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Thanks to IFOA Weekly, and the generosity of the majestic John Irving, I am going to be at Harbourfront in Toronto, tonight, in conversation with the man himself about my novel, In the Cage. As it says on the poster above (official by IFOA I swear), we will discuss “survival in the rural underclass and what it means to pursue a noble life for one’s family.”

There will also be plenty of discussion about writing, process, the ingredients that go into a narrative like this, and the challenging nature of writing so intensely about poverty, violence, and people who live on the margins, while still maintaining a feeling of hope throughout. If you want a great primer on the talk, check out my Electric Literature interview with John, which will likely inform our talk tonight.

The event information is right here, if you click this line. Tickets are $10 and free for IFOA supporters and students. Hope to see you all there. It’ll be a good one.

Cheers. KH

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There have been some new reviews of my novel, In the Cage, that have recently appeared in the papers and on the internet and such. I’ve been touring around and doing readings, so I’ve not be posting as much as I’d like. But, regardless, here’s some more good ink for this book I wrote…

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Somehow I missed this piece in the National Post by Robert J. Wiersema, who previously gave Debris one of its best reviews a couple years back, in Quill & Quire. In any case, you can find the full review of In the Cage by clicking this line. Wiersema says of the work:

“Through Hardcastle’s style – sentences plain and broken, glinting with moments of beauty even in the depths of violence and pain – we become part of Daniel’s world, part of the very structure he fights against, inside the cage and out.”

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There was also a very good review in the Winnipeg Free Press by Rory Runnells, who says, among other things: “Hardcastle shows a mastery of form and storytelling worthy of the attention he has received.”

You can click on this line to read the rest of the review. Thanks to Mr. Runnells and to the WFP for this one.

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The screencap at the top of this post is from a  tweet about the novel review by Sally Cooper in the recent issue of Hamilton Review of Books. Check the rest of that one out by clicking here.

Also, there were some very nice blog reviews of the book. The first was by Anne Logan, and you can take a look at it on her blog I’ve Read This. I met Anne at Calgary Wordfest and she is #1. She also keeps tweeting photos of my book with her cat, so that is alright.

There was another on Consumed by Ink, the excellent book blog by Naomi MacKinnon. Here, In the Cage was called “far from heartwarming,” and that is very accurate. You can find the full review by clicking on here.

Last but not least, Steven Buechler has recently reviewed both of my books on his blog, The Library of Pacific Tranquility, and you can find the In the Cage review here. He really gets into the writing voice and sentences, which is something I always appreciate.

For his Debris review, click here. THANKS, STEVEN. And everyone who has taken the time to read these things I wrote, and write some stuff about whether that experience sucked or did not at all.

That’s all I got today. I’ll be posting again soon, now that I’m back in one place for the most part. Thanks, all.

KH

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A little while back I recorded an interview for CBC’s The Next Chapter with pegacorn-like book champion Shelagh Rogers. I’ve done a little bit of radio before, on the Richard Crouse Show on Newstalk 1010 & iHeart Radio, though this one was the deep dive into book stuff and, mainly, the guts of my new novel, In the Cage, and what it took to write the story, and where it all comes from.

Despite all of that, and trying not to sound like a total hoser while yammering on, Shelagh was great and really loved the book (she even mentioned in on a FB video from CBC Books a few months ago, with Candy Palmater). She asked some excellent, well thought-out questions, and got some good answers out of me.

The segment played on actual radio back on October 30th and again on November 4th, but it is all archived here, on the CBC website, and you can listen to it anytime on there, or through their audio player. Also on the show were Alison Pick and Lorna Crozier, and you can find their segments there in the links as well.

Thanks the most to Shelagh, Barb Carey, and Dean, who recorded the show. I am grateful to have made it on the show, and to have my ramblings distilled into such a concise representation of the novel and what it’s all about. You are the best.

Also, big thanks to CBC Books for sharing the interview on social media and everywhere else. I very much appreciate all of those posts.

More to come as I collect my thoughts and get a chance to post between events and such…

KH