Randy Boyagoda

My guest on this episode is Randy Boyagoda. Randy is the author of six books, including the novels Governor of the Northern Province, Beggar’s Feast, and Original Prin, and a scholarly biography of Richard John Neuhaus. His work has been nominated for the Giller Prize and for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize. He frequently writes for the New York Times, the Atlantic, the Walrus, Financial Times and Guardian, as well as many other places. He is former President of PEN Canada and is currently a member of The Walrus Educational Review Committee and a professor at the University of Toronto, where he is also a Vice-Dean in the Faculty of Arts and Science

Randy’s most recent novel, Dante’s Indiana, was published by Biblioasis in 2021. The Wall Street Journal said that the novel “juxtaposes the ridiculous and the sublime—fitting as both an homage to Dante and a portrayal of America.”

Randy and I talk about why he consciously shifted his fiction away from sprawling, multi-generational novels of immigration toward more pointed social satire, why he had to take time off from his day job, during a critical time at work, in order to complete the edits on Dante’s Indiana, even though he knew that meant it would be published in the middle of a pandemic, and why he has no real plans – yet - to complete the trilogy that began with Original Prin and Dante’s Indiana. We also talk about the cultural and social significance of... pickleball.

 

Dante's Indiana at Biblioasis.com

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact