The Writing Life

The inimitable Kate Mosse joins the podcast to talk about her work on The Women's Prize for Fiction and her career as an author of fiction and non-fiction. Talking with Sarah Bower, Kate discusses the Discoveries writer development programme (opening for applications this month!), how the context of the Women's Prize has changed over the years, why some people still expect the prize to justify its...

Simon is joined on the pod today by Tom Whyman, author of Infinitely Full of Hope: Fatherhood and the Future in an Age of Crisis and Disaster. Part philosophical theory and part memoir, Tom wrote the book while awaiting the birth of his child and deals with the challenge of maintaining hope in increasingly desperate times. Meanwhile, Steph and Simon take a look at our Creative Writing Online cours...

Lewis Buxton returns! Steph talks to Lewis about his new poetry collection Boy in Various Poses, which explores masculinity, mental health and sport. We're also very pleased to have The Writing Life's first references to Lizzo and The Meg. Lewis' poems have appeared in The Rialto, Ambit Magazine, Magma, Oxford Poetry and Ink, Sweat and Tears. In 2020 he won the Winchester Poetry Prize and has prev...

Literary translators Shash Trevett and Geetha Sukumaran talk about their collaboration on the work of Tamil poet Nillanthan and Shash's involvement with our Visible Communities translator in residence programme.  Geetha Sukumaran is a poet and a bilingual translator. She has published two books in Tamil: Tharkolaikku parakkum panithuli (a Tamil translation of Sylvia Plath’s poems, 2013), and her o...

On the podcast this week is Olivia Hellewell, a translator from Slovene to English of literary fiction, children's fiction, and non-fiction. Olivia is talking to Rebecca DeWald, our Emerging Translator Mentorships Programme Manager. They discuss Olivia's route into literary translation, the challenges of making a living from translation, and the importance of translating cultural references. This...

"Books are dead," so declares Elle Griffin, a journalist and debut writer who is preparing to serialise her first novel via a Substack newsletter. Not sure what Substack is, or why you'd publish a book via a newsletter? Disagree (or agree!) about the fate of books? Curious about whether serialised storytelling and publishing might be for you? Simon chats with Elle about emerging new (and returning...

Tommy Sissons chats to Sam Ruddock on the podcast about his book A Small Man's England, a prose-polemic exploration of white, working class masculinity. Under discussion are the techniques Tommy uses to explore his argument as well as the core themes at the heart of the book. Meanwhile Simon and Steph talk about the newly announced Escalator talent development scheme for emerging writers, now open...

This week we have a special episode for anyone considering or embarking on a career as a literary translator. Sarah Ardizzone, translator and mentor, guides us through a detailed, nuts-and-bolts exploration of what it takes to be a literary translator. Sarah is joined by Rosie Eyre, a recent mentee on our Emerging Translator Mentorships programme, and Jamie Lee Searle, who was a mentee ten years a...

Tsitsi Dangarembga is a novelist, playwright and filmmaker who joins us on the pod today to discuss her groundbreaking work and its influence on readers. Tsitsi is the author of Nervous Conditions, which in 1988 was the first book to be published in English by a black woman from Zimbabwe and won the Commonwealth Writers Prize, and its sequels The Book of Not (2006) and This Mournable Body (2018)....

William Ryan is the author of historical crime fiction novels, including the Captain Korolev series. William joins us on the pod to talk about his latest project, the Writers' & Artists' Guide To How To Write. It's a nuts-and-bolts framework for writing a book, avoiding common mistakes and asking yourself the right questions up front. Meanwhile we talk about the Early Career Awards winner announce...

Award-winning poet and short story writer Jen Campbell is on the pod to discuss her prolific work in children's fiction, non-fiction and poetry as well as how she built an online platform for her writing across YouTube, Patreon, a podcast and more. Jen's tips on being productive (and forgiving yourself when you're not) and how to make the internet work for you and invaluable. Hosted by Simon Jones...

Something of a minisode this week, as Steph and Simon pick their favourite podcast episodes since lockdown began in the UK in March 2020. They also dive into the International Literature Showcase, which next week reveals its new list of unmissable writers courtesy of Kei Miller! Let's do some links: Discover 50 umissable writers at the International Literature Showcase: https://nationalcentreforwr...

Joe Michael Straczynski is the creator of influential science fiction classic Babylon 5; he has worked extensively for Marvel and DC comics, was nominated for a BAFTA for his screenplay Changeling, directed by Clint Eastwood; co-created Sense8 with the Wachowskis for Netflix; worked on the screenplay for the first Thor movie, helping to shape what is now the Marvel Cinematic Universe; and in the 8...

Jessie Greengrass is on the pod to discuss her latest novel The High House. Jessie is an award-winning writer and was selected by Elif Shafak for the 2019 International Literature Showcase. Asking the questions is Vicki Maitland. Meanwhile, Simon and Steph look back at the City of Literature festival (which you can catch up on here: http://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/cityoflit-21/ ) and look f...

In the final episode of our Imagining the City series, author and artist Lynn Buckle joins us from Dublin to talk to Flo Reynolds about writing her first book, feeling like a fraud and how to write positively about the climate crisis. Lynn's first novel, The Groundsmen, was published in 2018 by époque press. Nominated for the Republic of Consciousness Prize, it was listed as Easons Best of Irish L...

Three writers reflect on the atmospheric pressure of the year they’ve just had in Weather With You – a series of three written commissions and podcasts that address what it means to be a writer today, and why we write. Abir Mukherjee is the Times bestselling author of the Sam Wyndham series of crime novels set in Raj era India. His debut, A Rising Man, won the CWA Endeavour Dagger for best histori...

Three writers reflect on the atmospheric pressure of the year they’ve just had in Weather With You – a series of three written commissions and podcasts that address what it means to be a writer today, and why we write. Derek Owusu is a writer, poet and podcaster from north London. He discovered his passion for literature at the age of twenty-three while studying exercise science at university. Una...

Three writers reflect on the atmospheric pressure of the year they’ve just had in Weather With You – a series of three written commissions and podcasts that address what it means to be a writer today, and why we write. Kerri ní Dochartaigh was born in 1983, in Derry-Londonderry at the border between the North and South of Ireland. She read English Literature and Classical Civilisation at Trinity C...

Icelandic writer Valur Gunnarsson joins Sarah Bower to discuss his work, with a focus on alternate histories. He is best known as a writer of creative historical fiction; his first novel was a Viking fantasy and his third an alternative history where the Germans invade Iceland in World War II. Meanwhile, his second novel was a piece of autofiction set in the aftermath of the economic collapse of 2...

In the third of our Imagining the City podcasts, New Zealand writer Liz Breslin talks to British academic and poet Tiffany Atkinson about writing communities and how writing can help you discover yourself. Liz also reads two of her poems, including one from her new collection, In Bed with the Feminists. Flo Reynolds also jumps on the pod to introduce the next Book Club book, In Other Words by Jhum...

Our Imagining the City series continues with virtual writer in residence Marcin Wilk, at home in Krakow, talking to bookseller Joe Hedinger from Norwich's famous Book Hive bookshop. Marcin is a non-fiction writer and has written two biographies of famous Polish women and a history of Poland in the year before World War 2. They talk about writing in the pandemic, Polish culture and history, how to...

Writer Vahni Capildeo stayed with us in a virtual residency back in February and is joined in this week's episode by Jeremy Noel-Tod, editor, critic and Senior Lecturer in Literature at the University of East Anglia. Together they discuss Vahni's work, the inspiration found in places like Norwich and Edinburgh, the influence of Julian of Norwich and much more besides - all while enjoying an imagin...

Winner of the BBC Short Story Award in 2019, Jo Lloyd has now published her collection The Earth, Thy Great Exchequer, Ready Lies, and joins Chris Gribble on the pod to discuss her work, the challenges of going from one award-winning story to an entire collection, how the American short fiction market differs from the UK and why she prefers editing to writing. Meanwhile, NCW programme director Peg...

Writer and illustrator Neill Cameron is on the pod to talk about his debut novel Freddy Vs School, the long-running comic series MEGA ROBO BROS and contributing to fab weekly children's comic The Phoenix. Neill discusses how he got into comics and writing for younger readers, how he works complex themes into accessible stories, making the comics form easy for new readers and why fart jokes and pun...

What is The Last Good Man about? When Duncan Peck arrives at a remote village in Dartmoor, he immediately notices the wall towering over it and displaying messages written by the inhabitants. Simon read it as a metaphor for social media and online discourse, Thomas references anonymous, public writing in China, and the book remains resolutely ambiguous.  Thomas joins us on the pod to discuss the b...