Melissa Thorne (she/her) lives on the traditional and treaty territory of the Michi Saagiig and Chippewa Nations (Cobourg, ON), with her husband, two sons, and Irish Wolfhound, Walter. She reluctantly serves as Walter’s social media manager after he inadvertently went “viral” online. Melissa was recently featured in The League of Canadian Poets’ Fresh Voices series. She is the author of two chapbooks, Augury, and What do we do with all this being? forthcoming in the spring and fall of 2026. Her poetry is also published/ forthcoming in ROOM magazine, The Fiddlehead, Pinhole Poetry and WEI Magazine. Follow her on Instagram @melissa_thorne_poetry
poet
Antony Di Nardo
This week’s guest is Antony Di Nardo. The programme is an encore presentation from 2025. Antony Di Nardo has written nine books of poetry. His award-winning work appears widely in journals and anthologies across Canada and internationally, also translated into several languages. His long poem suite May June July was winner of the Gwendolyn MacEwen Poetry Prize for 2017 and was short-listed for a National Magazine Award. He is an active member of the League of Canadian Poets and the Cobourg Poetry Workshop. The winner of the inaugural Don Gutteridge Poetry Award, Through Yonder Window Breaks was published by Wet Ink Books. Antony’s present project is his collection Cloudspotting which he presented with his insights into the work of Antonio Damasio at the Accenti Festival of the Arts hosted by the University of PEI in Charlottetown last June.
April Potter
April Potter is a local poet, freelance writer, and artist in Port Hope. She graduated from York University with a literature degree and also studied philosophy. She has built a freelance copywriting and marketing business, Potter Creative, since moving to Northumberland County in 2014. Her poetry is published under the name Estlin Edwards. She has written for 102.1 The Edge in Toronto, Sunwing Travel, Kawartha Now, and more. Her first book of poetry will be out this year. You can find her art and postcards for sale at Purpose Thrift Shop in downtown Port Hope. She also writes local business features and theatre reviews at Featured In Northumberland, on Instagram and Facebook.
Ted Amsden
This week our guest is Ted Amsden. Ted went to university in Toronto graduating with an Honours BA in English Literature from Glendon College in 1972. During the early 80’s he became a writer for Gloucester Group at Maclaren Advertising producing TV, radio newspaper advertisements. But then he moved to Mexico with his wife Cynthia. For five years in San Miguel de Allende they ran a boutique manufacturing company, Ay Chihuahua, an aerobics studio called El Sweat. and at night in their kitchen Ted taught himself how to develop film and print photos. On returning to Canada with their two-year-old daughter, they settled in Cobourg enjoying small town life. Ted found a position at the Cobourg Star and for over 20 years covered all kind of events as a photo-journalist. In 2011, Ted became Cobourg’s 3rd poet Laureate and in 2012 he sat down to begin a new career as a novelist.
Mia Burrus
This week we welcome Mia Musée Mia Burrus Mia is a writer and artist who lives in a restored one-room schoolhouse in the country north of Cobourg. But her passion is using words, images and found objects to explore the boundaries and spaces between what is spoken and silent, solid and ephemeral, known and unknowable, crafting poems, essays, and multi-dimensional, mixed-media artworks. Mia’s latest book, a memoir entitled As If Through a Window, was published in September 2025. This book, in a mix of genres, tells the intertwined tales of her father, and the cattle ranch that occupied half his life. Several of her assemblage artworks have been included in Juried Shows at the Colborne Art Gallery and Art Gallery of Northumberland. Her works may also be viewed at her own museum, her website!
Linda Hutsell Manning
This week we are pleased to re-run a programme we made with Linda Hutsell Manning in the fall of 2023. Linda has published four picture books, three juvenile plays, two mid-grade novels and Polka Dot Door scripts as well as a literary novel, That Summer in Franklin, a two-act comedy, A Certain Singing Teacher, a memoir, Fearless and Determined about her 1960’s teaching experiences a one room elementary school west of Cobourg. Her latest picture book, Finding Moufette, was released in 2023. A novella, Heads I Win, Tails You Lose, was released in 2024 and another small book was published this year called The Killing Room. These are available in local bookstores and on Amazon. Linda has also written many pieces of short fiction and poetry published in magazines. Find out more at lindahutsellmanning.ca.
Phyliss Wright
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This week we are playing a re-run of interviews we conducted last spring with Phyliss Wright. Phyliss Wright’s journey as a poet started in university days, when she edited a literary magazine in Colorado during the tumultuous sixties, where she also taught mountain climbing and piton-craft. She returned to writing poetry after a stint in the Marines as an air traffic controller. Poems are a way she explores the world and her own thoughts about life. Her work is shaped by her adventures in Afghanistan, Spain, Poland, and Siberia. But her formative work began in widowhood, when she served as a hospital director in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa of Pakistan, and then as a teacher in the United Arab Emirates. She wrote with the Kent State University Writers Group for over twenty years and still meets with them remotely. Recently she married Canadian, Eric Wright, who is a Northumberland writer. A new resident of Port Hope, she writes with the Cobourg Poetry Workshop, has two children, four grandchildren and a cat who came with her from the United Arab Emirates.
Linda Hutsell Manning
Welcome Linda!
Linda has published four picture books, three juvenile plays, two mid-grade novels and Polka Dot Door scripts as well as a literary novel, That Summer in Franklin, a two-act comedy, A Certain Singing Teacher, a memoir, Fearless and Determined about her 1960’s teaching experiences a one room elementary school west of Cobourg. Her latest picture book, Finding Moufette, was released byPandamonium Publishers in 2023. A novella, Heads I Win, Tails You Lose, released by AOS Publishers is available in bookstores and on Amazon. Linda has also written many pieces of short fiction and poetry published in magazines. Find out more at lindahutsellmanning.ca.
Brandon Hahn
This Sunday, June 15th we welcome Brandon Hahn to Word on the Hills. Brandon wears many hats. Mostly a poet, the author of a small pile of chapbooks and a self-help book called Trigger Happy, and a bit of a comedian, Brandon W Hahn has been a professional mental health advocate since 2002 and has written and spoken about mental health all over Ontario. Brandon’s most recent written effort, another self-help book, Trigger Happy Too! – Glimmer Edition is due out in late Spring of this year. His current endeavors centre on his website snackablementalhealth.ca Through this podcast and blog Brandon hopes to reach an international level, speaking and writing about mental health conditions from his personal experiences.
T J Best
This week’ show is an encore presentation of our interviews with TJ Best. TJ is the host and organizer of a monthly poetry Open Mic held in Madoc, called First Tuesday Muse, and has been published in a number of journals in both Canada and the United States including: The Waterwheel Review, Ghost City Press, Untethered Magazine, and above/ground Press. TJ (formerly known as Tamara ‘tah-mah-rah’) is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns. After spending many years in Toronto, TJ moved to the Quinte Region in 2011 and homeschooled their two children for ten years. TJ is also an experienced Community Worker with a focus on client support. In addition to these many “hats”, TJ also maintains a medicinal garden at a historic site and is passionate about outdoor education.
Word on the Hills Radio Program 