Author: Dan

This episode was recorded at the Beyond Words Festival at the Institut Francais on Thursday 17th May 2018. We sat down with Noémi Lefebvre, the author of ‘Blue Self-Portrait’ (available from Les Fugitives: http://www.lesfugitives.com/books/#/blue-self-portrait/) and Eimear McBride, author of ‘A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing’ (Galley Beggar Press/Faber) and ‘The Lesser Bohemians’ (Faber).

It was hot, and there was a lot of noise in the street, so the sound is not 100%, but we found it very interesting to speak to both writers about the similarities and differences in their approaches.

We caught Noémi and Eimear just before they went on stage, so this is a brief chat. At times Noémi preferred to speak in French, so we have included the translations from her interpreter Axelle Oxborrow in this audio.

The Institut Francais have kindly shared the audio of the event that followed, which will be released a few days after this one as a bonus episode.

Thanks to: Nicci Praca, Cecile Menon, Sophie Lewis (who hosted the event), Axelle Oxborrow (translation) and Lucie Campos.

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/

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