Unsound Methods

In this episode we're joined by Johanna Hedva, a Korean American writer, artist, and musician who was raised in Los Angeles by a family of witches, and now lives in LA and Berlin. Johanna is the author of the essay ‘Sick Woman Theory', originally published in 2016, which has now been translated into ten languages. Hedva is also the author of the novel On Hell, which was one of Dennis Cooper's favourite books of 2018, and the nonfiction collection Minerva the Miscarriage of the Brain. 'Your Love is Not Good' is out now, available from And Other Stories: https://www.andotherstories.org/your-love-is-not-good/ Johanna's website: https://johannahedva.com/ Johanna's Nine Inch Nails piece in the White Review is here: https://www.thewhitereview.org/feature/theyre-really-close-to-my-body/ Johanna's latest record: https://bighedva.bandcamp.com/album/black-moon-lilith-in-pisces-in-the-4th-house  A new piece called "scream demo": https://www.amant.org/publications/10-scream-demo "Why it's taking so long" (essay): https://topicalcream.org/features/why-its-taking-so-long/ "Sick Woman Theory" (essay): https://topicalcream.org/features/sick-woman-theory/ Author photos credit: Ian Byers-Gamber Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloom Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan Or at jaimiebatchan.com and lochlanbloom.com We have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethods Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/

For episode 57 we caught up with the Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, author of 8 novels, 3 collections of short stories, numerous plays and pieces of non-fiction and 5 memoirs. An indefatigable defender and promoter of African literature and language, Ngũgĩ's writing spans from the early 1960s onwards. He talked to us about his journey to becoming a writer, from having friends who proved he didn't need to wait for permission, then being a central figure in the emergence of African writing's recognition across the world, being imprisoned for writing a play in his native Kikuyu language, to then receiving a medical diagnosis that meant he had a very short amount of time to write his ‘final' book. It's quite a ride. Technical note: Due to some kind of infrastructural fault at his home, Ngũgĩ spoke to us from a hotel room and we had to record via MS Teams, so the audio is not quite up to our usual standards. There's also something odd with the audio at the very beginning, apologies!   Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloom Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan Or at jaimiebatchan.com and lochlanbloom.com   We have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethods Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/

For episode 56 we're joined by Daisy Hildyard, the author of two novels – Emergency (2022) and Hunters in the Snow (2013) – and one work of nonfiction, The Second Body (2017). Daisy's first novel, Hunters in the Snow, received the Somerset Maugham Award and a ‘5 under 35' honorarium at the USA National Book Awards. Her essay The Second Body, a brilliantly lucid account of the dissolving boundaries between all life on earth, was published by Fitzcarraldo Editions in 2017. She lives with her family in North Yorkshire, where she was born. Emergency was published last year by Fitzcarraldo Editions: https://fitzcarraldoeditions.com/books/emergency This episode took us on a ride through shutting out the world during your writing time, having a spouse as your first reader, how notes come together, and the different nudges that fiction and non-fiction give you as a writer. Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloom Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan Or at jaimiebatchan.com and lochlanbloom.com We have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethods Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/

This month marks the fifth anniversary of Unsound Methods - thank you to everyone who's joined us along the way, and hello to any new arrivals... In this episode we speak to Ewan Fernie and Simon Palfrey about the writing of their collaboratively composed novel 'Macbeth, Macbeth' (available from Boiler House Press, here: https://www.boilerhouse.press/product-page/macbeth-macbeth-by-ewan-fernie-simon-palfrey)  'Macbeth, Macbeth' is described by its authors as a critical fiction. A sequel, critique, and repetition of Shakespeare's play. Slavoj Žižek has described it as: ‘a miracle, an instant classic… as close as one can come to a quantum physics literary criticism'. A video trailer for the book is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ru-seZCr3Ho Ewan Fernie is Director of the 2-million-pound lottery-funded ‘Everything to Everybody' Project (everythingtoeverybody.bham.ac.uk), which is reviving the world's first great Shakespeare library and Birmingham's broader reputation as a pioneering modern city. It was a major influence on the Cultural Programme and the Opening Ceremony of the 2022 Commonwealth Games. His day-job is as Chair, Professor and Fellow at the Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-upon-Avon and Culture Lead for the College of Arts and Law, University of Birmingham. Ewan's books include: Shame in Shakespeare, The Demonic: Literature and Experience, Shakespeare for Freedom, Spiritual Shakespeares, Redcrosse: Remaking Religious Poetry for Today's World, Thomas Mann and Shakespeare: Something Rich and Strange, and New Places: Shakespeare and Civic Creativity. For many years, he co-edited the groundbreaking ‘Shakespeare Now!' series with Simon Palfrey. In 2018, he hosted Radical Mischief: Inviting Experiment in Theatre, Thought and Politics with the Royal Shakespeare Company's Deputy Director, Erica Whyman at The Other Place. He is now leading a new project, Serious About Comedy, with Sean Foley, Artistic Director of Birmingham REP, as well as an ambitious cross-cultural initiative with the Birmingham-based artist and curator, Mohammed Ali of Soul City Arts.  He is writing a book about the Scottish writer and philosopher, Thomas Carlyle, provisionally entitled The Dirty History of Hope. Simon Palfrey is Professor of English at Brasenose College Oxford University. His recent work explores the unique kinds of life generated by dramatic, poetic, and fictional forms, and the opportunities this opens up for more imaginative, philosophically adventurous, and politically engaged critical work. His books include Doing Shakespeare (Arden, 2004; 2nd ed. 2011), a TLS International Book of the Year; Shakespeare in Parts (Oxford, 2007, with Tiffany Stern), the MRDS Book of the Year; Poor Tom: living King Lear (Chicago, 2014); Shakespeare's Possible Worlds (Cambridge, 2014) Simon's current projects are inspired by Spenser's Faerie Queene, including a new bestiary, A Poem Come True, and the twice AHRC-award winning Demons Land, a mixed media event (film, drama, dance, paintings, sculptures, soundscapes, text) that imagines an island built in the image of Spenser's epic poem (demonsland.com). Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloom Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan Or at jaimiebatchan.com and lochlanbloom.com We have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethods Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/

