Watershed Writers w/ Tanis MacDonald

Feb 26 2024 2

Watershed Writers w/ Tanis MacDonald Podcast artwork

A podcast dedicated to interviewing local writers practicing their art and craft in the Grand River region. You can listen to the show every Saturday morning at 10am on Midtown Radio KW. Supported by the Waterloo Region Arts Fund.

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WLU Writer in Residence NASSER HUSSAIN on his work's playfully seriousness

Feb 26 2024 59 mins

Join host Tanis MacDonald this week on Watershed Writers when she talks to Nasser Hussain — Wilfrid Laurier University's 2024 Edna Staebler Writer in Residence — about the PLAYFUL SERIOUSNESS which informs his recent work.

Kitchener poet CHRIS BANKS on the speed of life and humour as an author's tool

Jan 11 2024 59 mins

Tanis MacDonald is joined by the celebrated and prolific Kitchener poet Chris Banks to discuss the speed of life in the 21st Century, writing metaphors for anxiety, and using humour to cast light on the heaviest subjects.

Hamilton writer ANUJA VARGHESE on her Governor General's Award winning collection "Chrysalis"

Dec 17 2023 59 mins

Host Tanis MacDonald brings us Anuja Varghese, winner of this year’s Governor General’s Award for Fiction to discuss her genre-bending use of gothic elements in the familiar settings of her horror-adjacent dark fiction in her collection of short stories, Chrysalis (2023).

Waterloo writer CARRIE SNYDER on real-life fiction

Dec 03 2023 59 mins

Tanis MacDonald spends an hour talking with author and mentor Carrie Snyder on her career writing through real-life FRICTION — and how her writing is informed by her busy life in the Grand River community.

Paris, Ontario author ALISON FISHBURN on purity culture and fellowship

Nov 20 2023 59 mins

Tanis MacDonald sits down with Alison Fishburn to talk about purity culture, writing about class and finding fellowship as an author, and her award-winning performance in her one-woman play… Church Boyfriends and Other Impure Thoughts.

UW prof and author SARAH TOLMIE on medieval lit and writing novellas

Nov 05 2023 59 mins

Tanis MacDonald hosts Sarah Tolmie to laugh about medieval literature, learn about Sarah’s astonishing novella-writing process, and to discover the meaning of… WEIRD FICTION!

Waterloo author CAROL DUNCAN on writing the historical fantastic

Oct 22 2023 59 mins

Carol Duncan talks to us about writing short stories inflected with Caribbean history and culture, and about her research roots when writing the historical fantastic. Her collection of short stories, This Spot of Ground: Spiritual Baptists in Toronto is available through Wilfrid Laurier University Press and fine booksellers everywhere.

TO & FRO: Season 4 Sneak Peek and Retrospective

Oct 09 2023 59 mins

We kick off our fourth season with the ‘To and Fro’ episode. We’ll take a look back at writers we’ve interviewed, a sneak peek at who we’ll be talking to this fall, and discover what local authors are writing — and reading!

JESSICA VITALIS on writing big issues for young people and her forthcoming book "The Coyote Queen"

May 05 2023 59 mins

Tanis speaks with novelist Jessica Vitalis about her work for middle-grade readers treating big issues like life, death, empathy, and social justice in The Rabbit’s Gift and her forthcoming Coyote Queen.

DAVID WALTNER TOEWS on backyard birds and his book "A Conspriacy of Chickens"

May 05 2023 59 mins

This week on Watershed Writers, we talk with writer and epidemiologist David Waltner-Toews about the fun and frustrations of raising backyard birds, and his new book, A Conspiracy of Chickens.