My conversation with Dale spanned many subjects and spawned many references, so the show notes naturally are quite a treasure trove, taking us to various Jamaican authors and poets, as well as individuals with expert knowledge and insights on aspects of Jamaican culture.

Here are the quick links you might be looking for

Dale’s Substack: Wood and Water Fiction | Dale Mahfood | Substack

Get your copy of When Trees Fall here.

Download a free copy of my short story collection, Call It Anything But Love here.

Your Listening Guide

Note: Dale’s voice comes across loud and clear but mine is quite soft. I do apologise for any extra effort required by listeners.

00:00 - Introducing Dale Mahfood and When Trees Fall

02:40 - Author reading

07:00 - The significance of (and back story to) the novel’s title

10:35 - The inspiration and motivation behind this thirteen year project

20:00 - Writing family saga

25:00 - Family separation and ‘Manley marriages’

27:00 - Amanda reads an extract and explains why Sharpe is her favourite character

39:00 - Getting to know Jamaican patwa even better through the writing process

42:00 - Community announcements: The Authorpreneur Summit events for writers and the Jamaica Brew Festival. (Details in link below)

46:00 - Dale interjects with kind words for Call It Anything But Love!

46:27 - Obeah, Myal practice and researching for authenticity

53:50 - Touching on the political landscape of 1940s Jamaica

01:01:00 - Migration from Lebanon to the Caribbean and Dale’s upcoming novel Up From Mountains (read along and critique at current early draft stage! See link below).

01:07:00 - Faith and writing

01:12:10 - One last question, ending on a light note

See event details in Dale’s link below:

You are invited to join Dale’s early readers of Up From Mountains and help shape the novel!

The treasure trove of books and people referenced in our conversation (in alphabetical order)

Amina Blackwood Meekes (More About)

Andrew Salkey (More About)

Augustown by Kei Miller (More About)

Christine Reynolds (More About)

Joanne Richardson-Gough (More About)

Kei Miller (More About)

Khalil Gibran; poem, ‘Dead Are My People’ (See the poem, which reads to me more like a lyrical essay - and remains poignant, for we too are impotent witnesses to the deaths of innocents a century later.)

Louise Bennett (More About)

Marlon James; novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings (website and books)

Rachel Manley (More About)

Ruth C. Taylor (Authorpreneur, publishing consultant; Instagram)

Una Marson; Pocomania (About the play. I was unfamiliar with ‘Pocomania’ till I attended this play; More about Una Marson)

Who are Dale’s favourite authors?

“This is hard as I love so many, but if I have to boil it down, it would be Amor Towles, Marilynne Robinson, and Kazuo Ishiguro. Here's a list of some of my favorite books: https://www.dalemahfood.com/what-dale-reads” - Dale Mahfood

(I have to say, on Dale’s list of books are several I either love or have on my To-Be-Read list!)

Here’s another podcast conversation Dale took part in as a guest, where he talks about his writing journey and process with other writers, on the Jamaican Diaspora 2.0 YouTube channel.

Support Trouble at Taboo Junction for more author conversations!

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Enjoying what we do here? Explore more of our author conversations!

In this short video I introduce a novel I read late last year and read aloud from it.

I hope you’ll love these extracts from Telenovela. I was aiming for extracts that focused on one of Garcia’s central explorations in this novel - the tension between creating art and the rigidities in our minds and cultures that oppose the process.

For more on Telenovela

See this full bodied description: Telenovela — Gonzalo C. Garcia | Full Stop by Katie Deane.

And my much briefer reflection: A review on Storygraph of Telenovela

I mention Galley Beggar Press in my introduction. They are here on Substack too: Galley Beggar - Pressing issues. But here’s their real home: Galley Beggar Press.

(And no, there are no affiliate links in this piece but I really need to get one from Bookshop.org, as book recommending is a lifelong habit of mine and I’m not quitting any time soon!)

Your Invitation to Join us Live on Substack, in Conversation with Author Dale Mahfood

Join us this Sunday 18 January 2026 at 7pm GMT or 2pm EST for our Substack Live author conversation with Dale Mahfood, author of When Trees Fall.

When Trees Fall is a novel set chiefly in 1940s Jamaica, a work of historical fiction written with great affection for Jamaica, its people and their shared history.

