Every other Friday, join Alexander Lynch, Juliann Garisto, Marta Anielska, Aïsha Philippe, and Meixi Zhang as they discuss literary “big ideas” with Canadian academics, showcase emerging authors from around the Hart House community, and chat about the books they love. We also feature recordings from HHL&LC panels and workshops. Whether you’re a casual reader or a devoted bibliophile, this is the podcast for you!
You can listen to Endnote on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our website, or by subscribing to our RSS feed (https://endnote.libsyn.com/rss) on your podcast platform of choice!
Episodes
S3 E11: Open Water
On this episode, Marta, Aïsha, and Meixi discuss Open Water, a 2021 novel by Caleb Azumah Nelson. They focus on the novel’s descriptions of beauty, its humanizing attention to the grain of everyday life, and its defence of joy. You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our website, or via our RSS feed on your podcast…
S3 E10: Mixed Media Writing w/ Alice Graham and Maynard McKinnon
On this episode, Juliann speaks with two emerging authors about mixed media writing. First, Alice Graham (alias Elizabeth Xeon) speaks on the importance of love in one’s writing and how to find a writing voice. Then, Maynard McKinnon discusses microfiction and zines. You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our website, or via…
S3 E9: Love w/ Alexandra Gustafson
This year, our Dialogues series focuses on “miracles.” In this conversation, Alex and UofT philosophy PhD candidate Alexandra Gustafson consider the benefits and drawbacks of understanding romantic love as a miracle. Topics of discussion include the relation between love and specificity and the role of literature in the crystallization of love as an affect and…
S3 E8: Before the Coffee Gets Cold
On this end-of-holiday special episode, Marta, Aïsha, and Meixi discuss Before the Coffee Gets Cold, a 2015 novel by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. They focus on the story’s treatment of time travel and its relation to the slice-of-life genre. You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our website, or via our RSS feed on your podcast platform of…
S3 E7: Kaitlyn Matthews and Elaine Lee
Juliann speaks with Kaitlyn Matthews and Elaine Lee, winners of the Hart House Literary Contest in the prose and poetry categories, respectively, about their prize-winning pieces and contest-writing more broadly. You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our website, or via our RSS feed on your podcast platform of choice.
S3 E6: Recitatif
Marta, Aïsha, and Meixi discuss Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif,” the story’s deconstruction of racial codes in life and literature, and the challenges of the short story form. You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our website, or via our RSS feed on your podcast platform of choice.
S3 E5: André Babyn and Ali Pinkney
Juliann speaks with André Babyn, author of Evie of the Deepthorn (2020, Dundurn), and Ali Pinkney, author of a forthcoming novella, about the relationship between writing and memory. You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our website, or via our RSS feed on your podcast platform of choice.
S3 E4: Event: An Introduction
Alex and Madison introduce our new Dialogues theme, “Event.” They focus on the provisional thesis for the series: namely, that literature, as an artistic form for which the demarcation between the possible and the impossible is constitutively uncertain, intervenes decisively in the social processes that establish certain artistic, ethical, and political events as miracles (that is, as…
S3 E3: Robert McGill
In our first Next Generation episode of our third season, Juliann speaks with Robert McGill (UofT English) about his new book, A Suitable Companion for the End of Your Life (Coach House, 2022), and the joys and challenges of working as an author and critic. You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our…
S3 E2: Chemistry
In this episode, Marta, Aïsha, and Meixi discuss Weike Wang’s Chemistry (Text, 2018), focusing on the novel’s treatment of the experience of first- and second-generation immigrants, relationships between parents and children, and the search for a vocation. You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our website, or via our RSS feed on your podcast platform of choice.
S3 E1: My Year of Rest and Relaxation
In the first episode of our third season, Marta, Aïsha, and Meixi discuss mental illness, social satire, and plotting and temporality in Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation (2018). You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our website, or via our RSS feed on your podcast platform of choice.
Endnote Season Three: Coming Soon
Our third season of Endnote begins on Friday, August 12th—listen to our trailer on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our website, or via our RSS feed on your podcast platform of choice. To hear about Season Three as soon as it’s released, be sure to subscribe!
