This Writing Life
Activity Overview
Episode publication activity over the past year
Episodes
Episode 50 - David Gates: Part 1
18 Apr 2016
Contributed by Lukas
David Gates is a novelist, musician, journalist and teacher. His debut, Jernigan (1991), was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and was shortlisted for ...
Episode 49 - Writing Life Trailer: David Gates on Donald Trump
14 Apr 2016
Contributed by Lukas
As a taster for our next guest, the fine American novelist David Gates, who talks about his classic debut, Jernigan, his new story collection, A Han...
Episode 48 - Harry Parker: Part 3
08 Apr 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Harry Parker begins the third and final part of his conversation with This Writing Life by considering the emotional effects of his tours in Iraq an...
Episode 47 - Harry Parker: Part 2
04 Apr 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The second part of our chat with Harry Parker about his debut novel Anatomy of a Soldier begins with a cheerful discussion of decay and destruction of...
Episode 46 - Harry Parker: Part 1
29 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Harry Parker is a painter and, thanks to his debut Anatomy of a Soldier, a novelist. Before he was either of those, he served in the British Army, fir...
Episode 45 - Harry Parker: Reading from Anatomy of a Soldier
24 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
As a trailer for our next This Writing Life subject, soldier-novelist Harry Parker reads from his debut, Anatomy of a Soldier. For further informa...
Episode 44 - David Mitchell and Michel Faber in conversation: Part 4
22 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In the fourth and final episode of our conversation with David Mitchell and Michel Faber, we kick off by talking author events and public readings wit...
Episode 43 - David Mitchell and Michel Faber in conversation: Part 3
17 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In the third, and penultimate, part of the David Mitchell and Michel Faber double-header, we start off by talking immortality and the status of fictio...
Episode 42 - David Mitchell and Michel Faber in conversation: Part 2
12 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In part two of my interview with Michel Faber and David Mitchell, we begin by talking big books and the attempt to say everything in fiction. ----mor...
Episode 41 - David Mitchell and Michel Faber in conversation: Part 1
25 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
I interviewed the novelists David Mitchell and Michel Faber for the Sunday Independent. Mitchell had not long since published The Bone Clocks, and Fab...
Episode 40 - David Mitchell and Michel Faber in conversation: Trailer
22 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
As a trailer for thisWriting Life Extra Special, Michel Faber and David Mitchell discuss their firstmeetings, before Faber pulls a mix-tape out of the...
Episode 39 - Tom Drury Live at Bookseller Crow: Part 3
08 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The final part of my conversation with Tom Drury at one of London's finest independent bookstores, Bookseller Crow. We start with the Q&A is included,...
Episode 38 - Tom Drury Live at Bookseller Crow: Part 2
02 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Part two of my live conversation with Tom Drury at Bookseller Crow in Crystal Palace.
Episode 37 - Tom Drury Live at Bookseller Crow: Part 1
20 Jan 2016
Contributed by Lukas
A special episode in which I talk to Tom Drury, my favourite author of 2015, and possibly 2016 too, live in front of a lovely audience at the lovely B...
Episode 36 - Kate Hamer: Part 2
06 Jan 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Part two of our interview with Kate Hamer begins with a discussion of Carmel, the 'Girl' in The Girl in the Red Coat. ----more----Having avoided the s...
Episode 35 - Kate Hamer: Reading from The Girl in the Red Coat
26 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
As a trailer for the second part of our interview with Kate Hamer, she reads a second excerpt from her Costa-nominated debut The Girl in the Red Coat....
Episode 34 - Kate Hamer - Girl in a Red Coat: Part 1
21 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
If Kate Hamer's debut novel The Girl in the Red Coat sounds familiar, in part because it joins a horde of books with the word 'Girl' in the title,----...
Episode 33 - Kate Hamer reads Chapter 1 of The Girl in the Red Coat
19 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
As a trailer for my two part interview with Kate Hamer, author of the Costa-nominated debut The Girl in the Red Coat, she reads from the opening chapt...
Episode 32 - Sloane Crosley: Part 2
07 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The second part of my conversation with Sloane Crosley about her debut novel The Clasp began with us discussing how books give bookish young people a ...
Episode 31 - Sloane Crosley: Part 1
04 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Sloane Crosley is a journalist, essayist and now, thanks to her bright and funny debut The Clasp, a novelist. ----more----Sloane took a break from he...
Episode 30 - Hanya Yanagihara: A Little Life - Part 3
15 Sep 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In the final part of my discussion with Hanya Yanagihara on her (now) Man Booker shortlisted novel A Little Life, we continue our discussion of male r...
Episode 29 - Hanya Yanagihara on Kids, Convention and the Queer Tradition
08 Sep 2015
Contributed by Lukas
As short taster for the final part of our conversation with Hanya Yanagihara about A Little Life, here is a short consideration of children, conventio...
Episode 28 - Hanya Yanagihara: A Little Life - Part 2
28 Aug 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In the second part of our lunch-time chat with Hanya Yanagihara for the amazing A Little Life, we began by discussing how her second book was a reacti...
Episode 27 - Hanya Yanagihara: A Little Life - Part 1
23 Aug 2015
Contributed by Lukas
For the second Writing Life Podcast conversation with Hanya Yanagihara, we moved from tea at a posh London hotel to lunch at a posh(ish) London restau...
Episode 26 - Anna Smaill: Part 2
19 Aug 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In part two of This Writing Life's podcast with Anna Smaill, we negotiate photographers, noises in RIBA and publicists to discuss her soon-to-be Man B...
Episode 25 - Anna Smaill Part 1
15 Aug 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Anna Smaill is a New Zealand poet, academic and now Man Booker longlisted novelist. ----more----Her striking debut The Chimes has something of all par...
Episode 24 - Hanya Yanagihara: The People in Trees - Part 3
11 Aug 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In the final part of my Yanagihara trilogy from 2014, we continue to discuss her astonishing, unnerving debut The People in the Trees. ----more----Yan...
Episode 23 - Hanya Yanagihara: The People in Trees - Part 2
06 Aug 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In the second part of my nicely noisy conversation with Hanya Yanagihara about her debut novel The People in the Trees, we began by discussing ----mo...
Episode 22- Hanya Yanagihara: The People in Trees - Part 1
05 Aug 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Hawaiian-born Hanya Yanagihara has been feted across the world, and longlisted for 2015's Man Booker Prize, for her amazing A Little Life. A Writing L...
Episode 21 - Hanya Yanagihara 2014 on Book Groups
05 Aug 2015
Contributed by Lukas
A short taster for my first interview with Hanya Yanagihara from 2014 about her extraordinary debut novel, The People in Trees. A Writing Life podca...
Episode 20 - Tom Drury Part 3
05 Aug 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In the third part of my conversation with Tom Drury, we rewind to his days studying creative writing with Robert Coover, 'a great teacher'. ----more-...
Episode 19 - Tom Drury on the Internet
01 Aug 2015
Contributed by Lukas
A small taster for part three of my chat with Tom Drury. We talk MP3s, social networking, email, and The New Luddites from the third Grouse County ...
Episode 18 - Tom Drury Part 2
01 Aug 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In the second part of my interview with Tom Drury, one of America's finest living novelists, we begin by discussing the railroad and its part in linki...
Episode 17 - Tom Drury on Light
27 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In this stopgap between podcasts, Tom Drury discusses the use of light in his debut novel, The End of Vandalism. 'I love that there would be some i...
Episode 16 - Tom Drury Part 1
17 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Tom Drury is the author of six astounding novels. Three - his masterpiece The End of Vandalism, Hunts in Dreams and Pacific - are set in the same fic...
Episode 15 - Tom Drury on Music and Memory
15 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In the next episode of This Writing Life, James Kidd talks to the extraordinary American novelist Tom Drury, author of The End of Vandalism, Hunts in ...
Episode 14 - Amit Chaudhuri Part 2
13 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The second part of my chat with Amit Chaudhuri began with a discussion of his literary inheritance - that combined Philip Larkin with Tagore. ----...
Episode 13 - Amit Chaudhuri Part 1
03 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Amit Chaudhuri is a novelist, academic and musician whose books include A New World, The Immortals and most recently Odysseus Abroad. ----more----H...
Episode 12 - Brian Turner Part 4
03 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In the final part of my epic conversation with the American soldier-poet Brian Turner, our attention turned to the question: does writing help confron...
Episode 11 - Brian Turner reads Ferris Wheel
30 May 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Brian Turner reads his poem Ferris Wheel, from the collection Here, Bullet.
Episode 10 - Brian Turner Part 3
30 May 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In part three of my epic conversation with Brian Turner, we begin by discussing how the Soldier Poet bears witness, ----more----and how ideas of co...
Episode 09 - Brian Turner reads from My Life as a Foreign Country
16 Apr 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Brian Turner reads and discusses a passage from his memoir, My Life as a Foreign Country. Tim Adams' review in the Observer is: here. Brian Turne...
Episode 08 - Brian Turner Part 2
16 Apr 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In the second part of my lengthy conversation with the poet Brian Turner we begin by discussing language - in particular pejorative terms like 'Haji'....
Episode 07 - Brian Turner Part 1
02 Apr 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Brian Turner has become world famous for his war poetry, which was largely inspired by a year-long tour of Iraq with the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat T...
Episode 06 - Brian Turner reads Here, Bullet
02 Mar 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Brian Turner, the next guest on This Writing Life, reads the title poem from his first collection, Here Bullet. As a soldier in the US army, Turner s...
Episode 05 - Tomas Gonzalez: Part 2
19 Feb 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In part two of my conversation with Tomas Gonzalez in an echoey London hotel, we continued to discuss his dark, autobiographical debut novel In the Be...
Episode 04 - Tomas Gonzalez: Part 1
15 Jan 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The Colombian novelist Tomas Gonzalez has been writing for three decades, but has only been read this year by an English-speaking audience after his d...
Episode 03 - Karen Joy Fowler: Part Two
18 Dec 2014
Contributed by Lukas
In the second half of my conversation with Karen Joy Fowler, we shift seamlessly (sort of) from Star Wars to ponder: ----more----self, other, d...
Episode 02 - Karen Joy Fowler Reads from We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
07 Dec 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Karen Joy Fowler reads from We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves.
Episode 01 - Karen Joy Fowler: Part One
28 Nov 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Karen Joy Fowler's We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves is one of 2014's most memorable and lauded novels. Having received rave reviews across the w...