From Lebanon, filmmaker Nadine Labaki. Her most recent film, Capernaum — about refugees and the impoverished lives of children — was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars. Her first two features focus on the lives of women, including Caramel, a comic social drama set in a beauty parlour, which Labaki both directed and stars in. She spoke with Eleanor Wachtel in 2018 at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Edward P. Jones spoke with Eleanor Wachtel in 2005 about his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Known World. Set in the heartland of 19th-century American slavery, Jones creates an entire world based on what he calls a historical footnote: that there were freed slaves who themselves became slave owners.
Cree artist Kent Monkman is known for his provocative challenges to the representation of Indigenous peoples in Western Art, which often feature his two-spirit artistic persona, Miss Chief. Monkman's work is widely exhibited in Canada and internationally, including at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. Through the summer of 2022, he has exhibitions at the National Gallery of Canada and in the fall, at the Royal Ontario Museum. This episode originally aired on April 19, 2016.
Margo Jefferson's 2015 memoir, Negroland, chronicled her experiences growing up as part of Chicago's Black bourgeoisie in the 1950s and '60s. It won the National Book Critics Circle Award. Now, the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic has an acclaimed new title, Constructing A Nervous System. It's an innovative look at Jefferson's life and mind, as well as the artists, musicians and writers who shaped her.
Selin is back! The bright and curious heroine of Elif Batuman’s acclaimed debut novel, The Idiot, is now in her second year at Harvard, still hungry for experience. From awkward sexual encounters to depression to ongoing questions of how to live and to become a writer – in Batuman’s new novel, Either/Or, that quest leads Selin to some uncomfortable places, but also to self-discovery. Batuman's first book, The Possessed, traced her passion for all things Russian. Her novel, The Idiot, was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize, and the Women’s Prize for Fiction.
James Runcie's latest novel, The Great Passion, imagines a year in the life of Johann Sebastian Bach, culminating with the writing and first performance of his St. Matthew Passion in 1727. Told through the eyes of a fictional, 13-year-old student, it explores the man behind the legendary composer: an ambitious working musician and father of eight, coping with grief and loss, through faith and music. Runcie is also the author of the popular Grantchester Mystery series.
From the face that launched a thousand ships, to the gaze that turned men to stone – the women of Greek myths are the subject of Natalie Haynes’s latest book, Pandora’s Jar. If you’ve ever wondered whether Helen really started the Trojan War, or how Medusa got a head full of snakes, or what Pandora’s box was all about, Haynes is the person to ask. The British classicist, novelist and stand-up comedian goes back to the ancient original sources to rediscover these and other legendary women, whose stories have too often been forgotten or misrepresented.
Joachim Trier has been hailed as one of the most interesting and dynamic new voices in European cinema. His film The Worst Person in the World is the latest in his loosely described “Oslo trilogy”–compelling character studies set in the changing landscape of his hometown. Trier has described the movie as “a coming-of-age film for grown-ups who feel like they still haven’t grown up.” It’s been nominated for numerous prizes including the Oscar for Best International Feature Film and Best Original Screenplay.
From novels such as Annie John and Lucy, to her notable nonfiction, Jamaica Kincaid's work is highly autobiographical, chronicling everything from her childhood in Antigua to her brother's untimely death from AIDS. Inspired by the life of her father, Kincaid's 2002 novel Mr. Potter tells the story of an illiterate taxi driver living in Antigua. Jamaica Kincaid spoke to Eleanor Wachtel in Toronto in 2002. This episode originally aired on September 22, 2002.
Kiese Laymon originally conceived of his award-winning memoir Heavy as a weight-loss book, but it turned into something more profound: an intimate account of growing up Black in Jackson, Miss. With fearless honesty and hard-edged humour, Laymon describes a childhood filled with love, but also violence. The memoir confronts his complicated relationship with his mother, as well as his lifelong struggle with his weight and addiction to gambling. This interview originally aired January 4, 2019.