What Happened Next: a podcast about newish books

My guest on this episode is Tessa McWatt. Tessa is the author of many novels and  books for young people. Her fiction and non-fiction has won the Eccles British Library Award and the Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature for Non-Fiction, and has been nominated for the Governor General's Award, the City of Toronto Book Award, and the Hilary Weston Writer’s Trust Prize. Her most recent book, The...

My guest on this episode is Sarah Leavitt. Sarah is the creator of the graphic memoir Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer's, My Mother, and Me and the historical fiction comic Agnes, Murderess . Her work has won a CBC Bookie award for Best Comic or Graphic Novel, a Vine Award for Canadian Jewish Literature, and an Alberta Book Publishing Award, and has been shortlisted for many, many other awards. An...

My guest on this episode is Shyam Selvadurai. Shyam’s novels include Funny Boy , Cinnamon Gardens , and The Hungry Ghosts , as well as the YA novel Swimming in the Monsoon Sea . His work has won the W. H. Smith/Books in Canada First Novel Award and the Lambda Literary Award, and been shortlisted for the Giller Prize, the Governor General’s Literary Award, and the Trillium Prize. Funny Boy was made...

My guest on this episode is Alex Manley. Alex’s essays, fiction and poetry have appeared in numerous print and online publications, including The Walrus , Hazlitt, Vulture, Maisonneuve , among others. They have been a finalist for a National Magazine Award and a Digital Publishing Award. Their books include the poetry collection We Are All Just Animals & Plants and The New Masculinity: A Roadm...

My guest on this episode is Dennis Bock. Dennis is the author of the short story collection Olympia and the novels The Ash Garden , The Communist’s Daughter , Going Home Again , and The Good German . His work has won the CAA Jubilee Award, the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, the Betty Trask Award, and the Canada-Japan Literary Award, and been shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Aw...

My guest on this episode is Kate Cayley. Kate has published two short story collections and three collections of poetry. She has won the Trillium Book Award, the Mitchell Prize for Poetry, and an O. Henry Prize, and been a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for Fiction, among other awards. She has also served as a playwright in residence with Tarragon Theatre. Her most recent book is the no...

My guest on this episode is Adriana Barton. Adriana is an author and journalist whose writing has appeared in the Globe and Mail, the Boston Globe, Western Living, Vancouver magazine, and elsewhere. Her debut book is Wired for Music: A Search for Health and Joy Through the Science of Sound, published by Greystone Books in 2022. That book was a finalist in the Canadian Book Club Awards and the Scie...

My guest on this episode is Gabrielle Drolet. Gabrielle is a journalist, essayist, and cartoonist whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, the Globe and Mail , New York Times, The Walrus, VICE, Teen Vogue , and more. Her essays on disability have been nominated for a Digital Publishing Award and won gold at the Canadian Online Publishing Awards. Her first book, Look Ma, No Hands: A Chronic...

My guest on this episode is Jacquelyn Zong-Li Ross. Jacquelyn’s fiction, poetry, essays, and art criticism have appeared in BOMB, C Mag, The Ex-Puritan, Fence, Mousse, and elsewhere. In addition, She is an editor at The Capilano Review. Her debut book, The Longest Way to Eat a Melon , was published by Sarabande Books in 2025. The New York Times called it "a collection of short stories each mo...

My guest on this episode is Miriam Toews. Miriam is the author of the internationally acclaimed and bestselling novels Fight Night, Women Talking, All My Puny Sorrows , Irma Voth , The Flying Troutmans , A Complicated Kindness , A Boy of Good Breeding , and Summer of My Amazing Luck , and the memoir, Swing Low: A Life . She is the winner of numerous awards, including the Governor General’s Literar...

My guest on this episode is Ira Wells. Ira’s work has appeared in The Guardian , The New Republic , The Walrus , The Globe and Mail , Literary Review of Canada , Los Angeles Review of Books , and many other publications. His books include Fighting Words: Polemics and Social Change in Literary Naturalism and Norman Jewison: A Director’s Life . His most recent book is On Book Banning: Or, How the Ne...

My guest on this episode is Meredith Hambrock. Meredith’s debut book was the novel Other People’s Secrets . She has been a finalist for the CBC Short Story Prize and worked extensively in television, most recently in the writers’ room for the Canadian Screen Award–winning sitcom Corner Gas Animated . Her most recent book is She’s a Lamb! , published by ECW Press in 2025. Booklist called the novel...

