Simon Constam

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Meet Simon Constam! Simon is a Toronto poet and aphorist. Since late 2018, Simon has been publishing, under the moniker Daily Ferocity, an original aphorism every day on Instagram and for an email subscriber base. His first book, BROUGHT DOWN, was published in 2022 to considerable acclaim. His second book, DOMESTIC RECUSALS will be published in early 2024. Simon and his wife, Janice Waugh, live in the Beach where they operate Solo Traveler, www.solotravelerworld.com. Simon and Janice have 8 children and 11 grandchildren. Simon was born in Toronto, but lived for 15 years in Abbotsford, British Columbia where he owned and operated a bookstore. He is a member of The Cobourg Poetry Workshop and has often read at their Third Thursday Readings.

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Beverley Brewer

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This week meet Beverley Brewer. Beverley was born and raised in Ontario; she lived in Toronto until she moved to her Muskoka cottage in 2021, with her husband Jack and their two black labs. When Bev graduated from the University of Toronto her ambition was to become a teacher, a missionary or a social worker. Her introduction to life skills teaching methodology and group facilitation at Seneca College set the stage for her life’s work. At Seneca, Bev’s life skills groups supported adult students in job readiness and academic upgrading. When Bev took a position in the social service worker diploma program at Seneca, she taught what she loved doing––group work and counselling and had the privilege of teaching in the program. Bev retired in her thirty-sixth year of teaching and learning in the community college system. In retirement, Bev writes short-fiction, and completed her first psychological character-driven novel, No One Knew. Her second large project is Dance into Light, a memoir. When she’s not writing, you can find her in a kayak or when the water freezes over, on snowshoes somewhere on the lake. She’s happy to have found like-minded friends who like to sing, hike and play pickle ball year-round.

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Gwynn Scheltema

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Today we talk with Gwynn Scheltema, an award-winning fiction writer and poet whose work has been published online and in print in various media. Many of her stories and poems are influenced by her experiences growing up in Africa. Fascinated by words, she enjoys sharing her love of language and has taught for over 25 years in community and private colleges at conferences and many workshops. With her business partner, Ruth Walker, she runs Writescape.ca, which offers coaching, editing, writers workshops and retreats. She is the co-host of Word on the Hills which has been running on 89.7 FM since the fall of 2013. She is also the president of Northumberland Festival of the Arts and will be deeply engaged in this volunteer work for the arts in the coming months as NFOTA prepares for the 2024 festival. Her most recent publications are two books of poetry; a chapbook entitled Ten of Diamonds (Glentula Press, 2021) and a new collection of poems, Everchild, published by Aeolus House and released this month.

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Janet Trull

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This week our guest is writer and novelist, Janet Trull. Janet’s essays and short stories have appeared in The Globe and Mail, Canadian Living Magazine, Prairie Fire, The New Quarterly, subTerrain Magazine, and Geist among others. She has won several writing awards, including a CBC Canada Writes challenge, a Western Magazine Award nomination and a Commonwealth Fiction prize. Her collection of short fiction, Hot Town and Other Stories, was published in 2016 by At Bay Press (Winnipeg). Once a Storm, published as part of At Bay Press’s “From the Heart” series, is a small volume memorializing those who have lost their struggle with drug addiction. Trull’s new collection of short stories, Something’s Burning, was a CBC Recommended Read for Fall 2022, and is now available worldwide. Janet Trull is excited to announce that her novel, The End of the Line, is due for publication by Blue Denim Press on October 1, 2023.

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Karin Wells

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This show is an encore presentation of Karin Wells’ discussion of and readings from her book More than a Footnote. KARIN WELLS is an author, journalist, and lawyer. She is also a sometime actress and worked – briefly – in a pea canning factory. Her latest book, More than a Footnote: Canadian Women You Should Know, is a curious and often irreverent look at ten Canadian women who have been forgotten or ignored. Her 2020 book The Abortion Caravan: When Women Shut Down Government in the Battle for the Right to Choose (Second Story Press) was the winner of the OHS (Ontario Historical Society) Alison Prentice Award and short listed for the 2021 Shaughnessy Cohen prize. She regularly contributes to Watershed Magazine focussing on life in Northumberland, Quinte and Prince Edward County. Karin has been recognized as one of this country’s leading radio journalists. Over her career she worked in more than fifty countries making radio documentaries for CBC radio’s The Sunday Edition, hosted by Michael Enright. Her radio documentary work made her a three time winner of the Canadian Association of Journalists Award for investigative journalism.

Karin Wells lives in Port Hope with her little dogs Mimi and Darwin. She is currently working on a new book for Second Story Press and a podcast for CBC Radio based on More than a Footnote.

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Michael Fraser

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Michael Fraser is published in Best Canadian Poetry in English 2013 and 2018. He has won numerous awards, including Freefall Magazine’s 2014 and 2015 poetry contests, the 2016 CBC Poetry Prize, the 2018 Gwendolyn MacEwen Poetry Competition, and the League of Canadian Poets’ 2022 Lesley Strutt Poetry Prize. His latest collection, With My Eyes Wide Open is published by Exile Editions.

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Ruth E Walker

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 Award-winning author Ruth E. Walker loves the broad landscapes novels provide but occasionally challenges herself to write in the demanding confines of poetry and short fiction. An eclectic writer, she follows inspiration, characters and questions to the page. Her novels are represented by Ali McDonald, 5 Otter Literary and Ruth lives, writes and edits at her home in Oshawa and her riverside cottage in Haliburton County. She is an active volunteer in the arts community, including serving on the Haliburton Arts Council’s Literary Arts Roundtable.

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Chris Cameron and John Unruh

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This week’s episode is a repeat broadcast of our interviews with Chris Cameron and John Unruh about podcasting.

Chris is a musician, freelance writer and editor. His first book, a memoir of his singing years, Dr. Bartolo’s Umbrella and Other Tales from my Surprising Operatic Life (Seraphim Editions), was published in 2017. His book of humorous fiction, Thorneside Stories: A Mix of Sun and Cloud (Iguana Books) was published in 2022. Christopher brings his respect for the beauty and power of words to his editing and feature-writing at Watershed magazine. For three years he was co-host and sound editor for Word on the Hills. He enjoys playing bass and singing with the trio What Fun! He continues to marvel at his luck, doing what he loves in beautiful Northumberland County.

John Unruh is a Northumberland writer concerned with the value of broken things and how communities come together to fix them. He’s also a consulting technical writer and editor. John grew up in Winnipeg and moved to Cobourg in 2001 where he began working as a documentation specialist and editorial advisor. John volunteered to set up and run the ticketing system for the Northumberland Festival of the Arts in 2022 and has become a highly valued source of answers to technical questions. He has published two short stories in Hill Spirits V, Blue Denim Press, and a poem in 101 Portraits, Wet Ink Books in 2022, as well as other stories in previous years. He has also written several novels which are in various stages of completion and has made a podcast series of his novel Ziggurat.

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Catherine Hudson

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This week we welcome Catherine Hudson. Catherine’s new book “Get Your Cow out of My Kitchen!” is a stirring collection of short stories that reflect upon the many animals that have impacted the author’s life. Each entry is a beautiful tribute to a special animal friend and highlights just how special the connection between animal and human can be. A lover of animals since she was a child, Catherine fell in love with bull terriers after watching the Disney film “The Incredible Journey”, as a teen. By the time she was in her early forties, Catherine had become one of the top bull terrier breeders in the country and, along with competing with her dogs, she started her own obedience school, “My Bark Avenue Academy,” which she still runs today. Currently, she resides in eastern Ontario, with her dog Ladybug and can be found daily surrounded by her many four-legged students both adults and puppies.

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Abigail Miller and Katie Kennedy

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This week we are rebroadcasting our interviews with Abigail Miller and Katie Kennedy.

Abigail Miller is Archivist at the Northumberland County Archives and Museum. She is responsible for building the strategic vision and overseeing operations at NCAM. Abigail holds a Bachelor of Arts in Archaeology and Folklore, graduating from Memorial University and the Museum Management and Curatorship program at Fleming College.

Katie Kennedy is Curator for NCAM, focused on authentic community collaborations. Katie graduated from University of Ottawa with a BA in Classical Studies and was educated in the university’s Museum of Classical Antiquities. Katie is currently enrolled in the Ontario Museum Association’s Certificate in Museum Studies and is a participant in the OMA Conference Mentorship program.

Abigail and Katie tell us about their work and plans for the new archives and museum, now under construction, which will share a building with a rebuilt Golden Plough Lodge and is due to open in the summer of 2024.

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