Literary Friction

Year in Review 2025 (and mother of all catch-ups)

08 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

So it turns out, we missed talking to each other about books, and we missed you! And thanks to some vital sponsorship from our friends at Faber Books,...

Literary Friction - Year (and Decade) in Review 2023

19 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It's time for our usual Year in Review show, but seeing as this is also our last EVER episode (sob!), we're shaking things up a little to bring you a ...

Literary Friction - A Life of One's Own with Xialou Guo

30 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What does it mean, to pursue a life of your own? And what is art and literature's role in figuring out what that might look like? This month we're del...

Minisode Forty-Five: Friendship

16 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Our theme this month was suggested by our patron Maral, who asked us to do an episode about our friendship, because she’s interested in how our (ver...

Literary Friction - Desire with K Patrick

02 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How do the people and things we desire shape our identities? And how do you render the physical intensity of desire on the page? Author K Patrick join...

Minisode Forty-four: Parenthood

19 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Last year we made a minisode about mothers, and one about fathers, both of which began an ongoing conversation about parenthood and literature that we...

Literary Friction - Doppelgangers with Naomi Klein

05 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What is it about doppelgangers that's so endlessly compelling? Who better to answer this question than the one and only Naomi Klein, who joined us to ...

Minisode Forty-Three: Sad Girl Novels

21 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Our theme this month was suggested by our patron Mary, who asked us to talk about so-called 'sad girl novels', and it turns out we have some strong op...

Literary Friction - Short Stories with Arinze Ifeakandu

07 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What makes a brilliant short story? Are they better read as part of a collection or as a sharp shot on their own? How do you render fully formed chara...

RE-RUN: Author Special with Ocean Vuong

10 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We first aired this episode back in July 2019, and it was recorded in the studio when Ocean was on the international tour for his novel On Earth We’...

Minisode Forty-Two: Artificial Intelligence

31 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Are you a techno-optimist or a techno-pessimist? Or even a total Luddite? Does Chat GPT excite you or completely freak you out? Our theme this month w...

Literary Friction - Dark Comedy with Lorrie Moore

20 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Dark humour - do you love it or hate it? Do you find it cathartic or macho? Can humour ever be too dark, and is it a useful political tool? This month...

RE-RUN - Minisode Three: Red Flags

29 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Octavia has been away on her book tour, so today we’re bringing you a re-run of one of our earliest minisodes from April 2019. It was a fun one, ins...

Literary Friction - Romantic Comedy with Curtis Sittenfeld

15 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From Pride and Prejudice to Detransition, Baby, the romcom can be an enduring source of great pleasure, fun and comfort. This month we’re thrilled t...

Minisode Forty: Author Special with Octavia Bright

01 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today’s show is an author special, and in the hot seat is our very own Octavia Bright. You probably know by now that Octavia’s first book This Rag...

Literary Friction - Writing about Writers with Tan Twan Eng

18 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Do you like reading about writers? What does good writing about the act of writing do? And what happens when you write a real writer into a novel? Our...

Minisode Thirty-nine: Cities

04 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How do you feel about cities? Do you love the thrust and thrum of them, or are you more interested in escaping it? Do you like to read urban historie...

Literary Friction - Feminism with Sara Ahmed

26 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What's the relationship between feminist writing and feminist activism? What does it mean to be a feminist killjoy, and what can we learn from her? Th...

Minisode Thirty-Eight: Book covers

06 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today our theme is… kinda judgy! Everyone says you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but we all know everyone does. So, this month we thought w...

Literary Friction - Dancing Time with Jacqueline Crooks

23 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Dancing can be about escape, about pleasure, but it can also be about protest. It can be a powerful means of expression, but how does writing capture ...

Minisode Thirty-Seven: Etiquette

09 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Our theme this month was inspired by a recent story in New York magazine about, as they described it, “How to text, tip, ghost, host, and generally ...

Literary Friction - Journalism with Tania Branigan

23 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When journalists write books, how do they balance the potentially tricky relationship between weaving a compelling narrative and sticking to the facts...

Minisode Thirty-six: Money

09 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Money makes the world go round: it's an inescapable presence in our lives, and yet in a lot of cultures it's still a pretty big conversational taboo. ...

Literary Friction - The Lives of Others with Kathryn Scanlan

26 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Portraits of real people abound in books. There are novels that use transcribed conversations, like Sheila Heti’s How Should A Person Be, or fiction...

Minisode Thirty-Five: Food and Feasting

05 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Our January theme is heavily influenced by this time of year. Because the winter months are full of different feast days and celebrations, and because...

