mfgalaxy

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WANT TO WIN A MINISTER FAUST EBOOK OF YOUR CHOICE? Just ask your library to buy the Resurrection House edition of The Alchemists of Kush!

Post a selfie of you with your library’s copy of The Alchemists of Kush (Resurrection House edition). All folks posting those book selfies will be entered into a random draw to win any of my ebooks--you get to choose!

Libraries can order the book from Resurrection House.  

If you'd like to buy the book, please get it from your favourite independent local bookstore. Barring that, there's Amazon and Barnes & Noble .

Why would authors want their books in libraries? First, people who can't afford to buy books get to read them that way! And in Canada, we authors get an annual payment for every book held in our libraries, so the more Canadian books there, the better.

Just email your local library and ask them to buy a copy. That’s it! Or you can go to the library and ask your friendly neighbourhood librarian in person!

CANADIAN PUBLIC LIBRARIES - SUGGEST A PURCHASE

BRITISH COLUMBIA

Vancouver

Victoria

New Westminster

ALBERTA

Calgary

Edmonton

Grande Prairie

Lethbridge

Red Deer

SASKATCHEWAN

Regina

Saskatoon

MANITOBA

Brandon

Winnipeg

ONTARIO

Barrie

Hamilton

Kitchener

London

Oakville

Oshawaw

Ottawa

St. Catherines

Toronto

QUEBEC

Montreal

NOVA SCOTIA

Halifax

NEWFOUNDLAND

Newfoundland & Labrador Public Libraries 

NEW BRUNSWICK

New Brunswick Public Libraries 

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

Prince Edward Island Public Libraries

YUKON

Yukon Public Libraries

NUNAVUT

Nunavut Public Libraries

Live in a US city? Google the name of your public library + “suggest a title.” Please contact me to report dead links.

[mfgalaxy]

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL2 REVIEWED (MF GALAXY 121)

AUTHOR KRISTA D. BALL + FILMMAKER BEN DOBYNS ON THE HEROES + VILLAINS, THEIR SURPRISING REVELATIONS, AMAZING CAMEOS, THE MUSIC, FARSCAPE, AND ITS TIMELY AND DEVASTATING SOCIAL SATIRE

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Guardians of the Galaxy came out in 2014 and blew me away. I’ve called it the best Star Wars since Star Wars of 1977 for stunning imagery and action, and the feature film version of TV’s FarScape, for its gonzo humour and pop culture self-awareness.

And like both of shows, Guardians has outrageous, memorable characters that make fans wish we could hang out with them. That film made a billion dollars globally and now the sequel is out, and as of recording today on May 8, 2017, just four days after opening, Volume 2 has already earned $430 million dollars around the world.

Guardians is a giga-successful series and if we’re lucky, will bring the fun, great characters, and wonder back to science fiction filmmaking. Returning to the show today to discuss Volume 2 are author Krista D. Ball and filmmaker Ben Dobyns.

Krista D. Ball is an Edmonton-based science fiction and fantasy author who was born and raised in Newfoundland where she learned how to chainsaw and chop wood before getting a degree in History from Mount Allison University. She’s also a tough online brawler against the alt-Right, and is basically the Gamora of Edmonton. She’s also the author of more than a dozen novels and novellas including the Spirit Caller and The Dark Abyss of Our Sins series.

Ben Dobyns is a film producer, editor, cinematographer, composer, writer, and director, and one of the founders of Zombie Orpheus Entertainment, or ZOE. While he’s from the US he’s now living in British Columbia, and he and ZOE have just completed their third season of their indie-TV comedy-fantasy series JourneyQuest. They’ve also produced Strowlers, a forthcoming series about a world in which magic is suppressed and regulated by a xenophobic, oppressive government.  

Today on MF GALAXY, we look at the sequel which is not even a week old, discussing the familiar cast of Peter Quill, Gamora, Rocket, Drax, Baby Groot, Nebula, and Yondu, as well as Kurt Russell’s new character, all their interwoven personalities and arcs, modern screenwriting, the music of the film, its amazing cameos, its surprising and hilarious social satire, saving the galaxy, and whether my guests think it’s as good as the original. They spoke with me on May 7, 2017 by Skype.

