Books Up Close: The Podcast

In today's episode I talk to Garth Greenwell about his novel Small Rain (2024) Garth Greenwell is the author of three books, most recently Small Rain , which won the 2025 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Literary Award. A Guggenheim Fellow, his writing on culture appears widely, including in The New Yorker , The Guardian , Harper’s , and elsewhere; he also writes...

In today's episode I talk to Ann Morgan about her book Relearning to Read: Adventures in Not Knowing (2025) Ann Morgan is an author and speaker based in Folkestone. Her first book, Reading the World , came out of a 2012 project to read a book from every country in a year ( ayearofreadingtheworld.com ). This sees Ann continuing to blog about international literature, and corresponding and collabora...

In today's episode I talk to Ashton Politanoff about his 2026 novel, Dad Had a Bad Day .  Ashton Politanoff is a frequent contributor to NOON , edited by Diane Williams. His writing has also appeared or is forthcoming in McSweeney’s, Southwest Review , Conjunctions, New York Tyrant , Egress , and elsewhere. He is a former division I tennis player and his childhood coach was Robert Lansdorp, w...

In today's episode I talk to Carys Davies about her novel Clear .  Carys Davies is the author of three novels and two collections of short stories. Her debut novel West was shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize, runner-up for the Society of Authors' McKitterick Prize, and winner of the Wales Book of the Year for Fiction. Her second novel The Mission House was The Sunday Times 2020 Novel O...

In today's episode I walk to Oluwaseun Olayiwola about his poem 'Strange Beach' (the first one) from the book of the same name . Oluwaseun (Seun) Olayiwola is a poet, critic, choreographer and performer based in London. His creative and critical work has been published in The Poetry Review , PN Review , The Telegraph , the TLS and elsewhere. His choreographic work has been presented at the V&A...

In today's episode I talk to Kai Spellmeier about his new novel Boy Friends (Bloomsbury 2026). Kai Spellmeier is a German author currently living in England. He has published several books in Germany, including YA novels and non-fiction, and he has been blogging about books on Instagram for many years. Boy Friends is his English language debut. Book Recs: Nina LaCour, Everything Leads to You Camer...

In this episode I talk to Madeleine Dunnigan about her novel Jean (2026) from Daunt. Madeleine Dunnigan is a writer and screenwriter from London. She was a Jill Davis Fellow on the MFA at New York University. While there she was awarded a Global Research Initiative Fellowship in Paris. Her first novel, Jean, was published by Daunt Books (UK) and W.W. Norton (US) in 2026 and will be translated into...

In this episode I talk to Fatima Bhutto about her book The Hour of the Wolf (2026) from Daunt Books. Fatima Bhutto is the author of the novels The Runaways and the Women’s Prize for Fiction-longlisted The Shadow of the Crescent Moon , and the non-fiction New Kings of the World and Songs of Blood and Sword , which deals with her father’s murder and the Bhutto family’s history in Pakistani politics....

In this episode I talk to Robert Douglas-Fairhurst about his nonfiction book Look Closer: How to Get More Out of Reading (2025). Robert Douglas-Fairhurst was born in 1968 and lives in Oxford, where he is a Professor of English Literature and a Fellow of Magdalen College. His most recent books are Look Closer: How to Get More Out of Reading (2025) and Metamorphosis: a Life in Pieces (2023). Previou...

In this episode I talk to Seth Insua about his novel Human, Animal (2025) Seth Insua is an Anglo-Spanish writer and artist. He was born in Kent in 1989. He graduated from the University of Oxford with a First in English Language and Literature. His debut novel, Human, Animal , was published by VERVE Books in 2025 and Letras de Plata in Spanish the following year. It was selected for the BBC Radio...

In this episode, I talk to Torrey Peters about her story 'Stag Dance' from the collection of the same name.   Torrey Peters’ first novel, Detransition, Baby won the PEN/ Hemingway Award 2022 and was shortlisted for the 2022 National Book Critics’ Circle John Leonard Prize for best first book. A Times Top Ten bestseller, it was longlisted for the 2021 Women’s Prize for Fiction. Her follow-up S...

In this episode, I talk to Sasha Debevec-McKenney about her poem 'WHAT AM I AFRAID OF?' from her collection Joy is My Middle Name . Sasha Debevec-McKenney is the author of the poetry collection Joy Is My Middle Name (Fitzcarraldo, 2025). She received her MFA from New York University, was the 2020–2021 Jay C. and Ruth Halls Poetry Fellow at the University of Wisconsin, and a 2023-2025 Creative Writ...

