PODCAST · arts
Ourshelves
by Virago Books
Ourshelves is a place where writers from the legendary feminist publishing house Virago will talk about their cultural worlds. Host Lucy Scholes will be diving into writers’ bookshelves, record collections and recollections to discover what inspires them. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Episodes
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Ourshelves with Rachel Seiffert
Rachel Seiffert is one of Virago's most critically acclaimed contemporary novelists. She has published four novels and one collection of short stories. Her novels have been shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Dublin Impac Award and longlisted three time for the Women’s Prize for Fiction. In...
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Ourshelves with Annie Hodson
Annie Hodson is a queer writer and playwright from York, and one of the 40-strong cohort of the London Library’s 2022-2023 emerging writers’ programme. She has just won the Virago short story competition, with her story ‘Banshee’, which will appear in the paperback of Furies in spring 2025. Lucy...
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Ourshelves with Audrey Osler
Audrey Osler is Professor Emerita of Citizenship and Human Rights Education at the University of Leeds. Her latest book, Where Are You From? No, Where Are You Really From? will be published by Virago in November and looks at the British Empire through the history of one family. This week, join us...
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Ourshelves with Victoria Belim
Victoria Belim is a writer, journalist, and translator of Persian literature and poetry. She speaks eighteen languages, including Japanese, Turkish, and Indonesian. Her memoir, The Rooster House, was published earlier this year by Virago and explores her search for the truth behind an unmentioned...
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Ourshelves with Emma Donoghue
Emma Donoghue is an acclaimed writer whose novels include the international bestsellers Room and The Wonder. She wrote the short story ‘Turmagant’ in Virago’s recent collection of short stories, Furies, and her upcoming novel, Learned By Heart, publishes on 24th August 2023. On this episode, Emma...
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Ourshelves with Natasha Walter
Natasha Walter is a writer of both fiction and non-fiction, a journalist and human rights activist. Her books include The New Feminism and Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism, which was reissued as one of Virago’s 50thAnniversary Five Gold reads this year. On this episode of Ourshelves, Natasha…
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Ourshelves with Veronica Raimo
Are families a refuge or a prison? Join Veronica Raimo as she talks with Lucy Scholes about the line between fiction and auto-fiction, drawing the curtain back on the creative process, and the many idiosyncrasies of language that arise during the translation of fiction. Veronica Raimo is the…
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Ourshelves with Kirsty Logan
Kirsty Logan is a novelist and short story writer. She’s the author of Now She is Witch, Things We Say In The Dark, The Gloaming, The Gracekeepers, A Portable Shelter, and The Rental Heart & Other Fairytales. To mark the publication of her new book, The Unfamiliar: A Queer Motherhood Memoir, she...
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Ourshelves with Mecca Jamilah Sullivan
Join Lucy Scholes as she talks with American author Mecca Jamilah Sullivan about her debut novel, Big Girl – reviewed by the New York Times as ‘achingly beautiful’ – about a young black girl growing up in 1990s Harlem. On the table for discussion is coming-of-age fiction, beauty standards…
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Ourshelves with Caroline O'Donoghue
On the premiere episode of this special series of Ourshelves, commemorating Virago’s 50th anniversary, join Caroline O'Donoghue, New York Times best-selling author and the host of the award-winning podcast Sentimental Garbage, as she talks about her new novel, The Rachel Incident. Listen as...
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OurShelves: Witches with Shahrukh Husain
Shahrukh Husain, editor of The Virago Book of Witches, who says it represents ` womanhood in all its complexity’ is not at all surprised to see a resurgence of interest in `all things witchy’. The witch knows her strength, defies authority and embodies our current fears of injustice. Shah tells...