Note that today’s discussion is 100% PACKED WITH SPOILERS. Listen at your own risk. If you’re listening on community radio and would like to hear the full 80-minute version, go to MF GALAXY.org to download it. Also, please note that Dobyns was Skyping at a public playground where his children were playing—you’ll even hear the sounds of swings later on—so some of his audio was difficult to discern. Therefore my virtual assistant M.O.I.R.A. will be voicing his missing words, as with Dobyns’s very first comment and again later on.

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kristadball.com

zombieorpheus.com

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SISTERS OF TOMORROW: THE FIRST WOMEN OF SCIENCE FICTION (MF GALAXY 120)

HUGO-NOMINATED BOOK ON FEMINIST PIONEERS OF SF WRITING + EDITING, SEXIST BACKLASH THAT ENDED FEMINIST GOLDEN AGE OF SF, AND HOW WOMEN CHANGED SF EVEN WHILE DENIED THEIR PLACE IN THE CANON

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Science fiction has always been a male-dominated literary genre, right? All about steel braziers on submissive women serving—and servicing—Euro-American alpha males on a colonial power trip in space? Where all the authors and editors were men and women were allowed in only to tidy the office and deliver sandwiches and backrubs?

Guess again. According to my guests Lisa Yaszek and Patrick B. Sharp and their new book Sisters of Tomorrow: The First Women Of Science Fiction, when it comes to women, the accepted history of SF is all wrong.

Lisa Yaszek is Professor and Associate Chair in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at Georgia Tech, and past president of the Science Fiction Research Association. Her areas of expertise include science fiction, cultural history, critical race and gender studies, and science and technology studies. She’s written for numerous journals and is the author of books including Galactic Suburbia: Recovering Women’s Science Fiction.

Patrick Sharp is Professor and Chair of the Liberal Studies Faculty at the California State University at Los Angeles. He researches the cultural dimensions of and beliefs about science and technology, and how they cross-pollinate with beliefs about race and gender. He’s the author of Savage Perils: Racial Frontiers and Nuclear Apocalypse in American Culture, and he co-edited the anthology Darwin in Atlantic Cultures: Evolutionary Visions of Race, Gender, and Sexuality. He’s also the faculty chief of

EagleCon, CSULA's annual convention dedicated to diversity in comics and science fiction sponsored by the Art Directors Guild and the Costume Designers Guild.

In today’s episode of MF GALAXY, Yaszek and Sharpe discuss:

The key women authors and editors who blazed a comet trail across the sky of early science fiction and opened up the genre to what it could one day be

The early male editors who were allies in egalitarian SF creation

The sexist backlash that ended the Feminist Golden Age of SF, led by an editor whose name is still spoken with honour today, and

How women writers changed the content of SF, even while male editors were eliminating them from the canon that they were building

My guests spoke with me by Skype from their offices in Atlanta and Los Angeles on April 24, 2017.

Please note that the US publisher Resurrection House has just released my acclaimed novel The Alchemists of Kush about how boys lost at war fight betrayal and oppression to transform themselves and the world. If you'd like to buy the book, please get it from your favourite independent local bookstore or Resurrection House. Barring that, there's Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

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SHEREE RENEE THOMAS ON OCTAVIA BUTLER, THE POWER OF SHORT STORIES, WHY AFRICENTRIC WRITERS WORKSHOPS MATTER + EASY HACKS TO BOOST YOUR WRITING PRODUCTIVITY (MF GALAXY 119)

WHY GREG BEAR’S MOVING MARS AND OMNI MAGAZINE WERE IMPORTANT, CHANGING BLAH TO HUZZAH FOR POETRY, THE IMPORTANCE OF NATION LANGUAGE, PLAYWRIGHT AUGUST WILSON’S INGENIOUS TECHNIQUE FOR JUMPSTARTING THE NEXT PROJECT  

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Sheree Renee Thomas changed science fiction publishing by editing the anthologies Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora and Dark Matter: Reading the Bones.

