Eleanor Wachtel

Eleanor Wachtel (born 1947 in Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian writer and broadcaster. She was the host of the flagship literary show Writers & Company on CBC Radio One, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in October 2015. Her interviews for Writers & Company are in-depth portraits of literary figures which over the years have included Saul Bellow, Alice Munro, Michael Ondaatje and Mordecai Richler. Kazuo Ishiguro, author of Remains of the Day, has called Wachtel "one of the very finest interviewers of authors I've come across anywhere in the world." At the end of their conversation in 2013, John le Carré told her, "You do it better than anyone I know."

Early life Wachtel was born in Montreal, Canada, in 1947. Interested in books and reading from an early age, she was introduced by her Grade 8 teacher to the works of Shakespeare and Emily Brontë. She found high school intellectually stimulating, "surrounded by gifted classmates with diverse backgrounds". where she worked for the student newspaper and was on the executive of the Undergraduate Literary Society.

She subsequently served as the jury chair for the 2024 International Booker Prize.

Awards and honours In 2002, Wachtel won the Jack Award for the promotion of Canadian books and authors.

In 2011, Writers & Company won a Silver Prize at the New York Festivals for World's Best Radio Programs.

Wachtel has been awarded nine honorary degrees, including a Doctor of Literature from Carleton University in Ottawa (2017), a Doctor of Laws from Concordia University in Montreal (2010), a Doctor of Letters from McGill University in Montreal (2009), a Doctor of Laws, from Dalhousie University in Halifax (2007), and the Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.) from Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C. (2007); Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax (2002); Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver (2001); Athabasca University, Athabasca, Alberta (2000); St. Thomas University, Fredericton (1999). In 2004, Eleanor Wachtel was named to the Order of Canada, and in 2014 she was promoted from Member to Officer.

In 2015, Wachtel was named to the Women's Executive Network's 100 Most Powerful Women list in the Arts & Communication field.