Bookends with Mattea Roach

Fawn Parker's latest book centres on a woman navigating life immediately following the death of her mother. The novel is a finalist for this year’s Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. Fawn and Mattea Roach talk about grief, loss and the real-life inspiration behind Hi, It's Me.

When a trio of characters living in a lakeside cabin in the summer of 2020 begin reading a book of horror stories, the details start to bleed into real life. This is the premise of Erica McKeen's latest novel. Erica talks to Mattea Roach about why she uses horror to explore the mundane and complex aspects of everyday life.

When Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach series was first published 10 years ago, it was a sensation. The mysterious environmental phenomenon known as Area X captivated readers and inspired a movie. Now the saga continues with a highly anticipated fourth installment, Absolution. Jeff talks to Mattea Roach about the inspiration behind the series, dealing with climate threats to his home in Florida and what fiction can teach us about our own environmental crisis.

V.V. Ganeshananthan won two of the world's biggest fiction prizes this year: the U.K. Women's Prize and the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction. Her novel Brotherless Night imagines one Tamil family's experience during the first decade of Sri Lanka's civil war, told through the eyes of a courageous medical student. V.V. speaks to Mattea Roach about the complexities of writing fiction about a real conflict, grappling with authenticity and diasporic storytelling, and her almost 20-year journey working on the novel.

Alberta's Badlands, the world's largest dinosaur bone repository, set the eerie stage for Corinna Chong's novel Bad Land. It follows a loner whose family secrets, like the ancient bones buried deep beneath the earth, are destined to be uncovered. Corinna talks to Mattea Roach about drawing from her own life to bring flawed characters and complicated family relationships to life.

Everything and Nothing At All by Jenny Heijun Wills is an essay collection where the author reflects on her experiences as a transnational adoptee. Jenny was born in Korea and was adopted by a white Canadian family in southwestern Ontario when she was nine months old. Twenty years ago, she reconnected with her Korean birth family. She talks to Mattea Roach about this journey — which also inspired her prize-winning memoir, Older Sister. Not Necessarily Related — and about how writing and literature have helped her figure out who she is.

In Matt Haig's latest bestseller, The Life Impossible, a retired math teacher goes on a Spanish adventure after inheriting a house on Ibiza. But things on the island aren't quite what they seem. For Matt, the story's surrealist elements mirror aspects of his own journey through depression and mental illness — and coming through it with new ideas about what's possible. He speaks with Mattea Roach about striving for authentic optimism in his fiction. Music featured in this episode: "Rainy Days and Mondays" written by Paul Williams and Roger Nichols, performed by Carpenters, from the 1971 self-titled album, Carpenters, produced by Jack Daugherty.

Poet Aldona Dziedziejko's Ice Safety Chart: Fragments is a beautiful, experimental essay about different moments from Aldona's life in the Northwest Territories. The writer, who now lives in Alberta, spoke to Mattea Roach about their life, literary inspirations and her big win.

Casey McQuiston is a blockbuster queer romance author who hit it big with their 2016 novel Red, White and Royal Blue. Casey’s latest is The Pairing, about childhood friends-turned-exes who reconnect on a sexy European adventure. Casey has an open conversation with Mattea Roach about queer love, blending joy with sadness and what the future holds for romance writing.

Annie Carpenter's life was upended by colonialism, the Indian Act and the residential school system. For 80 years, her family tried to find out what happened to her. Now, journalist and filmmaker Tanya Talaga is telling her great-great grandmother's story in her new book and documentary series, The Knowing. She talks to Mattea Roach about the struggle to find her relative, crossing paths with the Pope, and what she believes will help move us forward on the road to reconciliation.

When Alison McCreesh was 21, she left her Quebec hometown and hitchhiked to the Yukon searching for something she couldn't quite put her finger on — and hasn't left. She talks to Mattea Roach about her graphic novel Degrees of Separation, which reflects on the everyday lives of people in the North... and how it's changed during her time there.

The Paris-based Turkish writer spoke with Mattea Roach about her new novel, The Anthropologists, which centers on a young immigrant couple in an unnamed city, navigating love, friendships and the guilt of being away from family.

Sloane Crosley’s jewelry was stolen from her home, and one month later, her best friend, Russell, died. She writes about these experiences in the memoir Grief is For People, which is witty and heartbreaking. Sloane joined Mattea Roach to talk about her grief, her best friend and writing about it all.

The novel Oil People is about a family in southwestern Ontario with deep connections to the oil industry. Oil is their present-day livelihood and heritage, but it might also be poisoning them physically and spiritually. David Huebert speaks to Mattea Roach about writing Oil People.

Heather O'Neill is an icon in Canadian literature who has won a ton of awards. And now she has a new novel. It’s called The Capital of Dreams and it’s about the influence of art and literature on our lives. It follows 14-year-old Sofia as she hunts for her mother’s lost manuscript during the chaos of war. Heather speaks to Mattea Roach about her latest novel and living a creative life.

Iranian American writer Kaveh Akbar and his novel Martyr! are everywhere these days. Martyr! made the New York Times bestseller list and several summer reading lists, including Barack Obama's. Drawing on Kaveh's own experience with addiction and recovery, it's about Cyrus, a 20-something Iranian American poet who’s in the early years of sobriety. Cyrus is a little lost…and a lot depressed…and he becomes interested in the stories of historical martyrs. In this very first episode of Bookends, Kaveh speaks with Mattea about how his own journey inspired the novel.

When the book ends, the conversation begins. Mattea Roach speaks with writers who have something to say about their work, the world and our place in it. You'll always walk away with big questions to ponder and new books to read. Beginning Sept. 8 on CBC.

For the conclusion of Writers and Company, the tables are turned and author Madeleine Thien interviews Eleanor Wachtel. Recorded at the Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival in Montreal last spring, Thien speaks with Eleanor about her early life in Montreal, memorable moments from her career and more. They also look back on Eleanor's conversations with Antiguan American novelist and memoirist Jamaica Kincaid and British neurologist Oliver Sacks. Plus, Jeopardy! superchamp Mattea Roach joins Eleanor to talk about hosting CBC's new author interview show, Bookends. The entire Writers and Company archive will gradually be made available on the Simon Fraser University Library’s Digitized Collections website. You can find it here: https://digital.lib.sfu.ca/writersandcompany-collection/writers-company

The Scottish author reflects on the stories she grew up with, the influence of feminism and how time moves in circular patterns. Ali Smith has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize four times. Her 2014 novel How to Be Both won the Women's Prize for fiction and the Costa Book Award for novel. She spoke with Eleanor Wachtel in 2018 about the first two books in her Seasonal Quartet series, Autumn and Winter.

The American architect, known for challenging the idea of form, reflects on his life and the experiences that shape his work, from his days as a lieutenant in the Korean War to his time studying in Europe. He founded the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies and is the author of several books on architecture and design, including Lateness. Peter Eisenman spoke with Eleanor Wachtel in 2011.