Those books won the 2001 and 2005 World Fantasy Awards, and along with the novels of Nalo Hopkinson, Tananarive Due, and Steven Barnes relaunched Africentric science fiction and fantasy in the world of books and gave rise to the revolution which is growing around the African planet.

Thomas grew up in Memphis, Tennessee loving science fiction, but abandoned the genre until she encountered the work of Africentric SF luminary Octavia Butler and then found her own path to expanding the genre.

In addition to being an editor, Thomas is a poet and short story writer whose work has appeared in literary journals, magazines, and anthologies including Vibe, The Washington Post, Callaloo, Ishmael Reed’s Konch, The New York Times, Meridians, Strange Horizons, So Long Been Dreaming, and Hurricane Blues.

Numerous prestigious organisations have awarded her fellowships, including the Cave Canem Foundation, the New York Foundation of the Arts, and the Ledig House Foundation. She also headed her own independent press, Wanganegresse, co-founded the journal Anansi: Fiction of the African Diaspora, served as a juror for several prizes, and taught creative writing across the US and in London.

In today’s MF GALAXY, Sheree Renee Thomas discusses:

The enduring and electrifying power of Kindred author Octavia Butler and why Greg Bear’s Moving Mars mattered so much to Thomas

Why short stories matter even while novels are king, and which anthologies rocked her world

The wrong way to teach poetry

The different ways people approach nation language—or what some people call patois or creole

The indispensability of Africentric writers’ workshops, and

Easy techniques to enhance your own productivity and creativity, including playwright August Wilson’s ingenious technique for jumpstarting the next project

https://about.me/wanganegresse

http://www.aqueductpress.com/authors/ShereeThomas.php

Interviews listed on Wikipedia

You Are Not Alone: An Interview with Sheree R. Thomas, ColoredGirls.com (2001)

Black Science Fiction and Fantasy with Tananarive Due, Steven Barnes, and Sheree R. Thomas on NPR, News & Notes, August 13, 2007 (Audio)

Creating Dark Matter: An Interview with Sheree Renée Thomas, Strange Horizons (2009)

Ambling Along the Aqueduct, "Aqueduct Press: Conversation Pieces" (2011)

Sources listed on Wikipedia

Sheree Thomas Bibliography site by Hachette Book Group

Joe Monti's Scifi.com review of Dark Matter

Pamela Sargent's review of Dark Matter: Reading the Bones

Steven Silver's review of Dark Matter

AALBC Author page with Sheree Thomas

SHOTGUN LULLABIES: Stories & Poems by Sheree Renée Thomas

Aqueduct Press Author page with Sheree Renée Thomas

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[mfgalaxy]

THE WRITERS’ JOURNEY – HOW TO SUCCEED IN HOLLYWOOD + COMICS w/ RISING STAR WRITERS #BrandonEaston #UbahMohamed #GeoffreyThorne #BrandonThomas #SDCC (MF GALAXY 118)

WHAT MAGAZINES + WEBSITES YOU MUST READ, HOW TO MANAGE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE TO AVOID SABOTAGING YOUR CAREER, WHERE IN YOUR STORY TO START WRITING YOUR SCRIPT, SURPRISING MENTORSHIP BY BIG-NAME WRITERS

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So many people talk about breaking into comics, New York publishing, or Hollywood, but most of the ones talking haven’t done it, and most of those who’ve done it aren’t talking.

Today’s MF GALAXY features people who can walk the talk and talk the walk, and who are going to give you specific, technical advice and steps to take your writing career forward, such as what magazines and websites you must read, how to manage your social media presence to avoid sabotaging your career, what point in your story to start writing your script, and some surprising realities about mentorship by big-name writers.

All of this episode’s rising-star writer-creators spoke at a panel called The Writers’ Journey at the 2016 San Diego Comic Con, which despite the name is probably the leading TV and movie entertainment convention in the US open to the general public but swarming with professionals.

The panel is moderated by Brandon Easton, a recurring guest on MF GALAXY. He’s a 2015 Disney/ABC Writing Program winner and 2014 Eisner Award nominee who worked on Marvel’s Agent Carter and IDW's M.A.S.K., among many other projects. Panelists include TV producer Geoffrey Thorne of Leverage and The Librarians, TV staff writer Ubah Mohamed of The Whispers, Gang Related, and Cold, and comics writer-creator Brandon Thomas of Skybound’s Horizon and Miranda Mercury.

