The Book Room podcast returns! My first guest of the new season is Jael Ealey Richardson, author of not one but two books called The Stone Thrower. Richardson's 2012 memoir (The Stone Thrower, Dundurn Press, 2012) about her understanding of and relationship with her famous father, star quarterback Chuck Ealey, has been adapted into an illustrated children's book from Groundwood Books (The Stone Thrower, Groundwood Books, 2016, illustrated by Matt James).
Jael and I spoke late into one evening last month about the books, her father, her current projects -- which include the creation and sustaining of Brampton Ontario's wonderful Festival of Literary Diversity (FOLD) -- about her experience growing up black in a country that likes to think of itself as post-racist, and of course about the Toronto Blue Jays. Jael has met more Blue Jays than I have, and I burn with an envy that can barely be contained.
Listen to this episode of the Book Room above, on Soundcloud, and/or download it through iTunes (where you also can, and should, subscribe to the podcast).
Groundwood Book's 2016 edition of The Stone Thrower.
Dundurn Press's 2012 edition of The Stone Thrower.
Note to sound nerds (of which I am one): For ease of scheduling, I've made the decision to do much of the Book Room podcast interviewing over Skype, which has meant a host of new sound quality challenges and a brand new home studio set-up. I promise I will stop swallowing the microphone as I do more episodes.