Donna Wootton

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This week our guest is Donna Wootton. Donna is a graduate of the Humber School for Writers. Her nonfiction book about her father, MOON REMEMBERED, was published by Ginger Press. Her novel, What Shirley Missed, was published by Hidden Brook Press. Her poetry about Cuba was published in the anthology The Divinity of Blue. She has a poem and a short story coming out in an anthology called Musings. Her latest novel, Isadora’s Dance, is published by Blue Denim Press. Find out more about Donna at her website https://www.dmwootton.com

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Artists’ Residencies with Ruth Walker, Jean Baird and sophie anne edwards

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Today we are having a different kind of discussion at Word on the Hills: we hear about two Artists’ Residencies one in the Haliburton Highlands and one in Prince Edward County. What is a residency and what does it offer the artists and writers who are so lucky as to be granted one? Ruth E Walker is the co-chair of the Management Committee of the Hall’s Island Artist Residency in Haliburton County. Dr. Jean Baird is an administrator for the Al Purdy A Frame Residency and sophie anne edwards, an interdisciplinary artist, is the current resident at the Al Purdy A Frame House. Sophie was long listed this week for the CBC poetry prize. They will tell about the residencies from their own experience.

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Ruth Clarke

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Ruth Clarke is the author of six books as well as short stories in several anthologies. Before she started writing full-time she worked for decades in the publishing industry. The last time she visited us she read from her first novel, WHAT GOES AROUND, published in 2019, which was set in Costa Rica and Nicaragua where she has wintered for several years. She belongs to a writers’ group in Costa Rica that meets each month via ZOOM, and writes blogs you can find on their site called Mango Musings. When she isn’t in Latin America, she now lives in Bobcaygeon where she grew up. Today she will read to us from TRACES, a work in progress

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Ted Barris

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Ted Barris decided in grade school that he wanted to be a writer. He has had a stellar career as a journalist in every kind of media and has written, produced and directed numerous award winning documentaries. He gave 18 years to teaching journalism and broadcasting at Centennial College, becoming professor of print journalism in their Centre for Creative Communication, while establishing his reputation as a highly respected military historian and author of 20 bestselling books. In 2017 Ted decided to step down from his teaching and to go back, as he said, to where he came from as a full time freelancer. Since then he has continued to write for periodicals and make radio appearances and follows a heavy schedule as a public speaker in normal times, sometimes addressing as many as 6 audiences a week. He has also continued to publish books, his latest being Rush to Danger published in 2019. Please join us.

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Daryl Sneath

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Daryl was born in a small town by a lake. His fiction and poetry have appeared in journals such as The Antigonish Review, Prism International, Wascana Review, Nashwaak Review, paperplates, Zouch Magazine, Quilliad, FreeFall, subTerrain, Filling Station, The Dalhousie Review and the Literary Review of Canada. He has also written for the New York publication Weekly Humorist. His two novels are All My Sins and As the Current Pulls the Fallen Under. His third novel, In the Country in the Dark, is on submission with editors in Canada, the US, and the UK. He currently lives in another small town by a river with his wife, Tara, and their three children: Ethan, Penelope and Abigael.

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Richard M Grove and Shane Joseph

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This week we welcome Richard Grove and Shane Joseph to the show. Richard M. Grove, otherwise known to friends as Tai, lives in Presqu’ile Provincial Park where he runs Hidden Brook Press. He is a Poet, Writer, Editor, Publisher, Photographer and President of the Canada Cuba Literary Alliance. and Poet Laureate of Brighton. He has 20 titles of poetry, fiction and memoir including In Search of Cuba published in 2020. He is the Editor-in-chief of Devour: Art & Lit Canada found at: www.hiddenbrookpress.com. His newest poetry collection, Cuba’s Blue Sky in my Pocket was recently released by Black Moss Press.Shane Joseph, a frequent guest on this programme is a Canadian novelist, blogger, reviewer, short story writer and publisher at Blue Denim Press. He is the author of six novels and three collections of short stories. His latest novel, Circles in the Spiral, was released in October 2020. For more information about Shane visit his website at www.shanejoseph.com

