Hi, this is Zibi Owens, and you're listening to Totally Booked with Zibby. Formerly, moms don't have time to read books. In my daily show, I interview today's latest, best-selling, buzziest, or underrated authors and story creators, whose work I think is worth your time. As a bookstore owner, publisher, author, and obviously podcaster, I get a comprehensive

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Zibby Owens. Josie Balka is the author of I hope you remember poems on loving, longing, and living.

And by the way, this book hit the New York Times bestseller list in its

first week out, and I am just so excited for Josie. This is so amazing. Josie Balka is a broadcaster,

voiceover artists, and poet. She holds a diploma in radio television and film from Niagara College

and has worked for some of the largest media companies in North America as an on-air personality.

She can often be caught recording viral poetry in her soundproof closet. She was born and raised

in Toronto and lives in Calgary, Canada. Welcome, Josie. Thanks so much for coming on,

totally booked. I'm so excited to be talking to you about I hope you remember. Congratulations.

Oh my gosh. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much for having me. Oh, it's my pleasure. I loved watching you with your

hard covers in the very room where I'm interviewing you now, holding them up and thanking all

your fans. And it's just so exciting. It's contagious. There it is.

Yeah, I'm so excited. Oh, my gosh. I have to tell you personally that I read

the arc of this during the LA fires, right? It came out. Like the arcs came out last December or something.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it got me through the whole thing. It was all I could read. Oh my gosh.

That was the only thing I was to read. Thank you so much. That's so sweet. So now it will forever sort of be linked to the thing that helped me through the most.

Wow. That's what I have like speechless about. Thank you so much for saying that. I can't believe what you guys went through over there. We were just watching on the news from here. I was in L.A. recently for the first time, went to a bookstore.

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