Many thanks to DeWayne Copeland who recorded the video for this conversation. You can find the complete video online at MFGALAXY.org and a link to Copeland’s work, which includes my MF GALAXY conversation with him about his superhero web TV series CV Nation! And now on MF GALAXY, Brandon Easton, Geoffrey Thorne, Ubah Mohamed, and Brandon Thomas with the Writer’s Journey!

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[mfgalaxy]

Two young girls assemble submachine guns during the siege of Leningrad, 1943

via reddit

[mfgalaxy]

ART + ACTIVISM with MARTY CHAN, KRISTEN HUTCHINSON, DAWN MARIE MARCHAND, AARON PAQUETTE, AND MATTHEW STEPANIC (MF GALAXY 117)

IS ALL ART IS POLITICAL? SHOULD YOU EVER INSULT YOUR OWN AUDIENCE? CAN YOU SURVIVE SOCIAL MEDIA AS A SOCIAL ARTIST? THE MOST SURPRISING ACT OF PROTEST

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Art and activism—should they be friends? Hanging together like Kirk and Spock, Crockett and Tubbs, or Laverne and Shirley? Or should they be enemies like Luke Cage and Cotton Mouth, Avatar Aang and the Fire Lord, or Donald Trump and most of humanity?

Some people say that art and politics should never mix. Other people say that they always mix—but that people only protest those politics when they disagree with them. So if that’s true, what happens to society when people who define themselves as advocates and activists combine their views and ideas with their novels, paintings, plays, and more?

Those are questions that novelist SG Wong wanted answered. Wong is the inaugural featured writer of Capital City Press, a venture by the Edmonton Public Library. Wong is the creator of the Lola Starke hardboiled detective series set in Crescent City, California, in an alternate history in which China colonised North America. She’s also an Arthur Ellis Award-finalist and a tireless organiser in Edmonton’s literary scene. On March 27, 2017 Wong and the Edmonton Public Library convened a panel to discuss art and activism.

Kristen Hutchinson is an artist, independent curator, art historian, interior designer, and lecturer at the University of Alberta.

Matthew Stepanic is a poet and an editor at the Glass Buffalo and Eighteen Bridges literary journals, at the Tanner Young Publishing Group and at Where Edmonton magazine.

Dawn Marie Marchand is the Indigenous Artist in Residence for the City of Edmonton, and hails from the Cold Lake First Nation.

Aaron Paquette is a novelist, painter, speaker, and former federal candidate for the New Democratic Party

Marty Chan is a playwright, screenwriter, radio humourist, and YA writer.

In this episode of MF Galaxy, they discuss:

Their definitions of and experience with experience activism

What it means to say art is political

The value of reflecting to audiences who they are

Why one artist was about to quit painting forever, and what horrifying experience transformed him to the artist he is today

The role of social media among social artists

How editors can change the conversation about art and artists, and

The surprising thing that is an act of protest

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sgwong.com

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[mfgalaxy]

CARL JAMES - RACE IN PLAY: UNDERSTANDING THE SOCIO-CULTURAL WORLD OF STUDENT ATHLETES, HOW PUBLIC SCHOOLS SHAPE CAREER AND EDUCATION PATHS BASED ON RACE (MF GALAXY 116)

HOW RACISM AND ATHLETICS ARE TACKLING AFRICAN-CANADIAN STUDENTS  

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Because race-based privilege, power, and exploitation are facts of planetary life, almost any society can be expected to maintain mythologies about race. That mythology includes the belief that those who belong to the racial power structure are superior to those who are excluded from that racial power system. Some of the excluded are deemed intellectually equal or potentially superior, but lacking in physical prowess and, for lack of a better term, “natural rhythm.” But then there are other people excluded by the racial power system, and inside the racial mythology, they are deemed intellectually and morally backward, but physically superior.

