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 several perspective characters while still getting us close to them.We read out a few passages and talk about the ways that art—what it is and why it matters—gets into this novel. I would definitely encourage everyone to check it out; it’s a great first Cusk book if you’ve never read her. Some really incredible lines and passages all over this one.Hope you enjoy this one, and in the meantime—stay critical.Merci !

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. She has won awards with her full book translation, and has a short story collection called Strangers that came out at the end of 2025.In this week’s podcast, we talk about the impact of translation in her personal and creative life, and how the world of her characters involves a multilingual approach. Through upholding emotion through language changes and abandoning the idea of perfectionism, Rebecca explores how moving away from mastery allows for freedom to feel the impact of a story. I hope you enjoy this conversation, and in the meantime—stay critical.Merci !

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 as a lens to viewing how a novel might impact, or inform, the world around us.Listen in as Dan and Jessica discuss the novels, PhD life, and drop some very cool book recommendations (Cusk and non-Cusk alike) throughout the show. In the meantime, check out the continuation of our Dalloway centenary series next week and, as always, stay critical!

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 nowWe talk about both pieces, as well as Lincoln’s ongoing pursuit of his PhD in American History and how both his academic work in slave narratives and his reading of writers such as Melville, Faulkner, and Morrison have influenced his creative style. As Lincoln puts it on the show, his goal is to “write in a way that is somewhat oceanic,” which is great—and can be seen in both his pieces at L’Esprit.We close off this wonderful conversation with Lincoln reading from the opening of his new story. I hope everyone enjoys this talk, and please do go check out Lincoln’s work on his website and elsewhere—it’s formidable!

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 in MRSD.We also covered the books’ status as queer literature, their meta-textual elements, and a look at how POV functions in each. In this second part, we focused a lot on the various ways in which Lippincott and Cunningham “win”—by which we simply mean how they seek to execute the plans and goals of their work and, ultimately, achieve an emotional resonance.Check out the Substack post with complete show notes, and in the meantime—stay critical.Merci !

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 a more playful style that closely mimics Woolf's technique of moving between multiple character perspectives within a single point of view, particularly during a party scene set on a train. Cunningham's approach is a bit more structured, with distinct chapters for each timeline and perspective character. Ultimately, these are both very accomplished novels that are super cool emanations of the great Mrs Dalloway.Check out the Substack post with complete show notes, and in the meantime—stay critical.Merci !

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 affected her family. In the meantime, check out Katharine’s website and, as always, stay critical!

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 interesting about MRSD, (well, one of the many, many things), is how scenic it is. Literally: the novel is almost entirely scene. This creates a sense of it being “shot in one continuous take,” to use a cinematic comparison, and deepens the feeling of life at its core. This universality, I think, gives MRSD its remarkable staying power.This series will continue over the rest of the year, looking at other texts, taking a deeper dive into MRSD itself, and having a guest or two on to discuss. It’s my favorite book and I really enjoyed recording this one; an excellent way to spend Halloween.Stay tuned for the Substack post with complete show notes next week, and in the meantime check out everything happening at the journal and the press and, of course—stay critical.Merci !

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 you enjoy it. In the meantime, check out Rachel’s website and, of course, stay critical!

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 figurative language. I touch on her unique narrative technique of "first-person free and direct," which allows readers to experience conversations more intimately by subtly incorporating other characters' speech patterns into the narration.We share a few passages from the book to demonstrate how Cusk explores the relationship between language, art, and experience, observing how she approaches memoir writing with those novelistic techniques that make her nonfiction particularly compelling.Check out the free Substack post with complete show notes. More soon, and in the meantime—stay critical.Merci !

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 conversation.In this second episode, we get into Episode Five of the novel, talk a little about the resonances to Michael’s own Talbot & The Fall, and generally carry on much as we did in Part One. We also look at some of the very funny and insightful letters written by Margaret Anderson and Jane Heap, as found in my copy, The Little Review “Ulysses”. We also talk about T. S. Eliot’s essay “Ulysses, Order, and Myth”.I hope everyone enjoys this excellent discussion; I know I did. More episodes on the way next week. In the meantime—stay critical.Merci !

