What Happened Next: a podcast about newish books

Amy Jones

My guest on this episode is Amy Jones. Amy is the author of What Boys Like, a collection of stories published in 2009 by Biblioasis, and the novels We're All in This Together and Every Little Piece of Me, published in 2016 and 2019, respectively, by McClelland & Stewart. A film version of We’re All In this Together, directed by and starring Kate Boland, was released in 2021. Amy’s most recent book, Pebble and Dove, was published by McClelland and Stewart in 2023. The Toronto Star called Pebble and Dove “a rollicking read” and said that “as we bid goodbye to Jones’ vividly imagined creatures, their weirdly endearing humanity lingers in our minds long after the final page.”
Amy and I talk about how her parallel life as a dancer connects with her writing, about the writing career she thought she was going to have after the success of her first novel, and about the fake reality show that keeps making cameos in her novels and that she might one day write a whole book about.
 
Amy Jones: amyjonesauthor.com
Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.
Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

Natalie MacLean

My guest on this episode is Natalie MacLean. Natalie is a journalist and wine writer whose first book, Red, White and Drunk All Over, was published in 2006. Her second, Unquenchable, was published by in 2011. Her most recent book, the memoir Wine Witch on Fire: Rising from the Ashes of Divorce, Defamation, and Drinking Too Much, was published in 2023 by Dundurn Press and was a national bestseller. Natalie is the wine expert on CTV's The Social, has been named the World's Best Drinks Writer at the World Food Media Awards, and won four James Beard Foundation Journalism Awards. She is also the host of the Unreserved Wine Talk Podcast.
Natalie and I talk about her knack for self-promotion and the team that helps keep her many, many projects going, about her fundamental shyness, and how that contrasts with the fact that she is hardly ever not speaking publicly about wine in one format or another, and about how, despite being very proud of Wine Witch on Fire and all its success, she has no interest in writing something so raw and personal again.
 
Natalie MacLean: nataliemaclean.com
Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.
Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

Meg Remy

My guest on this episode us Meg Remy. Meg is a multi-disciplinary artist and performer, primarily known as the creative force behind U.S. Girls. Her most recent album as U.S. Girls was Lives, a live record released in November 2023. Her first book, Begin By Telling, a kind of fragmentary and poetic memoir about abuse and trauma and sexual politics, was published by Book*Hug Press in 2021. In its review of Begin By Telling, Quill & Quire said the book “reminds us that the very act of telling one’s story can change one’s life.”
Meg and I talk about her love of collaboration, even in writing, about how, unlike with her albums as U.S. Girls, she wanted her book to go into the world on its own, and how the best reader response she got to the book was, by far, from her own mother.
 
Begin by Telling by Meg Remy (Book*Hug Press)
Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.
Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

Kamal Al-Solaylee

My guest on this episode Kamal Al-Solaylee. Kamal is the author of the bestselling memoir Intolerable: A Memoir of Extremes, published in 2012 by HarperCollins Canada, which has published all of his books to date. His second book, Brown: What Being Brown in the World Today Means (to Everyone) was published in 2016. His most recent book, Return: Why We Go Back to Where We Come From, was published in 2021, and was a Book of the year for the Globe and Mail, the Hill Times and the CBC.  Author Esi Edugyan called Return “an urgent, thought-provoking read with much to say about our future." Kamal is currently the Director of the School of Journalism, Writing, and Media at the University of British Columbia.
 
Kamal and I talk about how his career as a journalist and theatre critic informs his books, how he feels both privileged and compelled to write books that address difficult and serious topics, and how he owes much of his career success to a chance encounter with me about a decade and a half ago. (That’s a joke.)
 
Kamal Al-Solaylee's Return: Why We Go Back to Where We Come From (HarperCollins Canada).
Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.
Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact
 

Anita Lahey

My guest on this episode is Anita Lahey. Anita is the author of six books, including The Mystery Shopping Cart: Essays on Poetry and Culture and two poetry collections: Spinning Side Kick and Out to Dry in Cape Breton and a the memoir The Last Goldfish, which was a finalist for the Ottawa Book Award. She is also an award-winning magazine journalist, and she serves as the series editor of the annual Best Canadian Poetry anthology. Anita’s most recent two books were both published in 2023: Fire Monster, a poetic graphic novel collaboration with artist Pauline Conley, was published by Palimpsest Press. And While Supplies Last, a poetry collection published by the Signal Editions imprint of Véhicule Press. Author Luke Hathaway called Fire Monster “a gift of storytelling” and a “work of grace,” while poet Molly Peacock called While Supplies Last "capacious, generous, and gently funny.”
Anita and I talk about why she maintains a very limited online presence these days, how her journalistic instincts intersect with her poetic impulses, and, on that topic, how she turned a series of COVID-era radio traffic reports into verse.
 
