The award-winning director, playwright and actor Rod Carley discusses his new short story collection Grin Reaping (Latitude 46 Publishing, 2022), with Joseph Planta.

Grin Reaping by Rod Carley (Latitude 46 Publishing, 2022). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Grin Reaping

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

Rod Carley joins me again. He’s got a new collection of short stories coming out in a couple of weeks, Grin Reaping. I’ve only started reading it, and it’s already funny. It’s described as a collection of humour, and that it is, but it also has a lot of heart. We meet the fictional Boyle family, first our central character Rudy Boyle, who is stuck in middle age and in the middle of his five siblings. They confront life and all that it entails, including getting older. There are fourteen interconnected stories and they reflecting what we’re all thinking about, life, mortality, gender, climate change, human nature, and the grief of losing family. The characters are rich and enjoyable to be around. I’ll get Rod to tell us about these stories, these characters, and the sort of life stuff he’s thinking about. Rod Carley was first on the program in 2020 upon the publication of his second novel Kinmount. It won the Silver Medal for Best Regional Fiction at the 2021 Independent Publishers Book Awards, and was one of ten books longlisted for the 2021 Leacock Medal for Humour. His first novel, A Matter of Will, was a finalist for the Northern Lit Award for Fiction. He is an alumnus of the Humber School for Writers and resides in North Bay, Ontario, where he joined me from this past weekend. His website is at www.rodcarley.ca. This new book is from Latitude 46 Publishing, and will be available 18 June 2022. Please welcome back to the Planta: On the Line program, Rod Carley; Mr. Carley, good morning.

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