PODCAST · arts
This Writing Life
by James Kidd
The Book Festival you can enjoy in the bath. Interviews, Readings and Rambling chat. Journalist James Kidd talks to (not at the same time): Hanya Yanagihara, Gary Younge, Richard Russo, Tom Drury, David Mitchell, Michel Faber, LS Hilton, DBC Pierre, Sloane Crosley, Karen Joy Fowler, Vendela Vida, David Gates, Laura Lippman, Tomas Gonzalez. Amit Chaudhuri. New episode: Amanda Coe.
Episodes
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These Our Monsters LIVE: Sarah Moss reads from ’Breakynecky’
On 11th March, Hatchards hosted a live event bringing together four of the authors who contributed stories to These Our Monsters : Sarah, Moss, Fiona Mozley, Edward Carey and Graeme Mcrae Burnet. I chaired the event, and recorded it for posterity. ----more---- Posterity has arrived now. The event...
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Graeme Macrae Burnet reads from ’The Dark Thread’ (These Our Monsters)
Last year I was asked to write an introduction for a collection of modern folktales to be published by English Heritage. ----more---- The result was These Our Monsters, featuring work by Edward Carey, Graeme Mcrae Burnet, Fiona Mozley, Sarah Hall and many others. I talked to three of the authors...
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Fiona Mozley reads from ’The Loathly Lady’ (These Our Monsters)
Last year I was asked to write an introduction for a collection of modern folktales to be published by English Heritage. ----more---- The result was These Our Monsters, featuring work by Edward Carey, Graeme Mcrae Burnet, Fiona Mozley, Sarah Hall and many others. I talked to three of the authors...
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Edward Carey reads from ’These Our Monsters’
Last year I was asked to write an introduction for a collection of modern folktales, myths and legends to be published by English Heritage. ----more---- The result was These Our Monsters, featuring work by Edward Carey, Graeme Mcrae Burnet, Fiona Mozley, Sarah Hall and many others. I talked to...
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Simon Barnes Reading: on closely-observed gannets
Reading from the blog on his own website, Simon Barnes describes the close attention required and inspired by bird-watching, and the almost poetic empathy that can result. ----more---- Part two of our interview with Simon will follow. Read more about 2020’s Keats-Shelley Prizes here. For 2020’s...
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A Conversation with Simon Barnes - Part 2
Part two of our conversation with Simon Barnes, the award-winning sportswriter, revered birdlover and Chair of 2020's Keats-Shelley Prizes. ----more---- Our annual theme is 'Songbirds', to mark the composition 200 years ago of PB Shelley’s To a Skylark and the publication in book form of John...
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A Conversation with Simon Barnes - Part 1
In this first of two episodes, I talk to Simon Barnes, the award-winning sportswriter, revered birdlover and Chair of 2020's Keats-Shelley Prizes. Our annual theme is 'Songbirds', to mark the composition 200 years ago of PB Shelley’s To a Skylark and the publication in book form of John Keats’…
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Simon Barnes reads from The Meaning of Birds
Simon Barnes is unique in the world of literature. How many revered sports writers are also revered nature writers too? Off the top of my head I can think of one: Simon Barnes himself. ----more---- For many years the chief sports of the Times, he covered seven Olympics, five World Cups, a…
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Episode 142 - Amanda Coe: Part 1
Amanda Coe is an English novelist and screenwriter, whose credits include the BAFTA-winning adaptation of John Braine's Room at the Top, and her highly-praised thrillers What They Do in the Dark and Getting Colder. This Writing Life met her at Waterstones Piccadilly to talk about everything from...
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Episode 141 - Leila Slimani - Lullaby: Part 4
The final part of This Writing Life podcast's chat with Leila Slimani begins with a question about racisial abuse of Muslims in France. From here we discuss her relationship with Morrocco, with sexual politics in that country, between her fiction and her activism, and finally about the future:...
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Episode 140 - Leila Slimani - Lullaby: Part 3
Part three of This Writing Life's podcast with Leila Slimani, author of global smash-hit Lullaby, moves towards more personal territory. We talk about her family, her background and her views on everything from the French language to women wearing the veil. Along the way, Leila discusses her role...