The late Dr. Manning Marable, a Professor of History and Political Science and formerly the Director of the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University, discussed in a 1991 column called “Racism and the Black Athlete” how the mythology of race affected athletics. He wrote,

“For generations, White athletes who excelled in any sport were described as “hard-working,” “diligent,” “dedicated.” African-Americans who achieved prominence in sports, by contrast, were known as “natural athletes” who did not have to train rigorously for their successes. Joe DiMaggio and Rocky Marciano were applauded by the media for their work ethic; Sonny Liston and Willie Mays were described as “naturally-gifted athletes.”

“The basic racist assumption beneath these statements was that Blacks were “animals,” not human beings. Anyone knows that a horse can outrun any person. A gorilla is more powerful than the strongest weightlifter. To be Black was to be closer to the physical world of beasts. And of course, Whites who displayed physical prowess were said to have achieved these accomplishments by their mental powers.”

Marable continues:

“The argument is not only racist, it’s illogical in the extreme. Because in reality, success by any group in any avenue of human endeavour is largely determined by the factors of opportunity, availability of resources, and the levels of individual dedication.

“Why do African-American athletes dominate the NBA, but are virtually unrepresented in the NHL or the Professional Golfers Association? Build 5,000 ice skating rinks and public golf courses in the African-American community and create hundreds of training programs and incentives for Black elementary school children. Believe me, within 20 years you’ll have some Whites writing about the “natural ability” of Blacks in golf and ice hockey!

“Blacks excel in athletics because opportunities are still limited in professional and corporate circles for minorities and women. Expand job access and affirmative action enforcement, and fewer Blacks would go into sports.

“Racial discrimination is still rampant in college athletics. A recently released NCAA study indicates that the graduation rate after five years for Black athletes is only 26.6 percent, compared to 52.2 percent for Whites. More significantly, the vast majority of White athletes drop out of college during their early years, while nearly as many Black athletes leave school in their final years as in their first two. This implies that many coaches and academic officials are more concerned with eligibility rather than the goals of education and graduation, when it comes to Black athletes.”

Marable concludes:

“The NCAA study also indicated that when African-American and White athletes have the same SAT scores, Blacks graduate from college at higher rates than Whites. This shows that standardized tests are a poor indicator of future academic performance, and that Blacks with lower SAT scores shouldn’t be arbitrarily denied admission to higher education.”

Today we’re going to hear a Canadian’s take on the issue. Dr. Carl E. James

is a professor in the Faculty of Education and director of the York Centre for Education and Community. He’s cross-appointed in the graduate programs in Sociology and Social Work. He researches how marginalised youth experience school, sport, and society. The Royal Society of Canada inducted James as a Fellow, one of the highest honours a Canadian scholar can achieve in the Arts, Humanities, and Sciences.

He’s the author of the book Race in Play: Understanding the Socio-Cultural World of Student Athletes. The book examines the sociology of sport, youth, racism, and education, and how institutions such as public schools shape the career paths and educational future—or failure—of athletes based on race. In December 2005 James was in Edmonton for a conference on anti-racist education. We spoke at CJSR studios about how racism and athletics are tackling African-Canadian students.

A note: During this conversation recorded in December 2005, I remarked that racism against First Nations Canadians meant that they had no paths to sharing in the bounty of multicultural settler Canada. While I meant that as a critique of the settler colonial state of which I am a part, my statement blindly ignored the many First Nations Canadians who achieve excellence and even national and international influence in innumerable fields. We make far more progress not when we simply condemn what’s unjust, but when we by recognise and replicate success.

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MARTY CHAN ON FINDING VOICE AS KIDLIT AUTHOR, WORKLIFE BALANCE FOR WRITERS, ZOMBIE NOVELS + OVERCOMING FEAR OF CHILDREN (MF GALAXY 115)

PRE-PUBLICATION TESTING KIDLIT BEFORE AUDIENCES, IMPROV’S SCENE-BUILDING CHEAT CODE, STAY-AT-HOME DAD WRITERS, SMALL-TOWN ALIENATION SCARS FOR LIFE  

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Marty Chan is one of E-Town’s most successful writers ever. He’s best known for his popular children’s and young adult books including Keepers of the Vault, Infinity Coil, and the award-winning The Mystery of the Frozen Brains. But he’s also a screenwriter who worked on the TV series Jake and the Kid and received a Gemini nomination for his TV pilot The Orange Seed Myth.