Applications Open: Endnote 2022/23 Staff
Endnote is now hiring for its 2022/23 season! You can find the application form here. The deadline to apply is June 27th at 11:59 p.m. If you have any questions about Endnote, the open positions, or the application process, contact Alexander Lynch (alexander.lynch@mail.utoronto.ca). You can find descriptions of the available positions below. Positions Series Host:…
S2 E16: Fashion Writing w/ Lauren Gillingham
On this episode, Alex speaks with Professor Lauren Gillingham (uOttawa English) about nineteenth-century novelists’ engagements with fashion as they relate to her forthcoming book, Fashionable Fictions and the Currency of the Nineteenth-Century British Novel (Cambridge UP). Key topics of conversation include nineteenth-century conceptions of time and history; the relationships between fashion and class; and two key novels,…
S2 E15: Next Generation 5 w/ Anvesh Jain
On this episode, Sabryna speaks with Anvesh Jain about his debut poetry collection, Pilgrim to No Country (Frontenac Press, 2022), focusing on his explorations of immigrant experience, diaspora, and home-making. You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our website, or via our RSS feed on your podcast platform of choice. You can find the transcript here.
S2 E14: Investigative Journalism: An Introduction
On this episode, Alex offers a short introduction to investigative journalism—in particular, its beginnings in the 19th century. After a sketch of English journalistic history through the 1850s, he examines Dickens’s “On Duty with Inspector Field” (1851) and Henry Mayhew’s London Labour and the London Poor (1861–62), two early examples of investigative journalism, focusing on these journalists’…
S2 E13: Book Club 5 w/ Subhi Jha and Jacky Yu
On this episode, Subhi Jha, one of L&L’s equity and diversity officers, considers temporality and the absurd in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot; then, Jacky Yu, L&L’s first-year representative, discusses the critique of “superhero morality” articulated in Alan Moore’s Watchmen. You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our website, or via our RSS feed on your podcast…
S2 E12: Next Generation 4 w/ Mina Ivosev
On this episode, Mina Ivosev, winner of the Hart House Literary Contest in the prose category, speaks about her prize-winning short story, “Birth by Landscape.” You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our website, or via our RSS feed on your podcast platform of choice. You can find the transcript for this episode here.
S2 E11: Hollywood Film w/ Garry Leonard
On this episode, Alex speaks with Professor Garry Leonard (UofT English) about several Hollywood films, including It’s a Wonderful Life, It Happened One Night, and Pretty Woman, as they relate to his current book project, Six Ways of Looking at Modernity: Cinematic Genre and the Structure of Modern Subjectivity. Key topics of discussion include the…
S2 E10: Book Club 4 w/ Aayu Pandey
On our special, holiday edition of Book Club, Aayu Pandey, one of L&L’s equity and diversity officers, considers dystopia and the interrelation of life and death in Kurt Vonnegut’s “2 B R 0 2 B”; then, Meixi and Marta discuss labour, poverty, and capitalism in George Saunders’s “Sea Oak.” You can listen to this episode on…
S2 E9: Detective Fiction w/ Simon Stern and Adam Hammond
On this episode, Alex speaks with Professors Simon Stern (UofT Law/English) and Adam Hammond (UofT English) about the detective fiction of Arthur Conan Doyle as it relates to their ongoing project, “The Birth of the Modern Detective Story, 1890–1920.” Key topics of discussion include the rise of the modern “inferential attitude,” the role of probability…
S2 E8: Popular Romance w/ Daniel Wright
On this episode, Alex speaks with Professor Daniel Wright of UofT English about two key popular romances, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Anthony Trollope’s Can You Forgive Her?, in the context of his book, Bad Logic: Reasoning About Desire in the Victorian Novel (2018). Key topics of interest include the relationship between the realist and…
S2 E7: Next Generation 3 w/ Farah Ghafoor
On this episode, Farah Ghafoor, winner of the Hart House Literary Contest in the poetry category, speaks about her prize-winning poem, “Self Portrait with Polar Bears,” and her poetry on climate action. For more from Farah, visit her website and Twitter. You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our website, or via our RSS…
S2 E6: Book Club 3 w/ Vikram Nijhawan and Alexander Lynch
On this episode, Vikram Nijhawan, L&L’s writer’s co-op coordinator, discusses metafictionality and the inextricable relation between fact and fantasy in Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman: Dream Country; then, Alexander Lynch, L&L’s podcast coordinator, examines representations of gender and of empire in James Joyce’s “The Dead.” You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our website,…
S2 E5: Next Generation 2 w/ Ryanne Kap
