CJSW » Writer\’s Block

Vincent Lam, “The Headmaster’s Wager”

paulk — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 02:07:50 +0000

Writer’s Block program May 2, 2012. Paul Kennett in conversation with Vincent Lam, discussing the author’s novel The Headmaster’s Wager.

WB May 2 2012 Vincent Lam Podcast

Filling Station Magazine 20th Anniversary

paulk — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 01:25:33 +0000

Calgary’s filling Station magazine celebrates its 20th birthday this year, and several current and former members of the fS collective joined Paul Kennett in the CJSW studio to talk about the magazine’s history & impact.

WB Podcast Apr 24 2013 fS 20th Anniversary

Theanna Bischoff, “Swallow”.

paulk — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 20:35:27 +0000

Theanna Bischoff in conversation with Writer’s Block host Paul Kennett about her latest novel Swallow.

T Bischoff WB Podcast

Sophie B. Watson, “Cadillac Couches”

paulk — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 21:04:48 +0000

Writer’s Block host Paul Kennett speaks with Sophie B. Watson about her novel Cadillac Couches.

S Watson WB Podcast

Betsy Warland, “Breathing the Page”

paulk — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 20:37:32 +0000

Paul Kennett speaks with Betsy Warland, author of Breathing the Page: Reading the Act of Writing“.

B Warland Podcast

Jennifer Selby, “Questioning French Secularism”

paulk — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 20:03:37 +0000

Paul Kennett speaks with Dr. Jennifer Selby about her latest book, Questioning French Secularism: Gender Politics and Islam in a Parisian Suburb.

J Selby WB Podcast

Jane Urquhart, “Sanctuary Line”

paulk — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 20:41:50 +0000

Paul Kennett speaks with Jane Urquhart about her novel Sanctuary Line.

J Urquhart Podcast

Writer’s Block March 28, 2012: The Bill Miner Road Show & Kristen den Hartog

paulk — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 18:30:01 +0000

The Bill Miner Road Show

Poems by Alexander Forbes; Music by Henry Small & The Shiftless Rounders; Read by Tina Moore

This Bill Miner Centennial album of spoken word and music was funded by the Arts Commission of the City of Kamloops, on the occasion of the centennial of Bill Miner’s train robbery in Kamloops, BC. But it also commemorates the events in the last years of Bill Miner’s life, as well as his early days in California and Colorado, Oregon and Washington. In short, the album is the first poetic biography of the equal of Jesse James in stagecoach and train holdups. And it was Bill Miner, not Jesse James, who invented the phrase “hands up!”

Kristen den Hartog, And Me Among Them

Writer’s Block executive producer Kelley Toews in conversation with Kristen den Hartog about her novel And Me Among Them, published in 2011 by Calgary’s Freehand Books.

Kristen den Hartog is the author of the novels Water Wings, The Perpetual Ending, and Origin of Haloes, as well as The Occupied Garden: A Family Memoir of War-torn Holland, written with her sister, Tracy Kasaboski. Her latest novel, And Me Among Them, explores the life of a young girl who grows to giant proportions, and the impact her unusual condition has on the family as a whole. Kristen lives in Toronto with her husband and daughter.

Podcast WB March 28 2012

Mark Lavorato, author of “Believing Cedric”

paulk — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 16:58:40 +0000

Mark Lavorato‘s new novel is Believing Cedric, published in the fall of 2011 by Brindle and Glass. Mark is also a musician and photographer, and is currently based in Montreal.

Believing Cedric traverses Canada, major historical events of the twentieth century, and the extraordinary lives of twelve different people, each of whom has some kind of poignant connection with a man named Cedric Johnson.

Meanwhile, Cedric is having the strangest experience of his life. He is fifty-eight years old, and flashing back to pivotal moments and decisions that he made along the way; though not as a passive observer; he’s capable of interacting with his past – speaking as a fifty-eight year old man in his nine-year-old body, then in the skin of a thirteen-year-old, and so on – all while trying to figure out what exactly is happening to him, and why. Understandably, he tries to change a few things while revisiting, though with little success, imparting his more-than-flawed advice to those who played a key role in charting his course – twelve very different characters who must then decide if they will allow, or can even afford, this one blinking moment of believing Cedric.

Mark spoke with Writer’s Block host Paul Kennett in November, 2011.

M Lavorato WB Podcast

Oana Avasilichioaei

paulk — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 16:00:18 +0000

Oana Avasilichioaei, the 2010 – 2011 Calgary Canadian Writer in Residence, speaks with Paul Kennett about her experience with the Calgary Distinguished Writers Program and her current multimedia poetic projects.

Some of the strands in Oana Avasilichioaei Writer’s Block CJSW Podcast’s work traverse geography and public space (feria: a poempark, 2008), textual architecture, orality and multilingualism (We, Beasts, upcoming 2012), translation and collaborative performance (Expeditions of a Chimæra, co-written with Erín Moure, 2009). Living in Montreal, she has also translated poetry from the Romanian of Nichita Stănescu (Occupational Sickness, 2006) and from the Quebecois French of Louise Cotnoir (The Islands, 2011). Other recent projects include “The Mapping Issue” (co-edited with Kathleen Brown for Dandelion Magazine) and writing commentaries on Canadian experimental poetry for Jacket2. Some of her collaborative and audio work can be found on the PennSound website.

Oana Avasilichioaei Writer’s Block CJSW Podcast