Chan's best-known play is the semi-autobiographical Mom, Dad, I’m Living With a White Girl, about the culture clash of being a Chinese-Canadian finding work and love in the arts in Edmonton. The play’s been produced across Canada and in New York. Chan was the first playwright in residence at Edmonton’s Citadel Theatre, Canada’s biggest and busiest regional performing arts centre.

In today’s episode of MF GALAXY, Marty Chan discusses:

The professional tension he felt defining himself as a playwright or as Kidlit author

The personal meaning and artistic results of his unpublished and innovative zombie novel

How and why not having children frees him to be a children’s author, and why a writer friend told him that being a stay-at-home dad was the worst decision he ever made, and

The profoundly alienating experience of growing up as the only Chinese Canadian boy in Morinville, Alberta and how it’s affected him for life

Along the way I refer to The Memory Eaters, his unpublished novel he wrote for Book Television 3 Day Novel Contest reality TV series, season 1, for which I was a judge. The novel was a pre-Walking Dead zombie story that was uniquely from the zombie’s perspective and touchingly and profoundly addressed loneliness, isolation, social networks, and love. He also cites his opera The Forbidden Phoenix which incorporated the classic Chinese story of the Monkey King and Chinese Canadian experiences.

We spoke on June 23, 2008 at his home in Edmonton. This interview has never been aired before. And now on MF GALAXY, my conversation with Marty Chan.

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IRRELEVANT SHOW HEAD WRITER NEIL GRAHN ON HOW TO GET AHEAD IN COMEDY WRITING, WHY STAYING TRUE TO YOUR VISION CAN PAY OFF + HOW SKETCHES GO FROM PAGE TO STAGE ON HIS HIT CBC SERIES (MF GALAXY 114)

STRATEGY FOR NO-NONSENSE ACTING, LEGENDARY COMEDY TROUPE THREE DEAD TROLLS IN A BAGGIE, PERCENTAGES GAME OF WRITING + RECORDING THE IRRELEVANT SHOW, MONEY VS POWER IN COMEDY

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If you listen to CBC Radio then you’ve almost certainly heard the comedy of Neil Grahn. He’s been a debater on The Debaters, but he’s best known as one of the sketch comics on and lead writer for The Irrelevant Show. Years ago Grahn was part of a pioneering sketch comedy troupe in Edmonton called Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie which included Cathleen Rootsaert, Wes Borg, and the late Joe Bird, which was briefly a television show. He’s currently the writer/director/producer behind the Gemini Award-winning series Taking It Off, and he’s a documentarian with many films to his credit including one about Amber Valley, one of the earliest African towns in Alberta. He’s constantly busy writing pilots and hustling to put new work into gear. The man is a machine, with plenty of wisdom to share about making it in the business of comedy writing.

In today’s episode of MF GALAXY, Neil Grahn discusses:

The no-nonsense approach to acting for actors and directors and why both must be open to whiplash-inducing turns

Why being a great comedy writer means risking never earning a living

His legendary E-Town comedy troupe Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie and how it didn’t get its name

The percentages game of writing and recording his hit comedy radio programme The Irrelevant Show

What more money costs you in show biz, and why making comedy on CBC radio is such a creative joy

How sketches go from the page to the stage on The Irrelevant Show

He spoke with me at his home in South-West Edmonton on November 19, 2014. And now on MF GALAXY, my conversation with Neil Grahn.

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neilgrahn.com

deadtroll.com

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SHELAGH ROGERS - HOW RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL SURVIVORS CHANGED HER LIFE, HOW TO ENHANCE THE PERSONAL QUALITY INTERVIEWERS MUST POSSESS, HOW AND WHY CANLIT GOT BETTER (MF GALAXY 113)

THE JOB OF THE NEXT CHAPTER, WHY LIT SHOULDN’T BE ALL BRAN, INTERVIEWING ADVICE PETER GZOWSKI GAVE HER, WHEN TO BUILD RAPPORT WITH GUESTS, WHY IT’S BETTER SHE CAN’T SEE HER GUESTS, THE BEST WAY TO STYLE YOUR VOICE

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If you’re a Canadian who loves books as much as you love radio, then it’s almost a guarantee that legendary broadcaster Shelagh Rogers has been in your life for a long time.