In a slight shift from our literary fiction focus, we caught up with writer and script editor Jenny Landreth - one of the driving forces behind the brilliant children's animated TV show 'Hey Duggee'. Having both become fathers only weeks apart in the summer of 2018, Hey Duggee was one of the most joyful discoveries in the often barren wastelands of our young daughters' TV choices... We learnt about how script editing works and how a show like Hey Duggee is put together, as well as speaking a little about Jenny's work on the upcoming reboot of the Magic Roundabout. Jenny also spoke about balancing non-fiction writing with children's TV and the feast and famine nature of freelance work. WARNING: for those of you who might want to listen with Duggee loving children around, there is a small sprinkling of the kind of language you wouldn't hear in the Squirrels' clubhouse... Jenny is on Twitter (although she uses it more for her personal life than professional): @jennylandreth Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloom Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan Or at jaimiebatchan.com and lochlanbloom.com We have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethods Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/

In this episode with chatted with Etgar Keret, writer of short stories, comics, a children's book and a memoir. Etgar's books have been published in fifty languages. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Le Monde, The New Yorker, The Guardian, The Paris Review and Zoetrope. He is currently a Professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He has received the Book Publishers Association's Platinum Prize several times, the St Petersburg Public Library's Foreign Favourite Award (2010) and the Newman Prize (2012). In 2010, he was honoured in France with the decoration of Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In 2007, Keret and Shira Geffen won the Cannes Film Festival's "Camera d'Or" Award for their movie Jellyfish, and Best Director Award of the French Artists and Writers' Guild. His latest collection "Fly Already" won the most prestigious literary award in Israel, the Sapir prize (2018), as well as the National Jewish Book Award of the Jewish Book Council. Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloom Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan Or at jaimiebatchan.com and lochlanbloom.com We have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethods Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/

Our guest in this episode is Australian writer Daniel Davis Wood, author of Blood and Bone (2014) which won the Viva La Novella Prize and At the Edge of the Solid World (2020), which was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award. Our chat with Daniel covered unconventional composition techniques derived from artistic practice, the difference between writing novellas and novels, reading your work out loud and plenty more. We also briefly covered Daniel's work as a publisher with his press Splice. The Garielle Lutz essay that Daniel references can be found here: https://culture.org/the-sentence-is-a-lonely-place/ You can find out about Daniel, his writing and his publishing via his website: https://danieldaviswood.com/ Daniel is on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/DanielDavisWood And his books (aside from At the Edge of the Solid World) are available via Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/contributors/daniel-davis-wood - or your local bricks and mortar book shop... Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloom Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan We have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethods Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/

Episode 51 with Claudia Durastanti. This month we speak to writer and translator Claudia Durastanti. We cover the importance of travel and geography in writing, mapping fictional spaces, translation and the overlap of metaphor between languages. Claudia is the author of Strangers I Know and Cleopatra Goes To Prison, translated to English, as well as well as Un giorno verrò a lanciare sassi alla tua finestra and A Chloe, per le ragioni sbagliate. Claudia is on twitter here: https://twitter.com/CDurastanti And her books are available via Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/books?keywords=claudia+durastanti - or your local bricks and mortar book shop... Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloom Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan We have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethods Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/

Hitting the half century, we speak to British-Argentine poet and journalist Miguel Cullen, author of collections including Wave Caps (2014), Paranoid Narcissism! (2017) and, most recently, Hologram (2022). Miguel's work has involved integrating sound chips and video-screens into the bound collections, raising some interesting blends of form. He has been published by Caught by the River, Abridged, Lunar Poetry, Magma Poetry, Purple Fashion Magazine and Stand. He was shortlisted for the Canterbury Festival Poet of the Year Award 2020. Ambit magazine wrote about his latest book, Hologram: "Is this the first ever poetry book with a film screen? Psychedelic modernity, embracing London meets LatinX, a collage of myths in language medium and form."   Our chat (somewhat truncated by some sound issues) covered the factors that lead to pieces becoming a collection, the confrontation between competing attitudes towards the canon (whatever that means!), what artists from other forms can bring to written work, and the potential fire risk of pushing formal boundaries. Miguel's collections are available through Odilo Press: https://www.odilopress.com/ - Hologram is also available through Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/contributors/miguel-cullen - or your local bricks and mortar book shop... Miguel's website is here: https://miguelcullen.com Miguel is also on Twitter: @MiguelCullen2 Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloom Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan We have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethods Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/

This month we speak to writer and artist Sara Baume. Sara is the author of Spill Simmer Falter Wither (2015), A Line Made by Walking (2017), the non-fiction handiwork (2020) and Seven Steeples, which is released this month on Tramp Press, who have published all of her work so far. Amongst much else, we cover: living a creative life that combines writing and visual art; learning narrative from arthouse cinema; finding a form from the original idea; writing slowly; abandoning work that doesn't feel right. Sara's Instagram is: @saraofthebaumes Sara's books are available directly from Tramp Press: https://tramppress.com/writer/sara-baume/ or through Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/contributors/sara-baume - or your local bricks and mortar book shop... Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloom Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan We have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethods Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/

In this episode we speak to writer Richard Beard. Richard's six novels include Lazarus is Dead, Dry Bones and Damascus, which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. His novel Acts of the Assassins was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize, and he is the author of five works of narrative non-fiction. His memoir The Day That Went Missing won the 2018 PEN Ackerley Award for literary autobiography and in the US was a National Book Critics Circle finalist. His latest memoir/polemic is Sad Little Men. Subjects covered include: tricking yourself into starting a writing project, how Richard's approach has changed over the course of nearly a dozen books (is 11 'a writer's dozen?'), youthful experimentation with squared paper, and knowing if the proportions of a novel feel right at the end of the first draft. Richard has a website: https://www.richardbeard.info/ And he's on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BeardRichard Richards's books are available through Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/contributors/richard-beard - or your local bricks and mortar book shop... Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloom Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan We have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethods Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/ We have loosely teamed up with the Institute of English Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. You can find out about the IES here: https://ies.sas.ac.uk/

