Bookends with Mattea Roach

From the face that launched a thousand ships, to the gaze that turned men to stone – the women of Greek myths are the subject of Natalie Haynes’s latest book, Pandora’s Jar. If you’ve ever wondered whether Helen really started the Trojan War, or how Medusa got a head full of snakes, or what Pandora’s box was all about, Haynes is the person to ask. The British classicist, novelist and stand-up comedian goes back to the ancient original sources to rediscover these and other legendary women, whose stories have too often been forgotten or misrepresented.

Margo Jefferson's 2015 memoir, Negroland, chronicled her experiences growing up as part of Chicago's Black bourgeoisie in the 1950s and '60s. It won the National Book Critics Circle Award. Now, the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic has an acclaimed new title, Constructing A Nervous System. It's an innovative look at Jefferson's life and mind, as well as the artists, musicians and writers who shaped her.

When Joan Didion died in December 2021 at the age of 87 from complications of Parkinson's disease, writers and readers lamented the loss of a literary giant. In a rare conversation in 2005, Didion spoke to Eleanor Wachtel in front of a packed audience at the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto about her award-winning memoir, The Year of Magical Thinking. This interview originally aired on November 27, 2005.

In this conversation from 2013, the American photographer and conceptual artist talked to Eleanor about mixing camerawork, writing and graphic design to raise questions about truth and certainty.

In this 2020 interview, the American poet and Pulitzer Prize winner spoke with Eleanor Wachtel about his poetry collection The Tradition, the legacy of racial violence and hopes of finding justice in an unjust world.