Jaime Burnet's first novel, Crocuses Hatch From Snow, was published by Vagrant Press in 2019. Crocuses was shortlisted for the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award and the ReLit Award. Her second novel, milktooth, was published by Vagrant in April 2025. Jaime lives with her family in Mulipjɨkejk/Herring Cove, Mi’kma'ki/Nova Scotia, where she writes, makes music, and walks by the ocean. She practices labour, employment, and human rights law in Kjipuktuk/Halifax. Find Jaime at the links below. Instagram: @jaimeburnet Website: https://www.jaimeburnet.com/ You can find Jaime’s most recent book, Familial Hungers, here: https://nimbus.ca/store/milktooth.html If you're interested in creative writing, the University of King's College MFA in Creative Writing might be for you. Find out more at: ukings.ca/area-of-study/writing-and-publishing/ Subscribe to Further Reading: https://feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:952114480/sounds.rss Contact us: [email protected] Thanks as always to our friends at the King’s Co-op Bookstore. www.kingsbookstore.ca

Jack Wong (黃雋喬) was born in Hong Kong and raised in Vancouver. In 2010, he left behind a life as a bridge engineer to pursue his Bachelor of Fine Arts at NSCAD University in Kjipuktuk / Halifax, Nova Scotia; he has called the east coast of Canada home ever since. A self-declared actual Jack-of-all-trades, he has also tried his hand at bookkeeping, teaching art, managing a psychology research lab, and running his own bicycle repair shop, just to name a few—a real education for creating children’s books, if you ask him! Working as a children’s author/illustrator, Jack seeks to share his winding journey with young readers so that they may embrace the unique amalgams of experiences that make up their own lives. Jack’s debut picture book, When You Can Swim (Scholastic), received the 2023 Boston Globe–Horn Book Award in Picture Books, the 2023 Governor General’s Literary Award in Young People’s Literature – Illustrated Books, the 2024 Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award, and was a finalist for the Ezra Jack Keats Award. His second picture book, The Words We Share (Annick Press), received the Ann Connor Brimer Award for Atlantic Canadian Children’s Literature, and was shortlisted for the Ontario Library Association’s Blue Spruce Award. His other titles include All That Grows (Groundwood), The Music Inside Us: Yo-Yo Ma & His Gifts to the World (written by James Howe, Abrams) and a forthcoming title from Scholastic. Find Jack at the links below. Website: https://jackwong.ca/ Instagram: @jacquillo You can find Jack’s book The Music Inside Us here: https://jackwong.ca/the-music-inside-us If you're interested in creative writing, the University of King's College MFA in Creative Writing might be for you. Find out more at: ukings.ca/area-of-study/writing-and-publishing/ Subscribe to Further Reading: feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundclo…480/sounds.rss Contact us: [email protected] Thanks as always to our friends at the King’s Co-op Bookstore. kingsbookstore.ca/

Christine Wu is a Chinese-Canadian poet who was born and raised on the territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh (Vancouver, BC). She has a BFA in Creative Writing from the University of Victoria, a MLIS from Dalhousie University, and a MA in English from the University of New Brunswick. In 2023, she was the winner of the RBC PEN Canada New Voices Award and in 2022, she was shortlisted for the RBC Writers’ Trust Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers. She now lives and writes in Kjipuktuk (Halifax, NS) in Mi’kma’ki. Find Christine at the links below. Instagram: @homemadepoem You can find Christine’s most recent book, Familial Hungers, here: https://www.brickbooks.ca/shop/familial-hungers-by-christine-wu/ If you're interested in creative writing, the University of King's College MFA in Creative Writing might be for you. Find out more at: ukings.ca/area-of-study/writing-and-publishing/ Subscribe to Further Reading: https://feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:952114480/sounds.rss Contact us: [email protected] Thanks as always to our friends at the King’s Co-op Bookstore. www.kingsbookstore.ca

Shani Mootoo is a writer of fiction and poetry as well as a visual artist whose work has been exhibited locally and internationally. Mootoo’s novels include Cereus Blooms at Night, Valmiki’s Daughter, Moving Forward Sideways Like a Crab, and Polar Vortex. She is a recipient of the K.M. Hunter Artist Award, a Chalmers Arts Fellowship, and the James Duggins Mid-Career Novelists’ Prize. Her work has been longlisted and shortlisted for the Giller Prize, the International DUBLIN Literary Award, and the Booker Prize. The poetry collection Oh Witness Dey! is her most recent work. Mootoo was born in Ireland, grew up in Trinidad, and now lives in Prince Edward County, Ontario. Find Shani at the links below. Instagram: @shani_mootoo) You can find Shani’s most recent book, Starry Starry Night, here: https://bookhugpress.ca/shop/author/shani-mootoo/starry-starry-night-by-shani-mootoo/ If you're interested in creative writing, the University of King's College MFA in Creative Writing might be for you. Find out more at: ukings.ca/area-of-study/writing-and-publishing/ Subscribe to Further Reading: https://feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:952114480/sounds.rss Contact us: [email protected] Thanks as always to our friends at the King’s Co-op Bookstore. www.kingsbookstore.ca