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OurShelves: Caribbean voices with Sharma Taylor
In this special bonus summer episode Sharma Taylor, author of What a Mother’s Love Don’t Teach You, takes us to the heated demi-monde of Kingston, Jamaica, in the 1980s, a turbulent time in politics and gangland crime. She tells Lucy Scholes about writing in patois; the Caribbean authors right…
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OurShelves: Barbara Pym with Clare Chambers
Clare Chambers is the author of nine novels including Small Pleasures, which was longlisted for the Women’s Prize. She joins Lucy Scholes to rave about the inimitable Barbara Pym, a Virago Modern Classic author whose love affairs shocked sixties society and who wrote about vicars’ tea parties…
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OurShelves: Taking ownership with Cathy Thomas
How does writing about your life change the way you see it? Cathy Thomas talks to Lucy Scholes about her first book, Islanders, interlocking short stories set on her childhood home, Guernsey – the pleasure of joining the dots and how playwriting informed her structure. Discovering a shared love…
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OurShelves: Listening with Stuart Evers
How can men approach their role as feminist allies? Lucy Scholes meets Stuart Evers, award-winning author of four books including Your Father Sends His Love and The Blind Light as they discuss his introduction to the new Virago Modern Classic edition of Anna Seghers’ brilliant novel Transit, and...
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OurShelves: Voice with Katie Hickman
What does it take for a woman to migrate thousands of miles across prairies and mountains? Join Katie Hickman, author of Brave Hearted and She-Merchants, Buccaneers and Gentlewomen as she talks with Lucy Scholes about the unique voices of the women who made the Wild West, the strength of oral...
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OurShelves: Taboos with Kate Maxwell
What happens if you don’t fall in love with your baby at first sight? Join Kate Maxwell and Lucy Scholes as they challenge silent taboos about motherhood, from Elena Ferrante’s The Lost Daughter to Kate’s first novel Hush, about a woman who struggles with her decision to have a child on her own....
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OurShelves: Beauty with Chloé Cooper Jones
If you spend 288 pages deep in the life of a disabled person, can that experience shift your concept of disability? Join Chloé Cooper Jones, journalist, Pulitzer nominee and author of the new memoir Easy Beauty, as she talks with Lucy Scholes about how beauty can create a powerful mental shift....
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OurShelves: Hunger with Claire Kohda
How does food connect us to our cultural identity? Get hungry listening to Claire Kohda talk to Lucy Scholes about her debut novel Woman, Eating, which follows a mixed-race vampire in contemporary London. Claire admits she avoided reading Dracula, explores the yōkai of traditional Japanese...
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OurShelves: Whales with Doreen Cunningham
Doreen Cunningham, author of Soundings, followed the grey whales to the Arctic and she brings what she learnt on her journey into conversation with Lucy Scholes. Listen to Doreen explain how the very grammar of the Inupiat language gives the speaker a more respectful relationship with animals…
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Ourshelves: Discovery with CN Lester
Discovery with CN Lester How do we keep fighting when there seems to be no hope? CN Lester is a musician, academic, activist and author of Trans Like Me and they tell Lucy Scholes the best advice they’ve been given for continuing to work in the face of backlash. Join their fascinating…
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OurShelves: Midlife reckoning with Dana Spiotta
George Saunders calls Dana Spiotta a ‘great American writer’. It’s true - but why does it feel so surprising to hear a woman given that accolade. Join Lucy Scholes as she meets the award-winning author of Wayward and four other novels, celebrating the rare joy and complexity of midlife…
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OurShelves with special guest Monica Ali
OurShelves celebrates the end of Season 4 with the beloved Monica Ali, a fellow of Royal Society of Literature, Patron of the Hopscotch Women’s Centre, and bestselling author of Brick Lane and the upcoming Love Marriage, her wonderful, complex and optimistic book about the entangled lives of two...
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OurShelves: Kaitlyn Greenidge on the White Gaze
Kaitlyn Greenidge, acclaimed author of Libertie and We Love You, Charlie Freeman, has written the new introduction to Ann Petry’s landmark Virago Modern Classics novel The Narrows. She takes a deep dive into Black American history, where Petry’s writing depicts an interior life under the...
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Ourshelves: Survival with Megan Abbott
Megan Abbott, Edgar-award winning author of eight novels including the HBO series-adapted Dare Me and her latest ballet school-set The Turnout is celebrated for her dark, precise depictions of young women in hothouse environments. She tells Lucy Scholes how thrillers honour women’s instincts of...
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Ourshelves: Savagery with Claire Oshetsky
Do we see being a carer as a feminist failure? Claire Oshetsky’s new novel Chouette is about raising a non-conforming child, represented by a wild but lovable owl-baby. In this episode of Ourshelves she talks with Lucy Scholes about how wrapping what started out as a memoir in a fantastical world...
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OurShelves: Backstage with Dame Eileen Atkins
Backstage with Eileen Atkins How does the writing we love create the roles we perform? Join Dame Eileen Atkins, stage and TV star, three-time Olivier Award winner and screenwriter of ‘Upstairs, Downstairs’ and ‘Mrs Dalloway’ talk about her autobiography, Will She Do? She tells Lucy Scholes how…
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OurShelves: Rescue with Donna Coonan
Donna Coonan is Editorial Director of the Virago Modern Classics list, which was set up 1978 to demonstrate the existence of a necessary canon of women’s writing and to challenge the sometimes narrow definition of what a ‘classic’ is. Since 2005, she has brought over 200 new books including those...
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OurShelves: Awakening with 吕频 Lü Pin
How do you say ‘Me Too’ in Chinese – when it’s banned on social media? 吕频 Lü Pin, Chinese feminist activist featured in Awakening by Rachel Vogelstein and Meighan Stone, talks to Lucy Scholes about her work challenging gender-based violence in a state without freedom of speech or protest. Through...
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OurShelves: Heroics with Susie Boyt
How do we get through the difficult days? Susie Boyt, author and theatre director, got through the pandemic by walking for miles listening to poetry podcasts to replace the conversations she’d have with friends about books. Here, she tells Lucy Scholes how she had a feminist awakening watching a...
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OurShelves: Hope with Dr Edith Widder
How can we find light in the dark? Oceanographer, marine biologist and author of Below the Edge of Darkness, Edie Widder’s life has been as fascinating as the animals she studies, and she speaks with irresistible wonderment about watching them communicate with bioluminescence in the depths of the...
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OurShelves: Courage with Kamila Shamsie
Is writing a muscle? Kamila Shamsie, prize winning novelist, fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Granta Best of Young British author, talks to Lucy Scholes about her great-aunt, Attia Hosain, whose books are newly reissued with her introductions on the Virago Modern Classics list, and…
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OurShelves with Marilynne Robinson
Can solitude be a source of inspiration? In this bonus episode, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Marilynne Robinson talks to Lucy Scholes about her latest novel, Jack and its place in the Gilead quartet. Exploring the idea of solitude, Marilynne speaks with characteristic insight about living with…
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OurShelves with Austin Channing Brown
Who is your feminism for? Austin Channing Brown was named by parents who deliberately wanted people to presume their daughter was a white man when applying for jobs. Now a speaker and writer working for Racial Justice in the US and the author of I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for...
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OurShelves with Chibundu Onuzo
What can we learn from African women’s movements? If you knew about the women who fought a freedom war in 1914 Nigeria, would it alter your view of feminist history? Chibundu Onuzo, award-winning author and performer, talks to Lucy Scholes about her new novel Sankofa. Join a conversation of…
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OurShelves with Susan Spindler
Would you become a surrogate mother? Publishing her first novel over the age of fifty, Susan Spindler writes brilliantly about post-menopausal life in her thriller Surrogate. Join her and Lucy Scholes as they discuss why older women are forced to emulate fertility or risk being called a ‘hag’ and...
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OurShelves with C Pam Zhang
How can you create your own world when this one doesn’t serve you? Join as we radically restructure myths, stories and genres – from the American West to fairy tales and nineties pop icons. C. Pam Zhang is author of How Much of These Hills is Gold, longlisted for the Man Booker and Rathbones…
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OurShelves with Amanda Coe
Join Lucy Scholes as she has a frank, funny and fascinating talk with Amanda Coe, author of three novels, and BAFTA award winning scriptwriter of Black Narcissus – for which she also wrote the introduction to the new Virago Modern Classics edition. Amanda talks about adapting novels for screen...
