Writing the Coast: BC and Yukon Book Prizes Podcast
Writing the Coast: BC & Yukon Book Prizes podcast
222 episodes
2 days ago
ABOUT THIS EPISODE:
In this episode, host Megan Cole talks to Danny Ramadan. Danny's memoir, Crooked Teeth: A Queer Syrian Refugee Memoir, was a finalist for the 2025 Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize. In their conversation, Danny talks about truth in memoir. He also talks about writing memoir as art and writing yourself as a character in your own memoir.
For more about Crooked Teeth: https://bcyukonbookprizes.com/project/crooked-teeth/
To view the 2025 BC and Yukon Book Prizes shortlists: bcyukonbookprizes.com/2025/04/10/bc-…sts-announced/
ABOUT DANNY RAMADAN:
Danny Ramadan (he/him) is a Syrian-Canadian author, public speaker, and advocate for LGBTQ+ refugees. His debut novel, The Clothesline Swing, was longlisted for Canada Reads and named a Best Book of the Year by The Globe and Mail and Toronto Star. His second novel, The Foghorn Echoes, won a Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction and was shortlisted for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize and the Vancouver Book Award. He has an MFA in Creative Writing from UBC and currently lives in Vancouver with his husband.
ABOUT MEGAN COLE:
Megan Cole the Interim Executive Director for the BC and Yukon Book Prizes. She is also a writer based on the territory of the Tla'amin Nation. Megan writes creative nonfiction and has had essays published in Chatelaine, This Magazine, The Puritan, Untethered, and more. She has her MFA in creative nonfiction from the University of King's College and is working her first book. Find out more about Megan at megancolewriter.com
ABOUT THE PODCAST:
Writing the Coast is recorded and produced on the traditional territory of the Tla'amin Nation. As a settler on these lands, Megan Cole finds opportunities to learn and listen to the stories from those whose land was stolen.
Writing the Coast is a recorded series of conversations, readings, and insights into the work of the writers, illustrators, and creators whose books are nominated for the annual BC and Yukon Book Prizes. We'll also check in on people in the writing community who are supporting books, writers and readers every day. The podcast is produced and hosted by Megan Cole.
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ABOUT THIS EPISODE:
In this episode, host Megan Cole talks to Danny Ramadan. Danny's memoir, Crooked Teeth: A Queer Syrian Refugee Memoir, was a finalist for the 2025 Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize. In their conversation, Danny talks about truth in memoir. He also talks about writing memoir as art and writing yourself as a character in your own memoir.
For more about Crooked Teeth: https://bcyukonbookprizes.com/project/crooked-teeth/
To view the 2025 BC and Yukon Book Prizes shortlists: bcyukonbookprizes.com/2025/04/10/bc-…sts-announced/
ABOUT DANNY RAMADAN:
Danny Ramadan (he/him) is a Syrian-Canadian author, public speaker, and advocate for LGBTQ+ refugees. His debut novel, The Clothesline Swing, was longlisted for Canada Reads and named a Best Book of the Year by The Globe and Mail and Toronto Star. His second novel, The Foghorn Echoes, won a Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction and was shortlisted for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize and the Vancouver Book Award. He has an MFA in Creative Writing from UBC and currently lives in Vancouver with his husband.
ABOUT MEGAN COLE:
Megan Cole the Interim Executive Director for the BC and Yukon Book Prizes. She is also a writer based on the territory of the Tla'amin Nation. Megan writes creative nonfiction and has had essays published in Chatelaine, This Magazine, The Puritan, Untethered, and more. She has her MFA in creative nonfiction from the University of King's College and is working her first book. Find out more about Megan at megancolewriter.com
ABOUT THE PODCAST:
Writing the Coast is recorded and produced on the traditional territory of the Tla'amin Nation. As a settler on these lands, Megan Cole finds opportunities to learn and listen to the stories from those whose land was stolen.
Writing the Coast is a recorded series of conversations, readings, and insights into the work of the writers, illustrators, and creators whose books are nominated for the annual BC and Yukon Book Prizes. We'll also check in on people in the writing community who are supporting books, writers and readers every day. The podcast is produced and hosted by Megan Cole.
Zehra Naqvi talks about poetry helped her find her voice.