In our latest episode we had a chat with novelist Sam Byers, author of Idiopathy (2013), Perfidious Albion (2018) and last year's Come Join Our Disease. We talked about needing to write ideas down and how they eventually demand it, using a journal while writing a novel, getting the voice right before venturing too far and the vast gulf between dialogue on the page and in the real world. Sam has a website: http://sambyers.co.uk/ Sam's books are available through Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/contributors/sam-byers - or your local bricks and mortar book shop... Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloom Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan We have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethods Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/ We have loosely teamed up with the Institute of English Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. You can find out about the IES here: https://ies.sas.ac.uk/

Our first guest of 2022 is the novelist Keith Ridgway, author of, among other works, 'the Long Falling' (1998), 'the Parts' (2003), 'Animals' (2006), 'Hawthorn and Child' (2012) and, most recently, 'A Shock' (2021), which was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize. Keith was awarded the Rooney Prize in 2001. Our chat with Keith took us through the daily fight with the concept of routine, specificity of place, giving up writing and returning, and experiencing a reading crisis - followed by being knocked off the wagon by Georges Simenon. Keith's books are available through Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/contributors/keith-ridgway - or your local book shop... Keith is on Twitter: @rid9way Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloom Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan We have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethods Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/ We have loosely teamed up with the Institute of English Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. Now that some form of normality has (possibly temporarily) returned to the U.K., why not check out their Literature in Lockdown page? : https://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/about-us/ies-virtual-community/literature-lockdown

Our guest this month is Jenn Ashworth, author of A Kind of Intimacy (2009), Cold Light (2011), The Friday Gospels (2013), Fell (2017) and the non-fiction work Notes Made While Falling (2019). Her latest novel is Ghosted: A Love Story out now with Sceptre. She lives in Lancashire and is a Professor of Writing at Lancaster University. Amongst much else we talk about: getting through lockdown with the support of an online writing group, 100 days of writing, how to trick yourself into writing, not being a morning person, interrupting the previous day's writing and stopping in a good place, drowning in post-it notes, describing your writing problems as a way of solving them, and how the novels you're writing make you sit in the nastiness of your own filth for several years... You can find out more about Jenn and her writing at her website: https://jennashworth.co.uk/ Jenn is on Twitter: @jennashworth And Instagram: @jennashworth82 Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloom Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan We have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethods Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/ We have loosely teamed up with the Institute of English Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. Now that some form of normality has (possibly temporarily) returned to the U.K., why not check out their Literature in Lockdown page? : https://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/about-us/ies-virtual-community/literature-lockdown

This month we are joined by Lucie Elven, short-story writer and author of the Weak Spot, the debut novel published earlier this year by Prototype in the UK. Lucie has written for publications including the London Review of Books, Granta and NOON.   Our chat took us on an Alpine tour through topics including: how notes demand to be put into short stories or novels, developing a long-term relationship with an editor, the function of ambiguity in fiction, and plenty more. The Weak Spot is available through Prototype: https://prototypepublishing.co.uk/product/the-weak-spot/ Lucie is on Twitter: @lucieelven And Instagram: @lucieelven Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloom Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan We have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethods Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/ We have loosely teamed up with the Institute of English Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. Now that some form of normality has (possibly temporarily) returned to the U.K., why not check out their Literature in Lockdown page? : https://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/about-us/ies-virtual-community/literature-lockdown

As we roll into autumn, we're joined by Rebecca Watson, novelist and arts writer. Rebecca's debut novel, Little Scratch, grew from a short story that was shortlisted for the White Review short story prize and the novel itself was shortlisted for this year's Desmond Elliott Prize.  Among all the other talking our chat took us through: expanding a short story into a novel. Investigating how writing can replicate the immediacy of thought. Playing with fiction and reality, and much more. You can find out more about Rebecca and her writing at her website here: https://www.rebeccawatson.co.uk/ Rebecca is on Twitter: @rebeccawhatsun And Instagram: @rebeccawhatsun Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloom Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan We have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethods Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/ We are teaming up with the Institute of English Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. Now that some form of normality is cautiously being introduced in the U.K., why not check out their Literature in Lockdown page? : https://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/about-us/ies-virtual-community/literature-lockdown

For our August '21 episode we're joined by Natasha Brown, the author of Assembly, which is published by Hamish Hamilton in the UK and will be released in the U.S. on 14th September 2021 by Little, Brown. Our discussion with Natasha includes workshopping at different stages, making speech real on the page, liberal use of index cards, and being in the enviable position of having a novel translated into other languages while it was still being edited. You can find out more about Natasha and her writing at her website here: https://npbrown.com/ Natasha is also on Instagram: @wordsbynatasha Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloom Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan We have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethods Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/ We are teaming up with the Institute of English Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. Now that some form of normality is cautiously being introduced in the U.K., why not check out their Literature in Lockdown page? : https://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/about-us/ies-virtual-community/literature-lockdown

In this month's episode we're joined by the novelist Sophie Mackintosh, who is the author of 'the Water Cure' (2018) and 'Blue Ticket' (2020). Topics covered with Sophie include (alongside much more): the shift to writing full time, the importance of music and having a bespoke playlist for each book, and writing a synopsis at the very beginning to help visualise the shape of a project. You can find out more about Sophie at her website here: https://www.sophiemackintosh.co.uk/ Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloom Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan We have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethods Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/ We are teaming up with the Institute of English Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. With (almost certainly reckless) unlocking on the horizon, why not check out their Literature in Lockdown page? : https://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/about-us/ies-virtual-community/literature-lockdown