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OurShelves with R. O. Kwon
How can reading rewire your brain? After a childhood spent calling Henry James her ‘dude’ and Evelyn Waugh her ‘friend’ R. O. Kwon, author of The Incendiaries, talks to Lucy Scholes about how determinedly reading more people of colour and queer voices helps reconfigure her internal world to match...
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OurShelves with Justine Cowan
How can you be a strong woman in a world that’s not built for you? Justine Cowan is an attorney used to fighting environmental cases against huge corporations but writing about her mother’s childhood in her first book, The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames led her to uncover a very different…
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OurShelves with Stella Duffy
How can we write a life unexpected? Author of seventeen novels, fourteen plays, theatre-maker, co-director of Fun Palaces and Stonewall writer of the year Stella Duffy OBE is an inspiration of hard-won wisdom and appetite for learning new things. She joins Lucy Scholes for a conversation about...
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OurShelves with Riva Leher
What do monsters do for us? Join Lucy Scholes for a powerful conversation with Riva Lehrer, artist, activist and author of Golem Girl, her beautifully illustrated memoir about living with disability. From the history of freak shows to the power – and limits - of politicisation, they confront the...
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OurShelves with Lucy Scholes
In this special bonus episode of OurShelves Virago Publisher Sarah Savitt, turns the tables on our host, Lucy Scholes, for a chat about her personal highlights from season one and her most anticipated up-coming Virago publications. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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OurShelves with Daisy Johnson
How do you balance motherhood and creativity? In this episode of OurShelves Lucy Scholes interviews Daisy Johnson, Booker Prize-shortlisted author of Fen, Everything Under and Sisters, on rewriting the haunted house, why women are expected to use personal lives in fiction, and how books on...
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OurShelves with Sigrid Nunez
How do you overcome criticism? In this episode of OurShelves Lucy Scholes interviews Sigrid Nunez, author of The Friend and What Are You Going Through. Lucy and Sigrid discuss the music of Odetta, the comfort of creatures, and Sigrid's friendship with Elizabeth Hardwick. Hosted on Acast. See...
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OurShelves with Melatu Uche Okorie
Whose narrative do you believe? In this episode of OurShelves Lucy Scholes interviews Melatu Uche Okorie, author of This Hostel Life. Lucy and Melatu discuss Milkman by Anna Burns, Rosa Parks and the importance of challenging the narrative. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more...
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OurShelves with Irenosen Okojie
Do you have the courage to try again? In this episode of OurShelves Lucy Scholes chats to Irenosen Okojie, author of Butterfly Fish; Speak Gigantular, Nudibranch and contributor to the short story collection Hag, about the wonder and power of short stories, finding joy in activism and literary...
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OurShelves with Liv Little
What is the first book you saw yourself reflected in? In this episode Lucy and Liv discuss short storytelling, bingeing I May Destroy You and creating spaces where people can hold truth to power. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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OurShelves with Linda Grant
How can we reconsider failure? In this episode of OurShelves Lucy Scholes interviews Linda Grant, a multi-award-winning author whose latest novel, A Stranger City, is out now in paperback. In this episode Lucy and Linda discuss Barbara Pym, Mrs. America and the importance of recalling our…
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OurShelves with Margaret Atwood
Does nostalgia change the way you feel about the past? In this episode of OurShelves Lucy Scholes interviews Margaret Atwood, two-time winner of the Man Booker Prize and author of more than forty works, including fiction, poetry and critical essays. From the medieval inspiration for Game of…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Ourshelves is a place where writers from the legendary feminist publishing house Virago will talk about their cultural worlds. Host Lucy Scholes will be diving into writers’ bookshelves, record collections and recollections to discover what inspires them.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
HOSTED BY
Virago Books
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Ourshelves have?
Ourshelves currently has 76 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Ourshelves about?
Ourshelves is a place where writers from the legendary feminist publishing house Virago will talk about their cultural worlds. Host Lucy Scholes will be diving into writers’ bookshelves, record collections and recollections to discover what inspires them. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for...
How often does Ourshelves release new episodes?
Ourshelves has 76 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Ourshelves?
You can listen to Ourshelves on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Ourshelves?
Ourshelves is created and hosted by Virago Books.
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