Return guest Will Ferguson discusses his new novel, Officer Shimada and the Disappearing Girl (Goose Lane). We talk about making a character who briefly appeared in The Finder one of the central characters in this mystery; pairing him with / pitting him against a younger superior; the setting for the book and Ferguson's own experience on the southern-most islands of Japan, and much more.

Return guest Robert Penner discusses his latest novel, Notes on a Colonial Situation in Hell (McNally Jackson) and where the absurd premise came from, writing it in a way that was believable, and balancing tone and character among other topics.

Award-winning journalist and University of Manitoba graduate discusses her memoir A Thousand Farewells

We Survived Until We Could Live (University of Calgary Press) is a book-length series of poems exploring the historic and emotional fallout on a family that survived the Biafran / Nigerian Civil War of 1967-70. Umezurike discusses drawing on his own family's experience and how he undertook this book after the passing of his father.

Poet Nyla Matuk discusses her debut novel, Leila & Khaled (House of Anansi), a romance between an academic and a tour guide during a visit to Occupied Palestine. We discuss the impact of film on the book, the parallel between poetry and novels that Matuk sees and more.

A recent conversation with a friend about art heists had me reach into the archives for this conversation with Joshua Knelman about his book Hot Art (Douglas & McIntyre) which originally aired on TGIFR in 2012.

Music journalist Michael Rancic discusses A Nation of Tinkerers (Invisible Publishing) which chronicles 40 years in the development of electronic music in Canada. We talk about the book as an outgrowth of his more contemporary coverage, what led him to explore the past and how he tracked down some of the loose threads and tied them together.

Derek Bealieu's book Do It Wrong: How To Be A Poet In The Twenty-First Century (Assembly Press) challenges many conventions around art & commerce, grading in education and more within its pages. In turn I challenge him on his argument for using AI as a tool in our conversation about the book.

A ghost story set in the world of Winnipeg theatre, David Jon Fuller discusses why he incorporated stage directions in a novel, the decision to create an "alternate" Fringe festival, and more topics in our discussion of Venue 13 (Turnstone Press).

Actor Kirk Fox has written his first novel, a "dirtbag noir" set in and named Palmdale (Meridia Press). It features a private investigator named Joe who Fox readily admits is based on him as he discusses in our conversation.

Anishinaabe writer Patty Krawec discusses Bad Indians Book Club (Goose Lane), an examination of Indigenous literatures and how they help us understand Indigenous lives. She discusses how a question from a friend led to a book list, then to a podcast and now to this book.

*Originally aired October 1 2025

Author and educator Veronique Darwin joins the program to discuss Mom Camp (Assembly Press), her interconnected story collection. We discuss why she resisted having the stories linked, how her approach to reading informs her writing, liminal spaces and more.

Already the author of a memoir and YA novel, writer and educator Lindsay Wong turns to short stories with her haunting / haunted collection, Tell Me Pleasant Things About Immortality, out now via Penguin Random House.

Climate reporter Peter Schwartzstein's new book, The Heat and The Fury (Island Press) draws on years of reporting from the frontlines of climate violence to paint a particularly chilling and compelling picture of what lies ahead for our world.

A wide-ranging conversation with MC Joudrey about his novel, Marmalade Parade (Guernica Editions). The book's unconventional structure prompted many questions about process, purpose and perspective.

Professor of philosophy at Lakehead, Todd Dufresne discusses his book, The Future Belongs To Those Who Fight (McGill-Queen's University Press). We talk about his argument that we are facing a sixth mass extinction, what action must be taken and what the role of philosopher-journalists play as opposed to traditional academics. 

Winnipeg author Sam MacKinnon discusses their debut novel, The Body Riddle (House of Anansi) ahead of Friday's launch event at McNally Robinson. 
We talk about the scene in the book Sam started with and how they built backwards and forwards from that moment, the non-monogamous relationship at the center of the story (and how they'll likely never write another one) plus the importance of exploring what happens to Lex AFTER their chest surgery.

Return guest and local novelist Cale Plett discusses The Saw Mouth (Delacorte Press), a YA horror novel set in a post-apocalyptic version of Manitoba lake country. We discuss their relationship to fear, what they kept from a shelved version of the book, building a world and many more topics.

Novelist Alexis Stefanovich-Thomson discusses Opposite Sully's Gym (Dundurn Press), the second in his Patrick Bird mysteries. We talk about how to write an ongoing character for readers who might not be familiar with the protagonist, setting the action in and around a real time and place, what research he does and more.

Author David Elias discusses his book Into the D/Ark (Radiant Press) set in rural Manitoba in the wake of the Kennedy assassination and tackling issues of faith, desperation and artistic creation.

Rebroadcast of an interview with explorer/documentarian Jill Heinerth about her memoir, Into the Planet. Originally aired on TGIFR in 2019.

Return guest Sonya Ballantyne discusses the graphic novel of her life, The Unbeatable Sonya Ballantyne and explains her connection to Superman mythology, making a story where Indigenous girls can see themselves and more.

Former journalist Jo Ann Roberts tackles electoral reform after her own experiences as a Green Party candidate in Storm the Ballot Box: An Insider's Guide to a Voting Revolution (Nimbus Publishing). We discuss what she thought she knew from years reporting on elections and how that bumped up against what she experienced on the campaign trail and the solutions she proposes in the book.

A book conversation that originally aired on The Bench Jockeys, on the heels of the World Baseball Classic and with spring training in full swing, I'm re-airing this discussion of Fail Better: Why Baseball Matters (Biblioasis) with Mark Kingwell.
Originally aired when the book was published, it's interesting to hear about ABS and other tweaks to the game as hypotheticals, but the underlying thrust of the book that the game sits outside of modern times but has importance in ours remains a salient point.

Margaret Sweatman's literary thriller Night Birds (Goose Lane Editions) is told from the perspectives of married couple Farrar and Cleo. But Sweatman and I start by discussing the secondary characters and how she figures out the people who surround her central characters.