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Episode 139 - Leila Slimani - Lullaby: Part 2
Part two of Leila Slimani's conversation with This Writing Life podcast about her new novel Lullaby begins with a discussion of objectification: in this case, of the nanny who cares for the children of the Masse family. Slimani talks about her own vexed relationship with the woman who cares for…
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Episode 138 - Leila Slimani - Lullaby: Part 1
Leila Slimani's second novel Lullaby is a phenomenon. Having sold over 600,000 copies and won the Prix Goncourt in her adopted homeland of France, the book is now spreading around the world in various translations. A movie has begun filming in France and there are rumours of a Hollywood…
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Episode 137 - Lynn Shepherd: Part 4
Lynn Shepherd was the first ever This Writing Life recorded. The final part of our conversation begins with a discussion of social media and publicity, and the part both play in her writing life. From here we zoom through the joys and trials of writing novels: bad days, bad reviews, and how her...
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Episode 136 - Lynn Shepherd's Advice to Budding Writers
As a trailer ahead of part four of This Writing Life podcast's conversation with novelist Lynn Shepherd, she offers some advice to budding writers...
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Episode 135 - Lynn Shepherd: Part 3
Part three of Lynn Shepherd's This Writing Life podcast mixes business and pleasure: how did a successful city worker become a successful writer? Doctorates on Samuel Richardson, freelance copywriting, and publishing novels all flash past in quick succession. We talk unpublished novels, the...
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Episode 134 - Lynn Shepherd: Part 2
Part two of This Writing Life's conversation with Oxford-based novelist Lynn Shepherd begins with some chat about her love of 'clever crime', and how it shapes her novels like Murder in Mansfield Park and Tom All-Alones. We end this edition by discussing the other prime influence on these early...
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Episode 133 - Lynn Shepherd: Part 1
The latest episode of This Writing Life podcast is particularly special in that it was the first ever recorded. The subject is Lynn Shepherd, a crime writer, critic, journalist, and copy writer who lives and works in Oxford. Her speciality is literary mystery fiction: each of her novels, Murder…
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Episode 132 - Neel Mukherjee: Part 3
In the final part of This Writing Life podcast's conversation with Neel Mukherjee, we begin with Donald Trump before floating in a liberal bubble towards Neel's decision to stop listening to the news. We talk about the novel might cope with a 24 hour news cycle and Neel's own creative method -...
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Episode 131 - Neel Mukherjee: Part 2
In the second part of Neel Mukherjee's chat with This Writing Life podcast, he talks the influence of ghost stories on his excellent new novel A State of Freedom, about returning to India (as a visitor and writer), about the short story-novel, about surviving the Man Booker Prize shortlist for…
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Episode 130 - Neel Mukherjee: Part 1
In the opening instalment of This Writing Life podcast's interview with Neel Mukherjee, Man Booker shortlisted author of The Lives of Others, we discuss his excellent new novel A State of Freedom. After admitting a little pre-publication anxiety, Mukherjee moves onto his new book and its various...
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Episode 129 - Meena Kandasamy: Part 4 (Writing Life Revisited)
In the final part of This Writing Life podcast's conversation with Meena Kandasamy, she discusses India as a modern superpower, the place of violence in the lives of women, the poor and everyday society, shifts smartly to talk about her first (and possibly only) venture into acting, before…
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Episode 128 - Meena Kandasamy: Part 3 (Writing Life Revisited)
In the third part of This Writing Life podcast's chat with the Indian poet, novelist and activist Meena Kandasamy, we begin with some chatter about the title of her debut novel, The Gipsy Goddess, before exploring her fraught relationship with social media - its pros and cons for political...
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Episode 127 - Meena Kandasamy: Part 2 (This Writing Life Revisited)
In the second part of This Writing Life podcast's interview with Meena Kandasamy, we discuss how fiction mixes with historical truth, women in The Gipsy Goddess, language to shock and illuminate. And more on Nicki Minaj of course. Part three to follow.
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Episode 126 - Meena Kandasamy reads from The Gipsy Goddess
In this new mini-podlet, Meena Kandasamy reads from chapter 4 of her first novel, The Gipsy Goddess. For those of a nervous disposition, the passage does contain a little strong language, and a reference to Nicki Minaj. But surely those are good things?
