The writer Kevin Chong discusses his recent book My Year of the Racehorse: Falling in Love with the Sport of Kings (Greystone, 2012), writing, and more, with Joseph Planta.

My Year of the Racehorse: Falling in Love with the Sport of Kings by Kevin Chong (Greystone, 2012). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: My Year of the Racehorse

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

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

The writer Kevin Chong joins me now. I’ve always been a big fan of his. In high school, I remember reading him with great admiration in the Vancouver Sun and Vancouver magazine. He’s a prolific writer, a gifted one at that. In the last year or so he published two more books, 2011’s Beauty Plus Pity, a novel from Arsenal Pulp Press, and earlier this past spring, My Year of the Racehorse: Falling in Love with the Sport of Kings. I read the book in April when it came out, and I really liked it. In the book, Mr. Chong is funny, a keen observer, and an excited racehorse, co-owner. A while back, he was facing the sort of things that men in their ‘30s feel, a sense of longing, and in Kevin Chong’s case, that need was filled with the ownership of something. A house wasn’t feasible, so a horse it was. It’s a moving book, touching, and perhaps the most personal of the four books he’s published. His first was the novel Baroque-a-Nova, and the critically acclaimed travelogue/memoir, Neil Young Nation. Kevin Chong is also an editor at www.joylandmagazine.com, and he teaches creative writing at the University of British Columbia. My Year of the Racehorse was published by Greystone. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Kevin Chong; Mr. Chong, good morning.

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