CBC Books sat down with the Canada Reads authors to talk about what it means to be a writer. Samra Habib’s memoir We Have Always Been Here (Viking) will be defended by Amanda Brugel, and Megan Gail Coles’ novel Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club (House of Anansi Press) will be championed by Alayna Fender.
To read the interview in full, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/the-5-canada-reads-authors-answer-5-big-questions-1.5491222
The Canada Reads debates have been postponed due to COVID-19, but Canada Reads content will still be released this week as a series of one hour programs focusing on this year’s authors and their books.
Megan Gail Coles is a graduate of Memorial University of Newfoundland and the National Theatre School of Canada, and she has recently completed a Masters of Fine Arts from the University of British Columbia. She has written and produced numerous plays. Her first fiction collection, Eating Habits of the Chronically Lonesome, won the BMO Winterset Award, the ReLit Award, and the Margaret and John Savage First Book Award, and it earned her the one-time Writers’ Trust 5×5 prize. Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club, her debut novel, was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. Originally from Savage Cove on the Great Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland, Megan currently resides in Montreal, where she is a Ph.D. candidate at Concordia University.
Samra Habib is a writer, photographer, and activist. As a journalist she’s covered topics ranging from fashion trends and Muslim dating apps to the rise of Islamophobia in the US. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Advocate, and her photo project, “Just Me and Allah,” has been featured in Nylon, i-D, Vanity Fair Italia, Vice, and The Washington Post. She works with LGBTQ organizations internationally, raising awareness of issues that impact queer Muslims around the world. We Have Always Been Here is her first book.
Samra and Megan are both represented by Samantha Haywood.