Writers & Company

Writers & Company, CBC's flagship literary program, broadcast weekly for more than 30 years. Host Eleanor Wachtel conducts hour-long, intimate, in-depth interviews with exceptional writers—novelists, poets, essayists, dramatists, biographers and critics—as well as filmmakers, artists, and thinkers from around the world. Special attention is paid to their background and personal experience, as it relates to their work. The long format also allows for consideration of the writer's oeuvre and connecting themes. A reading is often part of the conversation.

This includes 14 winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature, often before they received the recognition of the Nobel committee, and then engaging with them afterwards as well. At the same time, the program has featured new voices, writers who went on to become established names in the literary world. Alongside regular programming, Writers & Company produced the 25 special series—interviews recorded in the field, with authors and artists in different countries and cultures, from India to Argentina, from Aotearoa New Zealand to Sri Lanka.

The entire collection of Writers & Company episodes are now available. 

The media is available for Internet Streaming. Internet Downloading is prohibited. 

Writers & Company is a production of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. © All rights reserved. 1990-2023

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Displaying 1 - 15 of 1088

'Brave New Word' Panel with Sahar Delijani, Anthony Marra, and Abdellah Taïa

Date: 2013-11-10
Name(s): Delijani, Sahar, 1983-, Marra, Anthony, Stinson, Mary (Producer), Taïa, Abdellah, 1973-, Wachtel, Eleanor
Description: This week on Writers and company, three brave young writers - Sahar Delijani, Anthony Marra, and Abdellah Taïa - look at where the political meets the personal as they tell their stories from Iran, Morocco, and Chechnya.

'He was my best teacher.' Liv Ullmann on the legendary Ingmar Bergman

Date: 2018-03-25
Name(s): Rabinovitch, Sandra, Ullmann, Liv, Wachtel, Eleanor
Description: From Persona to Scenes from a Marriage, Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann captivated audiences in the films of Ingmar Bergman. But since the early '90s, she's found her true calling as a director. In 2014, Ullmann spoke to Eleanor Wachtel about her latest film, Miss Julie, and about the special bond she shared with the Swedish master himself. (This episode was first aired in 2015 on Wachtel On the Arts)

'Travel and Voice' Panel – with Luka Lesson and Liija Zhang. Plus, poet Xi Chuan

Date: 2012-04-08
Name(s): Luka Lesson, Stinson, Mary (Producer), Wachtel, Eleanor, Xi, Chuan, 1963-, Zhang, Lijia, 1964-
Description: From the International Literary Festival in Beijing, travel and voice - Eleanor Wachtel leads a discussion about the writer's role across languages and cultures or social class, through the imagination. With Lijia Zhang from China, and Luka Lesson from Australia. Also on the show, an encore presentation of Eleanor Wachtel's 2008 conversation with poet, Xi Chuan. His first collection of poetry to be published in English, Notes on the Mosquito, is coming out this month from New Directions.

"Aftershock: Chile in Transition" Pt. 2, with Jorge Edwards

Date: 2010-04-11
Name(s): Edwards, Jorge, Rabinovitch, Sandra, Wachtel, Eleanor
Description: "Aftershock: Chile in Transition" Pt. 2, with Jorge Edwards. This week, more from Chile with the award-winning novelist and columnist, Jorge Edwards. His early work as a diplomat brought him into contact with Salvador Allende, Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and Pablo Neruda. Persona Non Grata by Jorge Edwards is published by Nation Books.

"Aftershock: Chile in Transition" Pt. 3, with Isabel Allende

Date: 2010-04-18
Name(s): Allende, Isabel, Rabinovitch, Sandra, Wachtel, Eleanor
Description: "Aftershock: Chile in Transition" Pt. 3, with Isabel Allende. Our Chile series continues with best-selling novelist and memoirist, Isabel Allende. Her new book takes place in another earthquake zone: Haiti - 200 years ago, during its revolutionary struggle. Island Beneath the Sea is published by HarperCollins.

"Aftershock: Chile in Transition" Pt. 4, with Marjorie Agosín and Alicia Scherson

Date: 2010-04-25
Name(s): Agosín, Marjorie, Rabinovitch, Sandra, Scherson, Alicia, 1974-, Wachtel, Eleanor
Description: "Aftershock: Chile in Transition" Pt. 4, with the dynamic, award-winning filmmaker Alicia Scherson. Also, poet, memoirist, and activist Marjorie Agosín. Alicia Scherson's films are Play, and Turistas, and Marjorie Agosín's latest book of poetry is called The Light of Desire.

"Aftershock: Chile in Transition" Pt. 5, with Alberto Fuguet and Sebastian Silva

Date: 2010-05-02
Name(s): Fuguet, Alberto, Rabinovitch, Sandra, Silva, Sebastian, 1979-, Wachtel, Eleanor
Description: "Aftershock: Chile in Transition" Pt. 5. Our Chilean series concludes with two irreverent voices: novelist and critic Alberto Fuguet and the remarkable young director of the movie The Maid - Sebastian Silva.

