Booktalking - Authors v. Anthropic (and Apple), indie booksellers in & out of trouble, and more
Hosts Michael Tamblyn and Nathan Maharaj caught up on a landmark legal decision about books and AI, the perils of bookstore merch, plus a whole lot more. This episode covers: Anthropic AI v. Authors and Authors v. Apple How Powell's Books' new mugs got them into hot water Barnes & Noble buying Books Inc. C-suite changes at Simons & Schuster and Harper UK A novel approach to creative writing this November Somehow, neither of them mentioned a specific book this time. They've been spoken to and have promised to do better in the future. More author interviews coming soon to kobo.com/conversation
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Brian Stewart reports on the golden age of being a foreign correspondent
Michael Tamblyn spoke with journalist Brian Stewart, whose career spanned decades, covering the US-Iraq Gulf War, famine in Ethiopia, and countless other historical events for CBC and NBC. He tells us about all of it—including what was going on in his life off-camera—in a new book: On the Ground: My Life as a Foreign Correspondent. Brian Stewart reports on the golden age of being a foreign correspondent
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Antonio Michael Downing's literary journey into the South
Host Nathan Maharaj spoke with Antonio Michael Downing, author of the 2021 memoir Saga Boy: My Life of Blackness and Becoming, as well as the illustrated children’s book Stars in My Crown. For just about a year now he’s also been the host of CBC’s The Next Chapter, where every week he talks to authors (and once in a while an opinionated bookseller) about books they want people to pay attention to. He joined us to talk about his first novel: Black Cherokee. It’s the story of Ophelia Blue Rivers, a girl growing up in South Carolina where her mixed ancestry leaves her struggling for acceptance amidst the Cherokee community where her grandmother raised her. Antonio Michael Downing's literary journey into the South
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Scott Alexander Howard on border-crossings across time
Host Michael Tamblyn spoke with novelist Scott Alexander Howard, winner of the 2025 Kobo Emerging Writer Prize and author of The Other Valley. It’s the story of Odile Ozanne, a young girl who lives in a small village in a valley. In the next valley over, in the west, there is an identical village where events from 20 years ago are taking place, and in the valley to the east there is another village where it’s 20 years in the future. Occasionally, and under the strictest controls and in a disguise rendering them unidentifiable, people will visit the other valleys, looking forward, or backward in time. One day, visitors from the east—that is, from the future—are recognized by Odile, and she has to carry on pretending she hasn’t seen what she knows she saw. Scott Alexander Howard on the border-crossings between present and past
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Rob Franklin's upwardly-mobile, downwardly-spiraling Great Black Hope
Host Nathan Maharaj spoke with novelist Rob Franklin. His debut novel Great Black Hope is about a young man, named Smith, who gets arrested for cocaine possession on his way home from a party at the end of an oppressively hot New York summer. Smith is Black, and he’s queer; he’s also a Stanford graduate and his family back in Atlanta is, as they say, not without means. As Smith’s court date looms and he enters treatment for addiction, he’s grieving the sudden and tragic death of a friend. Rob Franklin's upwardly-mobile, downwardly-spiraling Great Black Hope
In-depth conversations with authors about their books—how and why they write, the books and authors they admire, and so much more. Plus, occasional takes on what's going on in the business of books. And year-end round-ups of reading recommendations from the staff of Rakuten Kobo, the global digital bookseller.
Hosted by Michael Tamblyn and Nathan Maharaj.
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