The book gets its Winnipeg launch March 19th at McNally Robinson.

Past guest Lindsay Wong returns to discuss her novel, Villain Hitting For Vicious Little Nobodies (Penguin Canada). We talk about where she drew her inspiration from and the research that went into Chinese history and lore and how she chose to structure the book among other topics.

At once a memoir as well as a business 'how-to' (and 'how-not-to') The Hours Are Long But The Pay Is Low (University of Illinois Press) chronicles Rob Miller's time with Bloodshot Records. We discuss the fact that this book began (a) before the pandemic) and (b) before Miller sold the label, why it's on an academic press, the writing process, gathering the material included and much more.

Return guest Jason Schneider discusses his book That Gun in Your Hand: The Strange Saga of ‘Hey Joe’ and Popular Music’s History of Violence (Anvil Press), what led him to explore the topic, the exhaustive research that went into writing the book and his favourite musical discoveries during the process.

A lawyer by trade, Dee A. Replogle Jr. discusses how a trip to Germany inspired his debut novel The Prodigy, set just prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall and featuring a high-ranking Stasi officer attempting to flee East Germany to protect his preternaturally gifted child. We talk about brain science, geography, verite and more.

Writer Heather Colley discusses her debut novel, The Gilded Butterfly Effect (Three Rooms Press) set in the world of Greek life at the University of Michigan. We discuss Colley's own experiences on that campus, writing the novel from the perspectives of characters Stella and Penny, the portrayals of mental health and more.

Stephen Leacock award-winning author Terry Fallis discusses his tenth novel, The Marionette (McClelland & Stewart) which introduces a new protagonist - James Norval - within the Angus McLintock "universe." Norval is a writer of thrillers with an attention to detail who gets sucked into a CSIS operation. Fallis and I discuss where Norval and he overlap, building a new character within an existing world, his own attention to detail and more topics in our conversation.

Acclaimed author Sulaiman Addonia discusses his single-paragraph novel, The Seers (Assembly Press) which tells the story of Eritrean refugee Hannah's time in London. We talk about the park that inspired the novel, writing on his iphone, character decisions and more in this expansive conversation.

Author Brendan Gillen discusses his story collection, Hang Time (.406 Press) which features a variety of fiction with ties to sport from the titular hoops story, to surfing, little league baseball and more. We discuss the roots of his writing, how to determine what space a story needs, character development in short story writing and more.

Recorded as part of Plume's Big Ideas series, Scott Oake sat down for a conversation about his memoir, For the Love of a Son (Simon & Schuster). The book chronicles his son's battle with addiction and the push to create a facility to support people going through an illness that eventually claimed Bruce's life.

Sean Minogue's novel Terminal Solstice (Turnstone Press) examines a world of "frozen time," told from the perspective of three characters who are 'unstuck.' We discuss the inspiration for the phenomenon, the setting and why this needed to be told via different vantage points.

Stephen Monteiro  - a faculty member in the Department of Communication Studies at Concordia University - discusses his book Needy Media: How Tech Gets Personal (McGill-Queen's University Press) which examines our relationship to our devices is designed to keep us 'hooked.' We talk about the history of personal computing, Tamagotchis, haptic cues and more.

Winnipeg's Bike Mayor Patty Wiens discusses her book That'll Never Work Here, the second volume in The City Project, her entreaty to winter cycling. We discuss what exactly a Bike Mayor is and does, her own journey into winter cycling and becoming an advocate for the transportation mode.

GMB Chomichuk - a frequent collaborator as an illustrator - discusses a different approach to working with another artist for Blood Letters (Great Plains Press). A dystopic YA novel told in letters, Chomichuk talks about working with past guest Ariel Gordon, how the book took shape and what role editing played.

Bob Joseph continues his 21 Things series with 21 Things You Need To Know About Indigenous Self-Government and while we don't get to all the 'things' our conversation explores much of the legal and historical context for the book, why he changed from the language of "may now know" in the first book to "need to know" with this one and how public-speaking about that first book helped shape the content of its follow-up.

Great Big Sea's Alan Doyle takes a journey around his home province of Newfoundland and Labrador in The Smiling Land (Penguin Random House Canada) and shares why he has always chosen to call it his home. We discuss his history as a teenage tour guide, roping his own teenage son into the book, how he chose and shaped the journey and more.

Winnipeg lawyer Zilla Jones discusses her debut novel, The World So Wide (Cormorant Books), set against the backdrop of the U.S. invasion of Grenada. We discuss her connection to central character Felicity's opera career, the diasporic community in Canada and the UK, writing history and more.

Melanie Dennis Unrau sits down in person to discuss her book Goose (Assembly Press). The collection of poetry is assembled from "father of the tar sands" S.C. Ellis' Northland Trails and Unrau talks about how she discovered Ellis' work, the process by which she crafted her own and the intent behind it.

Unrau is currently the Writer in Residence at the University of Manitoba. This fall, she is offering poetry workshops, including a series of visual-poetry workshops in November. She is also doing one-on-one consultations with writers, in person or online. Workshops and consultations are free and open to everyone. For more information, go to the Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture website. 

Co-authors (and University of Manitoba students) Sunny Erezi and Audrey Uzamere Itohan discuss their debut romance novel, Under Your Skin, talk about what inspired the story, how they divvied up the writing, the choice to set the book in Nigeria with a protagonist who grew up in Canada, their relationship to the genre and more.

Award-winning author Giles Blunt's novel Bad Juliet (Dundurn) is set at a tuberculosis sanitarium in the Adirondacks in the early twentieth century. Blunt discusses how reading a history of the area while on vacation led to the story, the research involved, the decision to write the story as a reminiscence and more. 

Debut Winnipeg novelist Cale Plett discusses their YA romance, Wavelength, and how the book's exploration of queerness coincided with their own journey, creating a community for the central characters to exist in, writing music for the band musicians at the heart of the story and more.