My guest on this episode is Ethan Lou. Ethan is a journalist whose work has appeared in the Toronto Star, Toronto Life , The Guardian , the Washington Post , and elsewhere. He is the opinion editor for the Globe and Mail ’s business section. His first book, Field Notes from a Pandemic , was a finalist for the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize. His most recent book is Once a Bitcoin Miner: Scandal...

  My guest on this episode is Zalika Reid-Benta. Zalika’s debut book was the story collection Frying Plantain,  which won the 2020 Danuta Gleed Literary Award and the 2020 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for Literary Fiction. It   was also shortlisted for the Toronto Book Award, the Trillium Book Award, the White Pine Award, and the Evergreen Award, and was longlisted for the 202...

My guest on this episode is Giles Blunt. Giles is the author of a dozen books, including the six novels in the Cardinal series, which were made into a long-running TV series. He has won the British Crime Writers Silver Dagger award, the Crime Writers of Canada Arthur Ellis award for best novel, and has been twice longlisted for the Dublin IMPAC award. His most recent book is the novel Bad Juilet ,...

My guest on this episode is Donna Jones Alward. Donna wrote and published dozens of romance novels before shifting to historical fiction in 2024 with the bestselling novel When the World Fell Silent . Her most recent book is the novel Ship of Dreams , which was published in 2025 by HarperCollins Canada, and was also a national bestseller. Author Jennifer Robson called it “a thoughtful and immersiv...

My guest on this episode is Eddy Boudel Tan. Eddy has been a finalist for the Edmund White Award, the ReLit Best Novel Award, and the Ferro-Grumley Award for his novels After Elias and The Rebellious Tide . He was named a Rising Star by Writers’ Trust of Canada in 2021. His most recent book is the novel The Tiger and the Cosmonaut , which was published by Viking Canada in 2025 and was shortlisted...

My guest on this episode is Merilyn Simonds. Merilyn is the author of more than 20 books, most recently Woman, Watching: Louise de Kiriline Lawrence and the Songbirds of Pimisi Bay and the novel Refuge . Her most recent book is Walking with Beth: Conversations with My Hundred-Year-Old Friend , which was published by Random House Canada in 2025, and was a national bestseller. Author Suzette Mayr sa...

My guest on this episode is Liann Zhang. Liann is a former social media content creator whose debut novel, Julie Chan Is Dead , was published by Simon & Schuster Canada in 2025, and was an instant bestseller. It has been translated into multiple languages, and was longlisted for Canada Reads 2026. Chatelaine called the book “a delicious and outrageous exploration of influencer culture [that] h...

My guest on this episode is Karen Solie. Karen is the author of the poetry collections Short Haul Engine , Modern and Normal , Pigeon , The Road In Is Not the Same Road Out , and The Caiplie Caves –which have won her the Dorothy Livesay Award, the Pat Lowther Award, the Trillium Poetry Prize, and the Griffin Prize. Her most recent collection, Wellwater , was published by House of Anansi in 2025. I...

My guest on this episode is Haley Mlotek. Haley is an author, editor, and journalist whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Nation, Bookforum, The Paris Review, The Columbia Journalism Review, Vogue, ELLE, Harper’s Bazaar, and n+1, among others. She is a founding member of the Freelance Solidarity Project in the National Writers Union, and is currently the director of content at Feeld. Her...

My guest on this episode is Michelle Shephard. Michelle is an award-winning author, journalist, filmmaker, and podcast host and producer. She is the author of Guantanamo’s Child: The Untold Story of Omar Khadr and Decade of Fear: Reporting from Terrorism’s Grey Zone . Her films include the Emmy-nominated documentary  Guantanamo’s Child , The Perfect Story, The Man Who Stole Einstein's Brain ,...

My guest on this episode is Antonio Michael Downing. Antonio is the author of the memoir Saga Boy and the children’s book Stars in My Crown , and is the current host of CBC Radio’s book program The Next Chapter . He also writes and performs music as John Orpheus. His most recent book is the novel Black Cherokee , published in 2025 by Simon & Schuster Canada. Author Zalika Reid-Benta said that...

My guest on this episode is Timothy Taylor. Timothy is a novelist, journalist, and educator whose books include the novels Stanley Park , Story House , The Blue Light , and The Rule of Stephens , the story collection Silent Cruise , and the non-fiction work Foodville. His work has nominated for multiple awards, including the Giller Prize, and has been chosen as the ‘One Book One City’ selection fo...

My guest on this episode is Tolu Oloruntoba. Tolu is the author of the poetry collections Manubrium , The Junta of Happenstance , which won the Griffin Poetry Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry,   and Each One a Furnace , a finalist for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. His most recent collection is Unravel , published by McClelland & Stewart in 2025. That boo...