careytoane's blog

Dear reader, this is my last post as writer-in-residence. It’s been a slice, and I’m sorry it’s over. I leave the last word to the funny and talented author and co-founder of one of my favourite literary magazines, The Puritan, Spencer Gordon.

Name: Spencer Gordon

Recent work: Cosmo (Coach House Books, 2012)

How much time do you spend watching TV in a week?
Hmm. Probably 10 hours?

In this installment of our Writers on TV survey, David Seymour elaborates on watching TV after working in TV all day every day.

Name: David Seymour

Recent publication: For Display Purposes Only, Coach House Books, 2013

Favourite TV show: Anything created/written/directed by Susan Wainwright / Hockey Night in Canada

Sam Hiyate is president of The Rights Factory, a boutique literary agency in Toronto. In his 24-year publishing career, he has worked at literary magazines, small presses and with New York Times bestselling authors, editing, publishing and representing everything from debut fiction, memoir and narrative non-fiction to graphic novels. He has taught writing and publishing for 15 years privately and also at various universities.

I talked with Sam about TV adaptations and the stories he'd like to see on the small screen.

Award-winning short story author and poet Nancy Jo Cullen is next up in our survey series.

Name: Nancy Jo Cullen

Recent work: www.nancyjocullen.net Most recent book is a short story collection: Canary (Biblioasis)


How much time do you spend watching TV in a week?
14 (ish) hours


How much time do you spend watching TV in a week when the new Downton A Abbey/Game of Thrones/etc comes out?

Poetry about television isn’t something you see done often, but kevin mcpherson eckhoff pulled it off in his chapbook “Game Show Reversed” (Bookthug).

As the title suggests, the long poem is a transcription of an early episode of Wheel of Fortune flipped on its head, so the reader starts at the end with the credits (can’t you see them in your head already?) and announces the winner before you even meet her. (Spoiler: it’s Lynda!)

I asked Kevin to tell me a bit about the chapbook and his gameshow-watching habits. Check out their biography his latest collection out from Bookthug this spring.

Our next survey respondent is the writer, publisher and super-funny human A.G. Pasquella.

Name: A.G. Pasquella

Recent work: The This & The That

How much time do you spend watching TV in a week?
Between 7-10 hours… oh God! I’m wasting my life!


How much time do you spend watching TV in a week when the new Downton Abbey/Game of Thrones/etc comes out?

To get a different perspective on the ways in which books and television intersect, I asked some agents to give us some insights. First up is Transatlantic Agency’s Samantha Haywood.

What is the market like for TV adaptations (vs. film) of books these days? Is it growing?

Last week I looked at how shifting formats from graphic novel to film changed the subtext of Ghost World and Persepolis. This week I’m taking on two British comics that have been made into films: Tank Girl and Kick-Ass.

Title: Tank Girl

Next up in our ongoing series of asking-writers-what-they-watch is National Post Books Editor Emily M. Keeler.

Name: Emily M. Keeler

Recent work: Nationalpost.com/books

How much time do you spend watching TV in a week? Most weeks, maybe an couple hours or so. 


As soon as I decided I wanted to interview writers about TV, I knew I wanted to talk to Andy Burns. I recently read his engrossing examination of Wrapped In Plastic: Twin Peaks from ECW Press. Andy was nice enough to chat with me over email about David Lynch’s freaky fabulous show, and other related distractions.