Bookends with Mattea Roach

Bonnie Garmus says she came to poetry “kicking and screaming,” but her new novel is about why we need it more than ever. Peck & Peck follows a young man named Batter Gray who starts working at a prestigious poetry magazine. Batter is consumed by poetry, but it’s not an easy path to take in a world obsessed with profits … not to mention the complicated private affairs of his new colleagues. You might know Bonnie from her debut novel, Lessons in Chemistry. It was a major hit novel and TV series. But did you know it took her 98 rejections to get there? This week, Bonnie tells Mattea Roach about what kept her writing during that time, her interest in twins and why she loves the impractical.

Liked this conversation? Keep listening:
Why you shouldn’t go gentle into that good night
Life of Pi author Yann Martel on the wars in your everyday

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Jenna Timmons-Oikawa is the winner of the 2026 CBC Nonfiction Prize. Her piece, Wawa Indian, was inspired by the discovery that her mother was taken in the Sixties Scoop. This was a government practice in Canada from the 1960s to 1980s that removed Indigenous children from their homes and placed them in foster homes or put them up for adoption with predominantly white families. In today's episode, the Ottawa-based writer speaks with Mattea Roach about themes of stolen heritage, reclamation and renewal that she explores in her winning story.

You can read Jenna's story here.

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Communication gets complicated across different languages, time zones and generations. FaceTime and translation apps can only help so much. That's the personal challenge R. F. Kuang drew on in her latest novel Taipei Story. It's about Lily, a Chinese American college student who spends the summer in a language program in Taipei, hoping to connect with her culture and family. But as things unravel, Lily starts to realize that true belonging goes deeper than language and words. This week, R. F. Kuang joins Mattea Roach in front of a live audience for a deeply personal conversation about her own Taipei story, connecting with her grandparents… and why so many white guys want to learn Mandarin.

Liked this conversation? Keep listening:

Girlbossing on an oil rig
A novel inspired by the death of a tree
How bad was your worst friendship breakup?

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The new novel from Marlon James is based on a rumour … but it’s no rumour that Marlon’s book is one of the year's hottest titles. The Disappearers is an epic Jamaican novel that centres on a group of gay men who were brutally attacked in Kingston in the late 1980s. The story follows the men in the aftermath of the attack, as they seek connection, new identities, understanding and revenge. Marlon calls The Disappearers his most personal book yet, and it draws on his time as a young queer man in Jamaica and his own experiences with invisibility. This week, Marlon tells Mattea Roach about why he doesn’t shy away from writing about violence
and why he once called himself a “disappearer.”

Liked this conversation? Keep listening:
Douglas Stuart was a fashion exec — now he designs stories
In the Caribbean, secret lives come at a cost

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Canadian writer Anne Carson is the winner of this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature. For today’s podcast, we’re diving into the archives and revisiting one of Anne’s conversations with Eleanor Wachtel on Writers & Company. Anne Carson is celebrated for poems and essays that defy the boundaries of genre. She frequently blends ancient Greek myth with modern stories of love, grief and desire. Anne spoke with Eleanor in 2011 about her book Nox — which means night. Combining poetry, letters, photographs and sketches, the book is an elegy to her brother … and a moving reflection on family and absence.

If you want to hear more from the archives of Writers & Company, the show’s entire catalogue is available on Simon Fraser University’s Digitized Collections website: https://digital.lib.sfu.ca/writers-company

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