Talking Books in Parliament

In the last episode, I took you into a ballroom for an award ceremony. Today, we have another fancy room for you.

I’m taking you with me into the Parliament of Canada for a short discussion about the state of writing and publishing in my country, and a specific problem that has plagued the work of authors in Canada for the last seven years now. Free copying of massive amounts of published work by schools, colleges and universities.

You can access this podcast on either Soundcloud, RadioPublic, Stitcher, the Apple podcasts app, or the Google Podcast app. You can find individual episodes through my own website at www.jkdegen.com/, and @bookroompod on Twitter. If you have suggestions for stories I might want to cover, you can reach out on Twitter or by e-mail at bookroom14@yahoo.com.

Image of the Peace Tower courtesy me and my little camera.

Fanciness — the RBC Taylor Prize brightens a winter day

The RBC Taylor Prize for 2019 was awarded in early March at a swanky lunch in Toronto.

Come on into the ballroom with me, and listen to Noreen Taylor describe the very beginnings of the prize. You'll also hear a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada introducing Kate Harris, who wrote "Lands of Lost Borders: Out of Bounds on the Silk Road."

Kate Harris is this year's winner of the RBC Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction.

You can access this podcast on either Soundcloud, RadioPublic, Stitcher, the Apple podcasts app, or the Google Podcast app. You can find individual episodes through my own website at www.jkdegen.com/, and @bookroompod on Twitter. If you have suggestions for stories I might want to cover, you can reach out on Twitter or by e-mail at bookroom14@yahoo.com.

Peter Penguin

Between periods of a Toronto Maple Leaf hockey game, I sit down with my old friend Peter to talk about his — somewhat obsessional — love of Penguin paperbacks. We also get into memory loss, and how we both want to buy a turntable and start collecting vinyl again.

We're really not as old as we sound.

You can access this podcast on either Soundcloud, RadioPublic, Stitcher, the Apple podcasts app, or the Google Podcast app. You can find individual episodes through my own website at www.jkdegen.com/, and @bookroompod on Twitter. If you have suggestions for stories I might want to cover, you can reach out on Twitter or by e-mail at bookroom14@yahoo.com.

Not Actually a Library

The world's authors and publishers have come together to protest the unauthorized scanning and release of their books through a website claiming to be a library. For the record... it's not a library. Libraries respect the rights of authors.

I talk with one author who found her work online, just as she was getting ready to make her own e-book version for sale.

See the related press release from The Writers' Union of Canada here:

www.writersunion.ca/news/creators-a…on-open-library

See the appeal from a coalition of creator and publisher groups here:

nwu.org/book-division/cdl/appeal/

You can access this podcast on either Soundcloud, RadioPublic, Stitcher, the Apple podcasts app, or the Google Podcast app. You can find individual episodes through my own website at www.jkdegen.com/, and @bookroompod on Twitter. If you have suggestions for stories I might want to cover, you can reach out on Twitter or by e-mail at bookroom14@yahoo.com.

Photo courtesy me and my little camera.