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Vicki Delany

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This is a rebroadcast of our latest interview with Vicki Delany. Vicki is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers and a national bestseller in the U.S. She has written more than thirty-five books: clever cozies to Gothic thrillers to gritty police procedurals, to historical fiction and novellas for adult literacy. She is currently writing five cozy mystery series: the Tea by the Sea mysteries for Kensington, the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series for Crooked Lane Books, the Year Round Christmas mysteries for Penguin Random House, and the Lighthouse Library series (as Eva Gates) for Crooked Lane. She released her first in a new series set in a resort in the Catskills called DEADLY SUMMER NIGHTS this September with Penguin Random House.Vicki is a past president of the Crime Writers of Canada and co-founder and organizer of the Women Killing It Crime Writing Festival. She is the 2019 recipient of the Derrick Murdoch award for contributions to Canadian crime writing. Vicki lives in Prince Edward County, Ontario.

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Jessica Outram

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This week we talk to Jessica Outram.Jessica says, she’s been lucky to have time to pursue the things she loves. She’s a playwright, director, actor, singer, publisher, reader, teacher, principal, daughter, sister, aunt, friend, and poet. She’s member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada, a proud citizen of the Métis Nation of Ontario and a Creativity Coach and Reiki Practitioner. In June 2019 she was appointed Cobourg’s Poet Laureate. For more than twenty years, she’s worked as an educator in Ontario in both Elementary and Secondary schools. This year she begins her new appointment as Principal of Indigenous Education for the Kawartha Pine Ridge School Board. Creativity-in-community is important to her. She is a member of a number of local groups to which she contributes her many talents, including Northumberland Players, SONG and Safe Haven as well as the Northumberland Festival of the Arts.

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P. J. Thomas

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Meet PJ Thomas. Born and raised on Lake Ontario, PJ relocated to Peterborough to attend classes and became editor-in-chief of the Trent University newspaper, Arthur. She went on to edit several local publications and was the first executive director of the 4th Line Theatre Company. Thomas also promoted contemporary Canadian music until becoming disabled. She has since marked a triumphant return to literature with two novels published to critical acclaim. In autumn 2020 she launched her first book of poetry, Undertow. Thomas also wrote lyrics that were nominated for a 2021 Juno Award as part of Rick Fines’ album, Solar Powered Too. In 2021 her work was showcased twice in the online publication, Poetry Present, by Cobourg’s Poet Laureate. Thomas was one of five poets featured in 2021 National Poetry Month’s Show and Tell Poetry Series Poster Project. Her poems have appeared in The River Magazine, The 2021 Festival of Light and Dark, and will be included in the Bill Bissett anthology, Poemdemic! Thomas makes her home by the Otonabee River with her cat.

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Terry Fallis

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This week’s guest is Terry Fallis. A two-time winner of the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, Terry  is the award-winning author of seven national bestsellers, all published by McClelland & Stewart (M&S). His debut novel, The Best Laid Plans (2008),won the 2008 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour and was crowned the 2011 winner of CBC Canada Reads as the “essential Canadian novel of the decade.“The High Road (2010)was a finalist for the 2011 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour. Up and Down (2012), debuted on the Globe and Mail bestsellers list, was a finalist for the 2013 Leacock Medal, and won the 2013 Ontario Library Association Evergreen Award. Terry published more award winning novels in the years that followed; No Relation (2014),  won the 2015 Leacock Medal. M&S published  Poles Apart (2015), One Brother Shy(2017)and  Albatross, (2019) and has just released Terry’s new novel Operation Angus. Terry has written for many publications including Maclean’s, Canadian Geographic, Reader’s Digest, Toronto Life, the Globe and Mail, the National Post, and the Toronto Star. Terry earned a Bachelor of Engineering degree from McMaster University (1983) where he became engulfed in university politics and somehow persuaded the undergraduates to elect him President of the Students Union.

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