Episodes
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“I found myself writing an apology letter…and I didn’t know what I was apologising for.”
In Uttama Kirit Patel’s novel, The Shape of an Apostrophe (Serpent’s Tail), Lina is pregnant, and she’s finding that this seemingly salubrious society is not congenial and accommodating to the difficult challenges of an unplanned pregnancy. Uttama, born to Gujarati parents who then since found their way to the United Arab Emirates via Kampala, Surat, Pondicherry and Colchester. Her short fiction was nominated for the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for emerging writers.
Remember, if you buy from Rippling Pages Bookshop on bookshop.org.uk are all sourced from indie bookshops! https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/ripplingpagespodSupport the Rippling Pages on a new Patreonhttps://patreon.com/RipplingPagesPod?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink Interested in hosting your own podcast? Follow this link and find out how:https://www.podbean.com/ripplingpages
Reference Points
Helen Phillips - The Need
Rippling Points
.30 - Uttama's life living around the world.2.47 - An unexpected pregnancy3.45 - Limited reproductive rights and setting the novel in Dubai5.47 - writing a novel about someone who doesn't want children6.30 - Uttama writing an apology letter to herself7.59 - On desire11.17 - Lina's relationship with her parents12.57 - Does Lina have a support network?14.03 - Lina's husband and her mother-in-law16.44 - Is Lina's mother-in-law a feminist?22.27 - Uttama's interest in sea-life.24.10 - Lina's feeling of loss26.41 - Lines, traces and artistry of Lina in the novel.
32.45 - Uttama's writing journey
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“When I set out to plan the business, I wrote ten words - the world I always kept coming to was community.”The Rippling Pages is all about curating the best writers to inspire you and your writing - today, we’re speaking to another curator. Eden Barnes is the owner of Next Chapter Books, an indie women-focussed bookshop in Leeds, and I had a quick chat with her in store. There’s lots going on this week in Leeds. Leeds Lit Fest is starting, and it’s Indie Bookshop Week. Here someone who is at the centre of it.Eden tells us:
The personal journey to opening a bookshop in Leeds
Why she focusses women’s writing
Balancing commercial and personal interests
Creating a safe space and sense of community for readers
What she’s got planned for next week and the rest of the year.
Remember, if you buy from Rippling Pages Bookshop on bookshop.org.uk are all sourced from indie bookshops! https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/ripplingpagespodSupport the Rippling Pages on a new Patreonhttps://patreon.com/RipplingPagesPod?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink
Check out Next Chapter Books website: https://www.nextchapterleeds.co.uk/Tickets for Leeds Lit Fest Events: https://www.leedslitfest.co.uk/Interested in hosting your own podcast? Follow this link and find out how:https://www.podbean.com/ripplingpages
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Episodes manquant?
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"It is also difficult to imbue the people and the movements of the past with the complexities we offer ourselves."
If you were to meet a time traveller from the future, what would you ask them? This is the question Roisin Dunnett asks in her novel, A LINE YOU HAVE TRACED (Magpie Books/Oneworld Publications). Spanning over three centuries, three women are connected by forces they, at first, don’t understand. From post-WWI Britain, to East End London’s modern queer scene, to a portentous dystopian future, Roisin’s novel is coded with messages between the past, present and future. It's published by Magpie Books, an imprint of Oneworld.
You can buy A LINE YOU HAVE TRACED from the Rippling Pages bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/ripplingpagespodSupport the Rippling Pages on a new Patreonhttps://patreon.com/RipplingPagesPod?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink
Interested in hosting your own podcast? Follow this link and find out how:https://www.podbean.com/ripplingpages
Rippling Points
2.01 - the past, present and future.3.55 - is there a past event that influenced this novel?6.45 - Narratives of women10.16 - which character did Roisin write first?11.33 - Why do characters feel out of time13.02 - Visions and dreams in Roisin's novel19.24 - what would we do if we could actually see the future?24.30 - The marshes in Roisin's novel. 29.24 - Does your dad pick up litter?30.59 - Roisin's writing journey
Reference PointsCharles Dickens
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“They got fired for that!”
Katharina Volckmer is here to discuss her second novel, Calls May Be Recorded for Training and Monitoring Purposes (Indigo Press) and it was live at the Hyde Park Book Club! Thank you to the Hyde Park Book Club for hosting us and Next Chapter Books for supporting the event. This is the second part of our conversation.
Katharina’s first novel, THE APPOINTMENT, was translated into over fifteen languages, it was adapted for the stage starring Camille Cottin and was nominated for several prizes. Katharina is in ribald mode in this funny, outlandish, and yet, very melancholic novel about a man called Jimmie who works in a call centre. Jimmie helps holiday makers. He placates their fears about sharks in the waters of Mykonos, Greece, among many other strange and wonderful challenges. He also manages a complicated relationship with his mother and has a traumatic memory of an electric carving knife that threatens to burst to the surface. The Irish writer, Colm Tóibín, said the book is ‘filled with brilliant dialogue, unexpected turns, some very dirty talk with sudden bursts of hilarity, and then fierce sadness.’
A special treat here - Leeds based poet Kirsty Went gave a reading for, some of her work to open the event. We’ve re-recorded for the purposes of the podcast.
You can buy CALLS MAY BE RECORDED FOR TRAINING AND MONITORING PURPOSES from the Rippling Pages bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/ripplingpagespod
Interested in hosting your own podcast? Follow this link and find out how:
https://www.podbean.com/ripplingpages
Where to find Next Chapter Books: https://www.nextchapterleeds.co.uk/
Rippling Points
1.35 - writing about mothers and fathers5.03 - clowns9.45 - on jokes and fantasies 11.23 - Kirsty Went reading 14.19 - questions from the audience - where does the relentless comic vulgarity come from?20.10 - question from the audience - does this book fit into the wonderfully weird fiction category? Can we have more daring takes in fiction? 23.35- question from the audience - did Katharina know the book would end in this subversive way?
Reference points
Thomas Bernhard
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Katharina Volckmer is here to discuss her second novel, Calls May Be Recorded for Training and Monitoring Purposes (Indigo Press) and it was live at the Hyde Park Book Club! Thank you to the Hyde Park Book Club for hosting us and Next Chapter Books for supporting the event.
Katharina’s first novel, THE APPOINTMENT, was translated into over fifteen languages, it was adapted for the stage starring Camille Cottin and was nominated for several prizes. Katharina is in ribald mode in this funny, outlandish, and yet, very melancholic novel about a man called Jimmie who works in a call centre. Jimmie helps holiday makers. He placates their fears about sharks in the waters of Mykonos, Greece, among many other strange and wonderful challenges. He also manages a complicated relationship with his mother and has a traumatic memory of an electric carving knife that threatens to burst to the surface. The Irish writer, Colm Tóibín, said the book is ‘filled with brilliant dialogue, unexpected turns, some very dirty talk with sudden bursts of hilarity, and then fierce sadness.’
You can buy CALLS MAY BE RECORDED FOR TRAINING AND MONITORING PURPOSES from the Rippling Pages bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/ripplingpagespod
Buying from this link supports the podcast (I receive a 10% commission) and indie bookshops!
Interested in hosting your own podcast? Follow this link and find out how:
https://www.podbean.com/ripplingpages Where to find Next Chapter Books: https://www.nextchapterleeds.co.uk/
Rippling Points
05.07 - Katharina's tour of Leeds.05.49 - What's Katharina's novel about?08.11 - Jimmie's need for the toilet in the opening scenes!10.28 - A reading from the novel.14.07 - Life in a call centre.16.42 - Experience of moving abroad19.03 - Why people overshare20.33 - Differences between this novel and Katharina's previous novel24.14 - Intimacy and speaking to strangers26.14 - The other side of anonymity28.25 - Kafka
Reference PointsFranz KafkaThe Appointment - Katharina Volckmer
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Welcome to the first edition of Rippling Pages: Ask the Host!
Over the years, I’ve been asking the questions, but it’s about time I answered some too.
So, that’s what I’ve done: I’ve picked out some questions from the Rippling Pages inbox, and answered them!
In this episode, I answer:
- Where am I from?- Why did I start the podcast?- Who would I like to interview?- What books have I enjoyed recently?- Would I rather speak every language or to every animal?!
Got a question yourself? Why not leave a review and a question and I might pick out one for a future show!*****
Tickets to Katharina Volckmer in conversation!
https://www.seetickets.com/event/katharina-volckmer-in-conversation/hyde-park-book-club/3381984
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Don’t forget there’s a Rippling Pages bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/ripplingpagespod
Buying from this link supports the podcast (I receive a 10% commission) and indie bookshops!
Interested in hosting your own podcast? Follow this link and find out how:
https://www.podbean.com/ripplingpages
*****Lots of books and writer’s mentioned in this one
Reference Points:Alice Chadwick - Dark Like Under (Daunt Books)Anton ChekhovVincent Delacroix - Small Boat (Hope Road Publishing) - translated Helen StevensonGurnaik Johal - Saraswati (Serpent’s Tail)Vincenzo LatronicoTiago MillerIris MwanzaOluwaseun Olayiwola - Strange Beach (Fitzcarraldo Editions)Pola OloixaracMercè RoderedaMontserrat Roig - The Song of Youth (Fum d’Estampa)Montserrat Roig - Goodbye Ramona (Fum d’Estampa)Montserrat Roig - The Time of the Cherries (Daunt Books)Anthony Shapland - A Room Above a Shop (Granta Books)Olga TokarczukVirginia Woolf
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"She finds herself in London working in a theatre having to touch people!"
Elaine Garvey, to discuss her novel, THE WARDROBE DEPARTMENT, published by Canongate Books. It’s 2002. Mairéad Sweeney has moved from rural Ireland to work in London’s West End. While the prestige of working in theatre doesn’t exactly wear off, the long hours and spoiled actors make Mairéad’s transition from Ireland more difficult than it should be. Things get even more difficult when Mairéad has to return home for her grandmother’s funeral. It’s here she begins to reconcile with the life, people and values she left behind. This is Elaine’s first book. She has been published in the Dublin Review and the Winter Papers, and has been awarded funding schemes by the Irish Department of Arts for her writing. *****Tickets to Katharina Volckmer in conversation!https://www.seetickets.com/event/katharina-volckmer-in-conversation/hyde-park-book-club/3381984*****You can buy THE WARDROBE DEPARTMENT from the Rippling Pages bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/ripplingpagespodBuying from this link supports the podcast (I receive a 10% commission) and indie bookshops!Interested in hosting your own podcast? Follow this link and find out how:https://www.podbean.com/ripplingpagesRippling Points1.31 - Why the year 2002?4.32 - books about women walking. 5.39 - who is Mairéad and why is she in London7.39 - what is the wardrobe department9.40 - shadowing the costume department!12.10 - differences between London and Mairéad's home in Ireland. 13.34 - Mairéad's family. 14:40 - Mairéad's boss. 18.15 - Similarities to the Milkman21. 16 - when is Mairéad's moment of realisation23.48 - Choosing your words and religion.27.29 - Is how Mairéad feels about Ireland different to Elaine?29.15 - how the novel emerged from a short story. Reference PointsAnna Burns - MilkmanCharlotte Brontë - Jane Eyre Seamus Heaney - Sweeney AstrayHilary Mantel - The Mirror and The LightHerta Müller - The Land of Green PlumsRozsika Parker - The Subversive StichVirginia Woolf - Mrs Dalloway
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“It’s my mum’s favourite book that I wrote!”Benjamin Markovits is here to talk about his new and twelfth novel, THE REST OF OUR LIVES, published by Faber and Faber. Tom Layward has made a pact with himself. After his daughter moves out of college, he’s moving out too. His wife had an affair, and he feels like he owes himself a road trip across America. He takes in the sights, sounds and basketball games of the American heartland and beyond. But he’s deferring some health issues and it seems like it’s only a matter of time before his body asks him to stop and slow down, some of which was inspired by Ben’s own experiences. Ben’s novel, You Don’t Have to Live Like This, won the James Tait Black Prize for fiction. He was a Granta Best of Young British Novelists. His writing has featured prolifically in mainstream publications.
We discuss:
Are families about power dynamics? Hear about Ben and I reflecting on our family lifeIs Steph Curry Benjamin’s new obsession instead of Michael Jordan?Why is Syme, Ben’s first novel, his mum’s favourite novel?*****Tickets to Katharina Volckmer in conversation!
https://www.seetickets.com/event/katharina-volckmer-in-conversation/hyde-park-book-club/3381984*****You can buy THE REST OF OUR LIVES from the Rippling Pages bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/ripplingpagespodBuying from this link supports the podcast (I receive a 10% commission) and indie bookshops!Interested in hosting your own podcast? Follow this link and find out how:https://www.podbean.com/ripplingpages
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‘The people I like to write about are what I would describe as moderately successful failures.’
Benjamin Markovits is here to talk about his new and twelfth novel, THE REST OF OUR LIVES, published by Faber and Faber.
Tom Layward has made a pact with himself. After his daughter moves out of college, he’s moving out too. His wife had an affair, and he feels like he owes himself a road trip across America. He takes in the sights, sounds and basketball games of the American heartland and beyond. But he’s deferring some health issues and it seems like it’s only a matter of time before his body asks him to stop and slow down, some of which was inspired by Ben’s own experiences. Ben’s novel, You Don’t Have to Live Like This, won the James Tait Black Prize for fiction. He was a Granta Best of Young British Novelists. His writing has featured prolifically in mainstream publications. *****Tickets to Katharina Volckmer in conversation!
https://www.seetickets.com/event/katharina-volckmer-in-conversation/hyde-park-book-club/3381984*****You can buy THE REST OF OUR LIVES from the Rippling Pages bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/ripplingpagespodBuying from this link supports the podcast (I receive a 10% commission) and indie bookshops!Interested in hosting your own podcast? Follow this link and find out how:https://www.podbean.com/ripplingpages
Rippling Points
2.42 - Why Tom goes on a roadtrip4.12 - Feelings of failure and sport7.10 - Constructing the narrator9.00 - Tom’s difference to other narrators of Ben’s11.30 - Pick-up basketball15.15 - East Coast privilege16.00 - The NBA - basketball and race21.20 - Katharina Volckmer in conversation 22.45 - Tom’s relationship with his children23.57 - Tom and Ben’s illness26.58 - Matters of life and death28.10 - Doctors and writers29.45 - Ben’s next steps
Reference PointsPhilip Roth
John UpdikeBen’s novels
The Syme PapersPlaying DaysYou Don’t Have to Live Like This The Sidekick
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"Taylor Swift is somebody who has managed to keep reinventing herself to stay relevant."
Welcome to Rippling Points, more content and more insights and inspiration into the craft of literature:Marni Appleton is here to talk about her short story collection, I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY, published by Indigo Press. We discuss:- How Taylor Swift's ability to reinvent herself and stay relevant differs to that of the characters
- Ideas of productivity and how they shouldn't reflect your value in the worldThe modern world Marni presents to us in her stories is one that feels incredibly liberating, but then hinged by archaic attitudes from the past all at the same time. Women go viral on social media for seemingly innocent reasons; open and polyamorous relationships that suddenly feel shut; roles in theatre feel too close to real life. Marni holds a PhD in creative writing from the University of East Anglia. Her writing has been published in Banshee, The Tangerine, Contemporary Women’s Writing. This is her first collection.You can buy I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY from the Rippling Pages bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/ripplingpagespodBuying from this link supports the podcast (I receive a 10% commission) and indie bookshops!Interested in hosting your own podcast? Follow this link and find out how:https://www.podbean.com/ripplingpages
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"It builds to women and girls choosing to hide their mouths because of the effect of this trend...things just morph and take on different meanings as they're shared in different contexts"Marni Appleton is here to talk about her collection of short stories, I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY, published by The Indigo Press.The modern world Marni presents to us in her stories is one that feels incredibly liberating, but then hinged by archaic attitudes from the past all at the same time. Women go viral on social media for seemingly innocent reasons; open and polyamorous relationships that suddenly feel shut; roles in theatre feel too close to real life. Marni holds a PhD in creative writing from the University of East Anglia. Her writing has been published in Banshee, The Tangerine, Contemporary Women’s Writing. This is her first collection.You can buy I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY from the Rippling Pages bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/ripplingpagespodBuying from this link supports the podcast (I receive a 10% commission) and indie bookshops!Interested in hosting your own podcast? Follow this link and find out how:https://www.podbean.com/ripplingpagesRippling points2.00 - The women that inspired the stories 4.08 - Giving the characters control or not5.41 - Moments in the Spotlight8.26 - Marni’s bold story titles
10.47 - Public and private selves
13.17 - Social media and the writer
14.15 - Theatre in Marni’s stories
18.10 - The different lives characters have
20.15 - How Marni writes about men
23.10 - The significance of mirrors
25.30 - Safe spaces
27.07 - Different registers and discourses
29.16 - Marni's journey to getting the book published.Reference Points
Melissa FebosTaylor Swift
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"Being published in English is a big milestone..."Vincenzo Latronico is here to talk about his first novel translated into English - PERFECTION, published by Fitzcarraldo editions and translated from the Italian by Sophie Hughes.Welcome to Rippling Points, more content insights and inspiration into the craft of literature: - How and why he set his novel in Berlin, or why locations don't become so important for the novel
- The global market of translation and the pleasure of being translated into EnglishVincenzo is one of the most distinguished novelists writing in Italian today. He has also translated many books into Italian, by authors such as George Orwell, Oscar Wilde, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Hanif Kureishi.In PERFECTION, there’s something missing from Anna and Tom’s life, and they can’t quite put their finger on what it is that is missing. It drives them to impatience and to the point of leaving their apartment in Berlin. But is it merely an itch they cannot scratch, or does it relate to a deeper lack of authenticity that strikes their core?You can buy PERFECTION from the Rippling Pages bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/ripplingpagespodBuying from this link supports the podcast (I receive a 10% commission) and indie bookshops as all sales are from indie bookshops!Interested in hosting your own podcast? Follow this link and find out how:https://www.podbean.com/ripplingpages
Reference Points
Elena FerranteMinae Mizumura - The Fall of Language in the Age of English
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“Love is a dangerous topic.”
Vincenzo Latronico is here to talk about his first novel translated into English - PERFECTION, published by Fitzcarraldo editions and translated from the Italian by Sophie Hughes.
Vincenzo is one of the most distinguished novelists writing in Italian today. He has also translated many books into Italian, by authors such as George Orwell, Oscar Wilde, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Hanif Kureishi.
In PERFECTION, there’s something missing from Anna and Tom’s life, and they can’t quite put their finger on what it is that is missing. It drives them to impatience and to the point of leaving their apartment in Berlin. But is it merely an itch they cannot scratch, or does it relate to a deeper lack of authenticity that strikes their core?
You can buy PERFECTION from the Rippling Pages bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/ripplingpagespod
Buying from this link supports the podcast (I receive a 10% commission) and indie bookshops!
Rippling Points
2.18 - Desirability and Familiarity 4.27 - Driving the characters to dissatisfaction 7.05 - Does Vincenzo want us to ‘care’ about the characters?10.20 - Any city or Berlin12.50 - The loss of authenticity 16.20 - Are Anna and Tom in love?21.30 - Is there another side to Berlin?23.45 - The migrant crisis and activism 29.15 - On being translated into English
Reference Points
Hand Magnus Enzensberger Michel Houellebecq George Perec
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“They had one objective - to get rid of certain men”
Welcome to the first edition of Rippling Points - bonus content from last month’s episode!
A little bit more insight and a little bit more inspiration into the craft of writing!
Here, you can hear Pola talking about her delve into the archives to learn more about Argentina in 1970s.
You’ll then hear Pola talking about her next project, Bad Hombre - which features real life accounts collected from Pola of women who were wanting to ‘ruin men’s lives’.