“If Adorno was alive today, he'd be writing about football. I don't think he'd like it… but he'd be writing about it. And Gramsci for sure”In this, our 40th episode, we've got a special Euro 2020 edition of Unsound Methods, where we speak to writer and academic David Goldblatt. David is the author of non-fiction works which cover sport, particularly football, through a fascinating lens of history, sociology and politics. His books include the Ball is Round (2006), the Game of our Lives (2014) and, most recently, the Age of Football (2020).Our discussion takes us on a path through football and the Frankfurt school, the Colonization of the Life-world, the roots of Anthony Powell's antipathy to sport, the growth of interest in football from Britain's literary culture, and sport as an entry point to Bretton Woods, the IMF and Globalisation. The Age of Football is published by Picador - you can find out more here.You can find more about David Goldblatt at his website here: https://davidstephengoldblatt.com/David is also on Twitter: @DavidsgoldblattFind us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloomJaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchanWe have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethodsThanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/We are teaming up with the Institute of English Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. With the current uncertainty in the world, why not check out their Literature in Lockdown page? : https://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/about-us/ies-virtual-community/literature-lockdown

In this episode we speak with DBC Pierre, author of Vernon God Little (for which he won the Booker Prize in 2003), Ludmila's Broken English (2006), Lights Out in Wonderland (2010), Breakfast with the Borgias (2014) and most recently, Meanwhile in Dopamine City which was published in 2020.Pierre joined us fresh off a bout of working on a non-fiction work and we discussed how this writing differed from fiction, how constantly reworking sections is a gift that provides intimacy with the text rather than drudgery, the perils of using two columns per page in a novel, using lockdown as a chrysalis for the next chapter and much more besides.Meanwhile in Dopamine City is published by Faber - you can find out more here.You can find more about DBC Pierre, including his writing and some of the finest book-related merch we've seen in a long while, at his website: http://www.dbcpierre.com/Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloomJaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchanWe have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethodsThanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/We are teaming up with the Institute of English Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. With the current uncertainty in the world, why not check out their Literature in Lockdown page? : https://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/about-us/ies-virtual-community/literature-lockdown

In this month's episode, we speak to Jon McGregor, whose latest novel Lean, Fall, Stand is published by Fourth Estate on 29th April.Jon joined us in the midst of full fat lockdown to discuss how he constructs his novels, his writing residency in Antarctica and the research with people who suffer from aphasia and their carers that informed Lean, Fall, Stand.Jon's novels include: If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things (2002), So Many Ways to Begin (2006), Even the Dogs (2010) and Reservoir 13 (2017). Jon has won the IMPAC Dublin Literature Prize, the Betty Trask and Somerset Maugham awards, been longlisted for the Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize.Photo credit: Jo Wheeler Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloomJaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchanWe have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethodsThanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/We are teaming up with the Institute of English Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. With the current uncertainty in the world, why not check out their Literature in Lockdown page? : https://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/about-us/ies-virtual-community/literature-lockdown

In episode 37 we're joined by Douglas Robertson to celebrate the publication of his brand new translation of Thomas Bernhard's Die Billigesser (the Cheap Eaters) and to discuss our favourite Austrian monologuing misanthrope.Douglas is a writer and translator based in Keystone, Florida. He studied British and American Literature at the New College of Florida and Johns Hopkins University. He has translated works from German into English by authors including E. T. A. Hoffmann, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Christian Morgenstern, Novalis, and Ludwig Tieck, and he has studied Thomas Bernhard’s work for over ten years.Thomas Bernhard was one of the most important and unique writers of the twentieth century. Born in 1931, Bernhard published numerous novels and autobiographical writings, as well as short stories, plays, and poetry, including The Loser and Extinction. After years of chronic lung illness, Bernhard died in Austria in 1989.Douglas would like to give a shout out to his friend flowerville, a native German speaker who proofread the entire rough draft of the translation and was particularly helpful in offering pointers on register; particularly the level of formality or informality of specific expressions in the original German.The Cheap Eaters by Thomas Bernhard, translated by Douglas Robertson, is published by Spurl Editions, and is available here: https://spurleditions.com/cheap-eaters Douglas has a blog, The Philosophical Worldview Artist (http://shirtysleeves.blogspot.com).And he's also on Twitter: @shirtysleeves Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloomJaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchanWe have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethodsThanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/We are teaming up with the Institute of English Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. With the current uncertainty in the world, why not check out their Literature in Lockdown page? : https://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/about-us/ies-virtual-community/literature-lockdownImage of Thomas Bernhard: By Monozigote - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=85846453

Something a little different for the first pod of 2021: Lochlan and Jaimie get together (remotely) and have a couple of drinks to celebrate the launch of Jaimie's debut novel 'Siphonophore' - which is out now through Valley Press. The chat covers Jaimie's approach to writing, a bit of his history, sacrilegious suggestions of cuts to Finnegans Wake and a discussion of the fundamental weakness of analogies highlighting unnecessary cruelty to both cats and frogs. If you are interested in reading Siphonophore (and huge thanks if you are - JB), then you can find the book here: https://www.valleypressuk.com/book/154/siphonophore - by using the discount code 'SAVEMACG' listeners can get 10% off the price. The documentary that Jaimie refers to is called 'Nothing Changes: Art for Hank's Sake' (2018, dir. Matthew Kaplowitz) about the artist Hank Virgona. We have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethods Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods (https://twitter.com/UnsoundMethods) - @JaimieBatchan (https://twitter.com/JaimieBatchan) - @LochlanBloom (https://twitter.com/LochlanBloom) Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan (https://www.instagram.com/jaimie_batchan/) Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/ We have teamed up with the Institute of English Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. With the current uncertainty in the world, why not check out their Literature in Lockdown page? : https://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/about-us/ies-virtual-community/literature-lockdown

