Yesterday was my late grandfather CLR James's birthday! I have two things to share, to honor his memory. The first is a recommendation! To help you understand our current political moment, you should grab his book on Moby-Dick. It's a remarkable treatise on American xenophobic authoritarianism.

oh wow!! two of the coolest people in the literature game talking DAYSPRING and Milton’s best non PL poem! Can’t wait to listen!!!

We wrap up the year by looking at a few texts about Jesus. @wordgarbler.bsky.social explores the Gospel According to Mark (and Geoff Ryman's Him and @meakoopa.bsky.social's Dayspring), and @sakbari.bsky.social revisits John Milton's poem On the Morning of Christ's Nativity. megaphonic.fm/spouter/88

Let’s start a Read A Play In December Challenge!

New! @wordgarbler.bsky.social revisits an old favourite with Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, and @sakbari.bsky.social is excited about Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s new book Theory of Water: Nishnaabe Maps to the Times Ahead. Listen at megaphonic.fm/spouter/87 or on your podcast app.

Our bonus episodes are back! This time @sakbari.bsky.social spoke with John Nicholas (Munsee-Delaware Nation), whose parents Grey Owl and Little Pigeon wrote Cry of the Ancients back in 1974. Listen at megaphonic.fm/spouter/86b or on your podcast app.

"I'm afraid the award has really been completely overshadowed. The eviction of the encampment was such a trauma." - Maggie Helwig on winning the City of Toronto Book Award less than 24 hours before the city cleared the encampment she writes about in the book. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/m...

With her 250th birthday just around the corner, we revisit two of Jane Austen's novels: Pride and Prejudice (at last!) and Northanger Abbey. Yes, we also talk about Colin Firth. It's a fun episode! Listen at the link below or on your podcast app.

New! @wordgarbler.bsky.social finally reads Wuthering Heights, and @sakbari.bsky.social revisits Laurie Colwin's essay collection Home Cooking. And we admit to a few canonical books that we didn't get on with. Listen on your podcast app or at megaphonic.fm/spouter/85

Finally catching up on this episode, I LOVED hearing Chris and Suzanne on Gatsby and its EXTRAORDINARY STRUCTURE..

It's a big special birthday episode over at The Spouter-Inn, and we're reading some old favourites. @sakbari.bsky.social revisits the poetry of Wallace Stevens, and @wordgarbler.bsky.social goes back to James Joyce's Finnegans Wake. Listen at megaphonic.fm/spouter/84 or on your podcast app.

Chris has been working on a little something…

Many months after having my curiosity piqued by @thespouterinn.bsky.social 's ep on Rings of Saturn by Sebald, I finally read it and found it one of the most moving books I've ever read, despite not quite ... knowing what it's about? Well. Time to rellisten to the episode... megaphonic.fm/spouter/54

Is it more fun if we give a hint about our upcoming episode? I may have just gotten to the end of the book I’m bringing to the table (spoiler: “the”) and I may be very excited to try to talk about it. (Of course I’m also excited to hear @sakbari.bsky.social talk about one of her favourite poets!)

Tonight at 7 Eastern! Chris will be solving a series of crossword puzzles by @bewilderingly.bsky.social, each devoted to one of James Joyce's major works (plus one for Virginia Woolf, because why not). Join the fun at twitch.tv/MegaphonicFM (and solve the puzzles first if that's your jam).

"Why," @sakbari.bsky.social asks, "why on earth did you pick Peter Rabbit to talk about this month?" Oh, I had a reason, don't worry. Even beyond it being an important and charming and influential book!

New episode! @wordgarbler.bsky.social takes a poke at Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Peter Rabbit, and @sakbari.bsky.social pays tribute to the late Edmund White by revisiting his first novel, Forgetting Elena. Listen on your podcast app or at megaphonic.fm/spouter/83

In our new episode, @sakbari.bsky.social celebrates the 100th anniversary of The Great Gatsby, and @wordgarbler.bsky.social talks about Stanisław Lem's novel Solaris (and more). Also, happy Pride! Listen on your podcast app or at megaphonic.fm/spouter/82

In our new episode, @sakbari.bsky.social celebrates the 100th anniversary of The Great Gatsby, and @wordgarbler.bsky.social talks about Stanisław Lem's novel Solaris (and more). Also, happy Pride! Listen on your podcast app or at megaphonic.fm/spouter/82

Edmund White has left the room. A brilliant novelist, memoirist and biographer, and one of the seven gay writers who founded the influential Violet Quill circle in 1980, he will live on through his remarkable body of work and in the memories of those of us who were lucky enough to meet him.

NEW! Chris rereads L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and Suzanne considers Margareta von Oswald's study Working Through Colonial Collections: An Ethnography of the Ethnological Museum in Berlin. So yeah, the tone of the conversation might change halfway through… megaphonic.fm/spouter/81

Mrs. Dalloway turned 100 yesterday. To celebrate I read @markhussey.bsky.social’s Mrs. Dalloway: Biography of a Novel, a fascinating exploration of the novel’s creation, reception, and lasting impact, just out from @manchesterup.bsky.social. I loved it! mookseandgripes.com/reviews/2025...

