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Interview with Sri Lankan-born Canadian author Michael Ondaatje on his new book of poetry, Handwriting.

PART I: American author Louise Erdrich talks about a year in her life. From a winter pregnancy through a spring and summer of new motherhood.. PART II: John Willinsky talks about he cultural domination of the mother-of-all reference sources, the Oxford English Dictionary.

Eleanor Wachtel interviews award-winning Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood on her new book,The Robber Bride. Atwood gives two studio readings from the novel.

Eleanor Wachtel interviews Canadian author Carol Shields. Episode includes Shields reading from her book The Republic of Love.. Also - a Panel discussions on the life and death of American poet and novelist Sylvia Plath, with literary biographers Jacqueline Rose and Paul Alexander.

Canadian Jewish voices this week on Writers & Company. From A. M. Klein to Mordecai Richler, Montreal has been at the hub of Jewish Canadian writing. The heart of that literary life has been Montreal's Jewish Public Library - the oldest in Canada. To celebrate the library's 90th birthday, Eleanor Wachtel was joined on stage by Elaine Kalman Naves, Norman Ravvin, Karen Tulchinsky and Joel Yanofsky.

This week on Writers and Company, host Eleanor Wachtel talks with Alice Munro - described as "Canada's Chekhov", "Canada's Flaubert" - you name it: a wonderful story-teller with a new book, Runaway, which is already a finalist for the 2004 Governor General's Literary Awards and winner of the Giller Prize.

Eleanor Wachtel talks with four literary pioneers, or as it sometimes seems, archeologists this week as Writers & Company marks Asian Heritage Month. Denise Chong, Anosh Irani, Bharati Mukherjee and Ruth Ozeki, recorded in a lively Panel discussions recorded at the CBC in Vancouver, dig up family secrets and reconfigure the past as well as the future.

Host Eleanor Wachtel goes West for a lively Panel discussions on writing from a Prairie perspective. "Prairie Traditions: Writing Against the Grain," recorded at the Winnipeg Literary Festival, features Robert Kroetsch, Margaret Sweatman, David Bergen, and Roger Léveillé.

Artist and author Leanne Shapton talks to Eleanor Wachtel about her evocative new work, Guestbook: Ghost Stories, and how the stuff of everyday life inspires her uniquely creative vision.

Eleanor speaks with the award-winning Canadian poet, essayist, Greek and Latin scholar, and librettist, Anne Carson - on stage at Montreal's Blue Metropolis Festival.

INTERVIEWS and READINGS: Canadian novelist Robertson Davies discusses his writing and ideas, and reads from his latest, Murther & Walking Spirits at Toronto's Wintergarden Theatre.

INTERVIEW: Books in Canada editor Paul Steuwe discusses Margaret Atwood's work as a poet. INTERVIEW & READING: Margaret Atwood discusses her poetry and reads from Selected Poems, 1966-1984 (1990, Oxford Univ. Press)

READING: Alice Munro reads from "Friend of My Youth" from the collection of the same name (1990, McClelland & Stewart). INTERVIEW: Munro discusses her fiction. READING: Munro reads from "Apples & Oranges," from Friend of my Youth.

Host Eleanor Wachtel talks with one of Canada's literary giants: Margaret Atwood. Eleanor Wachtel spoke with Margaret Atwood on stage at the Omni Hotel in Montreal as part of a fundraiser for the McGill Centre for Research and Teaching on Women. An entertaining and wide-ranging conversation, they talk about Margaret Atwood's writing and about her new novel, Oryx and Crake.

Eleanor speaks with Canadian author Carol Shields about her new collection of short stories, Dressing Up for the Carnival. Then: a reading of Shields' short story "Soup du Jour" at the Toronto International Festival of Authors.