Maggie Helwig

My guest on this episode is Maggie Helwig. Maggie has published six books of poetry, two books of essays, a collection of short stories, and three novels, including Girls Fall Down, which was chosen as the One Book Toronto in 2012. Maggie is a long-time social justice activist, and also an Anglican priest, and has been the rector of the Church of St. Stephen-in-the-Fields since 2013. Maggie’s most recent book is Encampment: Resistance, Grace, and an Unhoused Community, published by Coach House Books earlier this year. It recently won the Toronto Book Award. Quill & Quire called it “required reading for anyone with a home who hopes to understand the lives of the many who do not."

Maggie and I talk about the City of Toronto forcibly removing the encampment that she writes about in the book, less than a day after it won the Toronto Book Award, about her long, unplanned, and ongoing break from publishing works of fiction and poetry, and about her next book, a selection of sermons written and delivered at St. Stephen-in-the-Fields.

This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

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