also  pursues graduate studies in literature at bucolic Lehigh University in Pennsylvania and teaches writing at La Salle University in Philadelphia. After having spent the first twenty-seven years of his life in the same Philadelphia neighborhood (Olney), he now resides just outside the "Athens of America" in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania with his lovely wife, five ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Derick Dreher on famed Book Collector and Seller Dr. Rosenbach   Derick Dreher has been the Director of the Rosenbach since 1998. He has an M.A. in the History of Art from Yale University,and is a summa cum laude graduate of Princeton. A Fulbright scholar, he was awarded a Kress International Research Fellowship, for research in Germany. A specialist in graphic arts of the Renaissance, he has published on a variety of subjects, including prints and drawings ranging from Dürer to Daumier, and has spoken internationally on drawings, rare books, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author Donald Antrim on: The Afterlife Donald Antrim is the author of three novels and a memoir entitled, The Afterlife, which is about the strained relationship he had with his mother, Louanne, an artist, teacher and alcoholic. In addition to receiving some of America’s most prestigious fellowships, he is a regular contributor to The New Yorker, a magazine that includes him amongst their "twenty writers for the new century." We met at the Blue Met International Literary Festival in Montre ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File Interview with Donald Antrim, author The Afterlife Donald Antrim is the author of three novels and a memoir entitled, The Afterlife, which is about the strained relationship he had with his mother, Louanne, an artist, teacher and alcoholic. In addition to receiving some of Americaâs most prestigious fellowships, he is a regular contributor to The New Yorker, a magazine that includes him amongst their "twenty writers for the new century." We met at the Blue Met International Literary Festival in Montreal, and talk here about his ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Frank Wilson on How to Write a Successful Book Blog Frank Wilson has been reviewing books professionally since October, 1964. For most of the past decade he was Books Editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer, given to retaining committed bloggers (e.g. Mark Sarvas, Scott Esposito, Ed Champion)  to review books. He retired recently. About five years ago he started blogging at Books Inq. It is one of the most successful blogs in the literary blogosphere.  I interviewed Frank at his home in Philadelphia recently. We talk about how he est ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author Margot Livesey on Shakespeare Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Interview with German Graphic Artist Anke Feuchenberger Anke Feuchtenberger was born in 1963 in East Berlin and is one of Germany’s leading comic illustrator/ artists. Her award winning work has been published in numerous books, newspapers, magazines and anthologies, and includes paintings, drawings, comics, posters, prints, costumes and puppets. Her illustrations and comics are rendered in highly recognizable style, often featuring naked, childlike creatures with huge heads,  wandering through strange, dream-like landscapes. Her ha ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author Glenn Patterson: On Belfast, Cities, Disney, Tolstoy and Public Houses Glenn Patterson was born in Belfast in 1961 and studied Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia under Malcolm Bradbury. He is the author of seven novels. The first, Burning Your Own (1988), set in Northern Ireland in 1969, won a Betty Trask Award and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. We met at the Blue Met International Literary Festival in Montreal to talk about reassessing the past, the development and urban topography of his home town Belfa ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File Interview with Glenn Patterson by Nigel Beale: On Belfast, Cities, Disney, Tolstoy and Public Houses Glenn Patterson was born in Belfast in 1961 and studied Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia under Malcolm Bradbury. He is the author of seven novels. The first, Burning Your Own (1988), set in Northern Ireland in 1969, won a Betty Trask Award and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. We met at the Blue Met International Literary Festival in Montreal to talk about reassessing the past, the development and urban topography of his home town Belfast, cities versus nations, Disn ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Alaa Al Aswany on Fiction and Democracy Egyptian writer Alaa al Aswany was born in 1957 and studied dentistry in Egypt and Chicago. In addition to fiction, he writes on literature, politics, and social issues. His second novel, The Yacoubian Building, an ironic take on modern Egyptian society, was a significant best seller in and outside of the Arabic world. Chicago, a novel set in the city of that name was published in January 2007. The English translation is due out in bookstores this Fall. We met at the Blue Metropolis Inte ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | John Hollander on Good and Bad Poetry Born in 1929 in New York, educated at Columbia, John Hollander is a poet and literary critic. He has written more than a dozen books of poetry, and seven books of criticism, including Rhyme's Reason of which Harold Bloom said: "[it is] on all questions of schemes, patterns, forms, meters, rhymes of poetry in English, the indispensible authority..." and why I was so keen to interview him. According to New York Times, Hollander stresses the importance of hearing poems out loud: "A good poem ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Andre Alexis on the themes in his Novels Photo by Sari Ginsberg André Alexis was born in 1957 in Trinidad and Tobago. His parents left for Canada when he was a baby. The family reunited in Ottawa when Alexis was four years old. He still remembers the trauma of this separation; it has coloured much of his writing since. Themes of absence, displacement, belonging and home animate his work. His debut novel, Childhood (1997), won the Books in Canada First Novel Award, and was a co-winner of the Trillium Award. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author Andrew O'Hagan: On Determination, Memoir, Israel, Martin Amis, Islam and Coloured Doors Andrew O’Hagan’s most recent novel, Be Near Me, has just won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. It is the story of an English priest who takes over a small Scottish parish in a post-industrial town by the sea; a story of art and politics, love and faith, and the way we live now, which pretty well summarizes the conversation we had this past weekend at The Blue Met International Literary Festival in Montreal.  More specifically we talked about ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File Interview with Andrew O'Hagan: On Determination, Memoir, Israel, Martin Amis, Islam and Coloured Doors Andrew OâHaganâs most recent novel, Be Near Me, has just won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. It is the story of an English priest who takes over a small Scottish parish in a post-industrial town by the sea; a story of art and politics, love and faith, and the way we live now, which pretty well summarizes the conversation we had this past weekend at The Blue Met International Literary Festival in Montreal.  More specifically we talked about tragedy, escape, the determination ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Prof. Irene Gammel on Lucy Maud Montgomery & Anne of Green Gables Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author William Deverell on Literary Crime Mystery Novels Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Poet/Critic David Solway on: What makes a Poem Great? In honour of Poetry Month, here is my interview with Canadian poet, critic and more recently, political writer, David Solway. We first discuss what constitutes a great poem in the context of ‘political’ and other agendas that some poets incorporate into their work. According to Solway, great poems consist of authentic, incontestable, memorable language, with vivid power, lapidary quality and prodigious rhetorical flow, which takes time, education, reflection and ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File Interview with Poet/Critic David Solway What makes a Poem Great? In honour of Poetry Month, here is my interview with Canadian poet, critic and more recently, political writer, David Solway. We first discuss what constitutes a great poem in the context of âpoliticalâ and other agendas that some poets incorporate into their work. According to Solway, great poems consist of authentic, incontestable, memorable language, with vivid power, lapidary quality and prodigious rhetorical flow, which takes time, education, reflection and maturity to work its ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author Sally Cooper, Crime Author Sally Cooper’s second novel, Tell Everything,delves into the darkest regions of the human soul, and lends credence to Kipling’s line: "The female of the species is deadlier than the male." During our conversation about Tell Everything we discuss topics including: the media and murder, Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo, …body parts in ponds,  Rapunsil and crime plays, three way sex, the blurred, complicated lines of cons ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File:Author Sally Cooper Sally Cooperâs second novel, Tell Everything,delves into the darkest regions of the human soul, and lends credence to Kiplingâs line: "The female of the species is deadlier than the male." During our conversation about Tell Everything we discuss topics including: the media and murder, Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo, âbody parts in ponds,  Rapunsil and crime plays, three way sex, the blurred, complicated lines of consent, the fear of self revelation, and love, self p ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Kenneth Gloss, Owner, Brattle Books Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author/Bookseller Larry McMurtry Novelist, screenwriter and essayist Larry McMurtry is best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning 1985 novel Lonesome Dove, a sweeping historical epic that follows ex-Texas Rangers as they drive cattle from the Rio Grande to Montana. He grew up on a ranch outside of Archer City, Texas, which is the model for his fictional town of Thalia. A book collector, McMurtry purchased a rare book store in Washington, D.C.’s Georgetown neighborhood in 1970 and name ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File: Interview with Author/Bookseller Larry McMurtry by Nigel Beale Novelist, screenwriter and essayist Larry McMurtry is best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning 1985 novel Lonesome Dove, a sweeping historical epic that follows ex-Texas Rangers as they drive cattle from the Rio Grande to Montana. He grew up on a ranch outside of Archer City, Texas, which is the model for his fictional town of Thalia. A book collector, McMurtry purchased a rare book store in Washington, D.C.