Pola Oloixarac, one of the most exciting voices in world literature today, was here to talk about her two novels that have been translated into English. Most recently SAVAGE THEORIES and then MONA (translated by Roy Kesey and Adam Morris). Both are published by Serpent’s Tail. She was named by Granta as one of the Best Young Spanish novelists as well as this and has written for a wide range of publications and is an Eccles Centre Fellow
SAVAGE THEORIES is a metaphysical, intertextual journey set in 1970s Buenos Aires. Rosa Ostreech struggles with her thesis on violence and culture and sleeps with a bourgeois former guerrilla while trying to kidnap her elderly professor. MONA is a satirical novel set within a global literary prize-giving event. It’s about the fetishisation of characteristics and the global market place of writers. Buy Savage Theories here: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/savage-theories-pola-oloixarac/2102898?aid=15004&ean=9781800818187Buy Mona Here: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/mona-pola-oloixarac/6331115?aid=15004&ean=9781788169899
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“I think it’s much more interesting to explore women through their powers.”
Pola Oloixarac, one of the most exciting voices in world literature today, is here to talk about her two novels that have been translated into English. Most recently SAVAGE THEORIES and then MONA (translated by Roy Kesey). Both are published by Serpent’s Tail. She was named by Granta as one of the Best Young Spanish novelists as well as this and has written for a wide range of publications and an Eccles Centre Fellow
SAVAGE THEORIES is a metaphysical, intertextual journey set in 1970s Buenos Aires. Rosa Ostreech struggles with her thesis on violence and culture and sleeps with a bourgeois former guerrilla while trying to kidnap her elderly professor. MONA is a satirical novel set within a global literary prize-giving event. It’s about the fetishisation of characteristics and the global market place of writers. Buy Savage Theories here: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/savage-theories-pola-oloixarac/2102898?aid=15004&ean=9781800818187Buy Mona Here: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/mona-pola-oloixarac/6331115?aid=15004&ean=9781788169899
There’s also a festive treat for you in this episode. In the break, hear a reading from A POEM FOR EVERYDAY OF CHRISTMAS edited by Allie Esiri (MacMillan). I read Lemn Sissay’s ‘Let There Be Peace’.Buy it here: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/a-poem-for-every-day-of-christmas-allie-esiri/7738901?aid=15004&ean=9781035068388&
Reference Points
Thomas Bernhard
Robert Bolano
Karl Ove Knausgaard
Dark Constellations - Soho Press
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"I think it's a story few people have told before. And it's really about, what does a defender of human rights look like?"Iris Mwanza is here to talk about her novel, THE LION'S DEN (Canongate Books). Iris's novel is about a human rights lawyer, Grace Zulu, whose client Willbess ‘Bessy’ Mulenga, has been arrested for offences ‘against nature. It launches Grace, and Iris, into the underbelly of the legal system.Iris is deputy director of the Gender Equality Division of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, she leads strategy and investment for the Women in Leadership portfolio, and she has previously worked as a corporate lawyer in both Zambia and the US.Rippling Points01.35 - Recording on the morning of the American election02.41 - Who are the main characters05.45 - Public institutions, the global south and colonialism08.59 - When Iris saw the system for what it was11.17 - ‘True believers’ who inspired this novel13.41 - Why Grace is the way she is16.09 - Grace's clashes write father Sebastian21.27 - Guilt26.10 - The tragedy of Bessy’s case28.01 - Challenges promoting the book in Zambia30.23 - Writing the court roomClick here for links to all Rippling Pages socials
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“The book is me trying to have a conversation with my father and reach a middle ground.”
Friða Ísberg is here to talk about THE MARK (Faber and Faber) translated by Larissa Kyzer. The book centres on a referendum in Iceland about whether mandatory tests should be imposed on its citizens. Friða talks about writing over the divide, arguments with her father, and Icelandic literary culture and how they have all shaped the book.
Rippling Points
02:05 - what is the mark?
04:12 - where are the divides?
06:30 - working in London while Brexit happened
08:07 - Frida's relationship with her dad and how it informed The Mark
11.15 - feeding emotion into a novel
13:46 - is it easier to write characters we agree with?
18:31 - Icelandic meaning of The Mark and how it relates to divides.