In this episode, I talk to Dan Sinykin and Johanna Winant about their edited book Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century (2025). Dan Sinykin is Winship Distinguished Research Professor at Emory University and Johanna Winant is an Associate Professor of English and Humanities at Reed College. Episode notes William Carlos Williams, 'The Red Wheelbarrow' Winant, 'The Claims of Close Reading' 'No...

In this episode, I talk to Sara Ahmed about her book No is Not a Lonely Utterance: the Art and Activism of Complaining (2025). Sara Ahmed is an independent queer feminist scholar of colour. Her work is concerned with how power is experienced and challenged in everyday life and institutional cultures. Her most recent book is No is Not a Lonely Utterance: the Art and Activism of Complaining, which w...

In this new episode, I talk to Saleem Haddad about his novel Floodlines (2026), which came out yesterday, Feb 12. Saleem Haddad was born to an Iraqi-German mother and a Palestinian-Lebanese father. His writing spans novels, short stories, essays, and film and television. His debut novel, Guapa (2016), won the Polari Prize and was awarded a Stonewall Honour. His second novel, Floodlines , is publis...

In this new episode - the start of season 2!!!! - I talk to the amazing Elaine Castillo about her novel Moderation (2025). (Also I said Dostoyevsky in the episode but obviously meant Tolstoy, so sorry). Named one of “30 of the Planet’s Most Exciting Young People” by the Financial Times, Elaine Castillo is the author of the debut novel America is Not the Heart , the book of literary criticism How t...

In this festive holiday special, I talk with Prof. Holly Furneaux about Charles Dickens' classic 1843 novella A Christmas Carol .   Professor Holly Furneaux teaches and researches Victorian literature and culture at Cardiff University. Her work focuses on the cultural history of war, gender, the history of sexuality, and the history of emotions. Following her first book Queer Dickens (2009) s...

In today's episode I talk to Michael Donkor about his novel Grow Where They Fall (2023); we talk about a passage from p.83 of the paperback edition. Michael Donkor studied English at Wadham College, Oxford and then undertook a Masters in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway,  London. The Observer named him as one of 2018's best debut authors for his first novel Hold (4th Estate) and in 2019, he...

In this episode I talk to Victoria Adukwei Bulley's poem 'The Ultra-Black Fish' from her collection Quiet (2022) . You can also read the poem at Granta . Victoria Adukwei Bulley is a poet, writer and artist whose work has appeared widely in publications including the London Review of Books , LitHub , and The Atlantic . She is the winner of an Eric Gregory Award, and her critically acclaimed debut...

In this SPOOKY Halloween special, we do things a little differently. I talk to Dr Kaja Franck about a section from Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula . Dr Kaja Franck is a Lecturer in English Literature and Programme Lead for the online MA: Literature & Culture  at the University of Hertfordshire. Her research centres on monsters and monstrous animals. She has previously published on the de...

In this episode, we do things a little differently. I talk to Dr Danielle Cameron about the opening paragraphs of Joan Didion's essay 'Goodbye to All That' from her collection Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1968).  Danielle is a British Mauritian writer and academic based in London. She holds a PhD in American Studies from the University of East Anglia, and her interdisciplinary research focuse...

In this episode, we read a section from Harry Nicholas' memoir A Trans Man Walks into a Gay Bar : A Journal of Self (and Sexual) Discovery (2023) - it's on p.103 of the UK paperback. You can buy Harry's book from bookshop.org or your local indy store. Harry Nicholas is a writer, campaigner and gay trans man living in London. He has written for The Guardian, GQ and Dazed. A Trans Man Walks into a G...

In this episode, we read Jane Yeh's poem 'This Morning,' from her collection The Ninjas . You can read the poem online , and buy this collection from your local bookshop, or at Bookshop.org . Jane Yeh was born in America and has lived in London since 2002. Her collection Discipline (Carcanet, 2019) was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. She was named a Next Generation poet by the PBS for her co...

In this episode, we read Richard Scott's poem 'Still Life with Snail, Oyster, Spoon and Shallot Vinegar' from his collection That Broke into Shining Crystals (2025). You can buy this book, and his previous collection Soho , from your local bookshop or from Faber . Richard Scott is the author of Soho (Faber & Faber, 2018) and most recently That Broke into Shining Crystals (Faber & Faber, 20...

In this episode, we read a passage from Okechukwu Nzelu's Here Again Now (p.47 of the UK paperback). You can buy this book and Nzelu's previous novel from your local bookshop or at Bookshop.org . Dr Okechukwu Nzelu FRSL won a Northern Writers' Award from New Writing North in 2015. His debut novel, The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney (Dialogue Books, 2019), won a Betty Trask Award; it was also short...