Can't Lit

To celebrate this festive season Dina and Daniel rented a snowy chalet and invited past Can’t Lit guests to join them by the fire to chat, eat and drink. A lot. Jen Sookfong Lee, Jordan Abel, Sean Cranbury, Billeh Nickerson and Aaron Chapman discuss important holiday stuff, like how to ruin poems for the holidays, hangovers, holiday traditions, eggnog, holiday movies and TV, the Nutcracker, stealing Christmas trees, curling, cats eating tinsel, veal, poetry as gifts, grilled cheeses and many more weird tangents. We also go over what we can’t with for Christmas. And there are so many F-bombs. Happy holidays and cheers, from all of us at Can’t Lit!

It's the second Toronto episode and super delight Evan Munday joins the hosts to talk about Archie comics and his new podcast, Radio Free Riverdale, his books series for kids, The Dead Kid Detective Agency and The Golden Girls. Dina and Daniel have more stories from their book tour, like going to the Coach House launch and kissing everyone's forehead, crushing on Aisha Sasha John and name-dropping all the poets we got to hug. We also develop a Can't Lit activity book and go through another round of new categories for literary awards.

Dina and Daniel head to Toronto, a.k.a. Hotline Bling central, and Jacqueline Valencia is there to talk with them about Toronto Poetry Talks, her upcoming poetry collection, There is No Escape Out of Time, diversity and race in poetry, teens, chocolate and Instagram. D & D give an update from their trip to Montreal's strip clubs, karaoke bars and mozzarella stick establishments and even create a new strip club. And we all shout out The BreakBeat Poets and come up with whole new categories of literary awards. 

Dina and Daniel visit Montreal and invite the delightful duo of Bükem Reitmayer and Mike Spry into their hotel room for a wholesome literary chat. We talk about all the important things: movies, TV, shopping, and even poetry, like how a poem can change over time and how process is weird. We also give a shout out to the wonderful bookstore, Librairie Drawn & Quarterly and celebrate Mean Girls Day.

It's always a special occasion when Jillian Christmas is around. Dina and Daniel invite the talented writer, musician and Artistic Director of Verses Festival of Words to talk about writing, but also how miserable fall is, love songs and protest songs, Charmed Can Lit, children's soy lattes, large print erotica on public transit and of course, Shannen Doherty. We also bring back the ever-popular CanLit Feuds and play a new game for this crummy season: Fall or Fall?

It's September and NBD we've got smart, funny dreambabe Alicia Tobin on the podcast chatting with Daniel and Dina about her new, wonderful podcast, Retail Nightmares and her new, wonderful cookbook, Keto-Genesis. To keep things wonderful we also we also talk about clogged toilets, #bikinibookclub, Dina's hot iron burn, Daniel's rage and Rom Com. For a bummer we talk about the sadness of seasonal changes, drought, fires in BC and good old fashioned heartbreak. This episode has everything!    

Can't Lit's endless summer of great guests continues. Dina and Daniel invite Jen Sookfong Lee over for bourbon and book talk. We get into Jen's two novels and Dina's rage, plus we tell tales from bad literary events and share terrible things people have said to us at Q&As. 

Double your poetry pleasure with our guests Kayla Czaga and Raoul Fernandes. We talk with them about their new books of poetry, ageism, having kids and not having kids and accidental marriage proposals. We also invent a Can('t) Lit cocktail, Dina gets us to play Fuck, Marry, Kill: Poetry Edition and Daniel admits to dating a pizza.

Happy summer, listeners! This episode D&D talk to the charming Aaron Chapman about his books, Live at the Commodore and Liquor, Lust and the Law (both Arsenal Pulp Press) Vancouver and its history, what our summer reads are and we even throw in a CanLit Feud (featuring an American!). And finally, Can't Lit turns 19. To celebrate the legal drinking age we talk about what we did at 19, play Would You Rather: Summer Edition and get teen drunk. Stay hydrated!

Finally! A Can't Lit games only episode. Dina, Daniel and Jordan play three literary games cut from Episode 18: Craigslist or Poem, Broetry or Noetry, and Jordan brings his own version of Literary Never Have I Ever: Vancouver edition. Play along at home! 

