What Happened Next: a podcast about newish books

Shashi Bhat

My guest on this episode is Shashi Bhat. Shashi the author of the novels The Most Precious Substance on Earth, a finalist for the Governor General's Award, and The Family Took Shape, a finalist for the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award. Her fiction has won the Writers’ Trust/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize and been shortlisted for a National Magazine Award and the RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers. She is the editor-in-chief of EVENT magazine and teaches creative writing at Douglas College. Shashi’s most recent book is the story collection Death by a Thousand Cuts, published by McClelland & Stewart in 2024. That book was longlisted for the  Giller Prize and was named a book of the year by the Globe and Mail, Apple Canada, and the CBC. Author Liz Harmer said about the book that “Shashi Bhat writes scenes of contemporary life with such wit and aplomb you almost don’t realize they’ve also broken your heart.”
Shashi and I talk about how her writing style has grown both darker and more overtly humorous, the pressures she has felt about the kinds of stories that she, as a woman from a South Asian family, was supposed to write, and about her enduring love for short fiction.
This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.
Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Derek McCormack

My guest on this episode is Derek McCormack. Derek is the author of more than a dozen books, including Dark Rides, The Haunted Hillbilly, and The Well-Dressed Wound. He has written frequently about fashion and art for places like Artforum and The Believer, and was a regular fashion writer for the National Post. His most recent book is Judy Blame’s Obituary: Writings on Fashion and Death, a collection of his fashion writing published in 2022 by Pilot Press. The Heavy Feather Review called Judy Blame’s Obituary “a furious haberdashery of [McCormack’s] own shining and ghostly obsessions. When writing about fashion, McCormack is writing about his life.”
Derek and I talk about his complicated literary reputation, about writers needing to fight against their natural desire for attention and acceptance, and, not uncoincidentally, about publishing a novel with a title I am too boring and polite to say out loud on a podcast.
This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.
Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

francesca ekwuyasi

My guest on this episode is francesca ekwuyasi. francesca is a writer, artist, and filmmaker whose first book, the novel Butter Honey Pig Bread, was published in 2020 by Arsenal Pulp. That book won the Writers' Trust of Canada Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging Writers; was shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award, the Amazon Canada First Novel Award, and a Lambda Literary Award, and was longlisted for the Giller Prize. In 2021, it was a runner-up on the CBC's Canada Reads competition. Her most recent book is Curious Sounds: A Dialogue in Three Movements, a collaboration with celebrity chef, restaurateur, cookbook author, and visual and recording artist Roger Mooking. That book was published in 2023, also by Arsenal Pulp. Publishers Weekly said about Curious Sounds that “there's a sense of a mind spilled onto the page, with sharp insights scattered throughout. The results are both odd and enchanting.”
francesca and I talk about how having her first book on Canada Reads was directly responsible for her second, about how writers should let themselves explore whatever theme or territory has them in its grip, and about how, having written her first novel all over the place and on whatever materials were handy, she has finally discovered the joy of writing at an actual desk.
This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.
Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Leigh Nash

My guest on this episode is Leigh Nash. Leigh has worked as the publisher at House of Anansi Press and Invisible Publishing, and is now the co-publisher at Assembly Press, a brand-new independent literary press. She also helps run the PEP Rally Reading Series out of Books & Company in Picton and co-founded The Emergency Response Unit, a chapbook press. Her most recent book was also her debut: the collection Goodbye, Ukulele, published by Mansfield Press in 2010. The scholarly journal Canadian Literature said Leigh “has an eye for unsettling images” and praised Goodbye, Ukulele as “a compelling read.”
Leigh and I talk about the founding of Assembly Press, about her ongoing love for her debut collection, and about how the world of books has changed in the quarter-century since its publication.
This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.
Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Andrew Pyper (re-upload)

This episode was originally uploaded in June 2023. It is a conversation with Andrew Pyper, who died just a few days ago at the age of 56. Andrew was the author of more than a dozen books, including The Homecoming, The Residence, and many others. In our conversation, Andrew talks about the odd career he has created for himself as a writer with one foot in the literary world and one in the worlds of horror and suspense and thrillers. We also talk about Andrew’s connection to the late Steve Heighton. I have not re-edited the conversation itself, except to lop off the original intro and outro.
 
Andrew’s family has posted a link where people can donate to Trees Canada in his name: https://justgiving.com/campaign/andrewpyper
This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.
Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.
 