In this month's episode, we caught up with John Englehardt, author of 'Bloomland' (2019, Dzanc Books). John has also written for Vol.1 Brooklyn, Sycamore Review, The Stranger, Seattle Review of Books, Conium Review, Monkeybicycle, and elsewhere. Bloomland deals with the lead-up and fall-out of a college shooting through three separate narratives, told in the second person. Spanning two decades, Bloomland interrogates the social roots of the shooting and its effect on a community struggling to use violence as a catalyst for self-reflection and change. John is on Twitter: @johnenglehardt1 (https://twitter.com/johnenglehardt1) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/john.englehardt.7 Instagram: @john.englehardt His website is: https://johnenglehardt.com/ Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods (https://twitter.com/UnsoundMethods) - @JaimieBatchan (https://twitter.com/JaimieBatchan) - @LochlanBloom (https://twitter.com/LochlanBloom) Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan (https://www.instagram.com/jaimie_batchan/) Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/ We have teamed up with the Institute of English Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. With the current uncertainty in the world, why not check out their Literature in Lockdown page? : https://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/about-us/ies-virtual-community/literature-lockdown

In this month's episode we took a wild ride with David Keenan. David was born in Glasgow and grew up in Airdrie, in the west of Scotland, in the late-70s and early-1980s. He is the author of three novels, the cult classic This Is Memorial Device, which won the Collyer Bristow/London Magazine Award for Debut Fiction 2018 and was shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize, For The Good Times, which won the Gordon Burn Prize in 2019, and Xstabeth. We travelled far and wide in this episode, covering, amongst much else: using faith in your writing as your only compass, performing a DJ set in Tolstoy’s front garden, the beauty of a character from a previous novel turning up unexpectedly in later work and lucky cap disposal. “Research is an excuse for not inventing.” If you'd like to take a step into David's personal chill-space, the books he mentioned are: ‘Incised Effigial Slabs’ by F. A. Greenhill (1976) and ‘Monastic Architecture in France’ by Joan Evans (1964). Xstabeth is published by White Rabbit on 12th November 2020. Pre-order XSTABETH in paperback, ebook or audio before 1 November to access the exclusive digital prequel, THE TOWERS THE FIELDS THE TRANSMITTERS. Full details: bit.ly/XstabethPreOrder (https://www.whiterabbitbooks.co.uk/imprint/orion/white-rabbit/page/pre-order-xstabeth-to-read-the-exclusive-prequel-the-towers/) David is on Twitter: @reversediorama (https://twitter.com/reversediorama) Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods (https://twitter.com/UnsoundMethods) - @JaimieBatchan (https://twitter.com/JaimieBatchan) - @LochlanBloom (https://twitter.com/LochlanBloom) Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan (https://www.instagram.com/jaimie_batchan/) Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/ We are teaming up with the Institute of English Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. With the current uncertainty in the world, why not check out their Literature in Lockdown page? : https://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/about-us/ies-virtual-community/literature-lockdown

In this month's episode we speak to Gabriel Josipovici. Gabriel's first novel was published in 1968 and his writing career spans over twenty works of fiction, numerous works of criticism and non-fiction, and regular articles in the TLS. Continuing our current coronavirus set-up, Gabriel joined us remotely from Sussex and our discussion covered how his writing has developed over six decades, the perils of writing an unexpectedly backlash-provoking book on Modernism, the creative possibilities revealed by examining painters & composers and much more. The 'acceptably long' novel we briefly discussed was George Perec’s ‘Life: A User’s Manual’ The vast majority of Gabriel's work is published by Carcanet: https://www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/indexer?owner_id=368 Gabriel's website is here: http://www.gabrieljosipovici.org/ Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods (https://twitter.com/UnsoundMethods) - @JaimieBatchan (https://twitter.com/JaimieBatchan) - @LochlanBloom (https://twitter.com/LochlanBloom) Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan (https://www.instagram.com/jaimie_batchan/) Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/ We are teaming up with the Institute of English Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. With the current uncertainty in the world, why not check out their Literature in Lockdown page? : https://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/about-us/ies-virtual-community/literature-lockdown

“What you push against is as important as what you reach towards” On this month's episode we speak to Irish-Canadian author Anakana Schofield, author of Malarky (2013), Martin John (2016) and Bina (2020). Anakana joined us from the West Coast of Canada to discuss representations of older women in fiction, the musical score of the novel and missing out on multiple Christmases to complete her work, plus much else besides. In the UK, Anakana has written for the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jan/07/what-we-gain-from-keeping-books-and-why-it-doesnt-need-to-be-joy-marie-kondo https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/nov/20/unsinkable-characters-anakana-schofield-top-10 Her website is here: www.anakanaschofield.com (http://www.anakanaschofield.com/) And she is on Twitter: @anakanaschofiel (https://twitter.com/AnakanaSchofiel) Instagram: @anakana.schofield (https://www.instagram.com/anakana.schofield/?hl=en) Bina is published in the UK by Fleet (Little Brown), in Canada by Knopf Canada and will be published in the U.S. by New York Review of Books (out in early 2021).  There's a great video interview with Anakana courtesy of Toronto Public Library, which you can find here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxelTvXgzkI Author photo credit: Arabella Campbell Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods (https://twitter.com/UnsoundMethods) - @JaimieBatchan (https://twitter.com/JaimieBatchan) - @LochlanBloom (https://twitter.com/LochlanBloom) Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan (https://www.instagram.com/jaimie_batchan/) Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/ We are teaming up with the Institute of English Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. With the current uncertainty in the world, why not check out their Literature in Lockdown page? : https://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/about-us/ies-virtual-community/literature-lockdown

Something a little different this month as Lochlan and Jaimie pause to review how the COVID-19 lockdown has impacted their reading and writing, and to take a look back at the teenage reading paths that led them to experimental/innovative fiction. We'd love to hear about your lockdown reading and writing and the reading path you've taken through the fiction forest. Contact us through Twitter, or email us at: unsoundmethodspod@gmail.com (mailto:unsoundmethodspod@gmail.com) Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods (https://twitter.com/UnsoundMethods) - @JaimieBatchan (https://twitter.com/JaimieBatchan) - @LochlanBloom (https://twitter.com/LochlanBloom) Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan (https://www.instagram.com/jaimie_batchan/) Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/

