Karen Solie

About this episode

Karen Solie discusses her poetry collections and experiences with literary awards.

My guest on this episode is Karen Solie. Karen is the author of the poetry collections Short Haul Engine , Modern and Normal , Pigeon , The Road In Is Not the Same Road Out , and The Caiplie Caves –which have won her the Dorothy Livesay Award, the Pat Lowther Award, the Trillium Poetry Prize, and the Griffin Prize. Her most recent collection, Wellwater , was published by House of Anansi in 2025. It won the Governor General's Award For Poetry, the Forward Prize, and the T.S. Eliot Prize. It was also named a book of the year by the Guardian , the Financial Times , the CBC, and the Observer . The Times Literary Supplement called the book “authoritative and unforgettable.”   Karen and I talk about how little stress she felt going into T.S. Eliot Prize event, mostly because she assumed she had very little chance of winning, about the joy of using the prize money to pay off her credit card debt, and about her plans for her next book, which may see her taking a break from poetry. This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock , in partnership with The Walrus . Music: "simple-hearted thing" by  Alex Lukashevsky . Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See…

People in this episode

Host: Nathan Whitlock

Guest: Karen Solie

Topics covered

• poetry
• awards
• literature
• writing process
• author interview

Keywords

• Karen Solie
• poetry
• T.S. Eliot Prize
• Wellwater
• literary awards

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: House of Anansi, Guardian, Financial Times, CBC, Observer, Times Literary Supplement

Books & works: Short Haul Engine, Modern and Normal, Pigeon, The Road In Is Not the Same Road Out, The Caiplie Caves, Wellwater

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