How to Survive a Bear Attack: A Memoir was published by Knopf Canada in March 2025 in Canada and the U.S. It is a national best seller, one of Spotify’s Best of the Year so far, and the winner of the 2025 Governor General’s Literary Award in Non-Fiction. Claire Cameron’s most recent novel, The Last Neanderthal, was a national bestseller and a finalist for the 2017 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. It sold in eleven territories. Her second novel, The Bear, was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, sold in ten territories, and was a #1 national bestseller. It won the Northern Lit Award from the Ontario Library Service, which her first novel, The Line Painter, also won. Claire has led canoe trips in Algonquin Park and worked as an instructor for Outward Bound, teaching mountaineering, climbing, and whitewater rafting in Oregon and beyond. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The Guardian, and she is a monthly contributor to The Globe and Mail. She lives in Toronto. Find Claire at the links below. Website: https://www.claire-cameron.com/ Instagram: @ clairecameron123 You can find Claire’s book, How to Survive a Bear Attach, here: https://www.claire-cameron.com/how-to-survive-a-bear-attack If you're interested in creative writing, the University of King's College MFA in Creative Writing might be for you. Find out more at: ukings.ca/area-of-study/writing-and-publishing/ Subscribe to Further Reading: https://feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:952114480/sounds.rss Contact us: [email protected] Thanks as always to our friends at the King’s Co-op Bookstore. www.kingsbookstore.ca

Chad Lucas has been in love with words since he attempted his first novel on a typewriter in the sixth grade. He has worked as a newspaper reporter, communications advisor, freelance writer, part-time journalism instructor, and parenting columnist. His work has appeared in publications including Halifax Magazine, Black to Business, Sport Quarterly and The Chronicle Herald, where he wrote a biweekly column, “Life With Kids,” from 2011-2016. He’s a previous Silver Award winner at the Atlantic Journalism Awards, and his short fiction has appeared in EVENT and The Dalhousie Review. Chad’s debut novel THANKS A LOT, UNIVERSE was named a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection and a best middle grade book of 2021 by the School Library Journal, New York Public Library, and Canadian Children’s Book Centre. His second book, LET THE MONSTER OUT, released in May 2022 and was nominated for the Forest of Reading Red Maple Award (2023) and the Manitoba Young Readers Choice Awards (2024). YOU OWE ME ONE, UNIVERSE, a sequel to Chad’s debut, released in November 2023 and has been named a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection. His fourth book, THE VANISHED ONES, will be released in January 2025. A proud descendant of the historic African Nova Scotian community of Lucasville, Chad lives with his family in Nova Scotia. In his spare time, he enjoys coaching youth basketball, and he’s never far from a cup of tea. Chad is also a musician and played on the 2008 East Coast Music Award-winning album New Beginnings from artist Chelsea Amber. Find Chad at the links below. Website: https://www.chadlucaswrites.com/ Instagram: @chadgalucas You can find Chad’s book, The Vanished Ones, here: https://www.abramsbooks.com/product/vanished-ones_9781419766848/ If you're interested in creative writing, the University of King's College MFA in Creative Writing might be for you. Find out more at: ukings.ca/area-of-study/writing-and-publishing/ Subscribe to Further Reading: feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundclo…480/sounds.rss Contact us: [email protected] Thanks as always to our friends at the King’s Co-op Bookstore. www.kingsbookstore.ca

Sue Murtagh lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her writing has appeared in The Nashwaak Review, Grain, carte blanche, the Humber Literary Review, The New Quarterly, yolk, and The Walrus. She won the Budge Wilson Short Story Prize in 2016. In 2020, she apprenticed with Alexander Macleod through the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia’s Alistair MacLeod mentorship program. Sue then graduated with distinction in 2022 from the Humber School for Writers, working with Danila Botha. We’re Not Rich is her first book. Sue is a proud member of the Writers' Union of Canada. Find Sue at the links below. Website: https://www.suemurtagh.com/ Instagram: @sue.murtagh_author You can find Sue’s book We’re Not Rich here: https://nimbus.ca/store/were-not-rich.html If you're interested in creative writing, the University of King's College MFA in Creative Writing might be for you. Find out more at: ukings.ca/area-of-study/writing-and-publishing/ Subscribe to Further Reading: feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundclo…480/sounds.rss Contact us: [email protected] Thanks as always to our friends at the King’s Co-op Bookstore. kingsbookstore.ca/

Charlene Carr studied literature at university, attaining both a BA and MA in English, including a study program at Oxford. She has independently published nine novels and her first agented novel, Hold My Girl, sold to HarperCollins Canada, Sourcebooks Landmark (US), Welbeck Publishing (UK) and Alma Littera (Lithuania). It was named one of the Best Books of 2023 by CBC Books, was an Amazon Editor’s Pick for Best Literature and Fiction, was shortlisted for both the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award and the Dartmouth Book Award, and has been optioned for adaptation to the screen. Charlene received grants from Arts Nova Scotia and Canada Council for the Arts to write and revise her most recent novel, We Rip The World Apart, and is working on her next book. She lives in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia with her husband and young daughters. Find Charlene at the links below. Website: https://www.charlenecarr.com/ Instagram: @ charlenecarrauthor You can find Charlene’s book We Rip the World Apart here: https://www.charlenecarr.com/books/ If you're interested in creative writing, the University of King's College MFA in Creative Writing might be for you. Find out more at: ukings.ca/area-of-study/writing-and-publishing/ Subscribe to Further Reading: feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundclo…480/sounds.rss Contact us: [email protected] Thanks as always to our friends at the King’s Co-op Bookstore. kingsbookstore.ca/

On today’s show, we speak to Annick MacAskill. Annick MacAskill is the author of four full-length poetry collections, including Murmurations (Gaspereau Press, 2020) and No Meeting Without Body (Gaspereau Press, 2018), which was nominated for the League of Canadian Poets’ Gerald Lampert Memorial Award and shortlisted for the J.M. Abraham Poetry Award (Atlantic Book Awards). Her third collection Shadow Blight (Gaspereau Press, 2022), a book that explores miscarriage, disenfranchised grief, and Ovid’s Metamorphoses, won the Governor General’s Literary Award for English-Language Poetry, and was also shortlisted for the League of Canadian Poets’ Pat Lowther Memorial Award and the J.M. Abraham Award (Atlantic Book Awards). MacAskill’s fourth book of poetry, Votive, was published in the fall of 2024 by Gaspereau Press. MacAskill recently served as Poet-in-Residence with Arc Poetry Magazine and has taught creative writing through the League of Canadian Poets’ P.K. Page Mentorship Programme, the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia’s Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Programme, and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, among others. MacAskill holds a PhD in French literature from Western University and has published articles in journals such as the International Journal of the Classical Tradition, L’Année ronsardienne, Le Verger, and Renaissance et Réforme / Renaissance and Reformation. She currently teaches French language, literature, and translation as a contract faculty member in the Department of Languages and Cultures at Saint Mary’s University. A settler of French and Scottish ancestry, she lives and writes in Kjipuktuk (Halifax, Nova Scotia), on the traditional and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq. Find Annick at the links below. Website: https://annickmacaskill.com/ Instagram: @annickmaca You can find Annick’s book Votive, here: http://www.gaspereau.com/ If you're interested in creative writing, the University of King's College MFA in Creative Writing might be for you. Find out more at: ukings.ca/area-of-study/writing-and-publishing/ Subscribe to Further Reading: feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundclo…480/sounds.rss Contact us: [email protected] Thanks as always to our friends at the King’s Co-op Bookstore. kingsbookstore.ca/

On today’s show, we talk to Donna Kane. Donna Kane is a writer who divides her time between Rolla, BC on Treaty 8 Territory and Halifax, NS in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and traditional lands of the Mi’kmaq people. Her poems, short fiction, reviews, and essays have been published widely in journals such as Science Today, Scientific American, The Walrus, The Fiddlehead, and The Malahat Review, as well as in several anthologies including Best Canadian Poetry 2013 (Tightrope Books, 2013), I Found it at the Movies: An Anthology of Film Poems (Guernica Press 2014), In This Together: Fifteen True Stories of Real Reconciliation (Brindle and Glass, 2016), Beyond Earth’s Edge: The Poetry of Spaceflight (University of Arizona Press, 2020) and, most recently, Outer Space: 100 Poems (Cambridge University Press, 2022). She has published four books of poetry, Somewhere, a Fire, (Hagios Press, 2004), and Erratic (Hagios Press, 2007), both finalists for the ReLit Award, Orrery (Harbour, 2020), a finalist for the Governor General’s Award, and Asterisms (Harbour, 2024). She is also the recipient of the Lina Chartrand Poetry Award (2000) and in 2010 she was a winner in Geist’s Annual Literal Literary Postcard Story Contest. Her poetry has been featured on CBC’s Daybreak North and North by Northwest, and in 2011, her poem, Summer Solstice, was featured on Garrison Keillor’s The Writer’s Almanac. “The Gaze,” one of the chapters from Summer of the Horse (Harbour Publishing, 2018) was shortlisted for the Edna Staebler Personal Essay Contest and published in the 2016 summer issue of The New Quarterly. An excerpt from Orrery, was published as a chapbook titled Pioneer 10, I Hear You by JackPine Press in October, 2016. Find Donna at the links below. Website: https://www.donnakane.com/ Instagram: @ donnakaneishere You can find Donna’s book Asterisms, here: https://harbourpublishing.com/products/9781990776717?srsltid=AfmBOopdldaLTIrAVTvho51fJXuCh5KMVJHYfdUhNKkORjvW14-_fxDT If you're interested in creative writing, the University of King's College MFA in Creative Writing might be for you. Find out more at: https://ukings.ca/area-of-study/writing-and-publishing/ Subscribe to Further Reading: feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundclo…480/sounds.rss Contact us: [email protected] Thanks as always to our friends at the King’s Co-op Bookstore. https://kingsbookstore.ca/