âs Georgetown neighborhood in 1970 and named it Booked Up. In 1988he open ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Bookseller Ray Hinst on: Haslam's Bookstore Haslam’s Books, now Florida’s largest new & used book store, was established in St. Petersburg in 1933 by two avid readers, John and Mary Haslam. After World War II they were joined by the second generation, Charles and Elizabeth. The business began to expand. In response to customers’ requests, new technical books were added, then Bibles and religious books and finally a complete line of trade books and a large section for children. The business has m ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File: Interview with Ray Hinst, Haslam's Bookstore by Nigel Beale Haslamâs Books, now Floridaâs largest new & used book store, was established in St. Petersburg in 1933 by two avid readers, John and Mary Haslam. After World War II they were joined by the second generation, Charles and Elizabeth. The business began to expand. In response to customersâ requests, new technical books were added, then Bibles and religious books and finally a complete line of trade books and a large section for children. The business has moved four times to accommoda ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Editor Ian Brookes on: Chambers Dictionary Ian Brookes is Editor-in-Chief of The Chambers Dictionary which was first published in 1901 and most recently updated in 2006. We talk here about lexicographers, Samuel Johnson, Scotland, the speed of language change getting quicker, Chambers’ unique focus on old, Scottish, literary, historical words with humorous, sardonic definitions, such as  mallemaroking and pock pudding, use of the dictionary by crossword puzzle and word game enthusiasts, Wikipedia’s Hawaiian roots, t ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File: Interview with Ian Brookes, Editor, Chambers Dictionary by Nigel Beale. Ian Brookes is Editor-in-Chief of The Chambers Dictionary which was first published in 1901 and most recently updated in 2006. We talk here about lexicographers, Samuel Johnson, Scotland, the speed of language change getting quicker, Chambersâ unique focus on old, Scottish, literary, historical words with humorous, sardonic definitions, such as  mallemaroking and pock pudding, use of the dictionary by crossword puzzle and word game enthusiasts, Wikipediaâs Hawaiian roots, the ch ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Kathryn Court, President, Penguin Books Kathryn Court joined Penguin Books in 1977 and became Editorial Director two years later. In l984 she was named Editor in Chief of Viking Penguin and in 1992 Senior Vice-President, Publisher, and Editor in Chief of Penguin Books. She was named President of Penguin Books in August 2000. Authors she has worked with include: Reinaldo Arenas, Andrea Camilleri, J.M. Coetzee, Slavenka Drakulic, Mary Relinda Ellis, Robert Fagles, Josephine Humphreys, Garrison Keillor, Nora Okja Ke ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File: Interview with Kathryn Court, President, Penguin Books by Nigel Beale Kathryn Court joined Penguin Books in 1977 and became Editorial Director two years later. In l984 she was named Editor in Chief of Viking Penguin and in 1992 Senior Vice-President, Publisher, and Editor in Chief of Penguin Books. She was named President of Penguin Books in August 2000. Authors she has worked with include: Reinaldo Arenas, Andrea Camilleri, J.M. Coetzee, Slavenka Drakulic, Mary Relinda Ellis, Robert Fagles, Josephine Humphreys, Garrison Keillor, Nora Okja Keller, Donn ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Antiquarian Bookseller Patrick McGahern Patrick McGahern has been selling books in Ottawa, Canada since 1969. His store specializes in used and rare books: Canadiana, Americana, Arctic, Antarctic, Travel, Natural History & Voyages, Illustrated & Plate Books, Irish and Scottish History and Literature. More than 30,000 titles are stocked at the Glebe store. Thousands of rare, scarce and interesting books are offered through their Catalogues which are published six times a year. Almost 10,000 titles are feat ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File: Interview with Patrick McGahern, Antiquarian Bookseller by Nigel Beale Patrick McGahern has been selling books in Ottawa, Canada since 1969. His store specializes in used and rare books: Canadiana, Americana, Arctic, Antarctic, Travel, Natural History & Voyages, Illustrated & Plate Books, Irish and Scottish History and Literature. More than 30,000 titles are stocked at the Glebe store. Thousands of rare, scarce and interesting books are offered through their Catalogues which are published six times a year. Almost 10,000 titles are featured in their ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Children's Bookseller Margie Macmillan on: Granny Bates Books Margie McMillan is co-owner of the award winning Granny Bates Children’s Bookstore in St. John’s Newfoundland. We talk here about longevity and research as a reason for success, the brilliance of Graham Oakley and The Church Mice, the difference between back lists and mid-lists, schools as bread and butter, book sellers as literary critics, driving through the swiss alps, new products that are called books, movies and cereal. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File: Interview with Margie Macmillan Granny Bates Books by Nigel Beale Margie McMillan is co-owner of the award winning Granny Bates Childrenâs Bookstore in St. Johnâs Newfoundland. We talk here about longevity and research as a reason for success, the brilliance of Graham Oakley and The Church Mice, the difference between back lists and mid-lists, schools as bread and butter, book sellers as literary critics, driving through the swiss alps, new products that are called books, movies and cereal. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Poet John Burnside Poet and novelist John Burnside was born in 1955 in Dunfermline, Scotland. He studied English and European Languages at Cambridge College of Arts and Technology. A former computer software engineer, he has been a freelance writer since 1996. His first collection of poetry, The Hoop, was published in 1988 and won a Scottish Arts Council Book Award. Other poetry collections include Common Knowledge (1991), Feast Days (1992), winner of the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, and Th ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File:Interview with Poet John Burnside by Nigel Beale Poet and novelist John Burnside was born in 1955 in Dunfermline, Scotland. He studied English and European Languages at Cambridge College of Arts and Technology. A former computer software engineer, he has been a freelance writer since 1996. His first collection of poetry, The Hoop, was published in 1988 and won a Scottish Arts Council Book Award. Other poetry collections include Common Knowledge (1991), Feast Days (1992), winner of the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, and The Asylum Danc ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | John Freeman, President of the National Book Critics Circle John Freeman is president of The National Book Critics Circle. Founded in 1974, the NBCC is a non-profit organization consisting of nearly 700 active book reviewers who honor quality writing and communicate with one another about common concerns. We met recently and talked, among other things, about the NBCC’s awards program, an impressive new blog site called Critical Mass, and the Campaign to Save Book Reviews, which is addressing the alarming shrinkage of newspaper book review sect ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File: Interview with John Freeman, President of the National Book Critics Circle, by Nigel Beale. John Freeman is president of The National Book Critics Circle. Founded in 1974, the NBCC is a non-profit organization consisting of nearly 700 active book reviewers who honor quality writing and communicate with one another about common concerns. We met recently and talked, among other things, about the NBCCâs awards program, an impressive new blog site called Critical Mass, and the Campaign to Save Book Reviews, which is addressing the alarming shrinkage of newspaper book review sectio ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Bernard Margolis President of the Boston Public Library Bernard Margolis is President of the Boston Public Library (BPL). Founded in 1848, it was the first large free municipal library in the United States. Mr. Margolis has served on the Governing Council of the 63,000-member American Library Association (ALA), and has won many awards including “Colorado Librarian of the Year,�? two John Cotton Dana library public relations awards, and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ “Award of Excellence�? for h ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File: Interview with Bernard Margolis President of the Boston Public Library by Nigel Beale. Bernard Margolis is President of the Boston Public Library (BPL). Founded in 1848, it was the first large free municipal library in the United States. Mr. Margolis has served on the Governing Council of the 63,000-member American Library Association (ALA), and has won many awards including âColorado Librarian of the Year,â two John Cotton Dana library public relations awards, and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Artsâ âAward of Excellenceâ for his library-sponsored âImagination Ce ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | John Wronoski, Archives Dealer John Wronoski is a rare book dealer who specializes in literature, and primary works in the history of ideas in English, German, French, Spanish, and Russian. His shop, Lame Duck Books, contains the most significant selection of 19th and 20th century Spanish language literature in the world, and important originals of 17th and 18th century English poetry. In addition to performing the traditional role of bookseller, John serves as agent in the institutional placement of arc ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File: Interview with John Wronoski, Archives Dealer by Nigel Beale John Wronoski is a rare book dealer who specializes in literature, and primary works in the history of ideas in English, German, French, Spanish, and Russian. His shop, Lame Duck Books, contains the most significant selection of 19th and 20th century Spanish language literature in the world, and important originals of 17th and 18th century English poetry. In addition to performing the traditional role of bookseller, John serves as agent in the institutional placement of archives for ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author Elias Khoury Elias Khoury is author of eleven novels including Little Mountain and Gates of the City. He is currently professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic studies at New York University, and editor in chief of the literary supplement of Beirut’s daily newspaper, An-Nahar. We talk here, at the Blue Metropolis Montreal International Literary Festival, about his latest novel in English Gate of the Sun, of how great literature speaks to what is human and how religion doesn’t; ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File: Elias Khoury Interview with Nigel Beale Elias Khoury is author of eleven novels including Little Mountain and Gates of the City. He is currently professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic studies at New York University, and editor in chief of the literary supplement of Beirutâs daily newspaper, An-Nahar. We talk here, at the Blue Metropolis Montreal International Literary Festival, about his latest novel in English Gate of the Sun, of how great literature speaks to what is human and how religion doesnât; of how telling stories ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File: Peter Behrens Interview with Nigel Beale Peter Behrens’ short stories and essays have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Tin House, Saturday Night, and The National Post and have been anthologized in Best Canadian Stories and Best Canadian Essays. He was born in Montreal and lives on the coast of Maine with his wife and son. We talk here, at the Blue Metropolis Montreal International Literary Festival, among other things about voice and poetry in his debut novel The Law of Dreams, Winner ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File: Peter Behrens Interview with Nigel Beale Peter Behrensâ short stories and essays