21:25 - why an empathy test?
25.51 - who is profiting from the mark?
28:30 - is one in ten a published writer in Iceland?
31:22 - do writers have a public duty?
Reference Points
Writers
Fernanda MelchorJacqueline RoseGeorge SaundersAli Smith
Films
There's Something About Mary (1998, dir: Peter and Bobby Farrelly)
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“Some people have been, oh these women are so grotesque. I don’t think they are! They’re quite relatable.”
Naomi Wood joins me to discuss THIS IS WHY WE CANT HAVE NICE THINGS (Published by Orion)
It’s a collection that features the BBC Short Story Prize winner, Comorbidities. We talk about different kinds of intimacy in the stories, and how or why Naomi often writes about mothers in the . Naomi also talks about the craft and how she clashed registers to dazzling effect.
Naomi Wood is the bestselling author of The Godless Boys, Mrs. Hemingway and The Hiding Game. As a novelist, her books have won a Jerwood Award, the British Library Hay Festival Prize, and been shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize, the Dylan Thomas Prize, and the Historical Writers Golden Crown. Mrs. Hemingway was a Richard and Judy Bookclub pick in 2014 and a Chanel Bookclub pick in 2023.
for details about Naomi’s short fiction course, visit www.naomiwood.com
Rippling Points
1.45- comorbidities and winning the bbc short story prize award
5.34 - pie charts’
8.17 - on writing about mothers
10.29 - transgressive actions in characters
12.07 - complicated or bad?
15.48 - what’s a register clash?
18.54 - are they healing?
23,20 - influence of the pandemic and previous novels
27.30 - what do we do with old me?
29.04 - what’s next for Naomi?
Reference Points
Rachel Cusk
Yan Ge
Ernest Hemingway
Elizabeth Morris’ Crib Notes: https://cribnotesbookclub.substack.com
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"I think their experience in the bookstore is trying to think literary inheritance and spiritual and intellectual experience."Sam sax is here to discuss YR DEAD, their debut novel about Ezra, a queer, non-binary 27-year-old of Jewish heritage, whose life we see in fragments and flashbacks when they self-immolate outside trump tower.We talk about qualities of wandering, the multiplicities of Jewish identities, and what second hand bookstores can tell us about legacies and life.Sam's PIG was named one of the best books of 2023 by New York Magazine and Electric Lit. They're also the author of Madness, winner of The National Poetry Series and ‘Bury It’ winner of the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American PoetsYR DEAD is published by McSweeney's in the US and Daunt Books in the UK
Reference Points 01.30 - who is Ezra
02.20 - is Ezra a flaneur?04.53 - why the novel is set on this day 06.28 - the multiplicity of Jewish identity 09.40 - how death or organises or doesn’t organise the novel 15:00 different desires 19:20 - Ezra’s mother and her absence 24.25 - second hand bookshops and legacies29.00 - the hopeful message of Sam’s novel Reference PointsHervé GuibertAndrea LawlorVirginia Woolf
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"I'd done a lot of clay-making...you can spend a lifetime and only get good at one technique!"Jennifer Lucy Allan joins me to talk about her second book, CLAY: A HUMAN HISTORY (White Rabbit Books). After Jennifer's exploration and writing about sound in The Foghorn's Lament (White Rabbit Books), Jennifer has, quite literally, turned her hand to a more physical and enduring substance in clay. From Japanese Tea Ceremonies, to humans making their own image, to life on Mars, clay is seemingly everywhere. Jennifer is also a presenter on BBC Radio 3's Late Junction. Rippling Points
1.20 - How Jennifer’s early experience with clay led to her enchantment of it and then writing this boundless history6.04 - How the book on clay differs to Jennifer’s previous book on foghorns10.30 - Ephemerality of sound and permanence of clay - the writing challenges.13.40 - Clay: its history compared with human history 15:15 - Who is Marija Gimbutas, and why is she important21:15 - Language and touch24.40 - Climate change and how it's revealing more about clay28.00 - How clay becomes an objectReference Points
Marija Gimbutas.Ladi KwaliMaria Martinez
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