Free and Direct

In this episode we talk about Rachel Cusk's The Bradshaw Variations, from 2009, looking at how Cusk’s narration and its interest in philosophical depth power the book. We talk about how her use of free indirect style—one more attuned to an “observational mirroring” rather than the messier, more associative syntactic refraction of, say, Woolf—enables her to cover an entire year in the lives of seve...

In this episode of Cordelivres Club, we are joined by Rebecca Ruth Gould, a UK-Based Translator and Writer, to discuss her relationship with translation, global perspectives, and immersion across borders. Rebecca is a special guest of ours because she was our first translated submission, where her translated novel extract from Night of Terror is featured in Issue Two of L’Esprit Literary Review. S...

Jessica Swoboda joins the show to talk about her essay, “Rachel Cusk’s Attention Ecology,” adapted from her PhD dissertation and published in Contemporary Literature . We talk about the Outline trilogy and Jessica’s scholarship, and the fascinating work she does into the intersections of narrative theory and interpersonal relationships—the ecologies of attention, and the ways in which they serve a...

This episode is our first Past Contributor Conversation (we’re still workshopping the name…), featuring Lincoln Hirn ! Lincoln has one story out with us already— Until You Return in Issue Five—and one forthcoming in Issue Seven, as a Finalist in the 2026 Clarissa Dalloway Prize, Carry Me Along . Subscribe now We talk about both pieces, as well as Lincoln’s ongoing pursuit of his PhD in American Hi...

Happy New Year! This episode is the second half of our conversation on Mrs Dalloway intertextualities, looking at Michael Cunningham's The Hours and Robert Lippincott's Mr. Dalloway . We dove right back into composition, looking at how both novels look to make their readerly impact through plot-based narrative developments rather than through narration itself, which differs from Woolf's approach i...

This episode is the first half of our conversation on the intertextualities of Mrs Dalloway , looking at Michael Cunningham's The Hours and Robert Lippincott's Mr. Dalloway . We introduced the books, spending a little time on each and discussing the MRSD legacy more broadly before turning to the texts themselves. We talk about how both authors approach narration differently, with Lippincott using...

Katharine Smyth joins the show to talk about her memoir, All The Lives We Ever Lived , her Woolfian inheritance, her family, and much more. She takes us through how Woolf inspired the emotional symbolism of her memoir and connected it with the impact of her father’s death. Listen in as Dan and Katharine discuss tattoo parallels, going to Woolf’s former house, and how the publication of her memoir...

Suddenly Elizabeth stepped forward and most competently boarded the omnibus, in front of everybody. This episode is the first in our series on Mrs Dalloway , for the 100th anniversary of its publication. In this episode, we talk somewhat generally about the novel, getting into Woolf’s style and narrational mode, and how she manages to create a sense of her book being “lived-in.” What’s really inte...

This episode features the excellent Rachel León joining the show to discuss Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day. Rachel wrote for L’Esprit way back in Issue Zero , and has all sorts of cool stuff going on. We get into the novel and break down its use of first person narration, and Stevens’ endless search for the appropriate invocation of banter. It’s a wild book and a fun conversation; hope yo...

Our first memoir in the Cordlivres Club! On this episode, we’re talking Rachel Cusk’s The Last Supper , from 2009, about a summer spent in Italy with her family. It’s all about art, language, meaning, truth, tennis—you know, typical stuff. We get into Cusk's distinctive writing style, particularly her ability to blend abstract philosophical concepts with concrete human experiences through figurati...

What better way to tackle the most titanic of twentieth century novels—both within and beyond the text itself—than to bring in a very special guest? Indirect Books ’ debut author, and noted literary maverick, Michael Nath joins to show to get stuck in to Joyce’s monumental Ulysses. We take a look at Episodes Four (“Calypso”) & Five (“The Lotus Eaters”), more or less, in this epic two-part conv...

What better way to tackle the most titanic of twentieth century novels—both within and beyond the text itself—than to bring in a very special guest? Indirect Books ’ debut author, and noted literary maverick, Michael Nath joins to show to get stuck in to Joyce’s monumental Ulysses. We take a look at Episodes Four (“Calypso”) & Five (“The Lotus Eaters”), more or less, in this epic two-part conv...

Our latest guest episode in the Cordelives Club doubles as our first author talk! The marvellous H. S. Cross joins us to talk about her new novel, Amanda. Heather and I talk about her belief in point-of-view, the MFA-less route she took to writing, how she researched and thought about her novel, and so much more. Amanda is a super cool book, and this episode is a great look both at it and at Heath...

This episode focuses on the second half of Eimear McBride's 2020 novel Strange Hotel , talking about the way her prose creates a parallel relationship between the reader’s repose to the text and the character’s response to memory. We looked at some more of that awesome McBride language, and had fun with quotes. We focused on how the novel's language and structure create immersive memories and emot...

This episode focuses on the first half of Eimear McBride's excellent novel Strange Hotel , diving into its unique narrative structure, narrational techniques (including our old friend the present tense), immersive language, and use of memory. The discussion explores the novel’s Modernist inheritances and approach, including different levels of third-person narration and the use of scenic immediacy...

The brilliant L’Esprit interns, Aerin and Anika, join the show to discuss their experiences working on the journal, their views on the state of literature, and a couple of short stories they wanted to check out. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did—we’re thrilled to have Anika and Aerin with us, and had a great time talking with them. Merci !

Our first guest episode in the Cordelives Club! My friend Brian—poet, professor, lover of Paris—joins to talk about James Baldwin’s brilliant short story “Sonny’s Blues", and tunes in an absolute tour de force. Brian takes us through the story from the sentence level out to the wider context of Baldwin’s life; we cover everything from the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s to Baldwin’s influences...

This episode focuses on Muriel Spark's 1970 novel The Driver's Seat , diving into Spark’s author's technique of "getting in and out" of scenes and the way she mediates the reader-protagonist relationship. The third person present-tense narration continually—and fearlessly—drops us into the middle of scenes without explanation, using a strange, compelling distanced narration and making inexplicable...

Welcome to the first episode of Les Cordelivres Club, conversations in revolutionary criticism from Indirect Books . This episode focuses on Virginia Woolf’s short story “In The Orchard,” and the foundational mode of analysis for literary critique: a consideration of narrative and narration. What is the distinction between narration and narrative in literature? What is the narrating entity and how...

Welcome to our new series of applied literary criticism from the Free and Direct Podcast and Indirect Books! The Cordelivres Criticism Club takes its name from a social club during the French Revolution, and will be a place to celebrate our favorite literary texts--new and old, novels and stories, famous and obscure--as we look to analyze them from the inside-out. We'll have deep-dives, guest epis...

Join us for the second half of our home-and-home with the excellent ARTWIFE Mag ! Editor Hannah Harlee talks with Dan about her background in writing and editing, founding ARTWIFE, and how she came up with that excellent name. We also get into the confluence of visual and literary aesthetics and how ARTWIFE builds their expansive literary community. A great conversation and a great magazine!

Our third episode is a wonderful conversation with the brilliant Diane Josefowicz about her new novella, L'Air du Temps (1985). Diane starts us off with a reading, and then we get into the book: we cover narrative structure, novelistic composition--especially the theme of doubling and a mixture of past and present tense--the resonances to her own life and childhood found in the book, and the wider...

L'Esprit Literary Review editors Jessica Denzer and Dan White join Hannah Harlee of ARTWIFE Magazine to talk about the history of L'Esprit , what they look for in submissions, and the future of the journal, We also discuss Indirect Books and how our new press fits into the L'Esprit world.

Join Indirect publishers Jessica Denzer and Dan White in conversation with author Michael Nath. Michael talks with us about his literary ancestry, his influences, and his new novel, Talbot & The Fall , which will be published as Indirect's first release in 2026. Follow our wide-ranging conversation, covering everything from Falstaff to Nietzsche. Here’re (most of) the writers, books, and other...