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 …
In episode 11, we spoke with future Nobel prize-winner Olga Tokarczuk and translator Jennifer Croft, fresh from winning the Man Booker International prize.
In this episode we speak to novelist and essayist Joanna Kavenna 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.
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 …
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 …
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 …
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’ …
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 …
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 …
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 …