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Episode 125 - Meena Kandasamy: Part 1 (This Writing Life Revisited)
This Writing Life podcast extracts an interview from its vaults. Back when we had the energy to attempt an actual introduction, even when we mispronounce the author's name, we talked to the extraordinary Meena Kandasamy about her extraordinary debut novel, The Gypsy Goddess. Part 2 to follow.
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Episode 124 - Rick Bass: Part 5 - For a Little While
The final part of This Writing Life's conversation with Rick Bass, award winning writer and respected environmental activist, begins where the last podlet ended. 'Obey little, resist much.' From there, we consider time and how art can help breed a sense of empathy. Bass bashes the de-humanising...
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Episode 123 - Rick Bass: How do we protest Donald Trump, Scott Pruitt and the rest?
In this short but inspiring podlet, This Writing Life attempts its best impersonation of Pod Save America and asks: what can we do to organise resistance against Donald Trump, destroyer of worlds, ruiner of all things good and wholesome and green and free? Where does Bass draw the line when...
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Episode 122 - Rick Bass: Part 4 - For a Little While
In part four of This Writing Life's conversation with Rick Bass, whose new book For a Little While (Pushkin) on 2017's Story Prize, we talk about his love of the short story, and why it is the most human of literary forms. We return to the relationship between Bass's environmentalism and his...
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Episode 121 - Rick Bass: are you optimisitic about human nature?
A short trailer for part 4 of This Writing Life's conversation with Rick Bass. In which Rick answers the question: are you optimisitic about human nature?
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Episode 120 - Rick Bass: Part 3 - For a Little While
Part three of This Writing Life's transatlantic chat with a Montana-bound Rick Bass takes in the material in Episode 119: in which Rick reviews his short story career in For a Little While (Pushkin), and attempting to describe what it feels like to be lost in a story. In between he discusses the...
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Episode 119 - Rick Bass on his collection For a Little While (and getting lost in writing)
'You are a stranger inhabiting this blazing dream and you barely get out with your life...yeah, and then you go to the bar for a drink.' A Writing Life podlet, in which Rick Bass recalls what's like to review your career (to date) in his superb collection of stories, For a Little While (Pushkin...
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Episode 118 - Rick Bass: Part 2 - For a Little While
Part two of This Writing Life's transatlantic conversation with Rick Bass, novelist, activist, award-winning short story writer, begins with a question referencing Philip Larkin, Romanticism and Transcendentalism and continues with an answer discussing fiction, geology, humans and time: 'We are…
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Episode 117 - Rick Bass: Part 1 - For a Little While
'I am working on a new novel...and an op-ed for the Los Angeles paper about Trump and his reign of terror.' Here in one line is This Writing Life's lengthy podcast conversation with Rick Bass - novelist, award-winning short story writer, and environmental activist. In future episodes we discuss…
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Episode 116 - Gary Younge: Part 4
'I quite liked it.' So says Gary Younge about America in the final part of This Writing Life podcast's conversation about his wonderful new book, Another Day in the Death of America. We began by asking asking Younge about his decision to leave the country and return to his home in Hackney, east...
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Episode 115 - Gary Younge: Part 3
In part three of Gary Younge's conversation with This Writing Life podcast, we continue our discussion of his extraordinary book A Day in the Death of America. We begin by discussing the idea of choice in the lives of the teenagers Younge writes about - all of whom are either the victims of gun...
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Episode 114 - Gary Younge: Part 2
In part two of This Writing Life's conversation with Gary Younge about his powerful book Another Day in the Death of America, we begin by discussing the place of guns in the stories he tells: the deaths by gun-shots on one random day of teenagers across the United States. What makes America...
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Episode 113 - Gary Younge: Part 1
Gary Younge is an acclaimed writer and journalist, best known for his reporting on the United States for the Guardian in the United Kingdom. The author of several books, he spoke to This Writing Life podcast about his most recent: Another Day in the Death in America (Faber & Faber). As he…
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Episode 112 - Kevin Sullivan: Part 5
The final part of Kevin Sullivan's conversation with This Writing Life podcast arrives after a slight delay for a summer holiday. We begin by asking whether Kevin has a typical writing day - a pressing matter given his long career as a foreign correspondent. From here we move through his creative...
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Episode 111 - Kevin Sullivan: Part 4
In the fourth part of This Writing Life's conversation with journalist and novelist Kevin Sullivan, we move away from his experiences reporting on the siege of Sarajevo to his writing career more generally. Sullivan discussed his formative literary loves, his romantic ideas of the foreign...
