Welcome to The Interruption, a 49th Shelf–Books on the Radio collaboration in which I interview Canadian writers about the surprising things that inform, inspire, and even interrupt their creative process.

The Interruption is generously sponsored by The UBC Creative Writing Program, celebrating 50 years of excellence in creative writing. Programs include undergraduate minor and major degrees, Masters of Fine Arts in Vancouver or by distance education from anywhere in the world! For more information visit creativewriting.ubc.ca.

Today, I chat with Zsuzsi Gartner, the author of the short fiction collections Better Living Through Plastic Explosives and All the Anxious Girls on Earth, and the editor of Darwin’s Bastards: Astounding Tales from Tomorrow. Her stories have been widely anthologized, and broadcast on CBC and NPR’s Selected Shorts. Better Living Through Plastic Explosives was shortlisted for the 2011 Giller Prize.

In the first podcast, Sean and Zsuzsi explore the idea of what can be a productive interruption in a writer's life, as well as the questions Zsuzsi thinks are essential to ask when considering what book one wants to put out in the world. In the second podcast, Zsuzsi reads from a new, unfinished short story, "The Secret Life of Plants."

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