"Aftershock: Chile in Transition" Pt.1, with Antonio Skármeta

Date: 2010-04-04
Name(s): Rabinovitch, Sandra, Skármeta, Antonio, Wachtel, Eleanor
Description: Eleanor Wachtel has just returned from Chile. She travelled there to speak with some of the country's most dynamic writers, to get a sense, through their work and their personal stories, of how the country has dealt with its various traumas. She arrived in Santiago just hours before the devastating earthquake that struck Chile on February 27, 2010. Nonetheless, Eleanor carried on with the interviews, and those remarkable conversations, recorded through aftershocks and tremors, are part of a new…

"All in the Family" - a panel with Kathryn Harrison, Lisa St Aubin de Terán, and Siri Hustvedt

Date: 2003-04-13
Name(s): Harrison, Kathryn, Hustvedt, Siri, St Aubin de Terán, Lisa, 1953-, Stinson, Mary (Producer), Wachtel, Eleanor
Description: This week on Writers & Company, "All in the Family": three writers talk about how their families made them, and how they use their families in their fiction and memoirs. Writers & Company host Eleanor Wachtel speaks with Kathryn Harrison, Lisa St Aubin de Terán, and Siri Hustvedt in a surprising and candid discussion recorded onstage at the Blue Metropolis Literary Festival in Montréal.

"At the Centre of Europe: A Changing Germany" Pt. 1, with Margarethe von Trotta

Date: 2016-04-10
Name(s): Rabinovitch, Sandra, Trotta, Margarethe von, Wachtel, Eleanor
Description: From Munich, to launch Writers & Company's special four-part series on Germany, Eleanor Wachtel speaks with filmmaker Margarethe von Trotta about the historical, political and personal stories that have inspired her work.

"At the Centre of Europe: A Changing Germany" Pt. 2, with Reinhard Kleist

Date: 2016-04-17
Name(s): Kleist, Reinhard, 1970-, Rabinovitch, Sandra, Wachtel, Eleanor
Description: From Berlin, more in the series 'At the Centre of Europe: A Changing Germany' with award-winning comic book artist Reinhard Kleist. Known for his graphic biographies, Kleist talks to Eleanor about portraying complex subjects through visual storytelling.

"At the Centre of Europe: A Changing Germany" Pt. 4, with Alina Bronsky and Zafer Şenocak

Date: 2016-05-01
Name(s): Bronsky, Alina, 1978-, Rabinovitch, Sandra, Wachtel, Eleanor, Şenocak, Zafer, 1961-
Description: To wrap up the special series "At the Centre of Europe: A Changing Germany," Eleanor talks with novelist Alina Bronsky, from the former Soviet Union; and Turkish-German poet and essayist, Zafer Şenocak.

"Burning Books" : Conversations with Chilean-American author Ariel Dorfman and English filmmaker Peter Greenaway

Date: 1992-01-05
Name(s): Dorfman, Ariel, Greenaway, Peter, Rabinovitch, Sandra, Wachtel, Eleanor
Description: "Burning Books" Part I: Chilean-American author Ariel Dorfman on watching his books being burned by the Pinochet regime; Part II: Prospero burns his books when he gives up his magic in Peter Greenaway's new film adaptation of Shakespeare's Tempest.

"Censor This!" series, with Pierre Mujomba and Shahriyār Mandanīʹpūr

Date: 2007-02-18
Name(s): Mandanīʹpūr, Shahriyār, Mumbere Mujomba, Pierre, 1956-, Rabinovitch, Sandra, Wachtel, Eleanor
Description: As part of CBC Radio's special series "Censor This!", Writers & Company host Eleanor Wachtel talks with two writers who know only too well the power of the word. In the Congo, Pierre Mujomba felt the repressive hand of the Mobutu regime. after one of his plays came too close to the truth, he was forced to seek asylum abroad. Novelist Shahriyār Mandanīʹpūr, from Iran, recalls the time he spent serving in the Iran-Iraq war, and the ongoing harassment he experienced as a result of his literary…

"Dreaming Australia: Changing Visions of a Country," Pt. 1, with Alexis Wright

Date: 2009-04-12
Name(s): Rabinovitch, Sandra, Wachtel, Eleanor, Wright, Alexis, 1950-
Description: Gorgeous beaches, koalas and a wonderfully warm climate. For many people, Australia is an ideal travel destination. But it's not all sunshine in Australia's past. Last year, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made a formal apology to the Stolen Generations- children of Indigenous descent who were forcibly removed from their families by government agencies. Rudd's words mark a milestone in an ongoing process of reconciliation, as Australians confront a dark side of their history. This week, Writers…