On this episode, Ryanne Kap, a UofT alumna, speaks with Sabryna about the art of personal poetry. You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our website, or via our RSS feed on your podcast platform of choice. You can find the book list and transcript for this episode here. If you enjoyed this episode, be…
S2 E4: Popular Writing: An Introduction
On this episode, Alex introduces our new Dialogues theme, “Pop”—that is, popular literary and para-literary writing—c. 1850–1950. He discusses the main issues and questions we’ll consider; the logic of our approach; our genre selection; the social, economic, and political contexts standing behind popular writing in the period; and some of our tentative theses. You can…
S2 E3: Next Generation 1 w/ Antonia Facciponte
On our first Next Generation of Season 2, Antonia Facciponte, a creative writing master’s student at UofT and the author of To Make a Bridge (Black Moss Press, 2021), speaks on her recent collection and the process of literary creation. You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our website, or via our RSS feed on…
S2 E2: Book Club 2 w/ Matthew Lee and Hannah Koschanow
Matthew Lee, one of L&L’s co-chairs, discusses family and agency in Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude; then, Hannah Koschanow, one of L&L’s literary contest coordinators, speaks on Indigeneity and community in Angeline Boulley’s Firekeeper’s Daughter. You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our website, or via our RSS feed on your podcast platform of…
S2 E1: Book Club 1 w/ Emily Hurmizi and Helia Karami
Emily Hurmizi, one of L&L’s co-chairs, considers embodiment and trauma in Shauna Singh Baldwin’s What The Body Remembers; then, Helia Karami, L&L’s community outreach coordinator, speaks on memory and difference in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go. You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our website, or via our RSS feed on your podcast platform of choice.…
Endnote Season Two: Coming Soon
Our second season of Endnote begins on Friday, August 13th—listen to our trailer on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our website, or via our RSS feed on your podcast platform of choice. To hear about Season Two as soon as it’s released, be sure to subscribe!
S1 E16: Season 1 Finale
For our season finale, Alex draws together our Currents and Next Generation episodes from this season, highlighting both through-lines and tensions, to consider some of what we’ve learned from our exploration of the present and future of literature and literary affairs over the past year. You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our…
Applications Open: Endnote 2021/22 Staff
Endnote is now hiring for its 2021/22 season! You can find the application form here. The deadline to apply is April 30th at 11:59 PM. If you have any questions about Endnote, the open positions, or the application process, contact Alexander Lynch (alexander.lynch@mail.utoronto.ca). You can find descriptions of the available positions below. Positions Series Host:…
S1 E15: Next Generation 5 w/ Tahmeed Shafiq
Tahmeed Shafiq, a student writer and journalist, joins Marta to discuss a story and poem of his, his creative influences, and fantasy literature more broadly. For the full text of Tahmeed’s short story, “Love and Marriage in the Hexasun Lands,” visit lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/love-and-marriage-in-the-hexasun-lands. You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our website, or via…
S1 E14: Next Generation 4 w/ Liam Bryant
Liam Bryant, a student poet, joins Marta, our new staff member, to discuss poems on the natural world, faith, and love. You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our website, or via our RSS feed on your podcast platform of choice. You can find the full text of Liam’s poems, as well as the book…
S1 E13: Afrofuturism w/ Stephanie Chrismon
Stephanie Chrismon, an Afrofuturist writer and scholar-educator, joins Alex to offer an introduction to Afrofuturism and some of its key writers, works, and thematic concerns. You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our website, or via our RSS feed on your podcast platform of choice. You can find this episode’s transcript and book list here.…
S1 E12: Comic Books w/ Rick Remender
Rick Remender, a comic book writer, artist, and animator who has worked at Marvel, Image Comics, and Electronic Arts, among others, joins Vikram, our writers’ co-op coordinator, to talk about his creative journey and the future of comics. You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our website, or via our RSS feed on your podcast…
S1 E11: Next Generation 3 with Marta Anielska
Marta Anielska, a student writer, editor, and reporter, joins Alex to talk about their short story, “Figments of My Imagination,” as well as their literary influences and creative involvements. You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our website, or via our RSS feed on your podcast platform of choice. You can find this episode’s transcript…