 

Martha Baillie

My guest on this episode is Martha Baillie. Martha is the author of multiple works of fiction, including the novel The Incident Report, published by Coach House Books in 2009 and longlisted for the Giller Prize. Darkest Miriam, a feature film based on that novel, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival this year and had its Canadian premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival, where it won the DGC Best Director prize. Her most recent book is the memoir There Is No Blue, which was published in 2023, yet again by Coach House, and recently won the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize For Nonfiction. The Guardian called the book “tough, tender, and compelling."
Martha and I talk about her continuing post-award high, about strangers sharing with her their stories of mental health struggles, and about the oddity—but also delight!—of relatively late-career success.
This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.
Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Stephen Maher

My guest on this episode is Stephen Maher. Stephen has been writing about Canadian politics for decades as a columnist and investigative reporter at Postmedia News, iPolitics, and Maclean’s. His work has won numerous awards, including the Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University, the Michener Award for meritorious public service journalism, a National Newspaper Award, two Canadian Association of Journalism Awards, and a Canadian Hillman Prize, and has been nominated for several National Magazine Awards. He is also the author of a handful of thriller novels, which we talk about briefly in this episode. Stephen’s most recent book is The Prince: The Turbulent Reign of Justin Trudeau, was published in May 2024 by Simon & Schuster Canada. The Globe & Mail called the book “a thoroughly researched and fair-minded accounting of Justin Trudeau’s accomplishments and failings.”
Stephen and I talk about the very recent and ongoing chaos surrounding Trudeau and his government, the particular stresses of researching and writing a biography of an acting political figure whose fortunes could change at any moment, and the book he is currently working on, about another Canadian icon with a very tarnished brand: the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.
Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Charlene Carr

My guest on this episode is Charlene Carr. Charlene is the author of 10 self-published works of fiction, as well as the novel Hold My Girl, which was published by HarperCollins Canada in 2023 and was shortlisted for the Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction and the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award. Her most recent book, the novel We Rip the World Apart, was published at the start of this year by HarperCollins Canada, and will be published in the US in January. Author Marisa Stapley called We Rip the World Apart “both a charged emotional epic and a gentle exploration of the nuances of love.”
 Charlene and I talk about manifesting her first traditionally published novel into being, working on marketing plans while in a maternity ward, and deciding to put some temporary limits on the amount of time and mental space she can give her career.
This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.
Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Josh O'Kane

My guest on this episode is Josh O’Kane. Josh is a reporter at the Globe and Mail whose first book, Nowhere With You: The East Coast Anthems of Joel Plaskett, The Emergency and Thrush Hermit was published by ECW Press and was a Canadian bestseller. Josh’s most recent book, Sideways: The City Google Couldn’t Buy, was published by Random House Canada in 2022. It was a national bestseller and a finalist for numerous Canadian and international literary awards, including the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing, the National Business Book Award, the Ontario Speaker’s Book Award, the Heritage Toronto Book Award, and the Best in Business Book Award from the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. It was named one of the best books of 2022 by The Globe and Mail, CBC, The Hill Times and more. The book was also adapted for the stage by Toronto’s Crow’s Theatre and Michael Healey as The Master Plan. Margaret O’Mara, author of The Code, called Sideways “a thrill ride of a book, revealing what really happened when Google tried to build a city and Silicon Valley’s magical thinking fell to earth.”
Josh and I talk about the extremely unequal distribution of wealth in arts and culture (one his main beats as a reporter), the strangeness of seeing your deeply reported journalistic work become a hit play that features a talking tree, and the wait for the next big book-worthy idea.
 
This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.
Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Casey Plett

My guest on this episode is Casey Plett. Casey is the author of A Dream of a Woman, Little Fish, and A Safe Girl to Love, and the co-editor of Meanwhile, Elsewhere: Science Fiction and Fantasy From Transgender Writers. She is also the publisher at LittlePuss Press. Casey’s most recent book is On Community, published in 2023 by Biblioasis. That book was a Finalist for the Firecracker Award in Creative Nonfiction, the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Nonfiction, and  the Leslie Feinberg Award for Trans and Gender-Variant Literature. Geist magazine called On Community  “a heartfelt, funny, wistful read—just conceptually rigorous enough to provoke thought, but without difficult theory or jargon.”
Casey and I talk about her terrible author signature, surviving the first days of the new Trump regime, and the shift in approach she is taking with her novel-in-progress.
This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.
Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.