‘For me, beauty and disgust don’t really exist in binary.’ AK Blakemore’s discovery of tales of The Great Tarare, a French showman with an insatiable appetite, was the perfect setting for her to explore her love of the grotesque and abject. Shortlisted for this year’s Dylan Thomas Prize, her novel ‘The Glutton’ explores the almost folkloric life of the soldi ... Show More
Nov 2023
A Word in Your Ear – The Half-Blood
Texas-based Bulgarian writer Miroslav Penkov wasn’t sure if anyone would pay attention to his first English-language novel, Stork Mountain. However, when the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative paired him with The English Patient author Michael Ondaatje, it gave him the boos ... Show More
24m 12s
Nov 2023
A Word in Your Ear – Disquiet
Winner of Pulitzer and Nobel prizes, the late Toni Morrison was one of the all-time great American novelists. For the inaugural Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, she was paired with Australian writer Julia Leigh, who was busy writing her second novel, Disquiet. Hear Kerry ... Show More
19m 11s
Feb 2024
Episode 4: THE PASSAGE OF OCTAVIA BUTLER
In this visionary and introspective episode of The Passage, the Ferryman, voiced by Dan Fogler (Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, The Walking Dead), welcomes a soul whose pen crafted worlds and whose imagination reshaped the boundaries of science fiction. Octavia Butler vo ... Show More
23m 55s
Feb 2021
Alice Waters: My life in five dishes
Alice Waters is one of America’s most influential chefs and food writers. In the 1970s she led a food revolution that sparked a movement towards local, sustainable, organic food. Alice tells Emily Thomas about her life, from a suburban childhood in New Jersey to the radical polit ... Show More
34m 6s
Mar 2024
Episode 8: PEG ENTWISTLE'S FINAL ACT
Hollywood, California, 1932. In this poignant and introspective episode of The Passage, the Ferryman, voiced by the compelling Dan Fogler (Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, The Walking Dead), encounters a soul whose tragic end is as iconic as the Hollywood sign she leapt f ... Show More
33m 49s
Oct 2021
Bonus: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow | 2
Heather Ordover narrates legendary American author Washington Irving’s enduring classic, “Sleepy Hollow,” originally published in 1820 in Irving’s collection, The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. The tale, among the earliest examples of American fiction with enduring popular ... Show More
22m 19s
Nov 2022
Two poetry collections find beauty in unexpected places
Poet Franny Choi knows that marginalized communities have been facing apocalypses forever. But in her new book, The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On, she uses their survival as a way to look forward. In this episode, she tells NPR's Leila Fadel how understanding that pai ... Show More
20m 21s