Inspired by the early life of the author’s mother, fictionalised as Cailin in the narrative, the threads of this novel are all tied together by Cailin’s father, Malcolm Campbell. The novel opens just after Malcolm’s passing - and together with Cailin, Archie and Sharpe - we come to understand the outsized influence Malcolm had on everyone around him, and the forces that made him - driving his ambition, his focus and his cruelty.

As I type this I can’t help but see (coincidentally), what Telenovela and When Trees Fall have in common. Both explore the nature and origins of cruelty and abuse. Both novels deliver historical insights (1970’s and 1980’s Chile; 1940’s Jamaica) and each shows us the impact of generational trauma, giving us a narrative through three very different point of view characters, each with their own distinct traumatic history.

Finally, how to opt-in or opt-out of different sections of Trouble at Taboo Junction

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How to check the boxes to receive what you actually want from me:

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Then scroll down to the section where you can opt in and out of the various pub sections.

I’m saying checked but it’s a toggle, isn’t it? Toggle is such a cute word. Makes you think of waddles and toddlers. But I’m getting distracted …

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I practised reading When Great Trees Fall beforehand but listening back I admit I didn’t do it justice. To read a poem, no - to perform a poem - you have to feel it deeply. And I worked on exactly that while I practised.

But then I lost concentration during the live recording, disconnecting from the feelings. Someone joined the stream unexpectedly (Hey Walter!) and my self-consciousness came out of nowhere … further weakening my connection with the all-important driver of a good poetry reading, THE FEELINGS.

Nonetheless, it’s a beautiful and moving poem. Read it for yourself and feel it deeply.

https://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/when-great-trees-fall-by-maya-angelou

And with that, I’m inviting you to join Dale and I this Sunday at 7pm GMT or 2pm EST to discuss his novel When Trees Fall on Trouble at Taboo Junction, Author Conversations with Amanda Coreishy.

I promise you it will be interesting - and I’ll work on ‘better lighting’!

I enjoyed this frank and sometimes challenging conversation with Zachary, author of I Hear You Watching, a novel that fictionalises his very real personal experience of hearing voices.

Please dive in and we hope you’ll enjoy this conversation as much as we enjoyed having it.

How to get the book

I Hear You Watching is available as a serialised novel here on Substack or if you prefer, you can buy it directly from Zachary himself.

Listening guide:

0:00 Introducing Zachary Dillon and his very brave book!

3:40 Zachary reads an extract in which Alex is taunted by the voices as they convince him his life, including every private moment, is being livestreamed.

9:10 Hidden lives, language, medical language and stigma. We talk about psychosis from Zachary’s experience and the experiences of people he’s encountered in the ‘hearing voices’ community.

31:50 It’s bad enough hearing voices. Do you really want to broadcast your story to the whole world? Fighting against stigma and the writing journey behind I Hear You Watching from a writer who’s not an activist.

40:20 On being ‘brutally honest’. To what extent was the novel true to Zachary’s life experiences?

45:00 Zachary reads an extract in which Alex explores his fear of being racist while getting ready for a hook-up with a Black woman he’s been chatting with on the hook-up site. This remains pretty loaded, though slightly edited.

50:56 Discussing that loaded extract in a messy exchange about a messy subject, plus Black/White race relations in the US and writing about a 2013 experience in 2019/2020.

1:10 Culture, insecurities, self-censorship and intrusive thoughts.

1:21 Zachary reads the third extract. I’m not a porno erectus, I’m just human.

1:29 Zachary Dillon kindly answers a few personal questions.

Small edits

Editing is a weak point for me and the minor edits made are a little rough. Thank you for bearing with me.

A note on the edits

* I decided a few lines in the novel would be a little too rough on the psyche for some listeners, maybe even most listeners, so I cut them - and in the visual version there’s a note to point out where the cut was made. If you’re listening using audio only, you’ll probably pick-up a bit of disturbance in the flow as Zachary reads his second extract.

* We worked hard to be as frank and open about our own thoughts as we went along, but we didn’t want listeners (or Substack) to be derailed from the explorations we were attempting here, hence the edits. Both Zachary and I think what was cut from the podcast serves its purpose in its original form in the novel and would have been fine to read in a more private setting. We accept this is a view not everybody holds, but that’s okay too.