Anita Lahey: anitalahey.com
Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.
Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

Jen Sookfong Lee

My guest on this episode is Jen Sookfong Lee. Jen is the author of three acclaimed novels, four works for children, a collection of poetry, and two works of non-fiction, including Gentlemen Of The Shade, about the movie My Own Private Idaho, and her most recent book, Superfan: How Pop Culture Broke my Heart, which was published by McClelland and Stewart in 2023. Jen is also works as an acquiring editor for ECW Press, and is the co-editor, with Stacey May Fowles, of two essay anthologies, Whatever Gets You Through and Good Mom on Paper.
Superfan is finalist for the 2024 Forest of Reading Evergreen Book Award, was named a Best Book of 2023 by the Globe and Mail and Apple Books Canada, and was a TODAY Show Recommended Read. The Toronto Star called Superfan “heady, thought-provoking, and emotionally fraught stuff, and a singular reading experience.”
Jen and I talk about how she had never intended Superfan to be a personal memoir, how the relative failure of her second novel almost made her stop writing altogether, why you should never wear faux leather pants while appearing on TV, and why she is still just a little bit disappointed to have never been crowned Miss Chinese Vancouver.
 
Jen Sookfong Lee: sookfong.com
Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.
Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact
 

Wayne Johnston

My guest on this episode is Wayne Johnston. Wayne is the author of nearly a dozen celebrated novels, including The Colony of Unrequited Dreams and The Mystery of Right and Wrong. He has also published a pair of memoirs, including his most recent book, Jennie’s Boy: A Newfoundland Childhood, about his own childhood in the 1960s. It was published in 2022 in Canada by Knopf Canada, and won the Stephen Leacock memorial award for humour. The Toronto Star,  in its review of the book, said: “Never overblown or sentimental, Jennie’s Boy is as vivid as one’s own memories, a glimpse into a past of pain and wonder, of loss and joy.”
 
Wayne and I talk about his nocturnal writing and living habits, and how he is slowly shifting his schedule to become more of a day person, why he has never suffered from writer’s block, and how, as someone who has been nominated for many many writing prizes, as well as winning a few, he deals with the happiness and agony of waiting to hear them call the name of the winner.
 
Wayne Johnston: waynejohnston.ca
Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.
Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact
 

Welcome to 2024

No new episode this week - regular Monday episodes begin again on January 8. In the meantime, here's a very short preview of that episode.
 
Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.
Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

Louis Strimas

My guest on this special holiday episode is Louis Strimas. Louis is currently in Grade 4. He loves reading, making crafts, eating Cheerios, and playing video games, even though he only really gets to do that when he’s at a friend’s house, because his parents are mean.  Louis’s most recent two books are The Demon: A Horrer Story and its sequel, The Demon 2: Kingshard: A Horrer. Both books were self-published in the fall of 2023.
Lou and I talk about the books that have inspired him and why he enjoys reading so much. He also offers some advice for other people who might want to write their own books.
Happy holidays.
 
Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.
Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

Ron Sexsmith

My guest on this episode is Ron Sexsmith. Ron is an award-winning singer songwriter who has earned praised from people like Elvis Costello, Elton John, Ray Davies of the Kinks, John Prine, Gordon Lightfoot, Leonard Cohen, and Paul McCartney. His songs have been covered by Rod Stewart, Nick Lowe, Emmy Lou Harris, Feist, and Michael Bublé, among many others. His most recent album is The Vivian Line.
Ron’s first book, Deer Life: A Fairy Tale, was published in 2017 by Dundurn Press. In its review of the book, Publishers Weekly said that “Sexsmith’s novel has much the same effect as his music, conveying uncertainty with fearlessness and heart.”
Ron and I talk about the odd start of his artistic career, about the intense feeling of imposter syndrome he had when Deer Life first came out, his aborted attempt to write a prequel to the book, and about his plans to write and record songs to accompany the book, which he hopes will one day form the basis of a musical or even a film.
 
Ron Sexsmith: ronsexsmith.com
Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.
Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact