Ideas

BloodLines

Inspired by Lawrence Hill's CBC Massey Lectures, award-winning writers tell their stories. Heart-wrenching and gripping tales about love, family and the challenges posed by kinship, exclusion and belonging. "It's in your blood" is what we tell someone who is behaving in a way that reminds us of their father, mother or sibling. And that trait is either something you want...
Inspired by Lawrence Hill's CBC Massey Lectures, award-winning writers tell their stories. Heart-wrenching and gripping tales about love, family and the challenges posed by kinship, exclusion and belonging.

"It's in your blood" is what we tell someone who is behaving in a way that reminds us of their father, mother or sibling. And that trait is either something you want to elude or embrace.


This episode of IDEAS features four of the ten award-winning writers who were commissioned by Canada Writes and the Canada Council for the Arts to write on the subject of blood. Visit the Canada Writes website to find the full versions of the poems and short stories commissioned for the BloodLines series.



Featured authors (in order of appearance):

JJ Lee - Author of the memoir T he Measure of a Man: The Story of a Father, a Son, and a Suit. It was shortlisted for the 2011 Governor-General's Literary Award for Non-Fiction. His short story is called Shadows.

Julie Bruck - Canadian poet living in San Francisco. Winner of the Governor General's Literary Award for Poetry in 2012. Her poem is called The Cold.

Alexi Zentner - Writer and teacher shortlisted for the 2011Governor General's Literary Award for his novel Touch. His fictional short story is called The Orchard.

Elizabeth Abbott - Author of a number of works of non-fiction, including A History of Marriage, which was a finalist for the 2010 Governor General's Literary Award for non-fiction.


Race-Thumbnail-140x93.jpgIf you are interested in the questions of race and identity that are raised in this episode, you might also be interested in watching the panel discussion "Is Race a Fiction?"