Craftwork S1E6: False Epiphanies, Productivity, & Existential Dread w/ Niall Howell

Listen to Craftwork Episode 6: False Epiphanies, Productivity, & Existential Dread w/ Niall Howell.

In this interview, Niall Howell talks about crime fiction, creative spontaneity, the magic of public swimming pools (soggy donuts!), and so much more.

Niall Howell lives in Calgary, Alberta with his wife, sons, and pets. His debut noir novel Only Pretty Damned was shortlisted for the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for Literary Fiction. His follow-up novel, There Are Wolves Here Too, was shortlisted by the Book Publisher’s Association of Alberta for Mystery and Thriller book of the year. Niall’s short fiction has been featured in The Feathertale Review and FreeFall. He is currently working on his third novel.

Books mentioned in this episode:

  • City of Margins; Shoot the Moonlight Out – William Boyle 
  • Save the Cat! Writes a Novel – Jessica Brody 
  • Selected Letters of Raymond Chandler – Raymond Chandler; edited by Frank MacShane 
  • The Guest – Emma Cline 
  • Perfidia; This Storm; Widespread Panic – James Ellroy 
  • Our Share of Night – Mariana Enriquez 
  • The Wars – Timothy Findley 
  • The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald 
  • A Rage in Harlem – Chester Himes 
  • It; Night Shift; Salem’s Lot – Stephen King 
  • Burnt Offerings – Robert Marasco 
  • Moby Dick – Herman Melville 
  • Peyton Place – Grace Metalious 
  • Devil in a Blue Dress – Walter Mosley 
  • Toby Tyler; or, Ten Weeks with a Circus – James Otis 
  • “The Black Cat” – Edgar Allan Poe 
  • The House Next Door –  Anne Rivers Siddons
  • The Secret History – Donna Tartt

Craftwork S1E5: Romance, Ritual, & the Darkness of Yacht Rock w/ Phoebe Marmura

Listen to Craftwork Episode 5: Romance, Ritual, & the Darkness of Yacht Rock w/ Phoebe Marmura.

In this interview, Phoebe Marmura talks about fear, fairies, set design, and so much more.

⁠Phoebe Marmura⁠ is a writer and artist. Her work explores desire, femininity, domestic adventure, and reclusion. Marmura’s writing can be found in Expat Press, D.F.L. Lit, and Orca Literary Journal.

Books mentioned in this episode:

  • Erotic Interludes: Tales Told by Women – Lonnie Barbach
  • Naked Lunch – William S. Burroughs
  • On the Road – Jack Kerouac
  • Biography of X – Catherine Lacey
  • Bird by Bird – Anne Lamott
  • The Heart is a Lonely Hunter – Carson McCullers
  • Story – Robert McKee
  • Portrait of Jennie – Robert Nathan
  • Junie B. Jones series – Barbara Park
  • The Golden Compass – Philip Pullman
  • Pretty Little Liars series – Sara Shepard
  • Charlotte’s Web – E. B. White

Craftwork S1E4: Scaffolding, Dionysus, & Mental Bonfires w/ Lindsay Lerman

Listen to Craftwork Episode 4: Scaffolding, Dionysus, & Mental Bonfires w/ Lindsay Lerman.

In this interview, Lindsay Lerman talks about philosophy, procedural knowledge, writing dialogue, and so much more.

Lindsay Lerman is a writer and translator. Her first book, I’m From Nowhere, was published in 2019. Her second book, What Are You, was published in 2022. Her first translation was published in 2023. She holds a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. She is working on a novel, a philosophy manuscript, and here and there, some screenplays. She lives in Berlin.

Books mentioned in this episode:

  • Gothic Metaphysics: From Alchemy to the Anthropocene – Jodey Castricano
  • James and the Giant Peach; The BFG; Matilda – Roald Dahl
  • Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier
  • Memories, Dreams, Reflections – C. G. Jung
  • The Cipher – Kathe Koja
  • The Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula K. Le Guin
  • The Seventh Mansion – Maryse Meijer

Craftwork S1E3: Magic Realism, Intertextuality, & Making it Beautiful w/ William Ping

Check out episode #3 of Craftwork, featuring William Ping. William talks with Mike Thorn and Miriam Richer about historical fiction, hauntology, Animal Crossing, and so much more.