Literary Friction - RE-RUN: Abstract Romanticism with Chris Kraus

29 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We're on our end of year break, but didn't want to leave you without some LF to keep you company while you cook up your leftovers and potter around in...

Literary Friction - Year in Review 2022

15 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Somehow it's already our last Literary Friction of 2022, which means as usual it's time for our year in review show, packed full of recommendations ju...

Literary Friction - Deception with Yiyun Li

11 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When it comes to fiction, why are people so obsessed with authenticity and so appalled by literary deception? Does it matter who tells a story? And wh...

Literary Friction - Graphic Novels with Lizzy Stewart

20 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this show we're getting to grips with graphic novels. What's the history of this kind of storytelling? What narrative possibilities does the form o...

Literary Friction - Playing Games with Gabrielle Zevin

06 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This month we’re delighted to welcome Gabrielle Zevin to Literary Friction. Gabrielle’s latest novel Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is an en...

Rediscovery with Jamaica Kincaid and Stu Wilson (Picador Sponsored Episode)

22 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For this minisode we’re doing something a little different - this episode is sponsored by publisher Picador, who this year have launched a new list ...

Minisode Thirty-Three: Correspondence

08 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It's autumn in the UK and we're full of that back to school feeling - fresh pencils, new pens and notebooks - so what better time for a minisode about...

Literary Friction - RE-RUN: a Spoonful of Sugar with Leïla Slimani

12 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We're on our summer break, which means we can re-run this excellent conversation we had with the French-Moroccan author Leïla Slimani in 2018. Leïla...

Fandom with Sheena Patel

23 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When does fandom tip over into unhealthy obsession? What are the power dynamics of being someone's fan, and how do they get exploited? This month auth...

Minisode Thirty-Two: A Short History of Literary Friction (Patreon Sneak Peek)

30 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For this month's minisode, we thought we'd give our listeners a preview of some of the bonus minisodes that we're creating for our patreon subscribers...

Literary Friction Special - Elif Batuman

24 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This month we're bringing you an author special with Elif Batuman, who joined Carrie in cyberspace to talk about her hilarious and original second nov...

Minisode Thirty-One: Parties

02 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Spring is finally really happening here in the UK: the roses are out, we’ve swapped our coats for jackets, we even had dinner together outside the o...

Minisode Thirty: Libraries

05 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This minisode is a sister to our last one about bookshops - this month, we're talking about libraries. We love libraries! Those other places where you...

The Instant with Amy Liptrot

30 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Whether it’s a single action that reverberates around a community, or the rupture of a break-up, literature is filled with memorable instants after ...

Minisode Twenty-Nine: Bookshops

07 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The theme for this minisode was suggested by our patron Maria and it's a subject very close to our hearts: bookshops. We love bookshops - those magica...

Satire with Pola Oloixarac

24 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We love a good satire here at LF, so we're thrilled this month to bring you a show dedicated to the form. Argentine writer and novelist Pola Oloixarac...

Minisode Twenty-Eight: Fathers

16 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Our last minisode was about mothers, so in the name of equity (and riffing on Octavia’s statement that she’d rather be a dad) we’re extending th...

East Side Voices with Helena Lee and Will Harris

24 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This month's show is about East and Southeast Asian identity in Britain. We spoke to journalist Helena Lee about East Side Voices, the anthology of w...

Minisode Twenty-Seven: Mothers

10 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In honour of the fact that a lot of our friends are suddenly becoming parents, this minisode is dedicated to mothers in literature. The figure of the ...

Literary Friction - Year in Review 2021

17 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

It’s our last Literary Friction of 2021, so as usual it's time for our year in review show, packed full of recommendations just in time for your hol...

Literary Friction - Books About Books with Ruth Ozeki

02 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Regular listeners will know that we love to get a little meta here on LF, and this month author Ruth Ozeki gave us the perfect excuse to indulge ourse...

Minisode Twenty-six: Twilight Knowing

18 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In the wake of the COP26 summit in Glasgow we are thinking a lot about climate crisis and the role literature can play in galvanising people to take a...

Literary Friction - Climbing the Ladder with Natasha Brown

04 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Social hierarchies and the metrics of status and success are a part of life accepted by some and rejected by others, but whatever your position, they ...

Minisode Twenty-Five: The Campus Novel

21 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This minisode we are leaning even further into our autumnal and back to school-ish vibe to talk about The Campus Novel, a genre that includes some bel...

Literary Friction - Constraint with Maggie Nelson

07 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Can you have freedom without constraint? What role does it play in creativity, and can it be productive as well as limiting? This month our guest is t...

Minisode Twenty-Four: Back to School

30 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

School is a loooong way in our past, but the imprint of that new start in September cycle runs deep, so in this minisode we are leaning into that back...