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 conversation.Michael starts us off with his personal connection to the book, having first read it in 1983 and falling in love with both its humor and its thought. He suggests that Ulysses provides a sense of home for readers over time, much like its own thematic. From there we get into all manner of things, from Joyce's skillful manipulation of voice to the idea of Ulysses as a secular Bible and its expansive nature, even in these (seemingly) straightforward episodes of the novel.I hope everyone enjoys this excellent discussion; I know I did. We’ll definitely have Michael back on the show (maybe for Hamlet), and we’ve got another great conversation coming in Part Two on Thursday. In the meantime—stay critical.Merci !

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 Heather’s approach to her craft. A fascinating conversation that might offer a lot of insight for those thinking about how longterm careers in writing.I’ve got a review of the novel coming out with Chicago Review of Books, and Heather and I did a written interview that’ll be out in L’Esprit Issue Seven, in October. For now, check out Heather’s website, and order one of her books! You can preorder Amanda now and find her first two novels via her website. If you can, please consider buying them direct from FSG.Thanks so much to Heather for coming on the show. I hope everyone enjoys this excellent discussion; I know I did. More soon, and in the meantime—stay critical.Merci !

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 emotional depth, with specific attention to the narrative's shift from third-person to first-person perspective in the final pages. Then we talked a bit about stream-of-consciousness, and where Strange Hotel does or does not fit into that world—a conversation that’ll be ongoing in the Club. Hopefully this is only the beginning of McBride’s “experimental” phase.Check out the Substack post with complete show notes, and in the meantime—stay critical.Merci !

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 juxtaposed with accessed interiority.We can see similar methods in writers from James Joyce to Rachel Cusk, and Strange Hotel is definitely one of those novels that shows the utility of the term “literary ancestry.” We take a close look at McBride’s skills in atmospheric prose, and leave everyone on a cliffhanger with plans made for a two-part episode (!) to further explore the novel's composition and readerly orientation—and whether this style is an example of stream-of-consciousness.Check out the Substack post with complete show notes, and in the meantime—stay critical.Merci !

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 from painting and music to the Parisian art scene to Biblical allegory to the way imagery and metaphor function in “Sonny’s Blues” to mediate identity and meaning. Fortunately for everyone, I pretty quickly understood just how well prepared Brian was for this conversation, and mostly got out of the way!Check out Brian’s website, and order one of his books! We also have some links for further reading that came from our talk:The text of the story itselfBaldwin’s Art of Fiction in The Paris ReviewA review of a new book about Baldwin and Beauford DelanyAn article on T. S. Eliot’s essay “Ulysses, Order, and Myth”I hope everyone enjoys this excellent discussion; I know I did. We’ll definitely have Brain back on the show, and we’ve got another fun episode coming on Saturday. In the meantime—stay critical.Merci !

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 temporal jumps to the future.We talk about how the novel's effectiveness comes from this controlled instability and unique narrational distance, in that, despite following the protagonist Lise in limited third person, readers are kept at a distance from her interior thoughts. The discussion highlights how Spark breaks conventional rules by, among others, revealing early that Lise will be found murdered, yet maintains reader interest through compositional techniques rather than traditional character development or exposition. A very fascinating novel, one that might actually be “completely unique.”Check out our Substack for the complete show notes in a few days, and in the meantime—stay critical.

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 does it shape the story? How can authors create distinct worldviews and textures through discrete narrational modes, and what does this look like in “In The Orchard”? We explore these issues and more in the discussion. Check out our Substack for complete show notes in a few days, and in the meantime—stay critical.Merci !

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 episodes, mini-series, and more. Find out more about the series on our Substack post, and join us for literary dissection through a revolutionary lens. Merci !

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 fictive world of her main character, Zinnia. Diane also shares how a true crime podcast and her background as a historian fueled the writing of this excellent book.We hope you enjoy the conversation--and if you missed Jessica's review of L'Air du Temps (1985) in L'Esprit, you can find it here!Merci beaucoup !

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 pieces mentioned in our discussion:Henry IV Part II—specifically Act 2, Scene 4; watch a clip of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 2014 performance here.Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the concept of “hilaritas”Wyndham LewisGeorges BatailleBeckett’s “Waiting for Godot”Kafka’s “The Trial”Jessica’s short story The Silence