Writers Festival Radio S08E02

with Monique Gray Smith and Claire Cameron

Hosted by Lucy van Oldenbarneveld and Sean Wilson

Podcast History Memoir Free

Admission

Free

Monday

Apr

11:00am

Eastern

Add to my Calendar

Claire Cameron · Photo by Trish Mennell Monique Gray Smith · Photo by Centric Photography

“Jennifer Chevalier has given us not only a gripping story, but also fascinating glimpses of seventeenth century New France with all its terrors, hardships and demonic beliefs. The past is a different country, yet its characters are disturbingly familiar. The Winter Witch is historical fiction at its well-researched best.”

David A. Robertson on How to Survive a Bear Attack

Writers Festival Radio Returns with hosts Sean Wilson and Lucy van Oldenbarneveld.

This episode features Monique Gray Smith, author of Is Sharing the Light, and Claire Cameron, author of the Governor General’s Literary Award-winning memoir, How to Survive a Bear Attack.

Both authors will be participating in the Spring Edition of the Festival, April 30 to May 3, 2026.

The Authors

Claire Cameron

Claire Cameron’s most recent novel, The Last Neanderthal, was a national bestseller and a finalist for the 2017 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. It sold in eleven territories. Her second novel, The Bear, was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, sold in ten territories, and was a #1 national bestseller. It won the Northern Lit Award from the Ontario Library Service, which her first novel, The Line Painter, also won. Claire has led canoe trips in Algonquin Park and worked as an instructor for Outward Bound, teaching mountaineering, climbing, and whitewater rafting in Oregon and beyond. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The Guardian, and she is a monthly contributor to The Globe and Mail. She lives in Toronto.

Monique Gray Smith

Monique Gray Smith is an award-winning, bestselling author of books for children and adults, as well as an accomplished international speaker and consultant. Of Cree and Scottish descent, she has been sober and on her healing journey for more than thirty-four years. Her debut novel, Tilly: A Story of Hope and Resilience, won the 2014 Burt Award for First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Literature. Monique Gray Smith and her family are blessed to live on the traditional territory of the WSÁNE? people near Victoria, British Columbia.