Getting Lit with Linda - The Canadian Literature Podcast

As a fellow endo-patient, Linda makes herself vulnerable in this episode, talking frankly with the author, Tracey Lindeman, by whom she was so inspired. Lindeman, who authored Bleed: Destroying Myths and Misogyny in Endometriosis Care (published by ECW Pres s in 2023), uses personal experience, interviews, and research to take a deep dive into the healthcare system and the medical treatment (or la...

In this episode, in honour of Mother’s Day, Linda considers four different books that feature discussions about mothers, in whatever form they assume. She tackles four different genres -- non-fiction, the short story, poetry, and a novel/thriller -- to consider how loving and caring actions are given and received - or withheld. The four works include: Hannah McGregor, A Sentimental Educatio n (Wil...

Her guest, Bil Antoniou - Toronto theatre actor and podcast host of Bad Gay Movies and My Criterions - discusses with Linda a series of Canadian and Indigenous novels that have been adapted to the screen, including the most recent Oscar award-winning movie, Women Talking , directed by Sarah Polley (original novel by Miriam Toews). They also discuss the following: Yann Martel's Life of Pi ( Knopf)...

Linda begins by taking up The Hockey Jersey (1.48; 3.15; 3.22) by Jael Richardson (1.58; 4.45; 26.17; 28.38), whom she interviews in this episode. The Hockey Jersey is a kind of response to The Hockey Sweater by Quebecois writer, Roch Carrier (4.18; 10.15; 14.55). Written in collaboration with the Toronto-based hockey player, Eva Perron (31.37), and with illustrations by Chelsea Charles (6.18), th...

In this episode, Linda interviews Jason Camlot about his new collection of poetry, Vlarf - and it includes references to all manner of Victorian writing/writers, such as the following: Oscar Wilde Samuel Taylor Coleridge John Ruskin While there is much play and whimsy in this episode, it takes a deep dive into what went into making this collection of Victorianist flarf (and what "flarf" actually i...

Linda doesn't care if she has to take less sunscreen when she goes on vacation - if it means she gets to pack an extra couple of books. What five books would she recommend?: Timothy Taylor's Stanley Park (Vintage/Random House , 2.00) Rawi Hage's Stray Dogs (Knopf, 4.11) Neil Smith's Bang Crunch (Vintage , 7.54) Marilyn Dumont's A Really Good Brown Girl (Metis; Brick Books, 10.18) A nn-Marie MacDon...

Season 4 opens with Linda's announcement of the podcast's new website and then shifts to a discussion about her literary journey - how she came to focus first on Canadian literature and then Indigenous literatures, which all started with a vital conversation. Her first book in the latter field was Eden Robinson's Monkey Beach - and it was a game-changer, sending her off to read and understand a fi...

Linda informs listeners of a slight change in this year's scheduling of podcast episodes - but otherwise, welcome listeners to Season 4 of Getting Lit With Linda! Written by Linda Morra Co-produced by Linda Morra & Marco Timpano Music by Raphael Krux. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this last episode of the season, Linda considers how empathy is often considered a function of literature and may be ideally represented -- as it is in Catherine Hernandez's Scarborough published by Arsenal Pulp Press. In order to explore how this should work, she considers the Classical orator, Cicero (and Aristotle's Poetics and Horace's Ars Poetica ) to show how there is a long tradition of...

In this episode of Getting Lit With Linda , the guests over the course of the 2022 year offer their reading recommendations and their wishes to you for the holidays--including Stephen Collis, Ali Hassan, Terri Favro, Gillian Sze, Marco Timpano, Amanda Barker, Isabella Wang, Amy Spurway, Chantel Lavoie, and Kate Ready. This is our second-last episode of the season (one more before December 31) befo...

In this episode, Linda considers the moment she came across the handwritten memoir of Jane Rule at the University of British Columbia Archives and Rare books. She considers the idea of "discovering" or "divining" in the archive and how that relates to meeting poet and instructor, Sheryda Warrener , who invited her to look at the work of her students during one of Linda's visits to the archive. Two...

** Explicit language in this episode Linda opens this episode on a celebratory note – the fact that Getting Lit with Linda won in the category of Outstanding Education Series in the Canadian Podcast Awards . We are grateful to our listeners, voters, and guests on the show! (And Linda recommends reaching out to her producer, Marco Timpano, if you want more information about podcasting in general!)...

