Everything and Nothing At All by Jenny Heijun Wills is an essay collection where the author reflects on her experiences as a transnational adoptee. Jenny was born in Korea and was adopted by a white Canadian family in southwestern Ontario when she was nine months old. Twenty years ago, she reconnected with her Korean birth family. She talks to Mattea Roach about this journey — which also inspired her prize-winning memoir, Older Sister. Not Necessarily Related — and about how writing and literature have helped her figure out who she is.

In Matt Haig's latest bestseller, The Life Impossible, a retired math teacher goes on a Spanish adventure after inheriting a house on Ibiza. But things on the island aren't quite what they seem. For Matt, the story's surrealist elements mirror aspects of his own journey through depression and mental illness — and coming through it with new ideas about what's possible. He speaks with Mattea Roach about striving for authentic optimism in his fiction.

Music featured in this episode:

"Rainy Days and Mondays" written by Paul Williams and Roger Nichols, performed by Carpenters, from the 1971 self-titled album, Carpenters, produced by Jack Daugherty.

Poet Aldona Dziedziejko's Ice Safety Chart: Fragments is a beautiful, experimental essay about different moments from Aldona's life in the Northwest Territories. The writer, who now lives in Alberta, spoke to Mattea Roach about their life, literary inspirations and her big win.

Casey McQuiston is a blockbuster queer romance author who hit it big with their 2016 novel Red, White and Royal Blue. Casey’s latest is The Pairing, about childhood friends-turned-exes who reconnect on a sexy European adventure. Casey has an open conversation with Mattea Roach about queer love, blending joy with sadness and what the future holds for romance writing.

Annie Carpenter's life was upended by colonialism, the Indian Act and the residential school system. For 80 years, her family tried to find out what happened to her. Now, journalist and filmmaker Tanya Talaga is telling her great-great grandmother's story in her new book and documentary series, The Knowing. She talks to Mattea Roach about the struggle to find her relative, crossing paths with the Pope, and what she believes will help move us forward on the road to reconciliation.

When Alison McCreesh was 21, she left her Quebec hometown and hitchhiked to the Yukon searching for something she couldn't quite put her finger on — and hasn't left. She talks to Mattea Roach about her graphic novel Degrees of Separation, which reflects on the everyday lives of people in the North... and how it's changed during her time there.

The Paris-based Turkish writer spoke with Mattea Roach about her new novel, The Anthropologists, which centers on a young immigrant couple in an unnamed city, navigating love, friendships and the guilt of being away from family.

Sloane Crosley’s jewelry was stolen from her home, and one month later, her best friend, Russell, died. She writes about these experiences in the memoir Grief is For People, which is witty and heartbreaking. Sloane joined Mattea Roach to talk about her grief, her best friend and writing about it all.