Tender Buttons
Activity Overview
Episode publication activity over the past year
Episodes
041 Garth Greenwell: Grammar of Touch
06 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we speak to acclaimed poet and novelist Garth Greenwell about his latest novel, Small Rain. We speak about chambers of mind and body ...
040 Ralf Webb: Queer Masculinities
05 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This is a special live episode, hosted at Storysmith to mark the launch of Strange Relations by Ralf Webb. We think about the contemporary crisis in ...
039 Jen Calleja: Vehicle
28 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we speak to author, translator and musician Jen Calleja about her inventive novel, Vehicle. We discuss what it means to write a verse...
038 Jason Okundaye: Living Archives
23 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we speak to writer Jason Okundaye about his recent book, Revolutionary Acts. We discuss archives as living, moving things, and non-li...
037 Helen Oyeyemi: The Surreal City
26 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we speak to novelist and short story writer Helen Oyeyemi about her most recent novel, Parasol Against the Axe. We discuss the use of...
036 Andrew McMillan: Literature is not Elsewhere
28 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we chat to Andrew McMillan about his novel, Pity. We discuss intersections of masculinity, sexuality and class and the way the body m...
035 Marianne Brooker: The Politics of Care
03 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we speak to writer Marianne Brooker about her book Intervals. We discuss the politics of care and the precarious economics of social,...
034 Sheila Heti: Alphabetical Diaries
28 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we speak to author Sheila Heti about her brilliant new book, Alphabetical Diaries, in which she alphabetizes her diaries over a ten-y...
033 Noreen Masud: Psychology of Landscape
17 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we speak to academic, author and broadcaster Noreen Masud about her memoir, A Flat Place. We discuss the psychological, literary and ...
032 Nathalie Olah: The Politics of Ugliness
26 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we speak to Nathalie Olah about her book Bad Taste: Or The Politics of Ugliness. We discuss notions of taste and the intersection wit...
031 Eliza Clark: Violence and Transgression
25 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we speak to novelist and short story writer Eliza Clark about her novel, Penance. We discuss violence and transgression within fictio...
030 Octavia Bright: Writing from Life
25 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this special live episode, we speak to writer and broadcaster Octavia Bright about her memoir, This Ragged Grace. We discuss the ways in which Octa...
029 Isabel Waidner: Liberating the Canon
31 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we chat to Isabel Waidner about their new novel, Corey Fah Does Social Mobility. We discuss the notion of 'liberating the canon&#...
028 Siân Norris: Bodies Under Siege
26 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we speak to investigative journalist Siân Norris about her new book, Bodies Under Siege. We discuss the rise of far-right ideology a...
027 Preti Taneja: On Radical Doubt and Radical Hope
30 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we speak to Preti Taneja about her brilliant book, Aftermath. We discuss the ways in which individual actions are mapped onto societa...
026 Bhanu Kapil: On Monsters and Cyborgs
28 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we have the privilege of speaking to the very brilliant Bhanu Kapil about the UK publication of her collection Incubation: a space fo...
025 Polly Barton: Porn: An Oral History
27 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this week's episode, we chat to writer and Japanese translator Polly Barton about her new book Porn: An Oral History. We discuss the necessity ...
024 Ellena Savage: Anti-Memoir
30 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we speak to author and essayist Ellena Savage. We discuss hierarchies of power within the arts and the precarity of writing for...
023 Nuar Alsadir: Living Hotter
27 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we speak to Nuar Alsadir about her essay, Animal Joy. We discuss the radical possibilities of laughter, the connections between writi...
022 Joelle Taylor: Social Surrealism
28 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we chat to author, performer and poet Joelle Taylor. We speak about the process of translating page to stage and the juxtaposition of...
021 Rebecca May Johnson: Pleasure as Power
31 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we chat to author and essayist Rebecca May Johnson about what it means to bring critical ideas into the everyday. We discuss the radi...
020 Travis Alabanza: Beyond the Gender Binary
26 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we chat to the award-winning writer, performer and theatre-maker Travis Alabanza about their non-fiction book on trans and non-binary...
019 Jessica Andrews: Milk Teeth Live Special @ Storysmith Books
26 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this special episode of Tender Buttons — the last of Season 2 — we share a live conversation between Jessica Andrews and Samantha Walton, recor...
018 Melissa Febos: Writing the Body
27 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we discuss what it means to write through the body with memoirist Melissa Febos. We speak about the power of articulation as a radica...
017 Moses McKenzie: On Morality, Religion and Finding Space
30 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we discuss morality, religion and how to find space between conflicting social codes. We discuss the relationship between possibility...
016 Yara Rodrigues Fowler: The Revolutionary Novel
25 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we chat to Yara Rodrigues Fowler about the possibilites of the revolutionary novel. We speak about the potential of art as a driving ...
015 Lola Olufemi: The Radical Power of Imagination
28 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we chat to Lola Olufemi about the radical potential of imagination. We speak about the relationship between theory and lived experien...
014 Max Porter: Hybrid Forms
28 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In our first episode of Season Two, we chat to the inimitable Max Porter about pushing the limits of language, the role of art in ritual and collectiv...
013 Samantha Walton: On Land Justice, Collective Wellbeing and Nature for Everyone
27 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this final episode of 2021 and our first season we chat to poet and academic Samantha Walton about democratising nature and landscape writing; gree...
012 Jo Hamya: Myths of Meritocracy
29 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we chat to author Jo Hamya about her brilliant novel, Three Rooms. We discuss her subversion of the bildungsroman narrative in order ...
011 Caleb Parkin: On Queer Ecologies
24 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we talk to Bristol City Poet Caleb Parkin about taxonomies, ecophrastic poems and the historical exclusion of LGBTQIA+ people from en...
010 Nikesh Shukla: Joy as an Act of Resistance
31 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In today's episode we chat to the brilliant Nikesh Shukla about his recent fatherhood memoir Brown Baby. We talk about how to navigate racism and sexi...
009 Jenn Ashworth: Presence, Absence and Finding the Right Form
26 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we chat to novelist, memoirist and academic Jenn Ashworth, about her new novel Ghosted (Sceptre: 2021), a brilliant, unconventional b...
008 Zakiya Mckenzie: Collective Memory, Decolonising the Archives and Wandering the Woods
28 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we chat to Bristol-based writer and researcher Zakiya Mckenzie about decolonising the archives, collective memory and the histories of...
007 Rebecca Tamás: Poetry as Magic, Witches and the Non-Human
24 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we chat to poet and essayist Rebecca Tamás about the figure of the witch, the power of language to manifest change in the world and ...
006 Ren Aldridge of Petrol Girls: Cut, Stitch, Make, Do
30 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we talk to Ren Aldridge, artist, writer and singer in feminist post-hardcore band Petrol Girls about the intersection of her art and p...
005 Kerri ní Dochartaigh: Thin Places
29 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we chat to writer Kerri ní Dochartaigh about her new book Thin Places (Canongate) and its powerful weaving of memoir, history, Irish ...
004 Joff Winterhart: The Poetry of the Mundane
22 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
004 In the first of our Bristol-based episodes, we speak to graphic novelist, musician, educator and all-round local legend Joff Winterhart abou...
003 Huw Lemmey: Flesh, Meat and Fighting the Guerrilla Culture War
01 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We chat to writer Huw Lemmey about queer desire, shame, a politics of bodily love and ways to fight the British culture war. Referen...
002 Catherine Madden: Slippery Desires
16 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Tender Buttons 002 We chat to Catherine Madden about form, sexuality and childhood. You can follow Catherine on twitter @CatherineEMIMad and her ...
001 Jessica Andrews: It Begins With Our Bodies
16 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Tender Buttons 001 We speak to co-host Jessica Andrews about her debut novel, Saltwater. References: Saltwater by Jessica Andrews (Sceptre: 2019)...