Craftwork Episode 18: Ekphrasis, Sinuous Sentences, & the Logic of Sound w/ Sarah Bernstein
In this interview, we chat with Sarah Bernstein about contemplation, finding time for writing, capturing the rush of language, and so much more.
Sarah Bernstein is the author of two novels, The Coming Bad Days and Study for Obedience, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. She is from Montreal and lives in the Scottish Highlands.
Books and stories mentioned in this episode:
- Hysteric; Whore – Nelly Arcan
- Giovanni’s Room – James Baldwin
- The Moonstone; The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
- “A Mown Lawn” – Lydia Davis
- Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life – Ruth Franklin
- The Book of Questions – Edmond Jabès
- The Haunting of Hill House; “The Lottery”; The Sundial; We Have Always Lived in the Castle – Shirley Jackson
- The Melancholy of Resistance – László Krasznahorkai
- The Place of Shells – Mai Ishizawa
- In the Wake: On Blackness and Being – Christina Sharpe
- The House Next Door – Anne Rivers Siddons
- The Door – Magda Szabó
- Clean – Alia Trabucco Zerán
Craftwork Episode 16: Dream Journals, Imaginary Conversations, & Work-Life Balance w/ Fawn Parker
In this interview, we chat with Fawn Parker about showing the reader around the room, finding the right tense, protecting your writing time, and so much more.
Fawn Parker is the author of five books including novels What We Both Know (M&S), nominated for the Giller Prize and Hi, It’s Me (M&S), nominated for the Writer’s Trust Atwood Gibson Prize, and the poetry collection Soft Inheritance, which was awarded the JM Abraham Atlantic Book Award and the Fiddlehead Poetry Book Prize. Her work has been published in The Walrus, Hazlitt, Literary Review of Canada, and elsewhere. Fawn is a PhD candidate at the University of New Brunswick and the Poet Laureate of Fredericton.
Books and stories mentioned in this episode:
- The Edible Woman – Margaret Atwood
- The Mountain and the Valley – Ernest Buckler
- Libra – Don DeLillo
- The Guest – Emma Cline
- Attack of the Copula Spiders and Other Essays on Writing – Douglas Glover
- “Experience” – Tessa Hadley
- Ulysses – James Joyce
- Rejection – Tony Tulathimutte
- This All Happened – Michael Winter
- How Fiction Works – James Wood
- Mrs. Dalloway – Virginia Woolf
The Catch-Up Reading Series featuring Chuck Bowie, Alison Taylor, and Mike Thorn (January 26, 3 pm, Westminster Books)
Fredericton’s monthly reading series, ‘The Catch-Up,’ curated and hosted by acclaimed writer Fawn Parker, returns with readings by local authors Alison Taylor, Chuck Bowie & Mike Thorn!
The reading will take place here at the bookshop on Sunday, January 26th, 2025, @ 3pm.
Alison Taylor (they/them) is a writer, editor, and filmmaker based in Fredericton. Taylor’s short stories have appeared in various journals, and their debut novel Aftershock, published by HarperCollins Canada, received the Atlantic Book Awards John and Margaret Savage First Book Award (Fiction), and was shortlisted for the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize. They received the 2024 Douglas Adams Richards Prize for Fiction for their work-in-progress, Confessions of a Binge Drinker (working title). They have edited a hundred-plus hours of television and many award-winning short films and music videos, and their own experimental films have screened at festivals internationally. They currently work in the editorial department at Goose Lane Editions and as a freelance editor of both books and film and video, and are working to complete a draft while two cats yell at them and a 70-pound boxer whines in their face.
Mike Thorn is a SSHRC-funded doctoral candidate in the Department of English (Creative Writing) at the University of New Brunswick. He is the author of Shelter for the Damned, Darkest Hours, and Peel Back and See. His writing has appeared in anthologies, magazines, and podcasts, including NoSleep, Vastarien, In Review Online, and American Twilight: The Cinema of Tobe Hooper. He co-hosts Craftwork, a writing-themed podcast, with Miriam Richer. Website: mikethornwrites.com.