* We agreed our first convo ending was more abrupt than we liked, only because I was taking the time-keeping too seriously. So the second edit I made was the knitting-in of a second more relaxed ending. You guys deserved that and so did Zachary and I Hear You Watching.

Chat with Zach!

Subscribers to Zachary’s free Substack, I Hear You Watching, get to chat with him directly about his experiences and read the novel for free. In the interest of helping us understand his experiences, he’s graciously open to probing and curiosity on the Chat.

Community resources for people hearing voices are few and far between. In Zachary’s words:

Quoting Zachary Dillon from his Afterword to I Hear You Watching:

If you’re struggling with auditory hallucinations, you might feel utterly alone. The best thing you can do is find someone you trust and talk to them about what’s going on. They could be a family member, a friend, a mental health professional, or another voice hearer.

Two of the best online resources I’ve found are Intervoice and The Hearing Voices Network.

My final message to fellow voice hearers is possibly as terrifying as it is reassuring:

YOU ARE NOT ALONE!

May you find serenity and live like nobody’s watching.

Zachary shares his favourite books and author influences

Zachary Dillon on books

Kurt Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions was an early love of mine for the way it examines the world—specifically human existence and culture, things we take for granted—from an alien perspective, which is something I like to do in much of my writing and life in general.

James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room was another early punch in the gut. I’d never read a book so lonely and introspective, centered on the terrifyingly irrevocable quality of one’s decisions.

Shirley Jackson and Flannery O’Connor have strong veins of the subjective sublime running through them. There is religiosity in their viewpoint characters, but also the sense that a well-placed tap to their protective shell would give way to the howling winds of a chaotic universe.

William S. Burroughs—especially Naked Lunch—for whom no idea is too weird or grotesque. Whenever I wrote something in I Hear You Watching that I felt was true but uncomfortable or gross, I reminded myself that even Burroughs had a mother, and despite her existence, he let himself fly in his writing.

And this isn’t a book, but another big influence on I Hear You Watching is the 1955 Looney Tunes cartoon One Froggy Evening, about a man who finds a shoebox with a frog inside, and the frog dons a top hat and cane, sings and dances—but only for the man; for everyone else he’s just a frog. It is iconic, steeped in cultural baggage, and has very obvious ties to my book (and experience).

More author conversations with Amanda Coreishy

I’m excited for all the author interviews we’ll be doing over 2026!

Till then, check out our previous conversation with D. Adiba and Scarlet Ibis James here:

Trouble at Taboo Junction, Author Conversations with Amanda Coreishy | Substack

Subscribe for free to never miss an episode!

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And check out my wider offering on Trouble At Taboo Junction:

Trouble at Taboo Junction by Amanda Coreishy | Substack

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Thank you, till next time!

P.S. I hear you listening, I see you reading. And it’s all good.

Your listening guide:

0:00 Intro and ‘about the novel’, The Wrong Way to Wright.

8:30 Complicated characters and how much of our novels really is ‘us’?

12:25 Situationships, inspiration and themes

22:50 Emotional health, D. Adiba’s ‘Digital Card Deck’ and breathwork

30:00 Books and authors that have inspired D. Adiba

33:27 The influence of Malcolm X in particular

38:20 Spiritual reflections in an age of reactivity

44:00 Woke Weary and an accidental slip into talking politics

46:30 Finding D. Adiba’s work and the November 2025 one hundred copies of The Wrong Way to Wright to be given away on Goodreads!

Finding The Wrong Way to Wright

Buy direct from the author!

The Wrong Way to Wright by D Adiba | C☀nnect²D Wellness

The Wrong Way to Wright by D. Adiba | Goodreads

The Adiba Sp*t | D Adiba | Substack

D Adiba | Instagram, TikTok | Linktree

US-based Goodreads users can try their luck at getting a free copy! Alas, I can’t figure out how to embed the code to bring up the widget that allows you to sign up for the book but Goodreads readers have been finding it. There were over 250 sign-ups for D’s The Wrong Way to Wright on the first day of entry. It’s a time-limited giveaway with only 100 books on offer anyway - so buying your own copy is a 100% better guarantee of getting your copy of The Wrong Way to Wright!

Books and authors referenced in the podcast

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Krick? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat

In The Meantime: Finding Yourself and the Love You Want by Iylanla Vanzant

A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James

The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, a series by Alexander McCall Smith

The Autobiography of Malcolm X, with the assistance of Alex Haley

Discovering Breathwork with Mindset Breath

MINDSET BREATH | A Rostant | Substack

Book Your Complimentary Clarity Call by @ARostant | Stan

Finally, further to our discussion on the influence of Malcolm X in our lives

The speakers from a headliner panel event at The Black British Book Festival, October 19th, 2025: Rediscovering Malcolm X: Revolution, Resistance, and The Fight for True Freedom.

Say who? Say what?

Professor Kehinde Andrews describes Malcolm X as the most important black intellectual of the 20th century, and points out that to get to the real Malcolm X we need to go beyond the most popular narratives we have and read and listen more widely to what he had to say. His book on the politics of Malcolm X, Nobody Can Give You Freedom, should help with that.

Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu, with her characteristic bluntness, stated ‘he [Malcolm] taught me it was ok to be unashamedly pissed off.’

For Dawn, as for Dia and me, Malcolm awoke something within us that, till then was sleeping.

Dawn Butler - Wikipedia

Shola Mos-Shogbamimu - Wikipedia

Kehinde Andrews - Wikipedia

Thank you for tuning in to Trouble at Taboo Junction. I look forward to bringing you more fascinating conversations with authors! Please check out the home page for more Trouble.

Trouble at Taboo Junction by Amanda Coreishy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Excited to explore further? Why not check out our first episode with

Scarlet Ibis James?

For the first six minutes I’m doing the introductions and appear to be laughing like a mad woman - only because you can’t see the antics from Scarlet that made me laugh!

In our conversation we explore:

* Where our understanding of women as ‘strong’ comes from and the female strength that shaped our formative years and comes through consistently in Scarlet’s female characters.

* How writing fiction, specifically auto-fiction has helped Scarlet explore and grow in her own life.

* Why Scarlet’s writing doesn’t feature racism as a theme.

* Writing to your higher purpose

* African spirituality and the influences that brought it into Scarlet’s writing.

* The surprising reasons that so many of Scarlet’s fictional romances are between inter-racial couples.

* Racial separatism in multi-racial Trinidad.

* What Scarlet is most looking forward to during her upcoming visit to Trinidad and Tobago.

Scarlet explains more about what she meant by ‘giving out what she wants to get back’. In classic Scarlet fashion, she reaches into memory and tells us where she learned to move in the world the way she does.

Scarlet would like to share this link with you about the shrine in Ghana which she visited and refers to during our conversation:

The last remains of Ghana’s ancient Ashanti civilisation - Silver Travel Advisor

Explore more about the books, authors, films and locations mentioned in our convo!

* Where to find Scarlet Yearnings, Scarlet Birthright and more: Scarlet’s books

* Where to find Call It Anything But Love: Amanda’s books

* About The Wine of Astonishment: https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/literature-and-writing/wine-astonishment-earl-lovelace

* Theodora Taylor: Theodora Taylor | Romance Books | Hot Books With Heart!

Scarlet’s favorite series: Ruthless Bosses (https://theodorataylor.com/reading-order/)

Scarlet’s favorite title: Phantom: Her Ruthless Villain

* Rebekah Weatherspoon: https://rebekahweatherspoon.com/

* Young Adult title Scarlet mentioned: https://rebekahweatherspoon.com/her-good-side

Scarlet’s favorite title: https://rebekahweatherspoon.com/a-walk-in-the-park

* Love Forms by Claire Adam Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2025 | The Booker Prizes

* Scarlet’s high school: https://sjss.edupage.org/

renamed from San Juan Government Secondary School

* Weekend Words https://linktr.ee/fellowshipofthegriots

* Trinidad bookstore Scribbles and Quills

* Trinidad bookstore Paperbased Bookshop

* Tobago Cafe and Craft Shore Things

* Sinners - the film

Let’s do this again!

I hope you’ll love our conversation as much I loved bringing it to you.

I’m already looking forward to many more! Next time hopefully, I’ll get the configuration of my background image right!