Little Atoms

Kate Summerscale is the author of the number one bestselling  The Suspicions of Mr Whicher , winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2008, winner of the Galaxy British Book of the Year Award, a Richard & Judy Book Club pick and adapted into a major ITV drama. Her first book, the bestselling  The Queen of Whale Cay , won a Somerset Maugham award and was shortlisted for the...

Ekow Eshun is a British-Ghanaian writer, editor, curator, broadcaster, and author of the memoir  Black Gold of the Sun , which was nominated for the Orwell Prize for its exploration of race and identity. He writes for publications including the  New York Times, Financial Times  and  Guardian , and has created documentaries for BBC4 and BBC Radio 4. Eshun was the first Blac...

Garth Greenwell is the author of  Cleanness.  His novel  What Belongs to You  won the British Book Award for Debut of the Year, was longlisted for the National Book Award, and was a finalist for six other awards, including the James Tait Black Prize, the PEN/Faulkner Award and the  Los Angeles Times  Book Prize. A  New York Times Book Review  Editors’ Choice...

Rumaan Alam is the author of the  New York Times  bestselling novel  Leave the World Behind , which was a finalist for the National Book Award and adapted into a major motion picture, as well as two other novels. His writing has appeared in the  New York Times ,  Wall Street Journal ,  New Yorker  and elsewhere. On this episode of Little Atoms he talks...

Donal Ryan is an award-winning author from Nenagh, County Tipperary, whose work has been published in over twenty languages to major critical acclaim.  The Spinning Heart  won the  Guardian  First Book Award, the EU Prize for Literature (Ireland), and Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards; it was shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, longlisted for...

Irenosen Okojie is a Nigerian British author whose work pushes the boundaries of form, language and ideas. Her novel,  Butterfly Fish , and short story collections,  Speak Gigantular  and  Nudibranch , have won and been nominated for multiple awards. Her journalism has been featured in  The New York Times , the  Observer , the  Guardian  and the  Huffin...

Shahnaz Habib is a writer and translator based in Brooklyn. She translates from her mother tongue, the south Indian language of Malayalam, and has translated two novels,  Jasmine Days , winner of the 2018 JCB Prize, and  Al Arabian Novel Factory .  Airplane Mode , her first book, was longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medals of Excellence. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for...

Harriet Constable is an award-winning journalist and filmmaker living in London. Her work has been featured by the New York Times, the Economist, and the BBC, and she is a grantee of the Pulitzer Center. Raised in a musical family, The Instrumentalist is her first novel. It has been selected as one of the Top 10 Debuts of 2024 by the Guardian. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more inform...

James Shapiro, who teaches English at Columbia University in New York, is author of several books, including  1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare  (winner of the BBC4 Samuel Johnson Prize in 2006 and the Baillie Gifford 'Winner of Winners' in 2023), as well as  Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?  O n this episode of Little Atoms he talks to Neil Denny about The...

Clare Beams   is the author of the novel  The Illness Lesson , which was shortlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize,and the story collection  We Show What We Have Learned , which won the Bard Fiction Prize and was a Kirkus Best Debut of 2016. She was a finalist for the 2023 Joyce Carol Oates Prize. On this episode of Little Atoms she talks to Neil Denny about her lates...

Ralf Webb is the author of  Rotten Days in Late Summer , which was shortlisted for the Forward Prize. His poems, essays, and short fiction have appeared in  Fantastic Man ,  Granta,  the  Guardian  and the  London Review of Books . He tutors in creative writing at Goldsmiths, University of London. On this episode of Little Atoms he talks to Neil Denny abouth...

Hanna Pylväinen is the author of the novel  We Sinners , which received a Whiting Award and a Balcones Fiction Prize. To research  The End of Drum-Time , her second novel, which she talks to Neil Denny about on this episode of Little Atoms, she spent six months with Sámi reindeer herders in Finland.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Adam Higginbotham is a British writer whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Wired, GQ and Smithsonian. He is the author of Midnight In Chernobyl , and in today's episode of Little Atoms, he talks to Neil Denny about his latest book Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rebecca Watson is an Assistant Arts Editor at the  Financial Times  and one of the  Observer 's ten best debut novelists of 2021. She has been published in the  TLS, Granta  and the  Guardian . In 2018, she was shortlisted for  The   White Review  Short Story Prize, and in 2021, she was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize and the Desmond Elliott Prize....