Chuck Bowie is both a writer and an author, with thirteen books/novels published and one just underway. While he enjoys writing mysteries: Suspense-Thrillers and Cozy Mysteries, he also writes short stories. All of his books are well-reviewed, and he has sat on the boards of the Writers’ Federation of NB, The Writers’ Union of Canada, is a Fellow of the Kingsbrae International Residency for the Arts, as well as being acknowledged as a member of the Miramichi Literary Trail. His thriller series chronicles the adventures of Donovan, an international thief for hire, while his cozy series (written as Alexa Bowie) follows the adventures of the owner of an arts centre as Emma solves the crimes that swirl around her centre: The Old Manse. http://www.chuckbowie.ca
Craftwork S1E13: Ecstasy, Ruin, & the Talent of the Room w/ Kathe Koja
Listen to Craftwork S1E13: Ecstasy, Ruin, & the Talent of the Room w/ Kathe Koja.
In this interview, we chat with Kathe Koja about balancing simultaneous projects, resisting online distractions, raising the literary dead, and so much more.
Kathe Koja writes novels and short fiction, and creates and produces live and virtual events. Her award-winning books include The Cipher, Skin, Buddha Boy, Under The Poppy and Velocities, and she is currently at work on the Dark Factory immersive fiction project including Dark Factory, Dark Park and Dark Matter. Catherine the Ghost is her newest novel.
You can find her at kathekoja.com and on Instagram, Facebook and Threads.
Books mentioned in this episode:
- Wuthering Heights – Emily Brontë
- Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life – Ruth Franklin
- Faust – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- The Mouse and His Child; Riddley Walker – Russell Hoban
- The Default World – Naomi Kanakia
- Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett – James Knowlson
- A Place of Greater Safety; Wolf Hall – Hilary Mantel
- Doctor Faustus – Christopher Marlowe
- Rimbaud: A Biography – Graham Robb
- Frankenstein; The Last Man – Mary Shelley
- Lost Boy Lost Girl – Peter Straub
- The Secret Power of Music: The Transformation of Self and Society through Musical Energy – David Tame
Craftwork S1E12: Cruel Elegance, Cosmic Pessimism, & Rust Belt Vibes w/ Paula D. Ashe
Listen to Craftwork S1E12: Cruel Elegance, Cosmic Pessimism, & Rust Belt Vibes w/ Paula D. Ashe.
In this interview, we chat with Paula D. Ashe about writer’s block, narrative movement, urban legends, and so much more.
Paula D. Ashe (she/her) is an author of dark fiction. Her debut collection We Are Here to Hurt Each Other (Nictitating Books) was a Shirley Jackson Award winner for Single Author Collection and a Bram Stoker Award Finalist for Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection. Recently, she received the Joseph S. Pulver Sr. Weird Fiction Award at NecronomiCon Providence. Paula was also an associate editor for Vastarien: A Literary Journal. She lives in the Midwest with her family.
Books and stories mentioned in this episode:
- Supplication – Nour Abi-Nakhoul
- The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
- Books of Blood; The Damnation Game; The Hellbound Heart – Clive Barker
- Midnight Rooms – Donyae Coles
- Blood from the Air – Gemma Files
- “each thing i show you is a piece of my death” – Gemma Files & Stephen J. Barringer
- Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke – Eric LaRocca
- “Abed” – Elizabeth Massie
- The Scar – China Miéville
- Beloved; The Bluest Eye – Toni Morrison
- Song of the Tyrant Worm – Hailey Piper
- Flowers for the Sea – Zin E. Rocklyn
- Cows – Matthew Stokoe
- The Secret History – Donna Tartt
- The Color Purple – Alice Walker
- Where I End – Sophie White
Craftwork S1E11: Collaboration, Closet Dramas, & Writing for Audio w/ McKenna James Boeckner & Carlee Calver
In this interview, we chat with McKenna James Boeckner and Carlee Calver about nature writing, epistolary possibilities, elusive chicken detectives, and so much more.
