The writer, journalist, comic, playwright, and now novelist (one of Random House’s New Faces of Fiction) Drew Hayden Taylor discusses his book, Motorcycles and Sweetgrass (Knopf, 2010), with Joseph Planta; it’s a novel about the aboriginal experience, magic, family, raccoons, and a mysterious stranger.

Motorcycles and Sweetgrass by Drew Hayden Taylor. (Knopf, 2010) Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Motorcycles and Sweetgrass

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line. This is THECOMMENTARY.CA.

Drew Hayden Taylor is a prolific writer, journalist, comic, and playwright. He’s produced documentaries on the Native experience, and has written for such programs as Street Legal, the Beachcombers, and North of 60. He is an Ojibway from the Curve Lake First Nations. Despite over 20 books, he is interestingly enough one of Random House’s New Faces of Fiction with his debut novel, Motorcycles and Sweetgrass. It’s described as a story of magic, family, raccoons, and a mysterious stranger. www.drewhaydentaylor.com is his website. The book is published by Knopf. Joseph Boyden says of the book: “A wisdom exists in these pages that only comes from someone who writes from the heart.” We join the interview in progress as the first portion of the interview was lost due to a technical snafu at my end here in Vancouver. I had been asking Mr. Taylor about his mother’s influence and we pick up where I ask him about his ability to make spaghetti from scratch, which his mother was really impressed with. Mr. Taylor joined me from Toronto.

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