Welcome to The Interruption, a 49th Shelf–Books on the Radio collaboration in which Sean Cranbury interviews 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, Sean chats with Arthur Slade, author of The Hunchback Assignments series, whose first volume won the prestigious TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award, and whose second volume, The Dark Deeps, was a finalist for the Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Children Award and the CLA Young Adult Book Award. Slade is also the author of Dust, a national bestseller and the winner of the 2001 Governor General’s Award for Children’s Literature, the Mr. Christie’s Book Award and the Saskatchewan Book Award for Children’s Literature. His other books include Tribes, Megiddo’s Shadow, Jolted, Monsterology, Villainology and the Canadian Chills series. He lives in Saskatoon. You can visit him online at arthurslade.com.

In the first podcast Arthur reads from The Hunchback Assignments, while in the second, Arthur talks to Sean about crowdfunding.