McKenna James Boeckner is a Ph.D. candidate and contract lecturer at the University of New Brunswick (territory of the Wolastoqiyik people), with a specialization in long eighteenth-century British literature. As a creative writer, they slay with playwriting and have a penchant for fractured states of reality. Their most recent project is an eco-horror audio drama co-created with Carlee Calver, titled Us Soliscent Seeds. Find more of their work at memoirsofasodomite.com
Carlee Calver is a writer, playwright, and filmmaker from Bathurst, New Brunswick. She currently lives and works in Fredericton NB, where she received her M.A. in creative writing (screenwriting) from the University of New Brunswick. Her plays have been produced by Notable Acts Theatre Festival (2019) and Herbert the Cow productions (2022). She directed a FibeTV1 series called Skin and Bone (2023) that is now available online. Recently, Carlee was co-creator and producer of Us Soliscent Seeds (2023), a 4-part eco-horror audio drama set in Northern New Brunswick. All episodes are now available for streaming online.
Books mentioned in this episode:
- We Are Here to Hurt Each Other – Paula D. Ashe
- Carrie – Stephen King
- Blue Ruin; Red Pill – Hari Kunzru
- Melmoth the Wanderer – Charles Maturin
- The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
- Divergent series – Veronica Roth
- The Two Gentlemen of Verona – William Shakespeare
- Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
- Dracula – Bram Stoker
Craftwork S1E8: Obsession, Transgression, & the Library of Gestures w/ Maryse Meijer
Listen to Craftwork S1E8: Obsession, Transgression, & the Library of Gestures w/ Maryse Meijer.
In this interview, we chat with Maryse Meijer about metaphor, quotation marks, the dubious necessity of author photos, and so much more.
Maryse Meijer is the author of Heartbreaker, Rag, Northwood, and The Seventh Mansion. She lives in Chicago.
Books and stories mentioned in this episode:
- Samuel Beckett: A Biography – Deirdre Bair
- Waiting for Godot – Samuel Beckett
- About Schmidt – Louis Begley
- Autobiography of Red – Anne Carson
- New Grub Street – George Gissing
- The Children of the Dead; Greed; The Piano Teacher – Elfriede Jelinek
- Pet Sematary – Stephen King
- Bad Brains; The Cipher; Kink; Skin; Strange Angels – Kathe Koja
- The Communicating Vessels – Friederike Mayröcker
- All the Pretty Horses – Cormac McCarthy
- Hurricane Season; Paradais – Fernanda Melchor
- The Defense; Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
- Black Water; Blonde; Heat; My Sister, My Love; “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”; Zombie – Joyce Carol Oates
- With the Animals – Noëlle Revaz
- Snake Eyes – Rosamond Smith
- The Custom of the Country – Edith Wharton
Author Photo Credit: Lewis McVey
Craftwork S1E7: Weird Angels, Maximalism, & the Taste of Prose w/ Craig Laurance Gidney
In this interview, Craig Laurance Gidney talks about genre mashups, writing workshops, telling Mom which of your stories to avoid, and so much more.
Craig Laurance Gidney (he/him/his) is the author of Sea, Swallow Me & Other Stories; Skin Deep Magic: Stories; Bereft (a YA novella); and A Spectral Hue (a novel). He has been a Lambda Literary Finalist three times, was a Carl Brandon Parallax Award Finalist, and won the inaugural Joseph S. Pulver Sr. Award for Weird Fiction. The Nectar of Nightmares is his most recent collection. He lives in Washington, D.C.
Books and stories mentioned in this episode:
- The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
- Giovanni’s Room; Go Tell It on the Mountain; If Beale Street Could Talk – James Baldwin
- Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell; Piranesi – Susanna Clarke
- Dhalgren – Samuel R. Delany
- The Corrections – Jonathan Franzen
- The Uncanny – Sigmund Freud
- A Ring of Endless Light; A Wrinkle in Time – Madeleine L’Engle
- Black Light – Elizabeth Hand
- The Complete Tales of Uncle Remus – Joel Chandler Harris
- “The Golden Pot”; “The Sandman” – E. T. A. Hoffmann
- Finnegan’s Wake – James Joyce
- “Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk” – Franz Kafka
- Delirium’s Mistress – Tanith Lee
- “The Outsider”; “The Rats in the Walls” – H.P. Lovecraft
- The Winds of Winter – George R. R. Martin
- The Starless Sea – Erin Morgenstern
- Tar Baby – Toni Morrison
- “A Good Man is Hard to Find” – Flannery O’Connor
- Corpsepaint – David Peak
- Queen of Teeth – Hailey Piper
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
Mike Thorn 