Anishinaabe writer Patty Krawec discusses Bad Indians Book Club (Goose Lane), an examination of Indigenous literatures and how they help us understand Indigenous lives. She discusses how a question from a friend led to a book list, then to a podcast and now to this book.

Award-winning Winnipeg author David Bergen's novel Days of Feasting and Rejoicing (Goose Lane) joins me to discuss the connection to Patricia Highsmith, drawing on his own experience living in Thailand, accidental villainy and more.

Pleased to welcome back return guest katherena vermette to discuss her latest collection of poetry, Processsion (House of Anansi). 

vermette will be appearing at the Rachel Browne Theatre as part of the Winnipeg International Writers Festival on September 24th.

Poet Zane Koss discusses his book-length poem, Country Music (Invisible Publishing), his epigraphic choices, oral storytelling, academia, extractive practices and more topics in a wide-ranging talk.

Dr. Brittany Penner's memoir, Children Like Us (Random House Canada), details her experience as a Sixties Scoop survivor, growing up in a Mennonite family, finding her way to her Metis identity and more. She joins me to discuss the book in advance of her appearance at Thin Air 2025.

An Accidental Villain: A Soldier's Tale of War, Deceit and Exile (Random House Canada) explores the life of Sir Hugh Tudor who spent a considerable portion of his later life in Newfoundland, where MacIntyre picked up the threads of myth and legend and went back to look at Tudor's role in as head of the Royal Irish Constabulary, his friendship with Winston Churchill and more.

Max Brault gives a firsthand account of the creation of the Accessible Canada Act (ACA) in his book The Race to the Starting Line. We talk about his history in disability advocacy, how the book was originally conceived of as a documentary film and the process of shaping not only the ACA, but the book among other topics.

Book two in The Leningrad Trilogy, The Communist's Secret finds writer Suzanne Parry exploring the story of Katya Karavayeva, daughter of Sofya and mother to Yelena - the central characters in Lost Souls of Leningrad. We discuss how the book "works" without Michael having read book one, the research and planning that goes into the series, historical veracity and more in our conversation.

Set in the art world - where she previously worked - Anna Barrington's debut novel The Spectacle explores the clash between commercial and creative impulses, the high stakes con of capitalism and much more, which she discusses on the show.

Novelist Rick Skwiot discusses his book The Bootlegger's Bride, which he reveals was drawn from his own family's history during prohibition in the St. Louis area.

After an acclaimed memoir, retired physician Patricia Grayhall's debut novel A Place For Us is a piece of auto-fiction - a format she explains to host Michael Elves while discussing the book's inspiration and origins.

Blue Jays beat reporter Keegan Matheson discusses his "curated history" of the ball club in The Franchise (Triumph Books) and how the process of writing a book diverges from filing daily pieces.

UMFM host Dan Fuller is also a writer whose poetry collection Making Sense From Nonsense collects a series of experimental works. He discusses the process behind the project on the show.

While in town for the book launch of Written on the Dark, Guy Gavriel Kay returned to the UMFM studios to record his third appearance on Turning Pages. He talks about the inspiration for his latest novel, the role of poetry, speaking to the moment and more.

Poet Jacob McArthur Mooney discusses his first novel, The Northern, a tale set in 1950s Canada featuring a trio of traveling Americans attempting to sign independent league baseball players to card contracts.

While he has been part of the Canadian science-fiction writing community for years, Pale Grey Dot is Torontonian Don Miasek's debut novel. He discusses the decisions behind the future he has crafted, how telling the story from multiple viewpoints has both benefits and complications, as well as more behind the writing & plotting of the book.

University of Manitoba graduate and retired corporate lawyer James Arnett has found a new pursuit writing historical fiction. Following up his first novel Bean Fate, he recreates a period and people in The Monmouth Manifesto set during the American Revolution. We talk about the personal connection that led him to the Loyalist story at the center of the book, the research process involved in writing a book of this sort, and the decision to tell the story from two different character's vantage.

Winnipeg author Linda Trinh discusses her "Vietnamese (Non) Buddhist Memoir" Seeking Spirit, the relationship between being a reader and a writer, what does and doesn't go into a memoir and pulling together threads from essays for a long-form work.

Return guest Andrew Forbes discusses his essay collection Field Work: On Baseball and Making a Living (Assembly Press), which includes reflections on labour, Bull Durham, and more.

Creator of the REDress project as a visual artist, Jaime Black-Morsette is now the editor of an anthology called REDress: Art, Action, and the Power of Presence (HighWater Press). We discuss the origins of the project, assembling the many voices heard from in the anthology and more.

For Pledge-O-Rama 2025, the University of Manitoba Press' Sales & Marketing Supervisor Stephanie Paddey joins me to discuss her work, the academic press process, and the experience of having a book selected for (and ultimately winning) Canada Reads.

Originally airing as part of UMFM's Pledge-O-Rama 2025 special noon-hour programming, this is an extended conversation with filmmaker and author Kevin Nikkel about his forthcoming oral history of the Winnipeg Folk Festival, Founding Folks (University of Manitoba Press).

Anne Nesbitt, one of three authors of the children's book Anahareo Saves The Beaver talks about working with multiple authors (as well as an illustrator and advisors), what skills are transferable from her work as a playwright, and the true story behind Anahareo.

Return guest Dale Jacobs discusses his exploration of the baseball world of Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales in Makeshift Fields (Invisible Publishing). We discuss how he landed on the title and why the subtitle was the project's original moniker, the work that went into preparing for his research trip, how his successive baseball books have taken him further and further afield, and more topics of conversation.

elseship: an unrequited affair by Tree Abraham documents the period after Abraham expresses her love for a roommate who doesn't reciprocate. A unique blend of forms, visuals and more, it's a singular work and we have a wide-ranging conversation about its inspiration, creation and construction.

