Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing: EP 469 - Small-Town Canadian Superheroes with Matthew del Papa and Andy Taylor

EP 469 - Small-Town Canadian Superheroes with Matthew del Papa and Andy Taylor

Apr 9, 2026

Mark interviews Matthew del Papa and Andy Taylor, editors of SUPERCANUCKS: An Anthology of Small Town Canadian Superheroes.

Prior to the interview Mark shares a brief personal update and a word from this episode's sponsor.

This episode is sponsored by an affiliate link to Manuscript Report. Use code MARK10 at checkout and save 10% off your own personalized report.

During the interview Mark, Matthew, and Andy talk about:

Andy and Mat's writing background and how they got into editing an anthology like Super Canucks
How editing is a new experience for Andy
The consist "what if?" that has been a part of Andy's writing for most of his life
Matthew's background and the various genres he has written
What the appeal of writing fantasy and non-science-filled fiction is for Mat
The origin story of the Supercanucks anthology and how it relates to the "brain drain" to larger cities
How far the call-out for stories for this anthology went
The submissions and the whittling-down process
Having six stories set in Northern Ontario, but needing to ensure the stories were from across the country
The locales across Canada that made the cut for this anthology
The process of reading and selecting and editing the stories
Deciding who was going to edit which story and work with which authors
The uniqueness for some of the contributors with being able to use Canadian pop culture references and spelling
The sudden need for an aspect of the "Elbows Up!" motif into the anthology
Mat's learnings when it came to working with a traditional publisher rather than the previous self-publishing experience he'd had before
Some of the things they experienced editing this anthology that they hadn't expected
Advice Matthew and Andy would offer to writers who are interested in submitting to an anthology

After the interview Mark shares a few reflections about the value of understanding the process that editors use when selecting stories for an anthology, an admission of a goof-up he made in a recent submission, and his own experience with "brain drain" and "Elbows Up!"

Links of Interest:

Matthew D. Del Papa spent every Tuesday of his youth crisscrossing his hometown of Capreol in search of newly arrived comic books. He wore superhero-themed Underoos to a truly worrying age and still has his Batman (and Robin) lunchbox, backpack, and wrist-watch.

A graduate of Laurentian University, Matthew is a writer, editor, and self-publisher, and has released ten titles to some modest local acclaim.

He joined the Sudbury Writers’ Guild in 2009 and his writing has appeared in Spooky Sudbury, Nothing Without Us Too, Mighty, and Sudbury Superstack: A Changing Skyline. His collection of humorous essays titled Jerry Lewis Told Me I Was Going to Die, was released in 2023 through Latitude 46 Publishing.

Andy W. Taylor has been a reader and writer of speculative fiction from an early age thanks in no small part to his mother’s frequent trips to the public library with her kids.

Andy is a member of The Writers’ Union of Canada, past president and member of the Sudbury Writers’ Guild, a graduate of the Viable Paradise writing workshop and Playwright’s Junction workshop, and a member of CODEX.

Originally from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario Andy currently resides in Sudbury, Ontario with his family. His fiction has appeared in Nature: Futures, Polar Borealis, On Spec, FictionVale and on the streets of Sudbury. Visit him at www.SooGuy.com or on BlueSky at @sooguy68.bsky.social

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0