I have a couple of things in today’s paper: First off, a profile of Chester Brown, whose new graphic memoir, Paying For It, chronicles his life as a john. Also, I sit down with Elizabeth Hay, to talk about her new novel, Alone in the Classroom.
I first heard of Alexi Zentner a few years ago, when The Atlantic published one his short stories, “Furlough.” His bio said he was from Kitchener; intrigued — I’d never heard of him before and it’s not everyday a young Canadian writer has a short story published in The Atlantic — I e-mailed him, and we exchanged a few notes. A few months later, he e-mailed me to say he’d sold his first novel. That was almost two years ago. That novel, Touch, is out now — it is really, really strong — and I wrote about it for the Post.
Here’s a piece I wrote about Ken Babstock and his new collection of poetry, Methodist Hachet.
In today’s National Post I talk to John Elder Robison, author of Be Different: Adventures of a Free-Range Aspergian.
When I was in New York last month, I sat down with Michael Pietsch, the publisher of Little, Brown, to talk about The Pale King, David Foster Wallace’s (unfinished) final novel. I’m still not sure about the book — I’ve always loved his short stories, and, especially, his journalism, more than the novels — but it is worth checking out.
Miriam Toews has a new book out called Irma Voth. I quite liked it. You can read more about it here.
Here’s the shortlist for this year’s Griffin Poetry Prize. I have some reading to do…
A couple of author interviews in Saturday’s National Post: I talk to Kristen den Hartog about her short novel about a tall girl, And Me Among Them, and take a tour of Roncesvalles Ave. with Andrew J. Borkowski, author of Copernicus Avenue.