My beloved friend and mentor David Townsend has started a newsletter to explore the world of Julian of Norwich, in conjunction with his forthcoming novel, The Ram in the Thicket. Please share! 🕯️ #medievalsky davidrtownsend.substack.com/p/imagining-...

Happy Birthday, Mrs. Dalloway! A good day to reshare our 📚 visit with her @thespouterinn.bsky.social: megaphonic.fm/spouter/56

Happy Indie Bookstore Day! Uh, I may be in the middle of a bookshop crawl, and it may be doing no favours to reducing my to-read pile. Oh darn.

This month we talk about: - William Carlos Williams's book-length poem Paterson (and related works) - Magda Szabó's novel The Door - oddly alluring book covers - reading work from familiar vs. unfamiliar places - and more! Available at all the usual podcast places or at megaphonic.fm/spouter/80

Canadian Independent Bookstore Day is on April 26th! We’re very fortunate in this country to have absolutely amazing indies and if you’re looking for some local Canadian businesses to show some love, we’ve got suggestions! We can't name every shop, but here are some we'd love to give a shout-out to.

In case anyone wants to get a taste (ahem) of The Jungle via podcast @thespouterinn.bsky.social megaphonic.fm/spouter/25

Oho! Jared’s novel, which I talked about in our latest episode, has won an award! Much deserved. I’m absolutely mellified for him.

New episode! @wordgarbler.bsky.social has been rereading Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and @sakbari.bsky.social has been rereading The Nine Tailors. They also talk about whether they keep up with the latest novels (and films). (I bet there's one recent and relevant novel that gets discussed...)

In our latest episode, @sakbari.bsky.social revisits Lee Maracle's Memory Serves: Oratories (a collection of essay-like pieces), and @wordgarbler.bsky.social finally reads Arthur Conan Doyle's A Study in Scarlet (the first Sherlock Holmes novel).

It’s a snow day here, and we’re staying in with some good books. And our next episode drops tomorrow, revisiting Lee Maracle’s Memory Serves and cracking open the first Sherlock Holmes novel, A Study in Scarlet.

This book is a treat, filled with bite-sized delights (and a transcription of a fascinating talk, if you’re into the nitty gritty of publishing in the 80s). A book of unpublished jottings and drafts would usually be for superfans only, but you can totally enjoy this, even as your intro to bpNichol.

Listening to Suzanne gush over all the (well done) ekphrasis in Name of the Rose had me thinking about how Bluesky is (usually, properly) an environment built upon ekphrasis.

And the obligatory cat photo!

I have been loving The Spouter Inn by friends @sakbari.bsky.social and @wordgarbler.bsky.social and am looking forward to the new format, especially hearing about NotR. (I recommend their back catalogue, too.)

Now we are six! And for our birthday, we got ourselves a new format — with more than one book an episode. Chris has been reading Emily Wilson's translation of the Iliad, and Suzanne has been revisiting Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose. Join us as we talk about these books — and many more!

Got this quoted into my timeline, so I decided to check it out, but have started by going back to their episodes on Fellowship and Two Towers. Some of the best conversation on LotR I've heard in a long while, highly recommend.

While our next episode isn’t out until January, how about a little something extra? @schwindter.bsky.social and @vandroidhelsing.bsky.social did bonus episodes with @thespouterinn.bsky.social on the first two parts and now @nedraggett.bsky.social helps take it home! #Tolkien

We invited @nedraggett.bsky.social (from the delightful Tolkien podcast @bythebywater.bsky.social) over to talk some more about The Return of the King, and how later readers (including JRRT himself, after the book's publication!) have responded to The Lord of the Rings.

We'd like to note that one of our fellow #MegaphonicFM podcasts, @thespouterinn.bsky.social, has a new episode out themed around #Tolkien on _The Return of the King_, having previously looked at _Fellowship_ and _TTT_. Check all three episodes out -- and there's a bonus episode forthcoming too!

"Well, this is the end, Sam Gamgee." We talk about J.R.R. Tolkien's The Return of the King in our latest episode. And we try to count how many endings it takes to conclude The Lord of the Rings. Join us at megaphonic.fm/spouter/76 or on your podcast app.

Do you subscribe to any small presses? Where every so often you get a package with their latest books? If so, I’d love to hear about your experiences (and recommendations)!

Did you know The Bell Jar, The Handmaid's Tale, The Feminine Mystique, and more all appeared on Sesame Street in the 90s? The @muppetwiki.bsky.social team finally created a page for my favorite little-known running gag: Prairie Dawn's Feminist Literature collection muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Prairie...

We've added lots of great translation and global lit-centric presses and mags to this list since last week! If you think we've missed something, let us know! go.bsky.app/RPkPdAM

A favourite podcast for long runs and longer drives. <3

If you’re just finding out about us and are wondering what to listen to first… maybe our episode on Moby-Dick? Or maybe our longtime listeners have suggestions?

The Spouter-Inn, the podcast I host with @sakbari.bsky.social, is now on Bluesky at @thespouterinn.bsky.social! She’s a professor of literature, I’m a poet and PhD dropout. We talk about “great books” (of all kinds) but wonder what that phrase even means. Follow (and listen) if that’s your thing!

O brave new world, that has such people in it!