Nearly 20 years after her breakout memoir, Fun Home, cartoonist Alison Bechdel is still unearthing new truths about her life in that time. The memoir and its Broadway adaptation changed Alison’s life and brought a degree of success she was unaccustomed to. She explores these themes in her latest work, a comic novel called Spent. It’s about a cartoonist's complicated relationship with money and capitalism, and the struggle to stay true to her values. Alison tells Mattea about creating a fictionalized version of herself ... and shares surprising revelations about her parents, which have given her new insight into her own life story.

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Through his books and public speaking, David A. Robertson has dedicated his career to sharing stories about Indigenous people. His latest book, 52 Ways to Reconcile, is a guide for all of us to take action when it comes to reconciliation — and shows how small acts can have a big impact. Like all of David's work, the book tackles hard truths with a gentle touch and a profound sense of hope. David joins Mattea Roach to talk about educating children on Indigenous histories, how his father influenced his life and work and why "reconciliation" is a journey ... not a destination.

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The 1983 revolution in Grenada was a major moment of the Cold War era ... and writer Zilla Jones grew up hearing stories about its connection to her own family. She transports readers back to that time in her debut novel, The World So Wide. It follows a Canadian opera singer named Felicity who is caught up in the military coup and placed under house arrest. What unfolds next is a saga that spans decades and reflects on race, love, belonging and revolution. Zilla joins Mattea Roach to talk about why opera is at the centre of the story, her work as a lawyer and the power of art as protest.

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• Jack Wang: Reimagining the lost stories of Chinese Canadians during WWII