Rogers is the host and producer of CBC Radio’s The Next Chapter, Canada’s leading author-interview radio show focusing on indigenous and settler Canadian writers. She started at CBC in 1980, hosting music and current affairs programmes, and working her way up eventually became the permanent guest host on Peter Gzowski’s Morningside, the host of This Morning, and also of Sounds Like Canada.

She’s won a range of awards and honourary doctorates, and as a result of her work and advocacy, Native Counseling Services of Alberta gave her their Achievement in the Aboriginal Community Award, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada inducted her as an honourary witness, the Order of Canada elected her as an Officer, and the University of Victoria named her Chancellor.

Rogers was in Edmonton on February 28, 2017 to host the Edmonton Public Library’s Conversation about Reconciliation at the Ramada Inn on Kingsway. Before she took the stage, we spoke briefly about a range of topics, including:

How a group of residential school survivors changed her life, and why she needed quit her show to pursue their story

The job of her show The Next Chapter and why literature shouldn’t be All Bran

The personal quality that interviewers must possess, and how you can learn to enhance it

When people are most likely to respond to you so you can build rapport

The advice that radio legend Peter Gzowski gave her

Why not being able to see her guests is not a bug, but a feature

How CanLit has changed for the better, and

For broadcasters and podcasters, the best way to style your voice

And now on MF GALAXY, my conversation with Shelagh Rogers.

Shelagh Rogers provided EPL with a selection of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and children's books that explore residential schools, reconciliation, and Indigenous identity.

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[mfgalaxy]

Q: What kind of a mother can’t be counted on to raise her sensitive, artistic teenage child? A: A serial killer.

What kind of a mother can’t be counted on to raise her sensitive, artistic teenage child? A serial killer. And what if a teenage girl loves astronomy but loves smashing in the faces of other teenagers more? And have you ever had an older cousin who epitomised cool… but was probably also a psychopath? And exactly what does that grown woman English teacher have planned for that misunderstood teenaged boy when she invites him to sleep at her place?

Interview part 1 http://tinyurl.com/parsu3e Interview part 2 http://tinyurl.com/qdbeht3

Quill + Quire review http://www.quillandquire.com/review/traplines-stories/

Buy the book https://www.amazon.ca/Traplines-Eden-Robinson/dp/0676970265

[mfgalaxy]

Metis reporter in ethical + legal trouble yet again + could lose his son, his job + even his life

You’d think this reporter would learn. His personal life is a disaster, which makes dealing with his extremely difficult investigations into powerful, dangerous people all the more risky. He’s like that kid in school who keeps yapping at bullies and teachers even when they come right at him with their sleeves rolled and their fists balled. How much more does he have to lose? His son? His job? His life? Maybe taking on an international diamond cartel up to its hips in entrails will be the final shovel of dirt on the coffin of Leo Desroches. I sure as hell hope not. Check Wayne Arthurson’s superb Leo Desroches series, and its latest chapter Blood Red Summer. https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1926696271/?tag=canadibooks0f-20 https://49thshelf.com/Books/B/Blood-Red-Summer

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African Leadership Academy seeks to enable lasting peace and prosperity in Africa by developing and connecting the continent's future leaders. (via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM2I18ehx7k)

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A short documentary about the philosophy, mission and direction of Ashesi University, Ghana's first Liberal Arts College. Showing on Ghana Television (GTV) every Tuesday from 8.15 PM. [DSTv Channel 142] (via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m57-fgXjHgA)

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The Africa They Never Show You (one of many such videos). Post your own here and on your own platforms. (via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfG-5ZhI3wk)

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Today’s moment of perfect beauty, especially if you’re feeling down. Meiway’s “Nanan,” featuring accordion (one of my favourite instruments; anything that sounds similar, such as the harmonium, can eat at my table any time). This song is the kind that makes me–a highly reluctant dancer–immediately start grooving. What a blessing.