Manitoba author Donna Besel discusses her memoir, The Unravelling (University of Regina Press), which documents her experience as a survivor of incest and sexual violence and the labyrinthine legal process against her father.

**This conversation may be triggering for survivors of sexual violence. If you or someone you know has been affected by these crimes, contact the Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime at 1-877-232-2610.

Newly crowned Canada Reads winner Ma-Nee Chacaby originally appeared on UMFM program At The Edge of Canada: Indigenous Research when A Two-Spirit Journey was first published by the University of Manitoba Press.

With the gracious permission of host Trevor Phillips, I'm airing that original conversation on Turning Pages this week.

Authors Kate Fodor and Laurie Petrou discuss their YA novel, The Rehearsal Club (Groundwood Books), the real-life inspiration for the story set in a home for aspiring theater actresses, how the pair shared writing duties, the decision to set the story in two timelines and more.

The Twin Bill Editor-In-Chief Scott Bolohan joins me to discuss Early Innings, a compendium of works from the quarterly literary baseball journal's beginnings. The collection features poetry, creative non-fiction, fiction and artwork and we discuss the origins of the journal as well as what went into assembling the physical work from an online project among other topics.

While in town to speak at the University of Manitoba for Sustainability Night, I managed to get Madeleine Orr on the phone to discuss her book Warming Up: How Climate Change is Changing Sport (Bloomsbury). We discussed what led her to this field of study, writing for a general audience instead of an academic one, the research and on-the-ground work she did and how global this story proved to be.

Strange Labour is a post-apocalyptic novel that is less concerned with what led to the apocalypse and very interested in exploring how individuals would navigate that "new" world. Released in 2020 via Radiant Press, Penner - a professor at the University of Manitoba - sat down to reflect on his book in the lead-up to the release of The Dark King Swallows The World.

While he centers the book on his background and expertise in science and science communication, Timothy Caulfield's The Certainty Illusion explores how purposeful and unintentional miscommunication alike cloud our understanding of the modern world in many facets of life. We discuss how the book came about, how he expanded the scope and what he thinks might combat moneyed interests driving the obfuscation.

Book Three in Ilona Joy Saari's Mystery Chronicles of New York Women series finds the author returning to the central character of Book One, Lorna Raven. Saari discusses bringing back characters after moving away from them in the second book, plotting mechanics, writing characters that exist in a world where they know genre tropes, the impact of script-writing and more.

Author Jordan S. Keller discusses Wildfire, the first book in her Ashes Over Avalon trilogy featuring central character Abigail Turner navigating her way in world of superheroes. We discuss Keller's relationship to the world of superheroes, how Abigail began as a character in a D&D game, incorporating romance and more.

Arwinder Kaur asks a lot of big questions in her book Living While Human. I managed to get a few of my own in during our discussion on the writing behind it and the content within the book.

Writer Shashi Bhat discusses her short story collection, Death By A Thousand Cuts (McClelland and Stewart) which was longlisted for the 2024 Giller Prize, named A Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year and included among CBC Books' Best Canadian Fiction of 2024.

Novelist Erna Buffie's Let Us Be True is a time-spanning novel that holds a secret at its heart and examines a family pulled together and torn asunder. Originally published by Coteau books, it was a finalist for the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction and the Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book at the 2016 Manitoba Book Awards.

I spoke to Buffie about the book upon its re-release by Shadowpaw Press.

With the news of his passing on January 3rd from cancer complications at the age of 56, I'm re-airing the only conversation I had with Canadian author Andrew Pyper which was about his 2017 reexamination of Gothic horror novels, The Only Child. Recorded while he was in Winnipeg for the writer's festival formerly known as Thin Air, and now named Plume.

Legendary Canadian broadcaster Carol Off hosted As It Happens on CBC for years, and during those years she witnessed a growing polarization among the political landscape, something she attributes in part to an assault on words and an inability to communicate differing viewpoints.

She discusses what she saw, and why it matters to her, in our conversation about At A Loss For Words, which was recently named one of the best Canadian Non-Fiction books of 2024.

Return guest Ariel Gordon discusses her book Fungal (Wolsak & Wynn), which is about mushrooms and trees - not to be confused with Treed, which was about tree and mushrooms. We talk about why these are different things and the fact that this is the second in a planned three-book series, working at the Loveday mushroom factory and how class is as inextricable as climate in Ariel's work among many other topics this book raises.

Winnipeg author Nigel Webber discusses the exhaustive process behind his oral history of the city's hip-hop scene from its birth to the mid-aughts as chronicled in Gritty City.

Former record executive David Junk discusses his memoir, Rockin' the Kremlin: My Incredible True Story of Gangsters, Oligarch, and Pop Stars in Putin's Russia (Rowman & Littlefield) which chronicles his time as the head of Universal Music in Russia. We talk about working with co-writer Fred Bronson, how he ended up returning to Russia with Gibson Guitars, his firsthand view of Russian territorial ambitions and more.

With the reissue of Peter Darbyshire's Cross series via Wolsak and Wynn, I'm joined by the author to discuss the first book, The Mona Lisa Sacrifice and creating the central character, the research that went into the depiction of the art world and more.

British poet and novelist Holly Pester discusses her novel, The Lodgers (Assembly Press), told from the perspective of two precariously-housed women who share the same space at two different times. Pester discusses the related and relatable existences and mirroring between the central characters, among other aspects of the work.

Climate reporter Peter Schwartzstein's new book, The Heat and The Fury (Island Press) draws on years of reporting from the frontlines of climate violence to paint a particularly chilling and compelling picture of what lies ahead for our world.

Sixties Scoop survivor Andrea Currie discusses her nonfiction narrative, Finding Otipemisiwak: The People Who Own Themselves (Arsenal Pulp Press). We talk about her personal journey and her decision to contrast her own experience with those of her brother, pushing back against the narratives about adoption of Indigenous children in Canada and much more.

