Show Notes
In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery speaks with award-winning author Nancy Jo Cullen about her new novel, Dish (Wolsak & Wynn, 2026).
In this smart, sexy romp of a novel, Nancy Jo Cullen explores the joys of second chances – at life and at love.
Frida Davis-Lefebvre is back in her hometown of Lakeland, BC, sober and recovering from the sale of her popular, but debt-ridden, Toronto restaurant La Grange before she heads off to greener pastures when things get complicated. It’s hard enough settling in at home with her mothers, but then Perry, the sperm donor she’s never met, moves onto her mothers’ property to recover from his own difficulties and Frida discovers that her still-hot ex-fiancé, Charlie, is working at the hotel restaurant that just hired her. For his part, Perry is just trying to patch his life together enough to get back to the big city where he knows he belongs, until he is caught up in the whirl of the Davis-Lefebvre family and this young woman he finds an unexpected connection with. As Frida explores a frenemies-with-benefits situation with Charlie and Perry finds himself drawn into dog sitting for the local film producer and picking up his paintbrush for the first time in years, they both start to question the paths they had planned for themselves and whether or not what they really want is right in front of them.
Nancy Jo Cullen’s poetry and fiction have appeared in several Canadian literary journals and anthologies, including Journey: Celebrating the Journey Prize. She is the 2010 recipient for the Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging Writers. Her first novel, The Western Alienation Merit Badge, was shortlisted for the 2020 Amazon Canada First Novel Award. Her second novel, Dish, is forthcoming in the fall of 2026 with Wolsak & Wynn. Nancy Jo Cullen has published a collection of short stories, Canary, with Biblioasis and four collections of poetry, the most recent of which, Nothing Will Save Your Life, was published by Wolsak & Wynn in 2022.
Hollay Ghadery is an award-winning Iranian-Canadian multi-genre writer living in Ontario on Anishinaabe land. She has her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph. Fuse, her memoir of mixed-race identity and mental health, was released by Guernica Editions in 2021 and won the 2023 Canadian Bookclub Award for Nonfiction/Memoir. Her collection of poetry, Rebellion Box was released by Radiant Press in 2023, and her collection of short fiction, Widow Fantasies, was released with Gordon Hill Press in fall 2024 and was longlisted for the Toronto Book Award. Her debut novel, The Unraveling of Ou, was released with Palimpsest Press in 2026, and her children’s book, Being with the Birds, with Guernica Editions in 2027. Hollay is a host on The New Books Network, as well as a co-host on HOWL on CIUT 89.5 FM. She is also a book publicist, the Founder of River Street, and the co-chair of the League of Canadian Poets BIPOC committee, as well as the Poet Laureate of Scugog Township. She is also a member of The National Book Critics Circle, The Creative Nonfiction Collective, and The Writers Union of Canada. Learn more about Hollay at www.hollayghadery.com.
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