Igbo and Tamil writer and artist Akwaeke Emezi's mesmerising first novel Freshwater was published to universal acclaim in 2018, and was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction. Their second book was Pet, a novel for young adults that raised difficult and pertinent questions about cultures of denial, and was described as ‘beautiful and genre-expanding’ i ... Show More
Aug 24
Erin Maglaque & Hannah Dawson: Presence
Erin Maglaque’s first book, Presence, explores the hidden history of the female body through deep archival research: fragments in medical texts, trial transcripts, legal treatises, prayerbooks, letters, and diaries come together to make tangible a vanished past, unfamiliar becaus ... Show More
55m 36s
Aug 19
Eli Davies & Rebecca May Johnson: The Spinster Cookbook
The kitchen has always been a complex space for women: a place of labour and gendered expectations, as well as a site of nourishment, care and company. But how does this change when you’re alone, not cooking for family or friends, but simply for yourself? In The Spinster Cookbook ... Show More
53m 31s
Aug 17
Rachel Long & Sarah Howe: Sparrow on the Rooftop
Rachel Long’s debut collection, My Darling from the Lions (Picador), was nominated for the Forward Prize, the Costa, and the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. Sparrow on the Rooftop (Chatto & Windus) is the eagerly-awaited follow-up: Saba Sams has described it as ‘grue ... Show More
49m 49s
Feb 2023
You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi
<p>Ellen and Mom discuss exceptional food, emotional complications, and encountering grief in You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi. Plus, kitchen shenanigans and having to put up with Ellen's moaning. <br/><br/>Come hang out with us! <br/>Twitter/Inst ... Show More
1h 4m
Jun 2021
Ben Okri Reads Franz Kafka
Ben Okri joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “The Rescue Will Begin in Its Own Time,” four short fiction pieces by Franz Kafka, translated from the German by Michael Hofmann, which were published in The New Yorker in June of 2020. Okri is the author of two dozen books of f ... Show More
48m 33s
Jan 2024
Kaveh Akbar Finds Meaning in Martyrdom
Kaveh Akbar weighs every word that he writes. An accomplished and published poet, any reader can tell that he understands the undeniable power of language with his first novel, called Martyr! Engaging, funny, fascinating and downright beautiful, Martyr! grabs your attention by th ... Show More
38m 17s
Aug 2023
BONUS: Making Space for the Erotic with Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s poems are filled with butchery and blood as she carves space for desire, motherhood, and an encyclopedic knowledge of plants to coexist in life and on the page. We are excited to offer this conversation between Pádraig and Aimee, recorded during the 2022 D ... Show More
1 h
Jun 2019
Ocean Vuong: Live at Politics and Prose
Like the stunning poems of his collection, Night Sky with Exit Wounds, Vuong’s kaleidoscopic first novel speaks from the heart of multi-generational PTSD, charting the fate of a Vietnamese-American family struggling to settle into life in Hartford, Connecticut. Vuong frames his n ... Show More
59m 31s
Aug 2023
Best of Design Matters: Candice Carty-Williams
Author of the bestselling book “Queenie”—Candice Carty-Williams joins a very special guest host, Roxane Gay, to talk about her latest novel “People Person” which follows the Pennington family, a cadre of five half-siblings forced together in the wake of a dramatic event. Hosted o ... Show More
45m 28s
Apr 2021
Weike Wang Reads Lara Vapnyar
Weike Wang joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “Katania,” by Lara Vapnyar, which appeared in a 2013 issue of the magazine. Wang's first novel, “Chemistry,” won the PEN/Hemingway Award in 2018. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
1h 2m