In episode 30, we speak to writer, translator and musician, Jen Calleja, author of the short story collection 'I'm Afraid that's All We've Got Time For' (2020, Prototype). We (remotely, respecting social distancing!) discuss bus travel as fertile ground for creativity, writing across different forms - from translation to poetry, novels and short stories, and the insight gained from working with writers whose work you are translating - and plenty more besides. *** There is a very slight technical glitch with this episode's sound, but we've fixed it as best we can - apologies if the sound isn't quite as clean as it usually is *** You can buy 'I'm Afraid that's All We've Got Time For' here: https://prototypepublishing.co.uk/product/im-afraid-thats-all-weve-got-time-for/ You can find out more about Jen's writing at her website: www.jencalleja.com (http://www.jencalleja.com/) She's on Twitter: @niewview (https://twitter.com/niewview) and Instagram: @jencalleja_ (https://www.instagram.com/jencalleja_/) Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods (https://twitter.com/UnsoundMethods) - @JaimieBatchan (https://twitter.com/JaimieBatchan) - @LochlanBloom (https://twitter.com/LochlanBloom) Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan (https://www.instagram.com/jaimie_batchan/) Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/

In episode 29, we speak to writer and broadcaster Hamid Ismailov. Hamid joined us pre-Covid-19-lockdown, on his way to the Faversham Literature Festival. Hamid's novels include 'the Devil's Dance' and 'of Strangers and Bees', both available through Tilted Axis Press in the UK. More info at: https://www.tiltedaxispress.com/hamid-ismailov As a writer who works in Uzbek, Russian and English, our discussion took us on a Eurasian tour of societies, cultures and languages. Hamid outlined his 'writing a book during autumn and winter' approach, and we learnt a bit more about what it's like to be banned in your own country (not just his work, Hamid continues to be prohibited from entering Uzbekistan to this day). Author image credit: Amos Chapple Hamid is on Twitter: @ismailov_writer (https://twitter.com/ismailov_writer) Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods (https://twitter.com/UnsoundMethods) - @JaimieBatchan (https://twitter.com/JaimieBatchan) - @LochlanBloom (https://twitter.com/LochlanBloom) Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/

This episode is a little different to our usual output as we speak to Jonathan Simons: publisher, writer, editor, musician, occasional translator, and the person behind the Analog Sea Review. The Analog Sea is an 'offline publisher of printed books', but there's much more to it that that - as you will hear, Jonathan's entire approach involves shunning the online world, almost as a revolutionary act. We discuss the reasons behind this approach, the insights it provides and the contradictions that it inevitably involves. The Analog Sea's sprawling comprehensive* website (as discussed in the show) is available here: https://www.analogsea.com/ To receive a copy of the latest Analog Sea Bulletin, send a letter to. PO Box 11670 Austin, Texas 78711 United States or Basler Strasse 115 79115 Freiburg Germany For obvious reasons, Jonathan is not on social media, but we are: Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods (https://twitter.com/UnsoundMethods) - @JaimieBatchan (https://twitter.com/JaimieBatchan) - @LochlanBloom (https://twitter.com/LochlanBloom) Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/ *neither sprawling nor comprehensive

In episode 27 we speak to Caleb Klaces, poet, academic and author of 'Fatherhood' (2019, Prototype). Caleb is also the author of 'Bottled Air' (2013), winner of the Melita Hume Prize and an Eric Gregory Award, as well as two chapbooks: 'All Safe All Well' (2011) and 'Modern Version' (2018). He is Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing and English Literature at York St John University, and runs the York Centre for Writing Poetry Series. Fatherhood is available here: https://prototypepublishing.co.uk/product/fatherhood/ The book discussed during the AI chat is 'the Bestseller Code' by Jodie Archer and Matthew Jockers. You can read some of Caleb's poetry here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/caleb-klaces Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods (https://twitter.com/UnsoundMethods) - @JaimieBatchan (https://twitter.com/JaimieBatchan) - @LochlanBloom (https://twitter.com/LochlanBloom) Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/

In Episode 26, we speak to Vesna Main, author of Good Day? (Salt, 2019) which was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize last year. Vesna has previously published A Woman with No Clothes On (Delancey Press 2008) and The Reader the Writer (Mirador, 2015). Temptation: A User’s Guide, a collection of her short stories, was published by Salt in January 2018. https://www.saltpublishing.com/collections/author-vesna-main Vesna is on Twitter @VesnaMain (https://twitter.com/VesnaMain) Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods (https://twitter.com/UnsoundMethods) - @JaimieBatchan (https://twitter.com/JaimieBatchan) - @LochlanBloom (https://twitter.com/LochlanBloom) Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/ Photo credit: Chris Gilbert

In episode 25, we speak to Tony White, author of ‘The Fountain in the Forest’ (Faber, 2018) as well as ‘Road Rage’, ‘Satan Satan Satan’, ‘Charlieunclenorfolktango’, ‘Foxy-T’, ‘Shackleton’s Man Goes South’, the non-fiction title ‘Another Fool in the Balkans’, and many other short stories, novellas and collaborations. He was writer in residence at the Science Museum, and his novella with artists Blast Theory, ‘Zombies Ate My Library’, was shortlisted for for best novella in the Saboteur Awards 2017. We spoke to Tony about using mandated vocabulary, how working with artists who use other forms can lead to new approaches, writing a novel in Multicultural London English, and much more. Tony is on Twitter: @tony_white_ (https://twitter.com/tony_white_) Instagram: @pieceofpaperpress Website: https://pieceofpaperpress.com/ Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods (https://twitter.com/UnsoundMethods) - @JaimieBatchan (https://twitter.com/JaimieBatchan) - @LochlanBloom (https://twitter.com/LochlanBloom) Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/

In Episode 24, we speak to Yara Rodrigues Fowler, the author of Stubborn Archivist (Fleet, 2019). We spoke to Yara about publisher demands to make her novel at least twice as long, the power of white space, developing a two-headed bildungsroman, the challenges facing contemporary Brazil and how writers are facing them. You can buy Stubborn Archivist via this page: https://www.littlebrown.co.uk/titles/yara-rodrigues-fowler/stubborn-archivist/9780708899076/ Yara is on Twitter @yazzarf (https://twitter.com/yazzarf) Instagram @yararodriguesfowler And her website is: yararodriguesfowler.com (http://yararodriguesfowler.com/) Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods (https://twitter.com/UnsoundMethods) - @JaimieBatchan (https://twitter.com/JaimieBatchan) - @LochlanBloom (https://twitter.com/LochlanBloom) Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/

In Episode 23 we speak to Mazin Saleem, the author of 'the Prick', published as part of Open Pen's series of novelettes.   We speak to Mazin about discovering that you're not really a night-owl, using software to improve your writing productivity, and the freedom of jumping around the manuscript while editing to keep things fresh.   You can buy the Prick here: https://www.openpen.shop/store/p9/theprick.html   You can find out more about Mazin and his writing at: www.mazinsaleem.com (http://www.mazinsaleem.com/) The online poetry magazine that Jaimie mentions at the end is called Harana Poetry, and can be found here: https://www.haranapoetry.com/ Mazin isn't on Twitter, but we are: @UnsoundMethods (https://twitter.com/UnsoundMethods) - @JaimieBatchan (https://twitter.com/JaimieBatchan) - @LochlanBloom (https://twitter.com/LochlanBloom) Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/

In episode 22, we speak to Shiromi Pinto, the author of 'Plastic Emotions' (2019, Influx Press) and 'Trussed' (2006, Serpent's Tail). You can order Plastic Emotions here (https://www.influxpress.com/plastic-emotions) . We spoke to Shiromi about her use of real letters to produce fiction; what she does with her writing offcuts; how far 500 words a day can get you; and losing faith, spiking a project, and then finding the courage to pick it up again to drag it all the way to publication. Shiromi is on Twitter @blimundaseyes (https://twitter.com/blimundaseyes?lang=en) As are we: @UnsoundMethods (https://twitter.com/UnsoundMethods) - @JaimieBatchan (https://twitter.com/JaimieBatchan) - @LochlanBloom (https://twitter.com/LochlanBloom) Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/

In episode 21 we sit down with Mathias Énard, winner of the Prix Goncourt, to speak to him about his process, the line between history and fiction and the benefits of a good pair of slippers. Mathias' work includes the novels ‘Zone’, ‘Compass’, ‘Street of Thieves’ and ‘Tell them of Battles, Kings and Elephants’ which he was promoting when we spoke to him towards the end of last year. All of these novels have been published by Fitzcarraldo Editions and can be purchased here: https://fitzcarraldoeditions.com/authors/mathias-enard Apologies once more for a couple of audio glitches on this episode - we're working on it. To find out more about the podcast, follow us on twitter @UnsoundMethods (https://twitter.com/UnsoundMethods) or go to unsoundmethods.co.uk (https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/) If you enjoy the podcast, please 'like and subscribe' wherever you listen.

This month we speak to Norwegian author and artist Edy Poppy. Edy's debut novel Anatomi. Monotoni. won the Gylendal Prize in 2005 and was recently published in English as Anatomy. Monotony. by Dalkey Archive. Tr. May-Brit Akerholt. Anatomy. Monotony. (https://www.dalkeyarchive.com/product/anatomy-monotony/) is available at Dalkey Archive Press, who will also publish the collection Coming. Apart. (containing the 'Dungeness' short story that we discuss)  More information about Edy and her writing is available at: https://eng.gyldendal.no/Gyldendal/Authors/Poppy-Edy Interview with Siri Hustvedt: Edy Poppy Talks Sex, Love, and Boredom with Siri Hustvedt (https://lithub.com/edy-poppy-talks-sex-love-and-boredom-with-siri-hustvedt/) Photo of Edy Poppy taken by Julie-Christine Krøvel Thanks to Edy Poppy and Katrin Meynarth at Dalkey Archive.

In this episode we speak to novelist, bookseller and publisher Samuel Fisher.  Sam's debut 'the Chameleon' was published by Salt in 2018. You can buy the Chameleon here: [Salt - the Chameleon](https://www.saltpublishing.com/products/the-chameleon-9781784631246) As we mention at the beginning, there were some technical issues with the sound on one of the microphones in this episode - apologies, but it should sound ok if you're listening on earphones/headphones. You can follow Sam on Twitter: [@fishersamuk](https://twitter.com/fishersamuk) To find out more about the podcast, follow us on twitter [@UnsoundMethods](https://twitter.com/UnsoundMethods) or go to [unsoundmethods.co.uk](https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/)

In episode 18, we speak to Marc Nash, most recently author of 'Three Dreams in the Key of G', published by Dead Ink in 2018. Marc joined us in London to discuss choosing the playlist to write to, intense bursts of writing during the summer holidays, using the editing process to add material rather than remove, playing through language, writing across gender and plenty more. You can follow Marc [@21stCScribe](https://twitter.com/21stcscribe) on Twitter To find out more about the podcast, follow us on twitter [@UnsoundMethods](https://twitter.com/UnsoundMethods) or go to [unsoundmethods.co.uk](https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/)

Welcome all to the first Unsound Methods of 2019! This month, we are delighted to be joined for a second time by Eimear McBride. In episode 12 we spoke to Eimear alongside Noémi Lefebvre but we didn't have much time to speak to them before that evening's event, so Eimear was kind enough to come to the studio for a more extended chat. Among other subjects in this episode we discuss Eimear's process, experimental fiction and the role of the novel in modern life. Thanks again to Eimear for her generosity with her time. To find out more about the podcast, follow us on twitter [@UnsoundMethods](https://twitter.com/UnsoundMethods) or go to [unsoundmethods.co.uk](https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/)

No guest this month (don't worry, more fantastic writers will be appearing here starting again in January). In this Xmas '18 special edition, Lochlan and Jaimie get tanked up on port and mince pies to conduct a brief dissection of the first year of Unsound Methods as well as a review of what they've learnt before getting stuck in to a couple of most commonly quoted lists of writing advice from Messers Vonnegut and Orwell. Full of the Christmas spirit, this episode contains many swears… Thank you to all of our listeners for a great first year, have a very Merry Christmas and see you in 2019.

This month we speak to Tom Lee award-winning short fiction writer and author of The Alarming Palsy of James Orr. We talk about Tom's approach to writing and how he finds new ideas, the impact of ill-health on his writing as well as the difficulties in moving from short stories to longer form fiction. Tom's work has appeared in The Sunday Times, Esquire and Prospect in the UK, The Dublin Review in Ireland and in Francis Ford Coppola’s Zoetrope All Story in the United States, among others. In 2012 he was shortlisted for The Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award, the largest prize for a single short story in the world and in 2015 his non-fiction account of spending 51 days in intensive care was longlisted for The Notting Hill Essay Prize. Tom is on twitter [@TomLeeStories](https://twitter.com/tomleestories?lang=en) and more about his writing at [www.tomleestories.com](http://tomleestories.com)

In this month's episode we speak to Lars Iyer, weaver of fiction in blog-form, novelist and erstwhile philosopher. Among many other things we talked to Lars about turning blogs into novels (as he did with his first three novels 'Spurious', 'Dogma' and 'Exodus'), his path to being a serial producer of trilogies and making the most of your spouse as your first reader and editor. Post-interview, Lars confirmed for us that 'Nietzsche in the Burbs' will be coming out next year on Melville House. You can follow Lars on Twitter: [@UtterlySpurious](https://twitter.com/UtterlySpurious) - he also wrote an interesting piece for the White Review on the health of the contemporary novel in 2011, which can be read [here](http://www.thewhitereview.org/feature/nude-in-your-hot-tub-facing-the-abyss-a-literary-manifesto-after-the-end-of-literature-and-manifestos/).

Welcome to the second series of Unsound Methods. In this episode we speak to Azareen Van Der Vliet Oloomi, the author of Call Me Zebra from Alma Books (in the UK). Azareen's debut novel was Fra Keeler. Topics covered in our chat included research, working with editors and the paths that reading can take while putting a novel together. Thanks to Burley Fisher bookshop for providing us with the recording space for this episode. You can find Call Me Zebra here: [https://almabooks.com/product/call-me-zebra/](https://almabooks.com/product/call-me-zebra/) And follow Azareen on twitter: [@avandervliet](https://twitter.com/avandervliet) Follow us [@unsoundmethods](https://twitter.com/unsoundmethods) or [unsoundmethods.co.uk](https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/)

This is the audio recording of the event at the Institut Francais that followed our chat with Noémi Lefebvre and Eimear McBride. The Institut Francais have kindly shared the audio of this event which took place on 17th May 2018. Thanks to: Nicci Praca, Cecile Menon, Sophie Lewis (who hosted the event), Axelle Oxborrow (translation) and Lucie Campos.

This episode was recorded at the Beyond Words Festival at the Institut Francais on Thursday 17th May 2018. We sat down with Noémi Lefebvre, the author of 'Blue Self-Portrait' (available from Les Fugitives: [http://www.lesfugitives.com/books/#/blue-self-portrait/](http://www.lesfugitives.com/books/#/blue-self-portrait/)) and Eimear McBride, author of 'A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing' (Galley Beggar Press/Faber) and 'The Lesser Bohemians' (Faber). It was hot, and there was a lot of noise in the street, so the sound is not 100%, but we found it very interesting to speak to both writers about the similarities and differences in their approaches. We caught Noémi and Eimear just before they went on stage, so this is a brief chat. At times Noémi preferred to speak in French, so we have included the translations from her interpreter Axelle Oxborrow in this audio.  The Institut Francais have kindly shared the audio of the event that followed, which will be released a few days after this one as a bonus episode. Thanks to: Nicci Praca, Cecile Menon, Sophie Lewis (who hosted the event), Axelle Oxborrow (translation) and Lucie Campos.

We speak to Olga Tokarczuk and Jennifer Croft, fresh from winning the International [@ManBookerPrize](https://twitter.com/ManBookerPrize) for the superb 'Flights', out now on [@FitzcarraldoEds](https://twitter.com/FitzcarraldoEds) - [https://fitzcarraldoeditions.com/books/flights](https://fitzcarraldoeditions.com/books/flights) Among other things we discuss the whirlwind of prize-winning, composing constellation novels, suppressing your first published book, and the challenges of translating a title. You can find Jennifer on twitter: [@jenniferlcroft](https://twitter.com/jenniferlcroft) Photo credit: Janie Airey

In this week's episode we speak to novelist and essayist, Joanna Kavenna. We talk about beginnings, finding a voice in fiction and taking a Wittgensteinian view of reality, as well as how to deal with Polar Bears while conducting research and the ways in which literature can help us understand and limit technology before the machines destroy us. Joanna is the author of the _Ice Museum: In Search of the Lost Land of Thule_ and _A Field Guide to Reality_ (riverrun, 2016) as well as three other novels and non-fiction essays. Find out more about Joanna at [joannakavenna.com](http://www.joannakavenna.com/) Photo credit: A Michaelis Follow us [@unsoundmethods](https://twitter.com/unsoundmethods) or [unsoundmethods.co.uk](https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/)

This week we speak to Patrick Langley, author of Arkady from Fitzcarraldo Editions. With a background in art criticism and radio production, Paddy talks to us about drafting and structuring a work, finding inspiration from the urban backwaters of London and the problem with building elaborate memory palaces… You can find Arkady here: [https://fitzcarraldoeditions.com/books/arkady](https://fitzcarraldoeditions.com/books/arkady) And follow Paddy on twitter: [@PaddyLangley](https://twitter.com/paddylangley) Follow us [@unsoundmethods](https://twitter.com/unsoundmethods) or [unsoundmethods.co.uk](https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/)