What does it really mean to be haunted? Is being haunted always a sinister experience? For this Hallowe'en episode, Linda considers memory and loss trauma and the nature of haunting and feeling haunted She considers, for example, Emily Bronte's nineteenth-century British novel Wuthering Heights (and Kate Bush's song, "Wuthering Heights" based on the novel) or Mary Shelley's Frankenstein as example...

In this episode, Linda reflects on a strike in which she was a participant and the real complexities of its participants and affiliated institutions as a way into Kevin Lambert' s marvellous new book, Querelle of Roberval ( Biblioasis). Invoking the proportions and form of Greek tragedy, Lambert locates the conflict of this book in a small town in Quebec and shows how its participants all have com...

Is there Bacon in Heaven? Maybe – but there’s certainly bacon on earth, Ali Hassan reminds us, and he enjoys it—and he doesn’t mean it simply literally either. In his new book--a memoir titled Is There Bacon in Heaven? (Simon & Schuster) -- he looks at what is good here on earth and how to locate those moments of goodness—in addition to those of humour and comedy and joy. In this interview, Li...

Ever wonder what was the "first" book of Canadian literature? How do we even know how to define what that would be? In this episode, Linda chats with eighteenth-century British literature scholar, Dr. Kathryn Ready, about what is sometimes claimed as the first book of Canadian literature-- Frances Brooke's The History of Emily Montague . Linda and Dr. Ready may -- or may not -- have tussled over w...

In this episode, Linda reflects on why we say boundaries are "bad" and how "good relationships" stand in contrast. Using Thomas King (author of The Inconvenient Indian , Medicine River, Green Grass, Running Water ) and Natasha Donovan's graphic novel , Borders (published by Little Brown, 6.55), Linda explores "bad boundaries" -- and bad borders -- in relation to the Blackfoot nation. She also refe...

Linda opens on a celebratory note: Getting Lit With Linda has received two separate nominations for the Canadian Podcasting Awards, one in the category of Outstanding Educational Series and another in the category of Outstanding Arts Podcast . She also includes a tribute to the late Steven Heighton (2.39), whom she remembers fondly. Linda and Gillian Sze -- the guest for this episode -- chat about...

In this loving and lovely interview that took place in Montreal during the lunar eclipse of May 15-16, 2022, Linda interviews Shannon Webb-Campbell (a member of the Qalipu Mi’kmaq First Nation) about her new book of poetry, Lunar Tides ( Book*hug ). The conversation ranges from Montreal as a city for "Leos & lovers" (3.30), to themes of maternal loss and longing (4.45 and 6.15), to the followi...

In this episode, while I am away in Germany, I reflect upon the upcoming Indigenous Voices Awards , which is set to take place on June 21st (and this occasions an early release of the episode!). After a quick opening teaser with the most extraordinary Dene storyteller and writer -- and the MC of this year's IVAs -- Richard van Camp , I then hold a brief interview with Cree-Metis scholar/professor...

This is the second part of Linda's interview with Terri Favro, who opens this part with her thoughts about gender and the genre of science fiction, making reference to Ursula LeGuin (1.05) Doris Lessing (2.45) Margaret Atwood (2.45) Linda and she then turn their attention to the challenges of writing a trilogy (3.45) and the effects of the pandemic on writing her last instalment, The Sisters Sputn...

In this second part of this episode, Linda chats with Marissa Stapley, whose book Lucky (published by Simon & Schuster and available on Audible ) was just picked up as the first Canadian book on Reese's Book Club picks . Linda has a personal response to this book, which she references as she speaks about Stapley's interview with Shelagh Rogers on The Next Chapter . She also asks Stapley about...

If you love crime and mystery writing, you will love MOTIVE - the Crime & Mystery Festival slated to take place between June 3 and June 5, 2022 at the Harborfront Centre in Toronto. The line-up of authors either speaking or giving workshops is nothing short of impressive: it features writers from Canada, of the ilk of Thomas King (who will be interviewed by CBC's Shelagh Rogers) , but also int...

Linda chats with Terri Favro, an Toronto-based, Italian-Canadian author who is poised to release her next novel, The Sisters Sputnik , a sequel to her acclaimed speculative fiction novel, Sputnik's Children . They have a leisurely conversation -- in this, the first part of their two-part interview -- discussing all manner of subjects, from the importance of storytelling to the appropriate terminol...

What do you want to know for? This is the question Linda considers as she writes her biography about Jane Rule - one that Nobel-Prize winning writer, Alice Munro, has considered many times as she weaves autobiography and fiction in her work, specifically in the book under discussion in this episode, The View from Castlerock . Linda discuses: Questions of biography (2.32, 19.00) Jane Rule (3.00) Al...