Spring has sprung and Dina and Daniel bring in beautiful flower and great writer, Jordan Abel. We talk about Jordan's books, Un/Inhabited and The Place of Scraps, skim reading, sex positions, colonialism, visual and sound poetry, Mother's Day sadness, and even find time to speculate on the finale of Mad Men. Think we didn't play any games? Think again, they're coming up in a special bonus episode!

Dreams come true when DDB & DZ get to talk to the wonderful poet, David McGimpsey. Dreams come even more true when talk turns to shopping malls (!!) his new book, Asbestos Heights (!!!), Tropical Bill Murray, a baby Dina hates on Facebook, Beyoncé (of course), and watching Jennifer Aniston movies for Poetry Month. We also play two new games in honour of Fuller House, the Full House sequel: What Would Kimmy Gibbler Do? and Stefan Urquelle or Steve Urkel? We even talk about poetry and classism, and Daniel coins the term, "dick carousel."

Poetry Month is still here! So, these podcast hosts invited the super charming and smart Sachiko Murakami to talk about poems, airports, crying poets and of course her new book. Get Me Out Of Here (Talonbooks) which also became a new Can't Lit game that we played. Daniel's Dream Corner returns and Dina's Dream Analysis Corner makes its debut. We also give some not very nice shout outs to Subway and Dina complains about 420 like a total narc.

For poetry month Dina and Daniel invite two special guests to share the mics with them: wine and pizza. With their help D&D talk about what they think is so boring (lots of things, like, ugh, bacon) and debut a new segment, Poetry Books That Got Us So Wet Right Now (including new collections by David McGimpsey, Leah Horlick, Roaul Fernandes, Jonina Kirton, Damian Rogers, Sachiko Marukami and Stuart Ross. And Daniel's Dream Corner is revisited. Warning: wine is a solid guest, but pizza gets a little out of hand.

Two road trips in a row? Yup. That's Can't Lit in March. D&D head to Victoria and invite Marita Dachsel and Matt Rader to a hotel business centre. We discuss Marita's many wives, from her poetry collection, Glossolalia (Anvil Press, 2013), and Matt's new book of short stories, What I Want to Tell Goes Like This (Nightwood Editions, 2014). We also host a special secret guest: Stephanie. Then we play Literary Never Have I Ever, talk poetry vs. prose and give the low down on Victoria's gay bar. Shout out to WordsThaw 2015 put on by the Malahat Review.

Can't Lit is on the road! The duo head to Galiano Island to meet with author Michael Christie. We talk about his new book, If I Fall, If I Die, (McClelland & Stewart, 2015), weird island names, flashbacks and otters. By request we bring back fan favourite, Can Lit Feuds, and introduce a new segment, Daniel's Dream Corner. 

Chelsea Rooney joins Can't Lit to talk about her debut novel, Pedal (Caitlin Press, 2014), but also to go down great paths discussing the movies Scream and The Craft, along with our favourite topic, Can Lit fueds. We also get into meta narratives, and bring back fan favourite (maybe?) Literary Would You Rather? Plus we introduce a new segment, Amazon Reviews of the Week, because Amazon reviews are strange and wonderful. Daniel updates everyone on his rash. Dina is supportive.

On this episode Dina and Daniel invite writer, and entertaining gentlemen, Adam Lewis Schroeder from the wilds of Vernon to talk about Beyonce, the Super Bowl, zombies, his new book, All Day Breakfast (Douglas & McIntyre, March 2015) and the apocalypse with Margaret Wente and David Gilmour. Then Adam endears himself to Can't Lit forever with raps (feat. Dina and Daniel) that will melt hearts, and maybe faces.

Happy New Year! The first Can't Lit in 2015 opens with the multi-faceted man with many plans, Sean Cranbury. We talk about the word "emerging", Real Vancouver Writers' Series, #95books, Sean's podcasts "Books on the Radio" and "The Interruption," Canada Council for the Arts, Tinder, of course, and some other stuff we can't remember. Sean makes really strong drinks. 

So, this is Can't Lit Christmas, and what have you done? In this episode Dina and Daniel welcome Sara Bynoe with a lot of eggnog and bourbon. We get emotionally invested in Christmas movies, holidays past, present and future and of course we rehash festive personal trauma. Bonus: lots of out of tune singing. Enjoy our most festive Can't Lit yet.