Getting Lit with Linda - The Canadian Literature Podcast

The Miracles of Change & Second Chances: Madeleine Thien's "Alchemy"

Why should we pay attention to scars or scar tissue? After the original injury heals and its pain recedes, should we ignore what’s left behind? In this episode, Linda mulls over these questions while considering Madeleine Thien's "Alchemy," from her collection, Simple Recipes. Don't know Thien's work? Check out her award-winning novel, Do Not Say We Have Nothing (which Linda discussed in Season 1, Episode 3) and her most recent novel, The Book of Records. She also offers her best wishes for the new year, in this, the last episode of Season 6 (2025).Writer/host/producer: Linda Morra; Associate Producer: Maia Harris; Music: Raphael Krux (The Madness of Linda). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A Story of Unfitting: Susan Swan's Memoir, Big Girls Don't Cry

Our warmest wishes for the season – and a reminder that this is the last interview for the podcast (there may be one smaller episode at the year’s end, but not an interview), before we open up voting for this year’s GLWL awards: the author featured in your favourite episode will receive a cash prize and medal to honour their involvement.In this episode, Linda reflects on how boxes are at times about imposed limitations. "Don’t box me in," you might argue – or let’s try to think outside the box (because we can’t stand the way things have been otherwise going. It’s time for a change). And it is this -- thinking and living outside the lines (and boxes) -- that Susan Swan’s wonderful new memoir, Big Girls Don’t Cry: A Memoir About Taking Up Space (HarperCollijns), compels us to do, to locate our sense of dignity and agency, to find our sense of self-worth. Swan is the author of several novels including The Biggest Modern Woman in the World (1983), The Last of The Golden Girls (1989), What Casanova Told Me (2004), and The Wives of Bath (1993), which was made into the film Lost and Delirious (3:45). In this episode, we discuss how taking up space can be positive for women (and men too!), a means to shift beyond the conventions that have hemmed her (and us) and to find our way out of the boxes that have contained us.Other points of discussion:the genre of the memoirMargaret Atwood and official autobiographySoren Kierkegaard Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ring-Side Seats in a High-Stakes Environment: Brian Stewart’s On the Ground

On a lovely fall afternoon in October, Linda drove up to possibly one of the most charming spots in Quebec, just off-island of Montreal —Hudson, on the unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka. Hudson has much to commend to it, but, in this instance, it was StoryFest, the annual literary program hosted through the Greenwood Centre that invites writers to come and speak to audiences there and that extends back to 2002 (yes, it’s been evolving over twenty years).Linda drove up to Hudson to interview the journalist, Brian Stewart, about his memoir, On the Ground: My Life as a Foreign Correspondent -- a perfect book for this year's theme, Getting Lit Goes Global. Stewart was, for decades, one of Canada’s most prominent television journalists, acclaimed for his foreign coverage for both CBC’s The National and The Journal. Born in Montreal (welcome back, Brian!), and originally a newspaper reporter, he went on to become foreign correspondent for CBC in London and for NBC in Frankfurt. He worked in 10 war zones, hosted the CBC foreign affairs show Worldview, and interviewed many of the historic figures of his time. In this interview and in his book, Stewart speaks of the urgency of having journalists on the ground to bear witness to what is happening across the globe and of having journalists as moral witnesses, reminding audiences of the costs globally of famine and war and environmental disaster, of the need for greater political accountability.With thanks to StoryFest organizers, Julie Gedeon and Sandy Racicot, to Larry Cool for recording sound, and to Jason C. for sound production. Linda Morra, Producer/Host; Maia Harris, Associate Producer; and Raphael Krux, Music.Just a reminder that voting opens soon for this year’s GLWL prize for best episode or author. Please do vote and honour your favourite writer represented in an episode of season 6, in 2025. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Taking Out the Imperial Trash - Jovanni Sy's A Taste of Empire

Linda AND students of Bishop's University interview the award-winning Montreal-based playwright, Jovanni Sy, in this episode of Getting Lit With Linda. Linda considers how one of his plays in particular, A Taste of Empire (Talonbooks), obliges us confront the abuses of a system of globalization, wherein the processes involved in maximizing profit are brought to the fore. Even as the sous-chef, also named Jovanni Sy, tries to glamorize the industry of haute cuisine, we as spectators and readers must grapple with an imperialist system that undergirds it, that funnels wealth and resources from all corners of the earth to a centralized core. Linda also announces a new award, the 2025 Getting Lit With Linda prize, being launched on December 15 of this year. We are inviting our listeners to choose either their favourite writer featured in an episodes of 2025 (Season 6) or their favourite episode in which a writer in the 2025 season was featured. The writer who wins the most votes will be given the GLWL prize of the year, with a small monetary award attached. Details about this award can be found on website, gettinglitwithlinda.com. So please DO take a moment to vote for your favourite author or episode featured this year! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Other Problem that Has No Name - The Passenger Seat by Vijay Khurana

Perhaps strangely, Linda applies Betty Friedan’s 1963 feminist critique of patriarchal society The Feminine Mystique, and specifically the text “The Problem That Has No Name,” to The Passenger Seat by Vijay Khurana. An Australian/British author, Khurana wrote this very fine debut novel about the real-life events of two young men from Port Alberni, Northern BC and about their toxic masculinity. This novel thus addresses another problem not yet properly identified, except perhaps in more general ways: disaffected or disconnected young men in Western society, who are situated in that space between adolescence and adulthood, and who are making key decisions about who they will become as they mature.Linda calls upon Sarah Dowling’s very fine study, Here is a Figure: Grounding Literary Form to examine how that problem has been represented in literature in terms of upright (radicalized white male) figures and prone or supine figures (victims, casualties, gendered subjects). ButThe Passenger Seat suggests a posture that is somewhere in-between. And what is that posture and who is implicated? You’ll have to listen to the episode to find out....Host/Writer: Linda MorraAssociate Producer: Maia HarrisMusic: Raphael Krux Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.