What does it take to sustain a literary life?

The brand new Bold & Creative podcasts from Blue Metropolis offers up six refreshing perspectives from the English-language literary world in Quebec in 2024. We wanted to explore writing practices and career paths, changing experiences and new contexts. What does our literary world look like right now? How does one get started? How does one keep going?
To answer these questions, we invited Liz Howard (the Poet), Daniel Allen Cox (the Prose-Writer), Tawhida Tanya Evanson (the Performer), Dimitri Nasrallah (the Publisher*), Linda Morra (the Podcaster) and Curtis McRae (the Promoter) to go deep, in a series of twenty-minute conversations with host Rachel McCrum.
What emerged were rich, wide-ranging – and occasionally deliciously weird – discussions about literary life and practice.
That it takes a community to bring a book into the world. That after the writing is done, there is editing, publication, conversation, promotion, collaboration, education. That they all work tirelessly and creatively to find new ways to support and promote writers.
That they are passionate about building new relationships, supporting authenticity, talent, and access.
That there are constant challenges in the form of burn out, mental health, endless volunteering, and limited financial support.
That every one of them wears multiple hats, to allow them to not only continue their own work, but to open doors for others. That they are not just in this for their own creative advancement, but to ensure that literary culture survives and thrives.
That it was a pleasure and a joy to speak with each of these bold and creative voices. We hope that you enjoy.

*technically, Editor rather than Publisher, but that doesn’t begin with a P.