logo
episode-header-image
Jan 2026
44m 59s

Linda Gray Sexton: Anne Sexton's 45 Merc...

TORONTO PUBLIC LIBRARY
About this episode
Linda Gray Sexton, daughter of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Anne Sexton, discusses her 1994 memoir Searching for Mercy Street: My Journey Back to My Mother, Anne Sexton in this powerful archival recording from the Toronto International Festival of Authors. 
Up next
Apr 2026
Martha Gellhorn: The Face of War
In this electrifying episode of Writers Off the Page: From the TIFA Archives, travel back to October 1992 to hear Martha Gellhorn — novelist, journalist, and witness to nearly every major conflict of the twentieth century — read from the newly revised conclusion to her landmark b ... Show More
36m 29s
May 2025
Seamus Heaney: Death of a Naturalist
In this captivating episode of Writers Off the Page: From the TIFA Archives, step back in time to 1990 Toronto and immerse yourself in the lyrical world of Nobel Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney. The recording captures Heaney in an intimate reading at the Harbourfront Reading Ser ... Show More
31m 4s
Mar 2025
Carlos Fuentes: From Illusion to Reality
This conversation between Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes and Bob Rae, recorded in 2000, offers a time capsule of North American relations at a pivotal moment. The interview captures Fuentes just after Mexico's historic election that ended the PRI party's 71-year rule—a seismic pol ... Show More
45m 30s
Recommended Episodes
Jul 2021
The Penguin Podcast's Best of the Booker Prize
<p>To celebrate this year’s upcoming Booker Prize nominations, we've delved back into the archives and cherry-picked highlights from eight very special interviews. Hear about the inspirations, frustrations, and secrets behind the winners of the most prestigious prize in literatur ... Show More
30 m
Sep 2025
From the Archive – Drive Your Plow Over The Bones Of The Dead: Olga Tokarczuk On Mysticism, Justice & William Blake
Welcome to the Service95 Book Club with Dua Lipa, a podcast dedicated to the books that stay with us – and the brilliant minds behind them. As well as bringing you a brand-new episode every month, we’ll also be dipping into the archive of fascinating conversations Dua has had wit ... Show More
34m 42s
Dec 2023
Selby Wynn Schwartz in “les Rencontres” — CHANEL Literary Rendezvous at Rue Cambon
Listen to author and critic Erica Wagner in conversation with Selby Wynn Schwartz, writer of “After Sappho”, her first novel published by Galley Beggar Press in 2022. Together, they talk about her insatiable appetite for literature as a child and the way it led her to becoming a ... Show More
49m 39s
Jun 2025
From the Archive – On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous: Ocean Vuong On Beauty, Grief & The Language That Saves Us
Welcome to the Service95 Book Club with Dua Lipa, a new podcast dedicated to the books that stay with us – and the brilliant minds behind them. As well as bringing you a brand-new episode every month, we’ll also be dipping into the archive of fascinating conversations Dua has had ... Show More
53m 4s
Feb 2024
All the World's a Stage
This week, a special interview with the sociologist Richard Sennett takes us from Roland Barthes to Leonard Bernstein; and Hettie Judah on two memoirs inspired by a love of 17th-century art.'The Performer: Art, Life, Politics', by Richard Sennett'Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and ... Show More
41m 21s
Feb 2021
Hisham Matar & Some of the Best Arab Literary Works
We talked to the writer behind the award-winning books from the award-winning novels, “In the Country of Men” and “Anatomy of a Disappearance”, to his Pulitzer Prize recipient memoir, “The Return”, and his latest book " A Month in Siena". This event was hosted in collaboration wi ... Show More
54m 48s
Mar 2024
596 The Power of Stories (with J Edward Chamberlin) | Taylor Swift and Emily Dickinson | Flannery O'Connor (with Mike Palindrome) | My Last Book with Shin Yu Pai
It's a literary smorgasbord! First, Jacke dives into the recent news of the surprising connection between Taylor Swift and Emily Dickinson. Next, he welcomes Mike Palindrome, President of the Literature Supporters Club, for a discussion of why Mike has been reading Flannery O'Con ... Show More
1h 10m
Sep 2025
Arundhati Roy on Storytelling, Memory and The Human Condition (Part Two)
‘It is vanishingly rare for a writer to both confront the ugliness of humanity and still search for its beauty. Roy is that rare writer.’ – Naomi Klein Arundhati Roy is one of today’s most esteemed public intellectuals. The author of novels including the Booker Prize-winning The ... Show More
34m 24s
Jun 2025
From the archive: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o: three days with a giant of African literature
We are raiding the Guardian long read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors. This week, from 2023: The Kenyan novelist’s life and work has intersected with many of the biggest events of the past century. At 85, he refle ... Show More
59m 5s