University of Manitoba professor Robert G. Penner dropped by the station to discuss his new novel, The Dark King Swallows The World (Radiant Press) in advance of his book launch at McNally Robinson on Friday October 25th.

The story of 12 year old Nora embarking on a hero's quest to the underworld set in the English countryside during WWII, Penner discusses drawing inspiration from C.S. Lewis, his doctoral research and late nights spent with a newborn among other topics.

Between the Pipes (Highwater Press) tells the tale of 13 year old hockey player, Chase, and the homophobia and toxic masculinity he faces in his favourite sport in this YA graphic novel. Co-author Elaine Mordoch - Associate Professor and Research Affiliate at the College of Nursing, University of Manitoba - joins me on the show to discuss working with Albert McLeod on writing the book, how it ties in with her work, and more.

Writer and filmmaker Sonya Ballantyne discusses her graphic novel Little By Little: You Can Change The World, a book produced in collaboration with its subject, Michael Redhead Champagne. Aimed at young readers, it tells the story of Redhead Champagne's childhood experiences with injustice and activism and aims to inspire all readers to make incremental change in the world. The book is available now via Highwater Press.

*Please note this graphic novel deals with the topic of MMIWG and thus the conversation about it does as well*

Jen Storm discusses her latest graphic novel, Little Moons, that tells the story of 13 year old Reanna and her family grappling with the loss of Reanna's older sister Chelsea.

We discuss working with new artists on this project, what color palette suggests about tone and mood, how her son inspired the title and more.

Little Moons is out via Highwater Press and the book will be part of Prairie Comics Fest this weekend (October 5/6) at the Millennium Library.

Winnipeg's Poet Laureate, Chimwemwe Undidiscusses her collection Scientific Marvel (Anansi) and how her work as a lawyer overlaps with her poetry, the origins of her writing, the impact of community and much more.

Undi appeared as part of Thin Air 2024.

Award-winning writer Jennie Heijun Wills follows up her memoir Older Sister. Not Necessarily Related with a collection of essays, Everything and Nothing At All (Knopf Canada), which tackles literary criticism, beauty, adoption and chosen community, self-harm and self-healing, along with many more topics.

Heijun Wills launches her book at McNally Robinson on Saturday September 21st as part of the Plume Winnipeg (fka Winnipeg International Writer's Festival).

Engineering professor Wes Marshall discusses his important and maddening book, Killed By A Traffic Engineer (Island Press) about how science and safety are not the focus of traffic engineering and how the system needs to change.

Return guest David A. Robertson discusses the third book in his Reckoner Rises series, God Flare, which will be released on September 3rd. We talk about what impact a different audience has on his writing, what reading Robertson does that impacts his own works and the relationship between writer and artist in the making of a graphic novel among other topics.

Winnipeg filmmaker / playwright Kevin Doherty released his memoir, Growing Up Star Wars earlier this year which chronicles a life-long love affair with the film franchise and the experience of becoming enraptured at a time when fandom looked a little different. We discuss the book and the Star Wars universe in our conversation.

A Baseball Gaijin documents the incredible baseball journey of pitcher Tony Barnette. Author Aaron Fischman discusses how he came to know Tony prior to his career in the NPB playing for the Yakult Swallows (and ultimately making it to the big leagues when he signed with the Texas Rangers), the process behind writing the book including hiring a firm to conduct a critical review and analysis, and much more.

As discussed in the episode, Fischman is offering up signed copies of the book via his social media.

Climate scientist Chris Funk (UC Santa Barbara) discusses his timely book, Drought, Flood, Fire: How Climate Change Contributes to Catastrophes - out now via Cambridge University Press.

Winnipeg writer/editor Gonzalo Riedel recounts his wife's untimely and unexpected passing and his journey through the grieving process while raising two you children. Never Better: Two Kids, Their Dad, and His Wife's Ghost is out via Dundurn Press.

Coming out on Invisible Publishing later this month, McCurdle's Arm is a baseball novella about an aging pitcher playing in the late 19th century. Author Andrew Forbes discusses what led to this book, the role his publisher and spiders played in its creation, recreating the language of the time and more.

The Last of His Kind is the inside story of Clayton Kershaw, the person and the baseball player. Through interviews with family, friends, teammates, coaches and the pitcher himself, Andy McCullough goes deep on Kershaw's singular career. On the episode we discuss how the book came to be, that McCullough was prepared to write the book without Kershaw's participation and much more.

Recently published by McClelland & Stewart, Wînipêk - Visions of Canada from an Indigenous Centre collects and recontextualizes many of Niigaan Sinclair's Winnipeg Free Press columns capturing this place and these time and offering a compelling and at times bracing view of Winnipeg's central role in reconciliation. Our discussion touches on revisiting the original columns and reworking them for a broader audience and longer timeline, the importance of language revitalization, the treaty of 1285, algae, concrete and much more.

With the Edmonton Oilers set to play in the Stanley Cup finals this weekend, it's a topical rebroadcast of a conversation with Globe & Mail sportswriter Stephen Brunt recorded at the time of his publishing Gretzky's Tears: Hockey, Canada, and the Day Everything Changed (Random House).

While we didn't get a chance to sit down on his most recent visit to the city, economist and writer Jeff Rubin has been a past guest on Turning Pages and so to mark the occasion of his new book, A Map of the New Normal, I'm re-airing our conversation about The End of Growth.

We're just days away from a new Crowded House album (Gravity Stairs out May 31) so it's the perfect time to air my conversation with Jeff Apter about his book Don't Dream It's Over: The Remarkable Life of Neil Finn. An authoritative and exhaustive look at Finn's career up to this point and an examination of what makes the Kiwi pop prince tick.

Award-winning science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer discusses his new book The Downloaded (Shadowpaw Press) and how the idea was born out of Covid-19 lockdowns, why the book is written as a series of interviews, prison reform, rooting his work in the science of science fiction and more. Sawyer will be in Winnipeg to launch the book May 21st at McNally Robinson.

