John Wilson

And it was there that you met your next choice for this cultural life, your wife, Paula.

And you said in the notes that you sent us that she gave you life changing advice about...

your first and catastrophic novel, which was called La Boda de Eduardo, and how this shot you into a new way of writing that you still use today.

So, first of all, what was that novel that you were writing?

You are now a teacher at Syracuse yourself, and you've been there, I think, since 1997.

One of your courses that you teach is on the Russian short story.

Particularly the work of Chekhov and Tolstoy, Turgenev, Gogol.

And that is the subject of that book that I mentioned before, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain.

What have you learned from those writers in particular and those stories that they were writing?

You've built your reputation as a short story writer, but now having written your second novel, are you happier in the long form or will the short stories keep pulling you back, do you think?

Great fiction, great literature has played such a pivotal role in the history of American democracy.

What place does literary fiction have now in an increasingly divided America?

Do you ever sit down starting a new book with an agenda or is it far more organic and spontaneous?

How does it start?

Are you just waiting for inspiration to strike?

What is the daily writing process?

Well, I do hope you enjoyed that conversation with George Saunders, who's just one of many Booker Prize winning authors who have been on This Cultural Life, including Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood, Marlon James, Julian Barnes and Penelope Lively, to name just a few.

You can hear them and every other guest from the previous series on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts internationally.

And please do subscribe to the series so that you never miss an episode.

From producer Edwina Pittman and me, John Wilson, thank you very much indeed for listening to This Cultural Life.