William Ping is a novelist and journalist, born and raised in St. John’s. His debut novel Hollow Bamboo was published by HarperCollins in 2023 and was shortlisted for the Amazon.ca First Novel Award, the BMO Winterset Award, and the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award as well as being longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award and the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour. He has previously been published in ‘Us, Now,’ Hard Ticket and Riddle Fence. William is also known for his contributions to CBC News, where he can most often be heard reading the news.

Books mentioned in this episode:

  • Waiting for GodotMolloyMalone DiesThe Unnamable – Samuel Beckett
  • Wuthering Heights – Emily Brontë
  • Death on the Ice: The Great Newfoundland Sealing Disaster of 1914 – Cassie Brown and Harold Horwood
  • The King in Yellow – Robert W. Chambers
  • The Wapshot Chronicle – John Cheever 
  • Trust Exercise – Susan Choi
  • A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
  • Less Than ZeroAmerican PsychoImperial Bedrooms – Bret Easton Ellis
  • The Beautiful and DamnedThe Great GatsbyTender is the Night – F. Scott Fitzgerald 
  • Open – Lisa Moore
  • Pale Fire – Vladimir Nabokov
  • Animal Farm – George Orwell
  • Consider This: Moments in My Writing Life After Which Everything Was Different – Chuck Palahniuk
  • Son of a Trickster – Eden Robinson 
  • The Catcher in the Rye – J. D. Salinger
  • Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio – Pu Songling

Craftwork S1E2: Agency, Microtensions, & Mythic Resonance w/ Randy Nikkel Schroeder

In this interview, Randy Nikkel Schroeder talks about noir, character possession, Biblical frisson, and so much more. Listen here.

Randy Nikkel Schroeder is the author of Arctic Smoke (NeWest), Crooked Timber: Seven Suburban Faerie Tales (Green Magpie), and over fifty published short stories. In his spare time, he is professor of English, Languages, and Cultures at Mount Royal University.

Books mentioned in this episode:

  • QueenpinThe TurnoutYou Will Know Me – Megan Abbott
  • Poetics – Aristotle
  • Book of Greek Myths – Ingri d’Aulaire & Edgar Parin d’Aulaire
  • Save the Cat! Writes a Novel – Jessica Brody
  • Dave Robicheaux novels – James Lee Burke
  • The Story Grid: What Good Editors Know – Shawn Coyne
  • Neuromancer – William Gibson
  • Attack of the Copula Spiders and Other Essays on Writing – Douglas Glover
  • Red Dragon – Thomas Harris
  • Winter’s Tale – Mark Helprin
  • The Lottery and Other Stories – Shirley Jackson
  • Rose Madder – Stephen King
  • Mystic River – Dennis Lehane
  • The Magician’s Nephew – C. S. Lewis
  • Dialogue: The Art of Verbal Action for Page, Stage, and Screen – Robert McKee
  • Consider This: Moments in My Writing Life After Which Everything Was Different – Chuck Palahniuk
  • Gravity’s Rainbow – Thomas Pynchon
  • Old Testament – Various authors

Craftwork S1E1: Persona Poems, Metacognition, & Vancouver Island Marmots w/ Meghan Kemp-Gee

On the first episode of Craftwork, guest Meghan Kemp-Gee talks about poetry, screenwriting, comics, and so much more.

Meghan is the author of The Animal in the Room (Coach House Books, 2023), as well as three poetry chapbooks, What I Meant to Ask, Things to Buy in New Brunswick, and More. She also co-created the webcomic Contested Strip, recently adapted as a graphic novel, One More Year. She is a PhD candidate at UNB and currently lives in North Vancouver BC.

Listen here.

Books mentioned in this episode:

  • The Writing Moment: A Practical Guide to Creating Poems – Daniel Scott Tysdal
  • Walden – Henry David Thoreau
  • The Artist’s Way – Julia Cameron
  • Bird by Bird – Anne Lamott
  • 20th Century Men – Deniz Camp, Stipan Morian, & Aditya Bidikar
  • The Adversary – Michael Crummey

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