Everything you need to know about Canada Reads 2023
The great Canadian book debate is happening March 27-30
Canada Reads is taking place March 27-30, 2023! This year, the great Canadian book debate is looking for one book to shift your perspective.
The stories we tell, and the way we tell them, can shape how we see ourselves, our communities and the world. This collection of books is an opportunity to broaden our horizons, expand our worldview and think differently about the world around us and our place in it.
The 2023 contenders are:
- Jeopardy! super-champ Mattea Roach champions Ducks by Kate Beaton
- Actor Keegan Connor Tracy champions Greenwood by Michael Christie
- Bhangra dancer Gurdeep Pandher champions Hotline by Dimitri Nasrallah
- TikTok creator Tasnim Geedi champions Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
- Actor Michael Greyeyes champions Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
The debates will be hosted by Ali Hassan and will be broadcast on CBC Radio One, CBC TV, CBC Gem, CBC Listen and on CBC Books.
They will take place live at 10:05 a.m. ET (that's an hour earlier than recent years!). You can tune in live or catch a replay on the platform of your choice. You can see all the broadcast details here.
Here are all the ways to check out the debate:
- ONLINE: CBC Books will livestream the debates at 10:05 a.m. ET on CBCBooks.ca, YouTube, Facebook and CBC Gem. If you'd rather listen to the debates online, they will air live on CBC Listen.
- ON RADIO: Canada Reads will air on CBC Radio at 10:05 a.m. in the Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific time zones. It will air at 11:05 a.m. in the Maritimes, 1:05 p.m. in Labrador and at 1:35 p.m. in Newfoundland.
- ON TV: CBC TV will broadcast Canada Reads at 1 p.m. in the Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific time zones. It will air at 2 p.m. in the Atlantic time zone and at 2:30 p.m in the Newfoundland time zone.
- PODCAST: The episode will be posted each day after the live airing. You can download the episodes on the podcast app of your choice.
Learn more about the Canada Reads 2023 contenders below.
Mattea Roach champions Ducks by Kate Beaton
Ducks is an autobiographical graphic memoir that recounts author Kate Beaton's time spent working in the Alberta oil sands. With the goal of paying off her student loans, Beaton leaves her tight-knit seaside Nova Scotia community and heads west, where she encounters harsh realities, including the everyday trauma that no one discusses.
Ducks will be championed by Jeopardy! star Mattea Roach.
Kate Beaton is a cartoonist from Nova Scotia who launched her career by publishing the comic strip Hark! A Vagrant online. The sassy historical webcomic gained a following of 500,000 monthly visitors and was eventually turned into a bestselling book. Beaton's success continued with the book Step Aside, Pops! and two children's books, King Baby and The Princess and the Pony.
"Going out there, I knew that I wasn't going to have a good time. I knew I wasn't gonna like it, but I knew that I should be grateful for the job I was going to get. The fact that somebody was going to hire me and give me money was the good thing. Back home, they were calling it things like 'money jail,'" Beaton told Shelagh Rogers during an interview on The Next Chapter.
Going out there, I knew that I wasn't going to have a good time. I knew I wasn't gonna like it, but I knew that I should be grateful for the job I was going to get.- Kate Beaton
"It doesn't evoke a sense of enjoyment, right? But I didn't know the details in any way. What I expected was to work for money that I should be grateful to have. And I never expected a corporation to treat me nicely, but I also didn't know exactly what I was stepping into."
Mattea Roach is the most successful Canadian competitor in Jeopardy! history. In the spring of 2022, they won a record-setting 23 games. They appeared in the 2022 edition of Jeopardy!'s tournament of champions and will star in the Jeopardy! Masters spin-off. They are also a writer and podcast host. They are originally from Halifax, but currently live in Toronto.
"It is a memoir about a young woman from the East Coast, who went to work in the oil sands. So there's an angle for people from the Maritimes, but I think there are the stories of a lot of other trade workers from Alberta, from other parts of the country represented," Roach said in their 30-second pitch on CBC Radio's Q.
This book is a window into so many critical conversations about the environment, about Indigenous land rights, about the student debt crisis and about gender relations.- Mattea Roach
"This book is a window into so many critical conversations about the environment, about Indigenous land rights, about the student debt crisis and about gender relations. So there is an angle for every person to have their perspective shifted in some way."
WATCH | Mattea Roach and Kate Beaton in conversation:
Keegan Connor Tracy champions Greenwood by Michael Christie
In the novel Greenwood, it's the year 2038 and most of the world has suffered from an environmental collapse. But there is a remote island with 1,000-year-old trees and that's where Jake Greenwood works as a tour guide. The novel takes you back in time as you learn more about Jake, her family and how secrets and lies can have an impact for generations.