Writing the Coast: BC and Yukon Book Prizes Podcast
23 minutes 19 seconds
2 months ago
Zehra Naqvi talks about poetry helped her find her voice.
ABOUT THIS EPISODE:
In this episode, host Megan Cole talks to Zehra Naqvi. Zehra's book The Knot of my Tongue is a finalist for the 2025 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. On the episode Zehra how listening helps learn language. She talks about capturing silence in poetry.
For more about The Knot of my Tongue: https://bcyukonbookprizes.com/project/the-knot-of-my-tongue/
To view the 2025 BC and Yukon Book Prizes shortlists: bcyukonbookprizes.com/2025/04/10/bc-…sts-announced/
ABOUT ZEHRA NAQVI:
Zehra Naqvi is a Karachi-born writer raised on unceded Coast Salish Territories (Vancouver, BC). She is a winner of the 2021 RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers awarded by the Writers’ Trust of Canada. Her poem “forgetting urdu” was the winner of Room’s 2016 Poetry Contest. Zehra has written and edited for various publications internationally. She holds two MSc degrees in migration studies and social anthropology from Oxford University where she studied as a Rhodes Scholar. The Knot of My Tongue is her debut poetry collection.
ABOUT MEGAN COLE:
Megan Cole the Interim Executive Director for the BC and Yukon Book Prizes. She is also a writer based on the territory of the Tla'amin Nation. Megan writes creative nonfiction and has had essays published in Chatelaine, This Magazine, The Puritan, Untethered, and more. She has her MFA in creative nonfiction from the University of King's College and is working her first book. Find out more about Megan at megancolewriter.com
ABOUT THE PODCAST:
Writing the Coast is recorded and produced on the traditional territory of the Tla'amin Nation. As a settler on these lands, Megan Cole finds opportunities to learn and listen to the stories from those whose land was stolen.
Writing the Coast is a recorded series of conversations, readings, and insights into the work of the writers, illustrators, and creators whose books are nominated for the annual BC and Yukon Book Prizes. We'll also check in on people in the writing community who are supporting books, writers and readers every day. The podcast is produced and hosted by Megan Cole.
Writing the Coast: BC and Yukon Book Prizes Podcast
ABOUT THIS EPISODE:
In this episode, host Megan Cole talks to Danny Ramadan. Danny's memoir, Crooked Teeth: A Queer Syrian Refugee Memoir, was a finalist for the 2025 Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize. In their conversation, Danny talks about truth in memoir. He also talks about writing memoir as art and writing yourself as a character in your own memoir.
For more about Crooked Teeth: https://bcyukonbookprizes.com/project/crooked-teeth/
To view the 2025 BC and Yukon Book Prizes shortlists: bcyukonbookprizes.com/2025/04/10/bc-…sts-announced/
ABOUT DANNY RAMADAN:
Danny Ramadan (he/him) is a Syrian-Canadian author, public speaker, and advocate for LGBTQ+ refugees. His debut novel, The Clothesline Swing, was longlisted for Canada Reads and named a Best Book of the Year by The Globe and Mail and Toronto Star. His second novel, The Foghorn Echoes, won a Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction and was shortlisted for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize and the Vancouver Book Award. He has an MFA in Creative Writing from UBC and currently lives in Vancouver with his husband.
ABOUT MEGAN COLE:
Megan Cole the Interim Executive Director for the BC and Yukon Book Prizes. She is also a writer based on the territory of the Tla'amin Nation. Megan writes creative nonfiction and has had essays published in Chatelaine, This Magazine, The Puritan, Untethered, and more. She has her MFA in creative nonfiction from the University of King's College and is working her first book. Find out more about Megan at megancolewriter.com
ABOUT THE PODCAST:
Writing the Coast is recorded and produced on the traditional territory of the Tla'amin Nation. As a settler on these lands, Megan Cole finds opportunities to learn and listen to the stories from those whose land was stolen.
Writing the Coast is a recorded series of conversations, readings, and insights into the work of the writers, illustrators, and creators whose books are nominated for the annual BC and Yukon Book Prizes. We'll also check in on people in the writing community who are supporting books, writers and readers every day. The podcast is produced and hosted by Megan Cole.