S1 E10: Book Club w/ Allyson
In our first Endnote episode of the new year, Allyson, one of our literary contest coordinators, joins Alex to offer her holiday book recommendations. You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our website, or via our RSS feed on your podcast platform of choice. You can find this episode’s transcript and book list here. To…
S1 E9: Plague Literature w/ Professors Emily Nacol and Kevin Chong
In this episode, Emily Nacol, professor of political science at UofT, and Kevin Chong, author and professor of creative writing at UBC, join Alex to discuss classic and contemporary works of plague literature. You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our website, or via our RSS feed on your podcast platform of choice. You can…
S1 E8: Canadian Multicultural Literatures w/ Professor Smaro Kamboureli
In this episode, the first in our Currents series, Professor Smaro Kamboureli of UofT English joins Alex to discuss some of the key authors and issues in Canadian multicultural literatures. You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our website, or via our RSS feed on your podcast platform of choice. You can find this episode’s…
S1 E7: Book Club w/ Dania
In this episode, Dania, Lit and Lib’s Equity and Diversity Officer, joins Alex to discuss her fall reading week book recommendations. You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our website, or via our RSS feed on your podcast platform of choice. You can find this episode’s transcript and book list here. To learn more about…
S1 E6: Next Generation 2 w/ Grace Ma
In this episode, Grace Ma, a student poet and environmental activist, joins Alex to discuss a selection of her poems, environmentalism, and some of her literary influences. You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our website, or via our RSS feed on your podcast platform of choice. You can find the full text of Grace’s…
S1 E5: Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Literary Affairs w/ Dania Kassim and Emily Hurmizi
In this episode, Dania Kassim and Emily Hurmizi, Lit and Lib’s equity and diversity officer and co-chair, respectively, join Alex to discuss equity, diversity, and inclusion in literary affairs and what Lit and Lib is doing to support these principles in our programming this year. You can listen to Episode 5 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our website, or…
S1 E4: Next Generation 1 w/ Veronica Spada
In this episode, Veronica Spada, winner of the Hart House Review’s literary contest in the prose category, joins Alex to discuss her prize-winning short story, ‘A Portrait of Madame Bovary on the Subway Window,’ as well as her inspirations and her writing process. You can listen to Episode 4 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our website, or by subscribing…
S1 E3: Book Club w/ Lily and Vikram
Lily and Vikram, Lit and Lib’s communications coordinator and writers’ co-op lead, respectively, join Alex to discuss their favourite books and top summer reads on Endnote’s final Summer Book Club! You can listen to Episode 3 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our website, or by subscribing to our RSS feed (https://endnote.libsyn.com/rss) on your podcast platform of choice! (You can find…
Applications now open for Endnote Podcast Assistant position
We’re currently looking for a student to assist our podcast coordinator, Alex Lynch, with the production of HHL&LC’s Endnote Podcast. The podcast assistant will work with Alex to prepare for interviews and transcript episodes. The time commitment will be approximately two hours per week, though it will be lighter during the later parts of the…
S1 E2: Book Club w/ Aline and Allison
In this episode, Aline and Allison, Lit and Lib’s secretary and treasurer, respectively, join Alex to talk about their summer reads and all-time favourite books! You can listen to Episode 2 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our website, or by subscribing to our RSS feed (https://endnote.libsyn.com/rss) on your podcast platform of choice! (You can find the transcript for this episode…
S1 E1: Book Club w/ Emily and Matthew
In our first episode of the new year, HHL&LC co-chairs Emily and Matthew join Alex to offer their summer reading recommendations! You can listen to Episode 1 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our website, or by subscribing to our RSS feed (https://endnote.libsyn.com/rss) on your podcast platform of choice! (You can find the transcript for this episode here.) For the full…
S1 E0: The Future of Libraries w/ Professor Uzoma Esonwanne
In our first episode, HHL&LC co-chair Matthew Lee and UofT English Professor Uzoma Esonwanne discuss the changing role of the library in an increasingly technologize world and the opportunities (and challenges) met when working with digital texts. You can listen to this episode here! (You can find the transcript for this episode here.) If you…
Hart House Literary and Library 