Greenwood will be championed by Once Upon a Time star Keegan Connor Tracy.
Michael Christie is a novelist currently living in Victoria. His 2011 short story collection The Beggar's Garden won the Vancouver Book Award and was a finalist for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. His 2015 novel If I Fall, If I Die won the Northern Lit Award and was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize.
"This is a sort of larger metaphor for this family, the Greenwoods, but I think the book also presents an environmental message but it also presents the message that we are going to need to use some resources and so we have to learn and discover how to best do that," Christie said at an on-stage event in Victoria.
Writing the book did give me hope in the sense that when you look into the past, you see a lot of darkness, but you do get astounded by the way people banded together and built community and relied on one another.- Michael Christie
"Writing the book did give me hope in the sense that when you look into the past, you see a lot of darkness, but you do get astounded by the way people banded together and built community and relied on one another. It was kind of cathartic, I think, to write about it."
Keegan Connor Tracy is an actor, director and writer from British Columbia. She has starred in the TV show Once Upon a Time as the Blue Fairy and as Belle in Disney's popular Descendents film franchise. She has also appeared in the TV series The Magicians, Bates Motel, Supernatural and the horror film Z. She is the author of the children's book This is a Job for Mommy! Her first short film, the bilingual The Girl/La Fille won the Jury President Award at the Galactic Imaginarium Festival and the Best Indie Short at the Las Vegas Movie Awards.
"It's just a stunning, beautiful book — but also it tells the story of a complicated family, something we can all relate to. It spans the country from the Maritimes to the West. It has an exciting chase and a mystery, but also it deals with really timely issues about the environment," Tracy said in her 30-second pitch on CBC Radio's Q.
It's just a stunning, beautiful book — but also it tells the story of a complicated family, something we can all relate to.- Keegan Connor Tracy
"It is a cautionary tale about how we have used our natural resources and how we will use them in the future, which is something that I think we really need to face as Canadians."
WATCH | Keegan Connor Tracy and Michael Christie in conversation:
Gurdeep Pandher champions Hotline by Dimitri Nasrallah
The novel Hotline is about Muna Heddad, a widow and mother who has left behind a civil war in Lebanon and is living in Montreal in the 1980s. The only work she can find is as a hotline operator at a weight-loss centre where she fields calls from people responding to ads in magazines or on TV. These strangers have so much to say about their challenges, from marriages gone bad to personal inadequacies. Although her life in Canada is filled with invisible barriers, Muna is privy to her clients' deepest secrets.
Hotline will be championed by bhangra dancer and viral video star Gurdeep Pandher.
Dimitri Nasrallah is a writer from Lebanon. He is the author of novels The Bleeds, Niko and Blackbodying. Nasrallah lives in Montreal and is the fiction editor at Véhicule Press.
"I've always been an outsider and I think Muna finds herself in that position as well, where she becomes very good at orbiting around the culture. She realizes that even though she is a newly arrived immigrant and she's feeling ignored by the culture, that in a largely individualistic environment, a lot of people feel as though they don't get the attention they deserve," Nasrallah said in an interview on The Next Chapter.
I've always been an outsider and I think Muna finds herself in that position as well, where she becomes very good at orbiting around the culture.- Dimitri Nasrallah
"That's what I found fascinating about the immigrant experience: you're trying to attain what people living in the country already technically 'have' but then these people are already living lives of isolation and frustration. So there's this weird disconnect when you're trying to be where they are but they are not appreciating the status level they're at."
Gurdeep Pandher is a bhangra dancer, artist and educator who currently lives in an off-grid cabin in Yukon. He is known for creating joyful videos of him dancing in unusual locations, such as in nature and in the winter cold and on the CN Tower. He also uses dance to bring people together and spread the message of joy, positivity and hope. His videos have been seen by millions of people around the world and he has toured Canada, bringing his dancing and inspiring message to communities coast to coast.
"Hotline shows the struggles of an immigrant family. [Protagonist] Muna and her child arrived in Montreal after fleeing the civil war in Lebanon," Pandher said on Q.
The book explores racism, belonging, loneliness and single parenting, but there's also hope.- Gurdeep Pandher
"She faces barriers in providing basic necessities such as food, money and shelter while working as a hotline operator. Through her voice, she brings hope to the people of Quebec and Canada. The book explores racism, belonging, loneliness and single parenting, but there's also hope. The story is set in the 1980s — but is as true today as it was then."
WATCH | Gurdeep Pandher and Dimitri Nasrallah in conversation:
Tasnim Geedi champions Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Mexican Gothic is a gothic horror novel set in 1950s Mexico. It tells the story of a young woman named Noemí who is called by her cousin to save her from doom in her countryside home, the mysterious and alluring High Place. Noemí doesn't know much about the house, the region or her cousin's mysterious new husband, but she's determined to do whatever it takes to solve this mystery and save her cousin.