The follow-up to Coop the Great, Larry Verstraete's Coop for Keeps further explores the life of an aging dachshund and finds him dealing with bullies and crows (not necessarily the same creatures). Verstraete and I discuss whether his return to the character is to discover or craft what he's been up to since the first book, the role of dreams in the book, and whether the notion that there's a bit of the author in their protagonist holds true when that character is a dog.

Joined by special guest Charlene Diehl from the Winnipeg International Writers Festival, we talk about how she ended up at the helm of this great event, what goes into putting it on, growing out Thin Air Kids and more.

Former Winnipegger Lorri Neilsen Glenn discusses her unconventional memoir The Old Moon In Her Arms: Women I Have Known And Been (Nimbus) and the conversation includes setting challenges for yourself as a writer, what challenges the structure of the book presented for her editor, addressing her younger self through the writing and much more.

Return guest Dale Jacobs discusses his book On Comics and Grief (Wilfrid Laurier University Press) and how in an alternate universe it would just have been an academic work on the comics of 1976 (American's bicentennial) but how grief over the loss of his mother transformed him and the book and challenged him to push at what academic writing has been and can be.

Austin Frerick is a Fellow at Yale University whose new book Barons examines "Money, Power, and the Corruption of America's Food Industry" by selecting major players in specific areas of food production and how their exploits (emphasis mine) impact the environment, the economy, our health and more.

A book that bounces through time and splits between two main characters - Gertie and SiSi - Myriam J.A. Chancy's Village Weavers explores the lives of a pair of Haitian women who meet as children and whose lives intersect in ensuing decades in various places. Chancy and I discuss drawing on her parents recollection of Haiti, her own experiences visiting the Dominican Republic, the epigraphs she chose and the characters she created amongst other topics.

Noah Gittell makes a convincing case for the portrayal of baseball in film over many decades as a reflection of "America" as a concept and construct in his new book Baseball: The Movie (Triumph Books). Our conversation touches on some of the lesser-known films, what led Gittell to the subject, and how he went about working on it.

Dr. Ethel Tungohan, the Canada Research Chair in Canadian Migration Policy, Impacts and Activism, and Assistant Professor of Politics and Social Science at York University visited the University of Manitoba to deliver a talk as part of the Critical Conversation series held by the Centre for Human Rights Research. While on campus, she sat down to discuss her book Care Activism: Migrant Domestic Workers, Movement-Building, and Communities of Care (University of Illinois Press) and what led her to the topic, how the book differs from her dissertation and where she sees 'care activism' in communities beyond that of the migrant domestic workers she researched.

Acclaimed author Waubgeshig Rice discusses his latest novel, Moon of the Turning Leaves, the follow-up to Moon of the Crusted Snow. We discuss returning to the characters and world he created for that book and how reader interest prompted him to write the book.

Released via House of Anansi, Saskatchewan writer Victoria Koops' debut novel, Who We Are In Real Life blends fantastical elements of table-top role playing games with real life teenage drama around being Queer in a small prairie town. We discuss what led Koops to telling this story and how her first creative writing experience came via Dungeons and Dragons.

To cap off I Love To Read Month, another book aimed at young readers is on the program. Award-winning author David A. Robertston discusses his forthcoming hockey novel, The Kodiaks: Home Ice Advantage (Highwater Press) and how he drew on experiences at the local rinks with his own son, why his central Alex moves from Norway House Cree Nation to Winnipeg, the purposeful decision behind Alex's age in the book and much more.

Former Toronto Star sportswriter Morgan Campbell discusses his memoir about growing up a Black American in Canada, amidst a family that fought inside and outside the confines of the household. My Fighting Family is out via Penguin Random House Canada.

Winnipeg activist and speaker Michael Redhead Champagne discusses his new children's book, We Need Everyone. Out via Highwater Press and featuring artwork by Tiff Bartel the book gets its launch at the Manitoba Museum on February 17th as part of I Love To Read Month and Thin Air Winnipeg's Kids programming.

Champagne discusses translating oral storytelling to the page, working with an artist to match pictures with words, and more.

Thriller writer E.A. Aymar discusses his latest book, When She Left (Thomas & Mercer) and we talk about creating too much backstory for characters, writing to pictures of actual people, what he takes from other writers discussing craft and more.

Following up The Innocents, Newfoundland writer Michael Crummey stopped by the station while on tour for his novel The Adversary to discuss returning to the same time period, but widening the aperture of his focus from just a pair of siblings to look at all the people affected by a set of warring siblings.

Originally aired on The Bench Jockeys, this book by MLB.com Senior Writer Jonathan Mayo explores how MLB clubs find "diamonds in the rough" through the selection process of several Major League stars including Mookie Betts and Joey Votto.

Airing this one in celebration of the selection of Joe Mauer to the Baseball Hall of Fame (aka Cooperstown) on the first ballot by the BBWAA last night.

Ray Padgett discusses the path from online interviews and curiosity about the life and work of Bob Dylan to his book, Pledging My Time, that features numerous interviews with Dylan's collaborators and explores the breadth of the Bard of Duluth's creative output.

Return guest (and NHL legend, former MP and deep thinker) Ken Dryden discusses his searching and sweeping recollection of the people he attended high school with in The Class and what it says about the past half-century in Canada.

Winner of the ReLit Award for Poetry, Sarah Ens' long poem Flyway (Turnstone Press) is a story of human and animal flight patterns, a wrestling with history and rumination on the future in an ecologically traumatic world. Ens discusses the creation of this book and the intersection of the two stories, structural decisions and hopes for the reader among other topics.

Winnipeg author Trista Lundquist joins the world of YA dystopic fiction with her debut novel, The Quiet Limit. She discusses her love of the genre, creating a world that's possible but unlike our own and populating it with characters who drive the narrative.

Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives economist Ricardo Tranjan comes to Winnipeg for a launch of his book The Tenant Class at X-Cues on Thursday, December 7th at 7pm.

Historian Stephen Bown's sweeping history of the Canadian Pacific Railway begins long before a single spike - let alone the last one - was hammered into the ground. Dominion: The Railway and the Rise of Canada is available now through Doubleday Canada.

Return guest Ariel Gordon (who I previously spoke to about Treed) collaborated with Saskatchewan poet Brenda Schmidt on Siteseeing which was recently released via At Bay Press. We talk about the back-and-forth process the duo engaged in; writing about climate and place; how much of yourself is disclosed in writing and more. Gordon and Schmidt will be launching the book TONIGHT (November 22nd) at McNally Robinson in Saskatoon, and the pair will be part of the Vertigo Winter Stage in Regina on Thursday November 23rd.

Amanda West Lewis's new YA novel, Focus. Click. Wind. tells the story of aspiring photojournalist Billie Taylor, who moves to Canada at the height of the Vietnam War and discovers protests both personal and political in 1968 Toronto. Available now through House of Anansi, Lewis's book may be about a past era, but it speaks to the contemporary world.

Giller Prize winning author Sean Michaels discusses Do You Remember Being Born? a fascinating novel that explores the intersection of art an A.I. through a week-long adventure in the life of a poet based on Marianne Moore.

Last on to discuss his history of Winnipeg underground rock, Missing Like Teeth, author Sheldon Birnie returns to talk about Where The Pavement Turns To Sand, a collection of short stories that explore the supernatural and the unexpected. The book gets a hybrid launch on Saturday November 4th at McNally Robinson.

Return guest Joan Thomas discusses her new novel, Wild Hope, and how it's an unintentional "cli-fi" work, an unconventional thriller and more. The book is out via Harper Collins and Thomas will be hosting a Writing Craft event in association with the Winnipeg International Writer's Festival on Sunday October 29th.

Jennifer Manuel returns to the remote Indigenous community she created in The Heaviness of Things That Float, this time through the character of teacher Molleigh Royston in The Morning Bell Brings the Broken Hearted. We talk about her further exploration of this fictional community, the "types" of people who teach & work there drawing on her own experience as an educator, and more.

As part of the conversations with authors appearing at the 2023 Winnipeg International Writer's Festival, I speak to Mary Soderstrom about Against The Seas: Saving Civilizations from Rising Waters (Dundurn Press).

Return guest Katherena Vermette discusses the latest book in what is ostensibly a trilogy involving characters introduced in The Break and The Strangers. Released at the beginning of September 2023 via Penguin Random House, The Circle is another incredible work. Vermette will be appearing at the Winnipeg International Writer's Festival as part of All Things Metis on Tuesday, October 10th.

Co-host of UMFM's The Hockey Show Jason Pchajek has written his debut novel, Bounty - a "Cli-Fi" book set in a Winnipeg one hundred years in the future featuring shadowy corporations, bounty hunters and yes, hockey. Pchajek launches the book at a hybrid event at McNally Robinson on Wednesday September 27th and the book is available now via Turnstone Press.

Local author & journalist Josiah Neufeld published The Temple at the End of the Universe earlier this year but in advance of his appearance at Thin Air Winnipeg's 2023 festival, I got the chance to talk to him about the book and the spiritual journey that prompted it.

Director of Transportation & Drainage Operations, Houston Public Works - Veronica O. Davis - has written "A Manifesto for repairing divided communities" with Inclusive Transportation. While it's focused on the United States and geared towards transportation planners, engineers, and policymakers, the book has lessons for everyone looking to rethink our communities and push against the car-centric choices that have been made for decades.

Annahid Dashtgard follows up her memoir Breaking the Ocean with an engaging and thought-provoking collection of essays, Bones of Belonging. Dashtgard will be appearing as part of the 2023 Winnipeg International Writers' Festival, Thin Air, which is just weeks away!

Based on recent events here in Canada, it seemed a good time to rebroadcast this discussion with Michael Adams (the founding president of Environics) on his book Could It Happen Here? Canada In The Age of Trump and Brexit originally aired in 2019 upon the release of the book.

Best-selling author Spike Carlsen looks at how much goes into making our neighborhoods work and just how the infrastructure we take for granted is maintained to make our lives smooth in A Walk Around The Block, out now via Harper Collins.

One the heels of the Gimli International Film Festival it seemed like a good time to revisit this conversation with Winnipeg filmmaker and educator George Toles.

In advance of an appearance a the Winnipeg International Writer's Festival (aka Thin Air Winnipeg) I spoke to artist / graphic novelist Jonathan Dyck about his beautiful new book, Shelterbelts.

Award-winning author Sean Michaels sits down to discuss his novel The Wagers, which is hard to pin down, but an absolute pleasure to read and discuss.

After a hiatus for Festival Express, my book show Turning Pages is back today with guest Di Brandt discussing The Sweetest Dance On Earth, a collection of poems from throughout her award-winning career out now via Turnstone Press. Brandt was the recipient of the 2023 Manitoba Arts Council / Conseil des arts du Manitoba Award of Distinction.

Behavioral ecologist David Scheel has spent a quarter century studying octopuses and he chronicles much of what he's learned in Many Things Under A Rock (W.W. Norton & Co.)

Bobbi Hunter, widow of Bob Hunter and editor of the new memoir chronicling the life and legacy of the Greenpeace co-founder, discusses the unusual structure of Mr. Mindbomb, her role in putting it together and reminiscences of Bob himself. Mr. Mindbomb is available now via Rocky Mountain Press.

"Bobbi Hunter was treasurer, co-founder, main fundraiser, office coordinator, strategist and constant facilitator for the Greenpeace Foundation from 1974 to 1978. She was married to Bob Hunter for 31 years and is the mother of his two children, Will and Emily Hunter, and stepmother to his daughter Justine."