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Episode 110 - Kevin Sullivan: Part 3
'It was the loudest explosion I’ve ever heard.' Kevin Sullivan begins part three of his conversation with This Writing Life podcast by remembering the landmine explosion that almost killed him while he was reporting in Gornji Vakuf, in the early days of the Bosnian war. Having described his...
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Episode 109 - Kevin Sullivan: Part 2
In part two of This Writing Life's conversation with the journalist and novelist Kevin Sullivan, we begin by asking why he travelled from Tokyo to Sarajevo in 1991 on the brink of the Bosnian War. Sullivan offers his first impressions and a brief comparison of the city before the siege began, 25...
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Episode 108 - Kevin Sullivan: Part 1
Our next guest on This Writing Life podcast is the journalist and novelist Kevin Sullivan. His latest novel, The Longest Winter, is set during the siege of Sarajevo, which began almost twenty-five-years ago to the day in April 1992. Sullivan covered the conflict as a journalist, and almost lost…
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Episode 107 - LS Hilton: Part 2
There's only so much a nice podcast can take. In part two of This Writing Life's chat with LS Hilton, we dive into Maestra, the global blockbuster that made its author's name (albeit with initials replacing Lisa). We begin by asking how much of a departure its compostion was for LSH, as are…
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Episode 106 - LS Hilton: Part 1
In a new two-part episode, This Writing Life meets Lisa Hilton: journalist, historian and novelist. Her 15 year-career has produced five works of non-fiction, and three of fiction. Yet it took just one book to make her name, albeit under the thin veil of LS Hilton. Published in 2016, Maestra was…
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Episode 105 - Richard Russo: Part 5
The final part of our epic chat with Richard Russo asks an epic question: what has it been like to write novels for 30 years? Having chewed over that question we move onto some other big topics, including posterity, death and what comes next (not the afterlife, just what is Russo's next project)....
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Episode 104 - Richard Russo: Part 4
'This is not an attempt on my part to portray myself as anything like a prophet. I simply was born somewhere...I got to bear witness to something that was tremendously important to me and my family.' In this fourth and penultimate This Writing Life interview with Richard Russo, we begin with the...
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Episode 103 - Richard Russo: Part 3
'I have always been a meanderer. I have always loved digression.' So says Richard Russo in part three of This Writing Life's conversation with the Pulitzer Prize winning novelist. We approach the subject of comic meandering, initially as a way to explore through narrative ideas of luck, fate and...
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Episode 102 - Richard Russo: Part 2
Part two of This Writing Life's conversation with Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Russo begins with the idea of sequels: his new novel, Everybody's Fool is a follow-up to Russo's masterpiece, Nobody's Fool. What are the risks of continuing a story that is not just admired but loved? Did Russo…
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Episode 101 - Richard Russo: Part 1
Part 1 of This Writing Life's interview with the great American comic writer begins in media res. Russo is telling me about signing 9000 copies of his new novel, Everybody's Fool, in a warehouse in Maryland. Russo has recovered enough to discuss the idea of signed copies and what to do with his…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
The Book Festival you can enjoy in the bath. Interviews, Readings and Rambling chat. Journalist James Kidd talks to (not at the same time): Hanya Yanagihara, Gary Younge, Richard Russo, Tom Drury, David Mitchell, Michel Faber, LS Hilton, DBC Pierre, Sloane Crosley, Karen Joy Fowler, Vendela Vida, David Gates, Laura Lippman, Tomas Gonzalez. Amit Chaudhuri. New episode: Amanda Coe.
HOSTED BY
James Kidd
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does This Writing Life have?
This Writing Life currently has 150 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is This Writing Life about?
The Book Festival you can enjoy in the bath. Interviews, Readings and Rambling chat. Journalist James Kidd talks to (not at the same time): Hanya Yanagihara, Gary Younge, Richard Russo, Tom Drury, David Mitchell, Michel Faber, LS Hilton, DBC Pierre, Sloane Crosley, Karen Joy Fowler, Vendela Vida,...
How often does This Writing Life release new episodes?
This Writing Life publishes regularly with 150 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to This Writing Life?
You can listen to This Writing Life 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 This Writing Life?
This Writing Life is created and hosted by James Kidd.
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