In an extremely magical turn of events, the John Irving has interviewed me for Electric Literature, an outstanding literary website out of the US, with an impressive reach and readership. We worked on this awhile, as John asks very good questions, and I wanted to give those questions some good answers. I tend to go on, and cuss and say motherfucker more than I maybe should. Nonetheless, I think we figured it out.

You can check it out here, where we talk about my novel, In the Cage, and things like writing the rural poor, the real gravity of combat sports and training, and some of the reasons I write the way I do, including my literary influences, family history, and the place I grew up and why it is weird and had so many stories to tell.

This is a pretty solid primer for an event we’re doing that is part of IFOA’s All Lit Up series, and will take place at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto, on the 29th of November. That’s something that I’m really looking forward to, as I know that John can interview the hell out of somebody, and, when he’s into something, he gets right to the bones of it. I am honoured to do it, and hope that you’ll all come out if you like. It’ll be a good night.

Until then, thanks for reading all of this. I’ve just been out to Calgary Wordfest, did a launch in Edmonton at Audreys, and am now in Vancouver for Vancouver Writers Fest. My events are available if you click here. Tell everybody you every knew to check all of these things out.

Believe in your dreams…
KH

I’ve been a little behind on updates, due to book and life endeavours, but I’m happy to share a few bits of news on here now that I’ve had the chance. The first one involves my finally deciding to seek representation again for my work, after some years flying solo and tweeting an unhealthy amount.

At the suggestion of John Irving, and after some very good in-person meetings, I officially signed with Dean Cooke and Cooke Agency recently. They are one of the most successful and respected agencies in Canada, and have a number of critically acclaimed, globally recognized authors on their list, such as Irving, Jeff VanderMeer, and Patrick Lane. As well as some of the best emerging writers I know of, including Trevor Corkum and Vivek Shraya.

They also have a number of co-agencies around the world to sell their authors’ properties, and the clout of Cooke Agency International. I met their whole team and talked over a lot of possibilities for the future, and was really impressed by what they had to say. I’m very much looking forward to working with them.

There was some interesting news this week, just after I signed, in that Cooke Agency is joining up with McDermid Agency, another fine company with agents that represent many of my friends and favourite writers. So, they’ll both be expanding their resources after that merger.

Dean has just gone to Frankfurt Book Fair, and I’m excited to see how that goes. In the meantime, I’m still touring In the Cage, and will be heading to Calgary Wordfest later this week, and Vancouver Writers Fest after that, all which I’ll talk about in a forthcoming post. Check out my events & readings page for more info on those events, and more…

For any inquiries about my work, or rights questions, feel free to contact Dean and The Cooke Agency here.

Cheers. KH