Rym Kechacha talks with author Siân Hughes about her debut novel, Pearl, the importance of medieval poetry to its themes, motherhood, grief and postpartum depression, and her research and writing process.
Our contributor Emily Walters talks to author Ennatu Domingo about the recent publication of her new book, Burnt EucalyptusWood, adoption and a nomadic sense of being, the centrality of language to identity, filmic narrative structures and the power of nostalgia in Ethiopian culture.
Our writer Georgia Poplett talks to scientist and author Dr Pragya Agarwal about what led her to write her latest book, Hysterical, the damaging history of gendered emotions, representation in data, subverting the classics and why the (feminist) future is bright – and furious!
Iona Glen meets award-winning poet, Polly Atkin, to discuss her recent biography Recovering Dorothy, how Dorothy Wordsworth’s illness has been overlooked in academic scholarship, the marginalisation of those with chronic ill health, poems as time machines and much more.
For her fifth dinner party, author and host Susanna Crossman talks to writers Elizabeth Chakrabarty, Lily Dunn and Shamini Sriskandarajah about eliding the barriers between fiction and non-fiction, the ethics of (memoir) writing, diverse ways of reading via Lydia Davis and whether to “glam up” or dress down when sitting down to write.
Acclaimed author Savala Nolan talks to Hannah Hutchings-Georgiou about her latest collection of essays, Don’t Let It Get You Down (The Indigo Press), navigating interstitial spaces and identities, the ubiquity of violence to women, imagination as a vital tool to access African American history and life writing as a form of cartography for readers.
Writer Emma Korantema Hanson talks with author and director Sheena Patel about her debut novel, I’m a Fan, her self-created genre of “faction”, her literary influences, re-writing Black and Brown characters, the need for new (not nostalgic!) stories, and the pressure of perfectionism.
Rym Kechacha talks to author and academic, Davina Quinlivan, about her new creative non fiction work, Shalimar, honouring the stories of her family, connecting with people through literature, writing auto-fiction, and the power of speaking from a place of otherness.
Writer and scholar Basudhara Roy talks to Indian feminist scholar, poet, critic and translator, Sanjukta Dasgupta, about balancing many intellectual pursuits, her various collections of poetry, interacting with and deconstructing poetic canons, the kitchen as laboratory and liberating Lakshmi from patriarchal control.
Two years after the first UK lockdown, writers Shamini Sriskandarajah and Elodie Barnes reflect on how the restrictions (and opportunities) of Covid-19 have altered and shaped their creative practices.
Kathryn Cutler-MacKenzie talks to Maltese author and performer Loranne Vella about her collection of short fiction, what will it take for me to leave, the influence of performance on her work, memory as a liberating and imprisoning force, European feminism and her upcoming novel, Marta Marta.
Georgia Poplett talks to author Elinor Cleghorn about her book Unwell Women, and explores the history, beliefs, and language surrounding the all-pervasive culture of medical misogyny in the West.