In the Shadow of the Mountain is my show about writers and writing broadcast on Smithers Community Radio at 93.9 FM in Smithers, BC. I usually do a new show every couple of weeks. I’m taking a break for the summer, but wanted you to be able to pick and choose your podcasts from this year’s guests – I’ve begun to use Skype to go live on the show (instead of pre-recording) and it means I can talk to writers who can’t necessarily make it to town.
Jane Stevenson and Kim Struthers join Sheila to talk about winter: winter writing, winter reading and winter songs. Please excuse the glitches in the podcast – Sheila learned yet another radio lesson – don’t forget to turn up the headphones!
Sheila talks with Vancouver writer Carol Shaben about her writing life with a focus on Into the Abyss: How a Deadly Plane Crash Changed the Lives of a Pilot, a Politician, a Criminal and a Cop.
Tricia Dower reads from and talks about her new novel, Becoming Lin, just out from Caitlin Press.
Sheila talks with Prince George poet, Al Rempel about his latest work; he reads from understories and This Wasn’t the Apocalyse We Hoped For as well as from his upcoming chapbook, Four Neat Holes, a collaboration with visual artist Mo Hamilton. Be sure to check out his video poems.
Neil J. Sterritt, author of Mapping My Way Home: A Gitxsan History is Sheila’s guest today. Neil talks about his life growing up in Hazelton and preparing for the Delgamuukw court case; he tells stories about Gitxsan elders like Charles Martin and Percy Sterritt. He tells stories about what happens at the confluence of the Bulkley and Skeena rivers when European explorers and settlers meet the Gitxsan.
Kathy Page joins Sheila to talk about the North American debut of her 1992 novel, Frankie Styne and the Silver Man (Monsters, horror, fantasy and realism in an amazing cross-genre novel) and to talk about her other work: Alphabet, Paradise and Elsewhere, and her upcoming The Two of Us.
Jennifer Manuel talks with Sheila about her activism, her work in First Nations communities and her new novel The Heaviness of Things That Float. Check out her TRC (Truth and Reconciliation Commission) Challenge.
CICK’s own Matt Simmons joins Sheila to talk about his life and work as a writer, visual artist and radio star. He also reads a preview of his novel-in-progress.
Joan Haggerty, author of The Dancehall Years, visits Sheila in the studio to talk about her novel in the first session for In the Shadow of the Mountain this fall.
RM (Rachel) Greenaway reads from her Hazelton mystery, Cold Girl and talks to Sheila about her time as a court reporter here in the nineties and the path that led to the writing of her first mystery. Her next one, Undertow, comes out next spring.
Okanagan writer Laurie Carter is Sheila’s guest today to talk about the second book in her Emily Carr’s BC trilogy: Northern BC and Haida Gwaii.
Fraser Lake writer Janet Romain talks with Sheila about her two books – the novel Grandpere and her latest, Not My Fate.
Death and dying is the theme of today’s In the Shadow of the Mountain. Sheila reviews and reads from a selection of books about death and dying and reads a story, “Divining Isaac”, from her short story collection: Tending the Remnant Damage.
The books she refers to include:
- Death and Dying by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
- The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe
- Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
- The Etiquette of Illness: What to Say When You Can’t Find the Words by Susan Halpern
- How We Die: Reflections on Life’s Final Chapter by Sherwin B. Nuland
- Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
- When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
- The Beginner’s Goodbye by Anne Tyler
- “Musee de Beaux Arts” by W.H Auden
‘Ilhdesinon Birdy Market and Melanie Morin read from and talk about the newly released second edition of Niwhts’ide’ni Hibi’it’en: The Ways of Our Ancestors – Witsuwit’en History and Culture Throughout the Millennia. Songs from The Heartbeat of Our Ancestors are also played.
Kispiox writer Graeme Pole presents his new novel, Siren Call, and talks about his work as a paramedic in the Rockies and his love of hiking and photography. Siren Call is his thirteenth book.
Sheila Peters 