Welcome to Unsound Methods – a podcast all about writing literary fiction

Browse our back catalogue of more than 50 conversations or you can subscribe on your favourite platform for the latest episode

A few featured conversations

  • Bill Drummond
    This month we return to our first in-person recording for way too long, as we sat down with writer, musician and all-round cultural agitator Bill Drummond. 
  • Claudia Durastanti
    This month we speak to writer and translator Claudia Durastanti. We cover the importance of travel and geography in writing, mapping fictional spaces, translation and the overlap of metaphor between languages.
  • David Shields
    This month, we chat with David Shields about his unique approach to writing on the boundary between reality and fiction. David is the internationally bestselling author of twenty-five books, including Reality Hunger (which, in 2020, Lit Hub named one of the most important books of the past decade
  • Eimear McBride
    In episode 28, we were delighted to be joined for a second time by Eimear McBride. Having chatted briefly at the Institut Français, Eimear was kind enough to come to the studio for a more extended chat to discuss her process, experimental fiction and the role of the novel in modern life.
  • Gabriel Josipovici
    In episode 33, we spoke to Gabriel Josipovici. Our discussion covered how his writing has developed over six decades, the perils of writing an unexpectedly backlash-provoking book on Modernism, the creative possibilities revealed by examining painters & composers and much more.
  • Joanna Kavenna
    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.
  • Johanna Hedva
    In this episode we’re joined by Johanna Hedva, a Korean American writer, artist, and musician who was raised in Los Angeles by a family of witches, and now lives in LA and Berlin.
  • Keith Ridgway
    In episode 46, we speak to novelist Keith Ridgway about the daily fight with the concept of routine, specificity of place, giving up writing and returning, and experiencing a reading crisis – followed by being knocked off the wagon by Georges Simenon.
  • Mathias Énard
    In episode 21 we sit down with Mathias Énard, winner of the Prix Goncourt, to speak to him about his process, the line between history and fiction and the benefits of a good pair of slippers. Mathias’ work includes the novels …

    Mathias Énard Read More »


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