What Happened Next: a podcast about newish books

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 recen...

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 bestsell...

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...

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...

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 annua...

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 acquirin...

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, J ennie’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 Ste...

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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 sel...

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...

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...

My guest on this episode is Hiromi Goto. Hiromi’s first novel, Chorus of Mushrooms , won the 1995 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book, was the co-winner of the Canada-Japan Book Award. Her second adult novel, The Kappa Child , won the 2001 James Tiptree Jr. Memorial Award. She has published multiple novels for adults and children, as well as a book of poetry, and a collection of short...

My guest on this episode is Dimitri Nasrallah. Dimitri is the author of four novels, which have received nominations for multiple awards and have won the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction and the McAuslan First Book Prize. His most recent book is the novel Hotline , published in 2022 by Véhicule Press, where Dimitri also serves as the fiction editor. Hotline was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller...

My guest on this episode is Harley Rustad. Harley is an award-winning and bestselling author, journalist, and a senior editor at The Walrus magazine. Harley’s first book was Big Lonely Doug: The Story of One of Canada’s Last Great Trees , published by House of Anansi in 2018. His most recent book is Lost in the Valley of Death: A Story of Obsession and Danger in the Himalayas , published in 2022 b...

My guests on this episode are Moe and Laura Berg. Moe Berg is a musician, songwriter, and producer best known as the frontman for the band The Pursuit of Happiness. Moe’s first book, a short story collection called The Green Room , was published by Gutter Press in 2000. Laura Berg is a college professor, professional speaker, trained therapist. She has been named one of the Top 10 Mom Entrepreneur...

My guest on this episode is Gil Adamson. Gil is a Toronto author whose first novel, The Outlander , won the Dashiell Hammett Prize for Literary Excellence in Crime Writing, the Amazon.ca First Novel Award, the ReLit Award, and the Drummer General’s Award. She is also the author of a collection of linked stories, Help Me, Jacques Cousteau , and two poetry collections, Primitive and Ashland . (She i...

My guest on this episode is Evan Munday. Evan is the author and illustrator of the Silver Birch-shortlisted Dead Kid Detective Agency series, the fourth and most recent volume of which, Connect the Scotts , was published by ECW Press in 2018. Munday works as publicity manager for children’s books at Penguin Random House Canada. In its review of Connect the Scotts , the School Library Journal wrote...

My guest on this episode is Joe Ollmann. Joe is an artist and writer from Hamilton, Ontario, and the author of more than a half-dozen acclaimed graphic novels and collections of graphic stories. His book This Will All End in Tears , published by Insomniac Press, won the 2007 Doug Wright Award for best book. Joe’s most recent graphic novel is Fictional Father , published in 2022 by Drawn & Quar...

My guest on this episode is Victoria Hetherington. Victoria is an author and professional ghostwriter whose first book was the novel Mooncalves , published by Now or Never in 2019. Victoria’s most recent books are Into the Mist: Finding CF-JDO , a non-fiction book published by Kestrel Publication, and Autonomy , published by the Rare Machines imprint of Dundurn Press. Both books were published in...

My guest on this episode is Anna Fitzpatrick. Anna has written for The New York Times Magazine, Rookie, Vice, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, The Hairpin, Hazlitt, The Believer, The Village Voice, Refinery29, the National Post, the Globe and Mail and many more. She is the author of the children’s picture book Margot and the Moon Landing , illustrated by Erika Medina, which was published by Annick P...

My guest on this episode is Sheila Murray. Sheila’s short fiction has been published in many literary journals including Descant , The Dalhousie Review , and The New Quarterly . Murray is an advocate for social justice and currently leads a grassroots, volunteer-driven initiative that engages urban residents in adapting to local climate change impacts. Sheila’s first novel, Finding Edward ,  was p...

My guest on this episode is Claire Cameron. Claire is the kind of person who has led canoe trips in Algonquin Park and worked as an instructor for Outward Bound. She has taught mountaineering, climbing, and whitewater rafting in Oregon and beyond. But also the kind of person whose writing has appeared in the New Yorker , the New York Times , the Globe and Mail , the Guardian , Lenny Letter , and S...

My guest on this episode is Emily Austin. Emily is the author of Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead , which was published in 2022 by Simon & Schuster Canada, and has been published in multiple other countries and in many other languages. Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead was long listed for The Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour, shortlisted for the Amazon First Novel A...

My guest on this episode is Stuart Ross. Stuart is a writer, editor, teacher, and self-described "small press guerrilla." Stuart is the author of over twenty books of poetry, fiction, and essays. He is the recipient of the 2019 Harbourfront Festival Prize and the 2010 Relit Prize for Short Fiction. His most recent works are The Book of Grief and Hamburgers , published by ECW Press in Spring 2022,...

My guest on this episode is Jamie Tennant. Jamie’s debut novel  The Captain of Kinnoull Hill  was published by Palimpsest Press in 2016. His second novel, River Diverted , also published by Palimpsest Press, was published in the fall of 2022. Jamie also hosts the weekly books and literature program/podcast  Get Lit on CFMU , where he is also the Program Director. Author Emily Saso said about River...