Alan Murrin   is an Irish writer based in Berlin. His short story, "The Wake," won the 2021 Bournemouth Writing Prize and was shortlisted for short story of the year at the Irish Book Awards. His debut novel  The Coast Road  which he discussed with Neil Denny in this episode of Little Atoms was shortlisted for the PFD Queer Fiction prize. Murrin is also the recipient of an Irish Art...

Yael van der Wouden is a writer and teacher. She currently lectures in creative writing and comparative literature in the Netherlands. Her essay on Dutch identity and Jewishness, "On (Not) Reading Anne Frank", has received a notable mention in The Best American Essays 2018. On this episode of Little Atoms she talks to Neil Denny about her debut novel  The Safekeep. Hosted on Acast. See acast....

Jon Savage is the author of  England's Dreaming: Sex Pistols and Punk Rock  and  Teenage: The Creation of Youth, 1875-1945 . On this episode of Little Atoms he talks to Neil Denny about his latest book The Secret Public: How LGBTQ Performers Shaped Popular Culture (1955–1979) . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Julia Armfield's work has been published in  Granta ,  The White Review  and  Best British Short Stories  2019 and 2021. In 2019, she was shortlisted for the  Sunday Times  Young Writer of the Year award. She was longlisted for the Deborah Rogers Award 2018, and won the  White Review  Short Story Prize 2018 and a Pushcart Prize in 2020. She is the autho...

Noreen Masud is a lecturer in twentieth century literature at the University of Bristol, and an AHRC/BBC New Generation Thinker. On this episode of Little Atoms she talks to Neil Denny about her memoir  A Flat Place. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Clare Pollard   is an award-winning poet and playwright based in London. She is the author of five poetry collections and the former Editor of the  Modern Poetry in Translation  magazine .  Her first novel,  Delphi  , was published by Fig Tree in 2022. On today's show she talks to Neil Denny about her second novel, The Modern Fairies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.c...

Kevin Barry is the author of four novels and three story collections. His awards include the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the Goldsmiths Prize, the  Sunday Times  EFG Short Story Award and the Lannan Foundation Literary Award. His stories and essays have appeared in the  New Yorker ,  Granta  and elsewhere. His novel,  Night Boat to Tangier ,was an Irish number o...

Rachel Khong is the author of  Goodbye, Vitamin,  winner of the California Book Award for First Fiction and named a Best Book of the Year by NPR;  O, The Oprah Magazine; Vogue;  and  Esquire . Her work has appeared in  The New York Times Book Review, The Cut, The Guardian, The Paris Review,  and Tin House.  In 2018, she founded The Ruby, a work and event spa...

Ayana Mathis's first novel,  The Twelve Tribes of Hattie  was a  New York Times  best seller and has been translated into sixteen languages. Her nonfiction has been published in the  The New York Times, The Atlantic, Guernica,  and  Rolling Stone . Mathis is a graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop. On today's show she talks to Neil Denny about her long-await...

Kaliane Bradley is a British-Cambodian writer and editor based in London. Her short stories have appeared in  Electric Literature ,  Catapult ,  Somesuch Stories  and  The Willowherb Review ,among others. She was the winner of the 2022  Harper's Bazaar  Short Story Prize and the 2022 V. S. Pritchett Short Story Prize. in this week's show she talks to Neil Denny a...

Orlando Whitfield graduated from Goldsmiths University in 2009. He started dealing art while still a student, and worked in and around the art market for fifteen years. His writing has appeared in the  Paris Review  and the  White Review . On today's show he talks to Neil Denny about his first book  All That Glitters: A Story of Friendship, Fraud and Fine Art . Hosted on Acast....