Fiction writer Yan Ge is a literary sensation in China, where she was named one of her country’s “future literary masters.” Her latest work to appear in English translation is Strange Beasts of China, a mysterious, imaginative tale about unusual creatures that live among humans. Written shortly after the death of Ge’s mother, it explores themes of identity, loss, and the very nature of being human.

Writers and Company from CBC Radio

Chinese writer Yan Ge finds solace in creating literary worlds

The beloved hero of the anti-apartheid movement died last December at the age of 90. He served as co-chair of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, an experience he looked back on in his book No Future Without Forgiveness. Tutu spoke to Eleanor Wachtel in 2001

Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu brought a spiritual dimension to South Africa's liberation struggle

Somali-British writer Nadifa Mohamed's latest novel, The Fortune Men, is based on the true story of Mahmood Mattan, a Somali seaman who was executed in 1952 in Cardiff, Wales, for a murder he didn't commit. The book was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and Costa Best Novel Award.

Nadifa Mohamed imagines the life of a Somali man wrongfully executed in her novel The Fortune Men

Pulitzer Prize-winner Quiara Alegria Hudes is best known for her collaboration with Lin-Manuel Miranda to create the popular musical and feature film, In the Heights. In her new memoir, My Broken Language, she explores the intersection of identity and language, in relation to home.

Quiara Alegria Hudes on her journey to writing the hit musical In the Heights

A member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, Joy Harjo's work is a powerful mix of the spiritual and political. In Poet Warrior, she reflects on both the joys and harsh realities of her early life and how she found refuge in poetry, music and art.

U.S. poet laureate Joy Harjo pays homage to art and ancestors in her new memoir, Poet Warrior

South African writer Damon Galgut follows a white Pretoria family through the dismantling of Apartheid in his 2021 Booker Prize-winning novel, The Promise. It was praised by the judges as "a spectacular demonstration of how the novel can make us see and think afresh."

Damon Galgut probes South Africa’s troubled history in his Booker Prize winner, The Promise

In her National Book Award-winning memoir, Sarah Broom explores the devastation of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans in 2005, putting her mother's house at the centre of her story. She joined Eleanor for this conversation in 2020.

Sarah Broom on family bonds and the meaning of home in her award-winning memoir, The Yellow House

The Paris-based author returned to his native Malaysia to tell a haunting tale of migration and murder in his most recent novel, We, The Survivors. Tash Aw spoke to Eleanor onstage at the Vancouver Writers Festival in 2019.

Tash Aw on the dark side of the modern Asian dream

The Sri Lankan-born Australian author writes with fierce intelligence about race, class and immigration in her multi-award-winning novel, The Life to Come. She joined Eleanor in 2019 for this conversation.

Michelle de Kretser probes the human heart with insight and wit in her novel, The Life to Come

Irish writer Colm Toibin's new novel, The Magician, is an examination of the complex life of one of Germany’s most influential writers, as well as his exceptional family

Novelist Colm Toibin imagines the great German writer Thomas Mann

David Sedaris, bestselling American humorist, covers the joys and aggravations of travel, litter, hedgehogs, family heartache and more in his second collection of diary entries, A Carnival of Snackery.

With sharp observation and sardonic wit, David Sedaris spins comedy gold out of everyday life

Roy Jacobsen, one of Norway's most celebrated contemporary writers, talks about his novel The Unseen, the first in a series that follows a strong young woman's coming-of-age on a remote island through times of war and loss.

From Norse sagas to family sagas — Roy Jacobsen spins a moving tale of life on a Norwegian island

The bestselling novelist and essayist joined Eleanor Wachtel to talk about the inspiration for his blockbuster new book, which revolves around a pastor and his family of six in 1970s Illinois.

In his new novel, Crossroads, Jonathan Franzen explores crises of faith and family in 1970s America

In this conversation from 2016, Eleanor talks to three very different writers about the art of the memoir — What to tell? Who to implicate? And how to deal with the consequences.

The art of writing memoir with Vivian Gornick, Kathryn Harrison and Ferdinand Mount

Novelist Myriam Chancy talks to Eleanor Wachtel about her new book, What Storm, What Thunder. Multilayered and lyrical, it features a variety of inter-connected characters, each with a moving story.

Myriam Chancy’s powerful new novel explores the tragedy of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti

CBC Radio's Writers and Company offers an opportunity to explore in depth the lives, thoughts and works of remarkable writers from around the world. Hosted by Eleanor Wachtel.

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Writers and Company from CBC Radio

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