Novelist Thomas Wharton discusses his "environmental literary suspense" tale, The Book of Rain and talks about addressing a gap in storytelling he noticed as a reader, crafting games of his own as a child and how a desperate act of creativity led him to the structure of the book.

Return guest Lauren Carter discusses her collection of short stories, Places Like These (available now via Book*hug Press) and among other things we touch on empath, trauma, animals and what differences there are to writing characters in novels versus short stories.

Métis writer Michelle Porter weaves a multi-generational, matrilineal tale in her first novel, A Grandmother Begins the Story, which pulls from her own family history in a way she found more truthful than a non-fiction book.

Science filmmaker Dan Levitt (National Geographic, PBS and more) brings his storytelling skills to the page to explore "the story of your body's atoms, from the Big Bang through last night's dinner" in his book What's Gotten Into You, out now via Harper Collins.

Xanax Cowboy is "Written & Directed By" poet Hannah Green. She joined me via Zoom to discuss the book, out now via House of Anansi.

A new interview, for an older book. Author and musician Steve Murphy joins me to talk about Everybody Wins (Except For The Losers) which is subtitled "A Record Store Day Story" and so I got him to revisit the book in time for RSD 2023 this Saturday, April 22nd. Our interview concludes with Steve's choice of a track off his band Westminster Park's latest album, Songs That Rhyme With Alone.

Singer-songwriter Tara MacLean discusses her wide-ranging and revelatory memoir, Song of the Sparrow, out via Harper Collins.

Already the author of a memoir and YA novel, writer and educator Lindsay Wong turns to short stories with her haunting / haunted collection, Tell Me Pleasant Things About Immortality, out now via Penguin Random House.

Award-winning author and physician Dr. Vincent Lam discusses his new novel, On The Ravine, and returning to a character he's written in the past, exploring the gap between working with people who use drugs and writing fictional accounts of people who use drugs, as well as other topics surrounding creating the book.

Rebroadcast of a conversation with novelist Will Ferguson about his book 419.

Award-winning journalist and University of Manitoba graduate discusses her memoir A Thousand Farewells

Author Jason Schneider discusses The Longest Suicide, his authorized biography of Canadian music legend Art Bergman. The book is available now via Anvil Press

Author Jason Schneider discusses The Longest Suicide, his authorized biography of Canadian music legend Art Bergman. The book is available now via Anvil Press

Artist and author Sylvie Simmons discusses her biography of Leonard Cohen, I'm Your Man.

Return guest Dr. Gabor Mate discusses his new book, The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture and how it brings together aspects of much of his prior work.

Award-winning author Joshua Whitehead's latest book, Making Love With The Land, is his first book of non-fiction and a collection of essays that blur genre boundaries and explore Whitehead's connection land and language.

A dense novel set on a moor in the liminal space between England and Scotland in the 1870s, Ann-Marie MacDonald discusses how she first envisioned the place and central character in a picture and drew the story out from there.

Author and podcaster Steve Phillips discusses his book How We Win the Civil War which makes the surprising - but well-substantiated argument - that the Confederacy continued fighting after the formal surrender at Appomatox, they just switched tactics. While the first half of his book looks at the history of this ongoing civil war in America, the second half points to what can be done to combat Confederacy and White Supremacy and win.

Return guest, author Margaret Sweatman's latest novel The Gunsmith's Daughter finds the titular character, Lilac Welsh, leaving her remote home and family to cover the Vietnam war as a young correspondent. Sweatman appears as part of my coverage of the 2022 Winnipeg International Writer's Festival.

Return guest, author Margaret Sweatman's latest novel The Gunsmith's Daughter finds the titular character, Lilac Welsh, leaving her remote home and family to cover the Vietnam war as a young correspondent. Sweatman appears as part of my coverage of the 2022 Winnipeg International Writer's Festival.

Author Marcie Rendon discusses the third book in her Cash Blackbear mystery series, Sinister Graves, which begins with a body washing up on farmland in North Dakota during a spring flood.

Novelist Fawn Parker discusses the process that led to creating Hillary Greene, the central character in her new book, What We Both Know. It's a book that wrestles with trauma, legacy and voice in writing among many other things. Parker is part of the 2022 Winnipeg International Writer's Festival.

In advance of an appearance a the Winnipeg International Writer's Festival (aka Thin Air Winnipeg) I spoke to artist / graphic novelist Jonathan Dyck about his beautiful new book, Shelterbelts.

Award-winning author Joshua Whitehead's latest book, Making Love With The Land, is his first book of non-fiction and a collection of essays that blur genre boundaries and explore Whitehead's connection to land and language.

Turning Pages host Michael Elves talks to acclaimed broadcaster and science writer Jay Ingram about his book The Science of Why?

Fantasy novelist Christian A. Brown discusses Feast of Fates, the first volume in the Four Feasts Til Darkness series and the topic of female agency in the genre in light of recent furor over Game of Thrones.

Polaris Prize winning rapper Rollie Pemberton - who performs under the name Cadence Weapon - discusses his new memoir, Bedroom Rapper, which details his career's successes and struggles.

Canadian astronaut Dr. Dave Williams discusses his memoir, Defying Limits.

Catherine Gildiner discusses her second memoir, After The Falls.

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Rebroadcast of an interview with Michael Wex, discussing his book "How To Be A Mensch (& Not A Schmuck)"

Thriller writer Linwood Barclay discusses his novel Trust Your Eyes.

Discussing her forthcoming book, The Tech Solution, (August 18, Viking) Dr Shimi Kang provides "a to-the-point resource for parents and educators who want the best approach for raising kids in our digital world. It outlines all you need to know about the short-term and potential long-term consequences of tech use."

A spellbinding and wise coming-of-age story, Shelter draws readers into the precarious world of two young sisters in search of their mother, and brings to life the breathtaking B.C. landscape through which they travel.