Literary Friction - Writing For Change With Shon Faye

09 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

It's September, the leaves are starting to turn, and we're kicking off our Autumn season with a vital conversation about the power of writing for chan...

Literary Friction - RE-RUN: Memoir with Viv Albertine

12 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

We're on our summer break, which gives us a chance to re-run this brilliant conversation we had with punk superstar Viv Albertine when she dropped by ...

Minisode Twenty-Three: The Sea, the Sea!

30 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

It’s hot here, the sky is blue, the air smells sweet, and we are about to take our summer break, so we wanted this last minisode of the season to be...

Literary Friction - Grandparents with Anuk Arudpragasam

15 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Many of us have significant relationships with our grandparents, but is this reflected in literature? From Grandpa Joe in Charlie and the Chocolate Fa...

Minisode Twenty-Two: Pets

01 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Inspired by Deborah Levy's recommendation of The Friend by Sigrid Nunez - about the surprising friendship between a woman and a Great Dane named Apoll...

Literary Friction - Real Estate with Deborah Levy

17 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This month, our guest is the inimitable author Deborah Levy, whose latest book, Real Estate, is the third instalment in her acclaimed living autobiogr...

Minisode Twenty-One: Book Criticism

04 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Book criticism - it’s a divisive topic, and one people feel very strongly about. Do you secretly relish a hatchet job, or think there's only space f...

Literary Friction - Hard Crowds with Rachel Kushner

20 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Our guest this month is the novelist Rachel Kushner, who we have been huge fans of ever since we read her novel The Flamethrowers. Rachel’s latest b...

Minisode Twenty: Books as Objects

05 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Some people treat books like they are sacred objects, others scribble all over them (or even cut them in half). Of course, books are objects, but they...

Literary Friction - Magical Realism with Leone Ross

22 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Everyone needs a little magic from time to time, and this episode is brimming with it. We spoke to Leone Ross about her sensuous, absorbing new novel,...

Literary Friction - Vulnerability with Katherine Angel

25 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This month, as spring begins to spring, we're thinking about vulnerability, about the perils and pleasures of opening up. Joining us is author and aca...

Literary Friction - Inside Publishing with Hannah Westland from Serpent's Tail (Sponsored Episode)

09 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For Minisode Nineteen we’re doing something a little different - this episode is sponsored by publisher Serpent’s Tail, who are celebrating their ...

Literary Friction - Adaptation with Niven Govinden

25 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Building on our show in 2017 with Dana Spiotta that looked at books about film, this month we want to explore what happens when books turn into films....

Literary Friction - Minisode Eighteen: Winter Reads

10 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Minisode Eighteen is dedicated to winter reads. Summer reading seems to get all the attention, but as we hunker down into our second month of winter l...

Literary Friction Special - Raven Leilani

28 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For our first show of 2021, we bring you this author special with Raven Leilani, who joined Carrie in cyberspace to talk about her smash hit debut nov...

Literary Friction - Year in Review 2020

09 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

It’s our last Literary Friction of 2020, and as usual it's time for our year in review show, packed full of recommendations just in time for your ho...

Literary Friction - The Political Essay with Otegha Uwagba

24 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Does the written word really have the power to change things? How do you make a good argument in writing? Does the form of the essay lend itself parti...

Minisode Seventeen: Optimism

17 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

What with the news of a viable Covid vaccine in the works and a Biden Harris administration on the horizon, you may be having an unusual feeling, one ...

Literary Friction - Complicated Love with Mary Gaitskill

06 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

What does it mean to love too much, or in a way that society doesn’t see as appropriate? Is loving an inherently complicated experience? Helping us ...

Literary Friction - Sisters with Daisy Johnson

21 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

What is it about sisters? Loving, competitive, sometimes incredibly sinister... this month, we're thinking about sisterhood, and all those memorable s...

Minisode Sixteen: Audiobooks

16 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Before we were hit with this recent heatwave, there was starting to be a chill in the air, and soon it will be the perfect climate for taking brisk wa...

Literary Friction - The Joy of Words with Eley Williams

03 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Why is there so much delight in discovering a juicy new word? Do you ever read the dictionary for fun? Is it annoying when people use obscure words to...

Literary Friction - RE-RUN: Masculinity with Thomas Page McBee

05 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

We're still on our summer break, so we wanted to use this chance to bring you a re-run of one of our favourite shows from our archive. In 2018, we spo...

Minisode Fifteen: Joy

30 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Don't know about you, but we've really felt the need for a little more joy around here lately. We miss it, and as the world continues to turn upside d...

Literary Friction - Luxury With Shola Von Reinhold

07 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

What does it mean to write luxuriously? How can books be rich and generous? This month we’re talking about luxury in literature - and no, we don’t...