have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Tin House, Saturday Night, and The National Post and have been anthologized in Best Canadian Stories and Best Canadian Essays. He was born in Montreal and lives on the coast of Maine with his wife and son. We talk here, at the Blue Metropolis Montreal International Literary Festival, among other things about voice and poetry in his debut novel The Law of Dreams, Winner of The 2006 Governor Generalâs Literary A ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Lydia Davis on: Translating Proust Lydia Davis is a contemporary American author and translator of French. From 1974 to 1978 she was married to Paul Auster, with whom she has a son. She has published six collections of short stories, including The Thirteenth Woman and Other Stories (1976) and Break It Down (1986). Her most recent collection is not Samuel Johnson Is Indignant, but rather Varieties of Disturbance, published by Farrar, Strauss & Giroux. Her stories are acclaimed for their brevity, poetry, p ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File: Interview with author/translator Lydia Davis by Nigel Beale Lydia Davis is a contemporary American author and translator of French. From 1974 to 1978 she was married to Paul Auster, with whom she has a son. She has published six collections of short stories, including The Thirteenth Woman and Other Stories (1976) and Break It Down (1986). Her most recent collection is not Samuel Johnson Is Indignant, but rather Varieties of Disturbance, published by Farrar, Strauss & Giroux. Her stories are acclaimed for their brevity, poetry, philosophy and hum ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Clock Book Collector Arthur Galwin by Nigel Beale Arthur Galwin has collected clocks for more than 30 years. In so doing he has amassed an impressive reference library of books on the topic. Not driven to collect First Editions, Arthur’s primary motivation has been to cover the waterfront, to pull together as comprehensive a collection of books on clocks as can be found anywhere in the world. During our conversation Arthur refers to the person who restored John Harrison’s extraordinary marine ti ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File: Interview with Clock Book Collector Arthur Galwin by Nigel Beale Arthur Galwin has collected clocks for more than 30 years. In so doing he has amassed an impressive reference library of books on the topic. Not driven to collect First Editions, Arthurâs primary motivation has been to cover the waterfront, to pull together as comprehensive a collection of books on clocks as can be found anywhere in the world. During our conversation Arthur refers to the person who restored John Harrisonâs extraordinary marine timekeepers. That person is Lt Cdr Ru ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Book Designer/ Author C. S. Richardson C.S. Richardson is an accomplished book designer who has worked in publishing for over twenty years. He is a multiple recipient of the Alcuin Award (Canada’s highest honour for excellence in book design) and a frequent lecturer on publishing, design and communications. A rare bird indeed, he recently published his first novel The End of the Alphabet, and is currently at work on his second. We talk here about C.S. Lewis, the role of the book designer, t ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File: Interview with Book Designer/ Author C. S. Richardson by Nigel Beale. C.S. Richardson is an accomplished book designer who has worked in publishing for over twenty years. He is a multiple recipient of the Alcuin Award (Canadaâs highest honour for excellence in book design) and a frequent lecturer on publishing, design and communications. A rare bird indeed, he recently published his first novel The End of the Alphabet, and is currently at work on his second. We talk here about C.S. Lewis, the role of the book designer, the award winning Bedside Book of ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Ottawa Librarian Barbara Clubb Barbara Clubb is City Librarian and CEO of the Ottawa Public Library, past president of the Canadian Library Association, a member of the International Relations Committee of the ALA/Public Library Association; a director for the Canadian Writers Foundation and Monthly Book Reviewer for CBC Ottawa Radio One. In this fascinating, wide ranging conversation we talk about the role of a city librarian now, at the turn of the 21 century; about library as place&hel ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File: Interview with Ottawa Librarian Barbara Clubb by Nigel Beale Barbara Clubb is City Librarian and CEO of the Ottawa Public Library, past president of the Canadian Library Association, a member of the International Relations Committee of the ALA/Public Library Association; a director for the Canadian Writers Foundation and Monthly Book Reviewer for CBC Ottawa Radio One. In this fascinating, wide ranging conversation we talk about the role of a city librarian now, at the turn of the 21 century; about library as placeâwhere loitering is okay; ac ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Editor John Metcalf on: The Short Story John Metcalf is a highly regarded author who happens to have edited many of Canada’s foremost short story writers including Lisa Moore, Alice Munro, and Michael Winter. Born in Carlisle, England, and educated at the University of Bristol, he emigrated to Canada in 1962. In addition to his own writings (novels, stories and essays), he currently holds the unsalaried post of Senior Editor at the Porcupine’s Quill of Erin, Ontario and is the editor of Canadian Notes ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File: Interview with Editor John Metcalf by Nigel Beale. John Metcalf is a highly regarded author who happens to have edited many of Canadaâs foremost short story writers including Lisa Moore, Alice Munro, and Michael Winter. Born in Carlisle, England, and educated at the