My guest on this episode is Tessa McWatt. Tessa is the author of many novels and books for young people. Her fiction and non-fiction has won the Eccles British Library Award and the Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature for Non-Fiction, and has been nominated for the Governor General's Award, the City of Toronto Book Award, and the Hilary Weston Writer’s Trust Prize. Her most recent book, The Snag: A Mother, A Forest and Wild Grief, was published by Random House Canada in 2025. That book also won the Bocas Prize, and was shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize. Author Stephanie Bishop called it “wise, bold, and deeply affecting.”
Tessa and I talk about the recent racist riots and violence in the UK, about writing books that are distinctly anti-cozy, and about how, as someone who now lives and teaches in England, she is desperate to go on a long canoe trip.
This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.
Music: \"simple-hearted thing\" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.
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