Literary Friction - Behind Closed Doors With Carmen Maria Machado

25 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This month, we're going behind closed doors with Carmen Maria Machado, who dialled in from the States to talk to us. Her innovative memoir, In The Dre...

Literary Friction - RE-RUN: Race with Reni Eddo-Lodge and Kishani Widyaratna

09 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

We're in the midst of an international protest movement, sparked by the murder of George Floyd by a member of the Minneapolis police. As a result, it ...

Minisode Fourteen: More Intimacy

26 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

We're still stuck on the theme of intimacy, because we haven't been able to stop thinking about it. The demands of this crisis are forcing us to rethi...

Literary Friction - Intimacy With Garth Greenwell

12 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Like a lot of people, lockdown has made us think about intimacy. As separation from our loved ones drags on, we're all having to find different ways t...

Minisode Thirteen: Inside Our Minds

28 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In the absence of an outside world, and because we are missing our loved ones, our friends, our acquaintances, even strangers on trains, for Minisode ...

Literary Friction - Obligatory Note Of Hope With Jenny Offill

14 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

How do you hold onto hope in the dark? This question feels more pertinent than ever right now, and we couldn't think of anyone we'd rather ask than au...

Minisode Twelve: Escapism In Quarantine

28 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

How are you finding reading at the moment? Are you struggling to drag your eyes away from Twitter or endlessly scrolling news sites? What does escapis...

Literary Friction - Social Media with Kiley Reid

17 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Has anyone written a great social media novel yet? Is Twitter destroying our ability to read novels in the first place? How worried should we be about...

Literary Friction - Minisode Eleven: We Heart EU...ropean Literature

04 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

However you feel about Brexit, there’s no denying that it’s going to change the relationship that people in the UK have with the European Union an...

Literary Friction - On the Run with Eimear McBride

18 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This month on Literary Friction we’re going on the run. Or, more accurately, we’ll be sitting still in the studio talking about literature that fe...

Minisode Ten: TS Eliot The Love Rat, And Other Tales

04 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

For the first minisode of 2020, we're wading into the gossipy world of TS Eliot's love life: this year marks the publication of his romantic letters t...

Literary Friction - New Beginnings With An Yu

21 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Our first show of the year (and decade) is all about New Beginnings: from Virginia Woolf's novels to memoirs like Amy Liptrot’s The Outrun, we’ll ...

Literary Friction - In Therapy With Ben Lerner

19 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

For our last show of the year, we’re going into therapy - or, more accurately, we’ll be talking about therapy’s intersection with literature. Do...

Minisode Nine: Year In Review

11 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It’s our last minisode of 2019, so we're looking back over some of our favourite reads of the year, some of our resolutions for 2020, plus the usual...

Literary Friction - Returning with Elizabeth Strout

26 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

From William Faulkner to John Updike, and Hilary Mantel to Margaret Atwood, why do authors return to the same characters and places again and again? W...

Literary Friction - Minisode Eight: Set Reading, Good Or Bad?

12 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

For Minisode Eight we were inspired by a question podcaster Isaac Butler asked on Twitter, which was: What’s a Great Book that you read because it w...

Literary Friction - Live at Cheltenham Festival

30 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This show is a little different from usual as we’re coming to you from the Cheltenham Literature Festival, where we were this year’s podcast in re...

Literary Friction - City of Voices with Zadie Smith

07 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This month's show is called City of Voices in honour of our very esteemed guest, author Zadie Smith. We met Zadie for a live event in Sheffield to tal...

Literary Friction - Vanity with Deborah Levy

25 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Do you consider yourself a vain person? Because this month is all about vanity in literature, dedicated to those characters who are just a little bit ...

Minisode Seven: Jia Tolentino and Emilie Pine

17 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Hello! We're back! We missed you! Welcome to Minisode Seven, in which we make an excited return to the studio and catch up on what we got up to over o...

RERUN Literary Friction - Down the Rabbit Hole with Kevin Barry

07 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

We're still on our summer break, but we didn't want to leave you totally bereft of literary friction, here's a little something from the archive. In S...

Literary Friction Special - Ocean Vuong

10 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

For our last show before we take our summer break, we bring you this author special with poet and novelist Ocean Vuong, who was over from the States t...

Minisode Six: The Joys and Perils of Re-reading

26 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Are you a re-reader? Do you have any comfort books that you return to over and over? Have you ever recommended a book and then realised you can’t re...

Literary Friction - Pain with Sinéad Gleeson

11 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

From Virginia Woolf to Susan Sontag, writers have grappled with how difficult it is to both describe and understand the pain of others. This month we’...