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On Monday, I sauntered down to the CBC headquarters in downtown Toronto to record an episode of The Next Chapter with the magnificent Shelagh Rogers. I was apparently the first interview of the new season (though the air-date is TBA), and we had a good, hour-long chat about my novel, In the Cage, and many of the ingredients that went into it. As folks in the business know, TNC is a nationally syndicated program that gets a lot of listeners, and can really help you move some books. Not least because Shelagh is such a fine reader and interviewer and supporter of literature.

I enjoyed our conversation (I was told I didn’t suck entirely, but who knows?), and I hope you do too, and that it is interesting in as far as it explores things like writing craft, mining real life for material, and lesser-heard voices in this country’s literature. I’ll share the scheduled airing as soon as I have it (they have a very busy docket), and I hope you’ll tune in and listen.

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The following day, I noticed that I got tagged in a CBC Books video where Shelagh and Candy Palmater discuss their favourite books leading up to the fall season. I didn’t know that I’d be on there, but Shelagh included it in her picks. You can view the video by clicking here, and please check out the full list of fancy titles both Shelagh and Candy chose by visiting this post on the CBC Books site. I owe Shelagh many beers…

CBC Books has been good to me over the last little while, along with The Globe and Mail, and I’ve also showed up on lists of writers to watch, and anticipated fall fiction titles. I’ve posted most of those links, but there is one more I’ll drop below, if you want to check it out. And please keep an eye out for other writers on these, like multi-talented jerk Naben Ruthnum, Canadian export to UEA, Eliza Robertson, and former Walrus fiction editor, and legendary U of T prof and cap-wearer, Nick Mount…

– 20 Works of Canadian Fiction We’re Excited to Read (CBC Books)

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When there is more news or more reviews, I’ll report back about it and post the info on here. Also, my reading and festivalling and event list is building, so keep checking back on the Readings & Events page on this site if you want to know where i’ll be at and when.

Cheers. KH

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If you are looking for some books to read this year, by some of Canada’s best emerging writers, check out this list of 17 Writers to Watch in 2017, put out lately by CBC Books.

There are a number of authors on the list that I know and that I know to be excellent, such as Naben Ruthnum, with his new non-fiction book, Curry: Eating, Reading, and Race, and a forthcoming literary crime novel on the way. Also, Carleigh Baker, author of the short story collection Bad Endings, and fellow Trillium Award Winner Melanie Mah, for her novel, The Sweetest One.

Thanks to the CBC folks for including me on the list, and for spreading the word about all of our existing or forthcoming titles. It’s a honour to be part of it.

KH

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In case you missed it in the print edition, the fall preview excerpt of In the Cage, along with a short Q & A, are up on The Globe & Mail website as well. You can take a gander at it all here, by clicking on this line.

Thanks to Mark Medley for setting this up, and to Dominic Bugatto for another magical bit of art to accompany my writing. I’ve been lucky with some really exceptional artists and designers producing accompanying work to my writing in journals, magazine, and the papers. And this is another very good bit of work.

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I was also pleasantly surprised to see Mr. Medley’s post on Sunday, listing his most anticipated books of the fall season. It includes excellent writers and/or colleagues like Naben Ruthnum, Eliza Robertson, Nick Mount, Jessica Westhead, Michelle Berry, Kathleen Winter, and Wayne Johnston. For the full list, click on this line.

Thanks to the Globe for making my weekend. There should be some more profiles and interviews and reviews coming over the next few weeks, and I’ll post them as they appear.

Cheers. KH

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The mighty Kirkus Reviews has read In the Cage, and has posted a very positive review of the novel. Which you can read in full by clicking anywhere on this line. Here’s a little bit of it…

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“This is a masterful mashup between genres, matching the masculine violence of the cage match with country-tinged, Mamet-esque dialogue that elevates these characters into rich portraits of desperate people living for sheer survival.

“A crime novel with the pulse of a sports drama and the bitter toxicity of the best country noir.”

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Kirkus is a highly respected publishing mag, and very difficult to get reviewed in, so I am pretty damn happy with this take. I didn’t quite get their elusive Kirkus Star, but booksellers and librarians all over the place read up on the books included in there when they stock their shelves. Thanks very much to the folks at Kirkus, and to Biblioasis for casting a net far and wide for this novel.

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The article about In the Cage, by Steven W. Beattie and featured in the Fall Preview issue of Quill & Quire, is also online now for those of you who did not see it in print. Find that by clicking this, and learn all about how I was just copying Hemingway and, later, copying Cormac McCarthy. THANKS, STEVE.

Now I am going to the beer gettin’ place…

Cheers. KH