University of Bristol, he emigrated to Canada in 1962. In addition to his own writings (novels, stories and essays), he currently holds the unsalaried post of Senior Editor at the Porcupineâs Quill of Erin, Ontario and is the editor of Canadian Notes and Queries. He resides ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Erotica writer Amanda Earl Amanda Earl writes erotic fiction in Ottawa, Canada, as much for her own pleasure as anything else. Her stories have consistently been selected for publication in Carroll and Graf’s annual Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica. Amanda publishes and writes poetry, is managing editor of the Bywords Quarterly Journal, and hosts Bywords.ca, a website invaluable to Ottawanians interested in local literary events. We talk here about the definitions of erotica an ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File: Interview with Erotica writer Amanda Earl by Nigel Beale. Amanda Earl writes erotic fiction in Ottawa, Canada, as much for her own pleasure as anything else. Her stories have consistently been selected for publication in Carroll and Grafâs annual Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica. Amanda publishes and writes poetry, is managing editor of the Bywords Quarterly Journal, and hosts Bywords.ca, a website invaluable to Ottawanians interested in local literary events. We talk here about the definitions of erotica and pornography (a common joke: âErot ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Churchill Bibliographer Ron Cohen Ronald Cohen is author of the Bibliography of the Writings of Sir Winston Churchill 3 Volume Set (ISBN: 0826472354) published in 2006: a ‘richly annotated work’ containing thousands of entries, with detailed descriptions of each work by Churchill, including information on content, typography,paper, illustrations, maps, facsimiles, bindings, dust jackets, publication and printing history, translations, and library/collection locations, plus circumstances of publi ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File: Interview with Churchill Bibliographer Ron Cohen by Nigel Beale Ronald Cohen is author of the Bibliography of the Writings of Sir Winston Churchill 3 Volume Set (ISBN: 0826472354) published in 2006: a ârichly annotated workâ containing thousands of entries, with detailed descriptions of each work by Churchill, including information on content, typography,paper, illustrations, maps, facsimiles, bindings, dust jackets, publication and printing history, translations, and library/collection locations, plus circumstances of publication. Cohenâs fa ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Chief Curator David Franklin on Exhibition Catalogues DAVID FRANKLIN is Chief Curator at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, and editor of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and the Renaissance in Florence, a catalogue published by Yale University Press to accompany a major exhibition of the same name held at the Gallery from May 29, 2005 to September 5, 2005. We talk here mostly about the exhibition catalogue as book: what differentiates it from typical works of scholarly non-fiction, the challenges of catering both to the research communi ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author Illustrator Barbara Reid Barbara Reid’s Plasticine artwork makes her books instantly recognizable. They have won acclaim around the world, and many awards. We talk here about what makes her so good, about great children’s book illustrators, the accurate conveyance of emotion, mice in subways, making room for the imagination, chiaroscuro, working in ice cream, wanting to show things to those you love, pony tails, playing hooky and war.   Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File: Interview with Author Illustrator Barbara Reid by Nigel Beale, The Biblio File Barbara Reidâs Plasticine artwork makes her books instantly recognizable. They have won acclaim around the world, and many awards. We talk here about what makes her so good, about great childrenâs book illustrators, the accurate conveyance of emotion, mice in subways, making room for the imagination, chiaroscuro, working in ice cream, wanting to show things to those you love, pony tails, playing hooky and war. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author Ramona Dearing Ramona Dearing lives in St. John’s, Newfoundland, and is the latest member of the longstanding (and increasingly famous) fiction collective The Burning Rock to publish a collection of short fiction. Dearing works for CBC Radio where she is currently busy putting together a nationally broadcast program featuring young Canadian artists. So Beautiful was published in 2004 by The Porcupine’s Quill Press. We talk here about her stories, my favourites, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File: Interview with Author Ramona Dearing by Nigel Beale, The Biblio File Ramona Dearing lives in St. Johnâs, Newfoundland, and is the latest member of the longstanding (and increasingly famous) fiction collective The Burning Rock to publish a collection of short fiction. Dearing works for CBC Radio where she is currently busy putting together a nationally broadcast program featuring young Canadian artists. So Beautiful was published in 2004 by The Porcupineâs Quill Press. We talk here about her stories, my favourites, and hers, bodies in bags, judging ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | AuthorTim Parks Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author Lisa Moore Lisa Moore’s fiction has been published widely in literary magazines and in anthologies. Her two collections of short stories, Degrees of Nakedness and Open have received praise for their ’supple sensuality and emotional authenticity.’ She lives in Newfoundland. We talked there, and here about her recently published first novel, Alligator, about tea, pine martins, time, the exotic, Tasmania, Cezanne, St. John’s as a bowl of oranges, Cubi ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File: Interview with Author Lisa Moore by Nigel Beale, Lisa Mooreâs fiction has been published widely in literary magazines and in anthologies. Her two collections of short stories, Degrees of Nakedness and Open have received praise for their âsupple sensuality and emotional authenticity.â She lives in Newfoundland. We talked there, and here about her recently published first novel, Alligator, about tea, pine martins, time, the exotic, Tasmania, Cezanne, St. JohnÃââs as a bowl of oranges, Cubism, being in the present, survival, light, if ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File: Interview with AuthorTim Parks by Nigel Beale, Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author Michael Crummey on: The History Novel Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File: Interview with Author Michael Crummey by Nigel Beale, Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Crime Fiction Writer James O. Born James O. Born is a Special Agent with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and author of three best selling crime novels. We talk about his most recent, Escape Clause; about blurbs, putting humour and a human face on the real life experience of cops, how life followed art in this novel, Karma and good moral compasses, the goal of writing compelling prose with surprise endings, cheer leading competitions, smacking people who talk of movie options without deliverying, Jaws, the compulsio ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File: Interview with Crime Fiction Writer James O. Born by Nigel Beale, James O. Born is a Special Agent with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and author of three best selling crime novels. We talk about his most recent, Escape Clause; about blurbs, putting humour and a human face on the real life experience of cops, how life followed art in this novel, Karma and good moral compasses, the goal of writing compelling prose with surprise endings, cheer leading competitions, smacking people who talk of movie options without deliverying, Jaws, the co ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author Tim Winton Australian Tim Winton wrote his first novel, An Open Swimmer (1982), at the age of 19. It won the Australian/Vogel National Literary Award. Born in Perth, in 1960, he is the author of Shallows (1986), a novel set in a whaling town, and Cloudstreet (1991), the story of two working-class families rebuilding their lives. Both won Miles Franklin Awards. The Riders (1995) was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won a Commonwealth Writers Prize. H ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File: Interview with Author Tim Winton by Nigel Beale, Australian Tim Winton wrote his first novel, An Open Swimmer (1982), at the age of 19. It won the Australian/Vogel National Literary Award. Born in Perth, in 1960, he is the author of Shallows (1986), a novel set in a whaling town, and Cloudstreet (1991), the story of two working-class families rebuilding their lives. Both won Miles Franklin Awards. The Riders (1995) was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won a Commonwealth Writers Prize. He is also the author of two collectio ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Author Andrew Miller ANDREW MILLER was born in Bristol…in 1960 (induced, according to the family legend, by his mother eating a large supper of fish and chips). At age eleven, having convincingly failed his Eleven Plus, he went to boarding school in Wiltshire…Master of Arts in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of East Anglia in 1991…PhD from Lancaster University…In February 1996, after six years of writing, ‘Ingenious Pain’ his first novel ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Biblio File: Interview with Author Andrew Miller by Nigel Beale, ANDREW MILLER was born in Bristolâin 1960 (induced, according to the family legend, by his mother eating a large supper of fish and chips). At age eleven, having convincingly failed his Eleven Plus, he went to boarding school in WiltshireâMaster of Arts in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of East Anglia in 1991âPhD from Lancaster UniversityâIn February 1996, after six years of writing, âIngenious Painâ his first novel, won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Gri ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Ruth Duff on the difference between Librarians and Archivists Wendy Duff is Director of Graduate Studies and Associate Professor at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Information Studies. She received her PhD from the University of Pittsburgh. Her primary research interests are user studies, archival description, and electronic records. We talk here about the difference between Librarians and Archivisits, and ‘stuff’. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Prof. Joseph Khoury on Hamlet, Act 1 & 2 Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Prof. Don Nichol on the History of Publishing Copyright Dr. Don Nichol is an English Professor at Memorial University in Newfoundland, Canada. He has been researching copyright law and its role in the history of writing and publishing for more than a decade. He is the author of Pope’s Literary Legacy, published by the Oxford Bibliographical Society in 1992, and editor, more recently, of The New Foundling Hospital for Wit 1768-1773, a three-volume set containing enhanced facsimiles of some of the 18th-century’s most popular and salac ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Fran Durako on her Kelmscott Bookshop Fran Durako is owner of the Kelmscott Bookshop in Baltimore, Maryland. We talk here about her love of William Morris, fine printing and victorian book illustration, the transition from book collector to seller, and art as a ‘positive necessity of life if we are to live as nature meant us to.’ Copyright © 2006 by Nigel Beale Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | David Gilmour on A perfect Night to go to China Novelist and acclaimed critic David Gilmour was born in London, Ontario in 1949. His first novel, Back on Tuesday, was published in 1986, followed by How Boys See Girls in 1991 and An Affair with the Moon in 1993. Lost Between Houses, published in 1999, was nominated for the Trillium Book Award. Sparrow Nights, his fifth novel, was published by Random House to rave reviews. His latest novel, A Perfect Night to Go to China, won Canada’s 2005 Governor General’s Award for Fiction. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Interview with Martin Levin, Books Editor at the Globe & Mail Newspaper Martin Levin is the very popular (particularly at Book Expo Canada) Books Editor at the (Toronto) Globe and Mail newspaper. We talk here about namesakes in Tolstoy, guilt, tragedy, sorrow at not being able to review anywhere near all worthy books, Blockbusters syphoning money away from deserving titles, getting boys to read books, graphic novels, Canadian literature as post-colonial/nationalist, Cynthia Ozick, post-modern levelling, discerning value, the benefits of competition, the decline ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Jamie Byng Publisher, Canongate   Don’t take my f—ing photograph… Jamie Byng appreciates and understands that myth and The Bible lie at the core of creative imagination and the Western Canon. He marries this knowledge with a skill for presentation and promotion that few other publishers can match. I met with him at BookExpo in Washington D.C. recently. We talk here about how he does it, about ambiguity, about the responsibility we parents have to make the lives of our children interesting if not e ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Paul Muldoon on Poetry Pulitzer Prize winning poet Paul Muldoon was in Ottawa for the Ottawa International Writers Festival. We talk here about poetry as pemmican, about initials, dashed expectations, the movie Ice Age, James Joyce’s secular epiphanies, the luck of Shakespeare and Mozart, what constitutes great poetry, judgement, pigs, the depths of Johnny Depp and hot water bottles. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Derek Walcott on Poetry Nobel Prize winning poet Derek Walcott read at the Blue Metropolis Writers Festival in Montreal several weeks ago. We talk here about England, parents, Ted Hughes, William Blake, combining painting and poetry, the sea, getting laid, and returning. Like most great men, Mr. Walcott is, in addition to being an articulate, moving communicator, humble and approachable. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Neil Wilson on Founding the Ottawa International Writers Festival Neil Wilson is a former journalist/broadcaster, future publisher, current long-distance runner and Founding Director of the Ottawa International Writers Festival. We talk about his love of Irish literature and poetry, his founding of the Festival in 1997, what motivates him to do what he does, and this Spring’s impressive, Beckett-backed line-up which goes on stage April 17, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Nigel Beale Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Faber CEO Stephen Page on the Role of Publisher Here is my interview with Stephen Page (unparalleled name for a) CEO and Publisher of Faber and newly elected British Publishers Association President conducted at The London Bookfair March 2006. We talk about the role and necessity of publishing houses, the impact of the Internet, discounting, supermarkets, ebooks and 3 for 2 bandaids. Copyright © 2006 by Nigel Beale Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Johnathon Green on Slang Why Penises Beat Out Vaginas Rap as rebellion, slang as hipness, and jargon as obfuscatory exclusionary pretense, these are topics discussed during an interview with world-leading slang lexicographer Jonathon Green last month in his office in London, England. And bloody invigorating it was too. We talk about why penises are funny and beat out vaginas, why slang is negative and misogynist and how it carries a kind of inventive cleverness seldom found in the harmless drudgery of every day la ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Andrew Miller on his novel The Optimists  ANDREW MILLER was born in Bristol...in 1960 (induced, according to the family legend, by his mother eating a large supper of fish and chips). At age eleven, having convincingly failed his Eleven Plus, he went to boarding school in Wiltshire...Master of Arts in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of East Anglia in 1991...PhD from Lancaster University...In February 1996, after six years of writing, 'Ingenious Pain' his first novel, won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Chair Maggie Knaus on the Rockcliffe Bookfair The Rockcliffe Bookfair is one of the oldest, biggest, best used book sales in Ontario, if not Canada. Book dealers travel across the country every year to cash in on the great deals. More than 3500 volunteer hours go into the making of it annually (600 for the full year, let alone one event is, apparently, considered impressive when it comes to parental involvement in school activities). Twenty six thousand books were sold last year, with the same number left over. Bookfair is organized wi ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Entrepreneur Kensel Tracy on Self Publishing I’ve known Kensel Tracy for 20 years. We met in 1985 when he was in charge of marketing at the Ottawa-Carleton Tourism Commission and I was Membership Director at the Board of Trade. I can’t think of anyone I’ve ever met who is as energetic and creative as Kensel is when it comes to marketing. Over the years he has worked with and helped Ottawa's Festival of Spring, Winterlude, Habitat for Humanity and many other good community causes. More recently he has been a business ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache |