Unsound Methods

Olga Tokarczuk and Jennifer Croft

June 20, 2018June 19, 2018 unsoundmethodspodLeave a comment

This week we speak to Olga Tokarczuk and Jennifer Croft, joint winners of the Man Booker International prize 2018 for the translated version of Olga’s book Bieguni (Flights)

We caught up with Olga and Jennifer two days after their win and discuss the whirlwind of prize-winning, composing constellation novels, suppressing your first published book, and the challenges of translating fiction.

The superb ‘Flights’; is out now on @FitzcarraldoEds – https://fitzcarraldoeditions.com/books/flights

You can find Jennifer on twitter: @jenniferlcroft

Photo credit: Janie Airey

Joanna Kavenna

June 6, 2018June 7, 2018 unsoundmethodspodLeave a comment

In this week’s episode we speak to novelist and essayist, Joanna Kavenna.

We talk about false starts, finding a narrative voice in fiction, researching a novel in the Arctic circle and dealing with Polar Bears, how literature can help us understand and limit technology before the machines destroy us and why we all need to take a more Wittgensteinian view of reality.

Joanna is the author of the Ice Museum: In Search of the Lost Land of Thule and A Field Guide to Reality (riverrun, 2016) as well as three other novels and non-fiction essays.

Find out more about Joanna at joannakavenna.com

Photo credit: A Michaelis

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Patrick Langley

May 23, 2018May 22, 2018 unsoundmethodspodLeave a comment

This week we speak to Patrick Langley, author of Arkady from Fitzcarraldo Editions.

With a background in art criticism and radio production, Paddy talks to us about drafting and structuring a work, finding inspiration from the urban backwaters of London and the problem with building elaborate memory palaces…

You can find Arkady here: https://fitzcarraldoeditions.com/books/arkady

And follow Paddy on twitter: twitter.com/PaddyLangley

Will Eaves

May 9, 2018 unsoundmethodspodLeave a comment

This week we speak to novelist, poet and teacher, Will Eaves.

Will was Arts Editor of the Times Literary Supplement from 1995 to 2011 and his work has been short-listed for the Goldsmiths Prize, the Ted Hughes Award for Poetry and the BBC National Short Story Award.

We discuss his approach to structuring a novel, turning notes into a finished work, working with a small press and capturing the dream-like state of the unconscious in prose.

Most recently he is author of the Murmur from CB Editions as well as:

The Oversight (Picador, 2001)

Nothing To Be Afraid Of (Picador, 2005)

Sound Houses (Carcanet, 2011)

This Is Paradise (Picador, 2012)

The Absent Therapist (CB Editions, 2014)

The Inevitable Gift Shop (CB Editions, 2016)

Daniel Levin Becker

April 25, 2018April 23, 2018 unsoundmethodspodLeave a comment

Something slightly different this week, as we speak to Daniel Levin Becker, member of the OuLiPo (Ouvroir de littérature potentielle, or ‘Workshop for potential literature’)

Daniel doesn’t consider himself primarily a fiction writer, but as a life-long member of the OuLiPo he is in the company (spiritually if not temporally) of writers such as Raymond Queneau, Georges Perec and Italo Calvino.

Daniel talks to us about the attraction of writing with constraints, his journey to France and the Oulipo and gives us a flavour of how the group operates (including a membership cancellation policy that Mark Zuckerberg can only dream of).

Daniel is the author of ‘Many Subtle Channels: In Praise of Potential Literature’ (http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674065772). You can read more about him and his work at his website: http://dinnerlunchbreakfast.com/ or follow him on twitter @dlb

Si vous parlez français, the Oulipo site is: http://oulipo.net/

Alex Pheby

April 13, 2018April 17, 2018 unsoundmethodspodLeave a comment

This week we speak to Alex Pheby about having different editing and writing persona, blending fiction with historical research when you are writing about real characters, hitting 3,000 words a day and whether it’s rational to have any faith in an external reality.

Alex’s novels include ‘Grace’ (Two Ravens Press), ‘Playthings’ and the forthcoming ‘Lucia’ (both Galley Beggar Press – https://www.galleybeggar.co.uk/alex-pheby)

Playthings is forthcoming in North America published by Biblioasis: http://biblioasis.com/shop/forthcoming/playthings/

You can follow Alex on Twitter @alexpheby

Esther Kinsky

March 28, 2018March 28, 2018 unsoundmethodspod2 Comments

This week we speak to Esther Kinsky, recent winner of the Leipziger Buchmesse Prize and author of River from Fitzcarraldo Editions.

We talk about the interplay between memory and writing, walking the river Lea and urban change in London and trying to apprehend the gap between sensation and the experience of language.

River is available in English: https://fitzcarraldoeditions.com/books/river

Follow Fitzcarraldo Editions on twitter: @FitzcarraldoEds

Details on the Leipziger Buchmesse Prize: http://www.preis-der-leipziger-buchmesse.de/de/Preistraeger/

Michael Stewart

March 15, 2018March 22, 2018 unsoundmethodspodLeave a comment

This week we speak to Michael Stewart.

We discuss performing plays in prisons, how dialogue decides form, the explosion of indie publishers in Northern England, and how to escape if you’re locked in a shop with a stranger…

Michael is the author of the novels ‘King Crow’ and ‘Cafe Assassin’ and the collections ‘Couples’ and ‘Mr Jolly’

Michael’s latest novel ‘Ill Will’ is published this month by HarperCollins imprint HQ Stories.

Ill Will – https://www.harpercollins.co.uk/9780008248154/ill-will/

King Crow and Cafe Assassin are both published by Bluemoose Books – https://bluemoosebooks.com/books)’

Both collections by Valley Press – http://www.valleypressuk.com/author/51/michael_stewart)

You can follow Michael on Twitter @headspam

Iosi Havilio

February 28, 2018February 26, 2018 unsoundmethodspodLeave a comment

This week we talk to Argentine author Iosi Havilio.

We speak about his upbringing in Paris and Buenos Aires, the links between music and literature and the process of creating and exploring a unique new universe with each progressive novel.

Open Door, Paradises and Petit Fleur are all published by And Other Stories, you can buy them here: http://www.andotherstories.org/book/petite-fleur/

Megan Dunn

February 14, 2018February 14, 2018 unsoundmethodspodLeave a comment

This week we speak to Megan Dunn, author of Tinderbox (Galley Beggar, 2017).

We cover the act of balancing fiction and non-fiction, wrestling with the estate of Ray Bradbury and writing the great mermaid novel of the Western canon.

You can find Megan’s website at: https://www.megandunn.org/

Follow her on Twitter: @MeganDunn90

Tinderbox is available from Galley Beggar Press: https://www.galleybeggar.co.uk/shop-1/z7du0g4kxeypqtatvaftcnxrjqil2d