Mexican Gothic will be championed by TikTok creator Tasnim Geedi.
Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a Canadian author, who was born and raised in Mexico. She is also the author of the novels Signal to Noise, Gods of Jade and Shadow, The Beautiful Ones, Velvet Was the Night, Untamed Shore and The Daughter of Doctor Moreau.
"The year 1950 seemed just about right, in a Goldilocks kind of way, because women were going to get to vote in 1953 Mexico. So this is just before women get the vote, but it's after the Mexican Revolution. It's this interim period where some things have changed in terms of how women are perceived and the rights and freedoms that they have," Moreno-Garcia told Shelagh Rogers on The Next Chapter in 2020.
The year 1950 seemed just about right, in a Goldilocks kind of way, because women were going to get to vote in 1953 Mexico.- Silvia Moreno-Garcia
"But there are still many constraints — the view at the time was that the woman, while she may 'waste' her time engaging academic pursuits, ultimately, the final goal is to get married and to have children."
Tasnim Geedi is a Somali Canadian nursing student who is best known as @groovytas on TikTok, where she posts about her favourite books. She's one of the biggest "BookTok" creators in Canada, with over 100,000 followers, and her content has been liked more than five million times. Geedi lives in Toronto and plans to pursue a career in women's health once she completes her nursing degree.
"Set in 1950s Mexico, this gothic story follows Noemí, who leaves her glamorous debutante life to save her cousin from her new European husband in this isolated mansion in the countryside. I believe all Canadians need to read this, because what better way to escape the craziness that is our life than to join Noemí in hers?" said Geedi on Q.
This is not just a story about dark family secrets but the lingering effects of colonialism.- Tasnim Geedi
"This is not just a story about dark family secrets but the lingering effects of colonialism. And Silvia does not waste a single sentence to immerse you in this chilling story, which will have you questioning everybody, including yourself."
WATCH | Tasnim Geedi and Silvia Moreno-Garcia in conversation:
Michael Greyeyes champions Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Station Eleven is a dystopian novel that takes place on an Earth undone by disease, following the interconnected lives of several characters — actors, artists and those closest to them — before and after the plague. One travels the wasteland performing Shakespearean plays with a troupe, while another attempts to build community at an abandoned airport and another amasses followers for a dangerous cause.
Station Eleven will be championed by actor, director and choreographer Michael Greyeyes.
Emily St. John Mandel is a bestselling Canadian author currently living in New York and Los Angeles. Her other novels include The Glass Hotel, which was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and Sea of Tranquility which was one of two Canadian books on Barack Obama's list of favourite books of 2022.
"I thought that it would be a book set in the present day. I knew I wanted to write about the life of an actor. I was interested in the idea of what it means to devote your life to your art. I thought it would be a quiet, literary novel about an actor in present-day Canada ... but there was something else that I have really been wanting to write about for a while. And that was the awe that I feel at this world in which we find ourselves. You read the headlines and, of course, a lot of things about this world are absolutely unspeakable and appalling," St. John Mandel said in an interview with The Next Chapter in 2015.
I wanted to write about this extraordinary place and time in which we find ourselves. One way to write about something is to write about its absence.- Emily St. John Mandel
"We are surrounded by a level of infrastructure and technology that at any other point in human history would have seemed absolutely miraculous. I wanted to write about this extraordinary place and time in which we find ourselves. One way to write about something is to write about its absence. I was thinking about Station Eleven as a love letter to the modern world, written in the form of a requiem."
Michael Greyeyes is a Nêhiyaw actor, choreographer and director from Muskeg Lake Cree Nation. He can be seen in the films Woman Walks Ahead, Wild Indian and Blood Quantum and the TV shows True Detective, I Know This Much Is True and Rutherford Falls. He won the Canadian Screen Award for best actor in 2021 for his work in Blood Quantum. In 2010, he founded the transdisciplinary and intercultural performance company Signal Theatre.
"Station Eleven is an extraordinary journey into the things that hold us together — into our dreams and the things so dear to us we cannot leave them behind. The novel follows five incredible characters set against the collapse of civilization," Greyeyes told Q in his 30-second pitch.
Station Eleven is an extraordinary journey into the things that hold us together — into our dreams and the things so dear to us we cannot leave them behind.- Michael Greyeyes
"Written years before the pandemic, Station Eleven imagines a future ravaged by something even worse, and how people so much like us found their way through."
WATCH | Michael Greyeyes and Emily St. John Mandel in conversation:
