Podcasts about commonwealth writers

David Bezmozgis reads his story “From, To,” from the April 14, 2025, issue of the magazine. Bezmozgis is the author of two novels and two story collections, “Natasha and Other Stories,” which won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book, and “Immigrant City,” which was a finalist for the Giller Prize in 2019. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Nobel Prize-winning author Abdulrazak Gurnah sits down with Adam Biles in store to discuss his new novel, Theft. Their conversation delves into the intricate interplay between personal history and the enduring legacy of colonialism, examines the complex dynamics of family and servitude, and discusses the challenge of transcending inherited narratives. Buy Theft: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/theft-2*Abdulrazak Gurnah is the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 2021. He is the author of ten novels: Memory of Departure, Pilgrims Way, Dottie, Paradise (shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Whitbread Award), Admiring Silence, By the Sea (longlisted for the Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Book Award), Desertion (shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize) The Last Gift, Gravel Heart, and Afterlives, which was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Fiction 2021 and longlisted for the Walter Scott Prize. He was Professor of English at the University of Kent, and was a Man Booker Prize judge in 2016. He lives in Canterbury.Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. His latest novel, Beasts of England, a to Animal Farm, is available now. Buy a signed copy here: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/beasts-of-englandListen to Alex Freiman's latest EP, In The Beginning: https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3wAuthor portrait Hugo Clair Torregrosa (c) Shakespeare and Company Paris Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Shortlisted for the 2023 Giller Prize, All the Colour in the World by CS Richardson tells the story of the restorative power of art in one man's life, set against the sweep of the twentieth century—from Toronto in the '20s and '30s, through the killing fields of World War II, to 1960s Sicily. In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery interviews Richardson about this extraordinary novel. Henry, born 1916, thin-as-sticks, nearsighted, is an obsessive doodler—copying illustrations from his Boy's Own magazines. Left in the care of a nurturing, Shakespeare-quoting grandmother, eight-year-old Henry receives as a gift his first set of colouring pencils (and a pocket knife for the sharpening). As he commits these colours to memory—cadmium yellow; burnt ochre; deep scarlet red—a passion for art, colour, and the stories of the great artists takes hold, and becomes Henry's unique way of seeing the world. It is a passion that will both haunt and sustain him on his journey through the century: from boyhood dreams on a summer beach to the hothouse of art academia and a love cut short by tragedy; from the psychological wounds of war to the redemption of unexpected love. Projected against a backdrop of iconic masterpieces—from the rich hues of the European masters to the technicolour magic of Hollywood—All the Colour in the World is Henry's story: part miscellany, part memory palace, exquisitely precise with the emotional sweep of a great modern romance. About CS Richardson: CS RICHARDSON's first novel, The End of the Alphabet, was an international bestseller, published in fourteen countries and ten languages, and won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book (Canada and the Caribbean). His second novel, The Emperor of Paris, was a national bestseller, named a Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year, and longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. An award-winning book designer, CS Richardson worked in publishing for forty years. He is a multiple recipient of the Alcuin Award, Canada's highest honour for excellence in book design. He lives and writes in Toronto. About Hollay Ghadery: Hollay Ghadery is an Iranian-Canadian multi-genre writer living in Ontario on Anishinaabe land. She has her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph. Fuse, her memoir of mixed-race identity and mental health, was released by Guernica Editions in 2021 and won the 2023 Canadian Bookclub Award for Nonfiction/Memoir. Her collection of poetry, Rebellion Box was released by Radiant Press in 2023, and her collection of short fiction, Widow Fantasies, was released with Gordon Hill Press in fall 2024. Her debut novel, The Unraveling of Ou, is due out with Palimpsest Press in 2026, and her children's book, Being with the Birds, with Guernica Editions in 2027. Hollay is the host of the 105.5 FM Bookclub, as well as a co-host on HOWL on CIUT 89.5 FM. She is also a book publicist, the Regional Chair of the League of Canadian Poets and a co-chair of the League's BIPOC committee, as well as the Poet Laureate of Scugog Township. Learn more about Hollay at www.hollayghadery.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

Abdulrazak Gurnah is the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 2021. He is the author of ten novels: Memory of Departure, Pilgrims Way, Dottie, Paradise (shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Whitbread Award), Admiring Silence, By the Sea (longlisted for the Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Book Award), Desertion (shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize) The Last Gift, Gravel Heart, and Afterlives, which was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Fiction 2021 and longlisted for the Walter Scott Prize. He was Professor of English at the University of Kent, and was a Man Booker Prize judge in 2016. On this episode of Little Atoms he talks to Neil Denny about his latest novel Theft. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this special live recording we dive into The Seers, the mesmerising new novel by Sulaiman Addonia. In conversation with Adam Biles, Addonia shares the story behind his bold, unfiltered novel—written as a single, unbroken paragraph—through the voice of Hannah, an Eritrean refugee navigating love, loss, sexuality, and identity on the streets of London. Three powerful readings by Liya Kebede, bringing Hannah's world vividly to lifeThe Seers is a novel that defies definition—sensual, poetic, and politically charged. Addonia's reflections on storytelling, migration, and the search for home will stay with you long after you listen.Buy The Seers: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/the-seers*Sulaiman Addonia is an Eritrean-Ethiopian-British novelist. He spent his early life in a refugee camp in Sudan, and his early teens in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He arrived in London as an underage unaccompanied refugee without a word of English and went on to earn an MA in Development Studies from SOAS and a BSc in Economics from UCL.His first novel, The Consequences of Love (Chatto & Windus, 2008), was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and translated into more than 20 languages. His second novel, Silence Is My Mother Tongue (Indigo Press, 2019; Graywolf Press, 2020), was a finalist for the 2021 Lambda Literary Awards. His essays appear in LitHub, Granta, Freeman's, The New York Times, De Standaard and Sulaiman Addonia is an Eritrean-Ethiopian-British novelist .Addonia currently lives in Brussels where he founded the Creative Writing Academy for Refugees & Asylum Seekers and the Asmara-Addis Literary Festival In Exile.Liya Kebede is a pioneering model, actress, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. She has worked with top fashion brands like Chanel, Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, and Estée Lauder, promoting inclusivity in the industry. In 2007, she launched lemlem, a sustainable fashion brand supporting Ethiopian Artisans. Kebede is also a WHO Goodwill Ambassador and founded the lemlem Foundation to improve healthcare and economic opportunities for African women. She promotes literature through her latest endeavour "Liyabraire" and introduced the BB Bookbags collection.Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. His latest novel, Beasts of England, a to Animal Farm, is available now. Buy a signed copy here: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/beasts-of-englandListen to Alex Freiman's latest EP, In The Beginning: https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3w Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Really Interesting Women - the podcastEpisode 135Lily Brett OAMLily Brett is an internationally acclaimed author of six novels, four collections of essays and nine volumes of poetry. She has been the recipient of numerous awards including, the C.J. Dennis Prize for Poetry, the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and has been shortlisted several times for the Miles Franklin award. She was born in Germany to two Auschwitz survivors and the family migrated to Australia as refugees when she was very young. She went on to become a bit of a reluctant journalist (initially) and worked for Australia's most renowned rock magazine where she covered the 1967 Monterey International Pop Festival and has interviewed, amongst others, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Mick Jagger. She subsequently turned to writing poetry and novels and, as alluded to earlier – made a great success of that. Her work frequently explores the lives of Holocaust survivors and their children. The story of her own parents survival is remarkable. As is pretty much most of Lily Brett's life. Head to the link in my bio to listen to my conversation with Lily Brett.You can find Lily's books on her website:https://www.lilybrett.com/booksVisit instagram @reallyinterestingwomen for further interviews and posts of interesting women in history. Follow the link to leave a review....and tell your friendshttps://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/really-interesting-women/id1526764849

In the three years since its return to power, the Taliban have excluded women and girls from almost every aspect of public life in Afghanistan, denying them access to education, employment, even speaking or showing their faces outside their homes. Published this August, My Dear Kabul: A Year in the Life of An Afghan Women's Writing Group (Coronet, August 2024) is the collective diary of 21 fiercely brilliant Afghan women writers, compiled using WhatsApp messages, offering courageous and intimate testimonies of the fall of Kabul in 2021 and its aftermath, of life under Taliban rule and far from home in exile. In August 2021 these women were in the process of publishing an anthology of short stories when their world was turned upside down. As they watched their cities fall, schools close, families and friends disperse and freedoms disappear, they stayed connected via WhatsApp messages, and established a space to keep their creativity alive, support each other and bear witness to the turmoil unfolding around them. My Dear Kabul is their story. My Dear Kabul is an Untold Narratives project, supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and by The Bagri Foundation. Untold is a development programme for writers marginalised by community or conflict. It has been working with women writers in Afghanistan since 2020, where support for writers has been hampered by restrictions on freedom of expression and instability. Marie, among the 21 contributors to My Dear Kabul, was born in Afghanistan but her family lived in exile when she was a young child, returning home during the years of the Islamic republic. She studied for her first degree at Kabul University's Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences before completing a master's degree in India. In August 2021, Marie was in Afghanistan, working in the marketing department of a German aid agency while running her own women-led counselling service. In November 2021, she was evacuated from her family home to an apartment in Germany; she moved alone. Her story ‘The Café' was published in Moveable Type in 2023. Marie is also a contributor to My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird (MacLehose Press, 2021) and Rising After the Fall (Scholastic, 2023). Parwana Fayyaz, a translator and editor of My Dear Kabul, is a scholar and teacher of Persian literature at the University of Cambridge. She is also a poet and translator working with multiple languages. Her poetry collection, Forty Names (Carcanet Press, 2021), was a New Statesman book of the year and a White Review book of the year. Her translations promote the writings and culture of Afghan people around the world. Sunila Galappatti, an editor of My Dear Kabul, has worked with other people's stories as a dramaturg, theatre director, editor and writer: at the Royal Shakespeare Company, Live Theatre (Newcastle), Galle Literary Festival, Raking Leaves, Suriya Women's Development Centre, Commonwealth Writers, Himal Southasian and Untold Narratives. She spent five years working with a long-term prisoner of war in the Sri Lankan conflict, to retell his story in A Long Watch (Hurst, 2016). I should add I've had the privilege of working with Sunila at Himal - so I'm thrilled to be speaking with her today.

My guest on this episode is Lawrence Hill. Lawrence is the author of eleven books including the novels The Book of Negroes and The Illegal, and the memoir Black Berry Sweet Juice: On Being Black and White in Canada and Blood: The Stuff of Life, which was the CBC Massey Lecture in 2013. Lawrence is the winner of the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book, and both CBC Radio's Canada Reads and Radio-Canada's Combat des livres. Lawrence's most recent book, his first YA novel, is Beatrice and Croc Harry, which was published in 2022 by HarperCollins Canada. The French version of Beatrice and Croc Harry is about to be published in Quebec by Mémoire d'encrier. It will come out in Europe in the fall. Author David Chariandy called Beatrice and Croc Harry “A modern fable of great beauty and sophistication.” Lawrence and I talk about some peculiarities concerning his author name, about the grief that helped compel him to write his first book for children, and about the one disappointment he had when he met Queen Elizabeth II.   Lawrence Hill: lawrencehill.com Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact  

Chioma Okereke discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Born in Nigeria, Chioma Okereke grew up in London and studied law at UCL. She started her writing career as a performance poet before turning her hand to prose. Her debut novel, Bitter Leaf (Virago), was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and her short story, Trompette De La Mort, received First Runner Up in the Costa Short Story Award. Her new novel is Water Baby. Jamaica Kincaid https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2022/04/07/jamaica-kincaids-rope-of-live-wires/ Cadaqués https://www.lonelyplanet.com/spain/cadaques PRP (platelet rich plasma) https://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/platelet-rich-plasma-injections Raye https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/raye-escapism-21st-century-blues-interview-1234671381/ Tiger nuts https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772753X23003325 Andre Brink https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/feb/08/andre-brink This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

My guest on this episode is Hiromi Goto. Hiromi's first novel, Chorus of Mushrooms, won the 1995 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book, was the co-winner of the Canada-Japan Book Award. Her second adult novel, The Kappa Child, won the 2001 James Tiptree Jr. Memorial Award. She has published multiple novels for adults and children, as well as a book of poetry, and a collection of short stories. She has also won The Sunburst Award and the Carl Brandon Parallax Award. Hiromi's most recent book, Shadow Life—her first graphic novel, created with artist Ann Xu—was published by First Second Books in 2021. Shadow Life won the 2022 Asian/Pacific American Literature Award for Adult Fiction and was nominated for a 2022 GLAAD Media Award and an LA Times Book Prize. The New York Public Library also declared it one of the best books of 2021. Publishers Weekly, in its review of Shadow Life, said: “this wry genre-bending graphic novel …delves into aging, independence, lost love, and mortality with a whimsy that doesn't undercut its literary heft.” Hiromi and I talk about her current situation in which she finds herself unable to read and write barely at all, and about the work she is doing as a part-time farmhand that, even if it doesn't help her get writing again, is doing some good and necessary things for her soul.   Hiromi Goto: hiromigoto.com Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission. Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact

Pauline Holdstock is an award-winning Canadian author, originally from the UK. She writes literary fiction, essays, and poetry. Her novels have been published in the UK, the US, Brazil, Portugal, Australia, and Germany. In Canada, her work has been shortlisted for a number of awards, including the Best First Novel Award, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the Scotiabank Giller Prize. Pauline's essays and book reviews appear in Canada's national newspapers and have been broadcast on CBC radio. Pauline has served on faculty of the Victoria School of Writing, the University of Victoria, and the Banff Centre for the Arts. She lives on Vancouver Island. http://paulineholdstock.com/Local Books Feature: The Principal ChroniclesDavid Garlick is a retired educator who spent fourteen years of his thirty-three year career as a high school principal. His long-suffering wife has no idea what he does to cause the incidents he writes about that always seem to happen to him, but he must do 'something.' She's been saying this for more than thirty-two years. They live together in Windsor, Ontario.  He has been denied entry into the National Curmudgeon Club, because he always gives the neighbour kids' balls back when they're kicked over his fence.  Availability: The print book is available at: FriesenPressAmazonBarnes & Noble And the eBook is available at: KoboGoogle PlayNookApple Books

In our eleventh episode of our Summer Series, Katherine speaks with multi-award winning author Kim Scott about history, identity, culture and language, particularly of his ancestors the Noongar people.   Kim Scott grew up on the south coast of Western Australia. As a descendant of those who first created human society along that edge of ocean, he is proud to be one among those who call themselves Noongar. His second novel, Benang: From the Heart, won the 1999 Western Australian Premier's Book Award, the 2000 Miles Franklin Literary Award and the 2001 Kate Challis RAKA Award. His third novel, That Deadman Dance, also won the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 2011, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the Western Australian Premier's Book Award. His latest book, published in 2017 is Taboo. Kim lives in Fremantle, Western Australia, and is currently Professor of Writing at the School of Media, Culture and Creative Arts, Curtin University. Check out show notes for this episode on our website or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod). Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!

This month as World Book Club continues its year-long season celebrating the Exuberance of Youth it also celebrates the 20th anniversary of the programme. To mark this happy occasion World Book Club are guests of the London Literature Festival at the South Bank Centre on the River Thames and Harriett Gilbert talks to Bangladeshi-born British novelist Tahmima Anam about her enthralling novel, A Golden Age. Winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, A Golden Age is a story of passion and revolution, of hope, faith and unexpected heroism in the middle of chaos. Set against the backdrop of the Bangladesh War of Independence we follow Rehana, a mother struggling to protect her children as the civil war intensifies. Wanting only to keep them safe she finds herself facing a heartbreaking dilemma in a war that will eventually see the birth of Bangladesh. (Picture: Tahmima Anam. Photo credit: Abeer Y Hoque.)

In this episode, I'm chatting with Abdulzarak Gurnah about how his life has changed since winning the Nobel Prize in Literature, 2021, his new novel, Afterlives, colonialism in Africa, and what drew him from Tanzania to the county of Kent in the UK and a life dedicated to teaching.Abdulrazak Gurnah is the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 2021. He is the author of ten novels: Memory of Departure, Pilgrims Way, Dottie, Paradise (shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Whitbread Award), Admiring Silence, By the Sea (longlisted for the Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Book Award), Desertion (shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize) The Last Gift, Gravel Heart, and Afterlives, which was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Fiction 2021 and longlisted for the Walter Scott Prize. He was Professor of English at the University of Kent, and was a Man Booker Prize judge in 2016. He lives in Canterbury.Afterlives, Abdulrazak GurnahBooks by Abdulrazak GurnahSupport the show

Hosted by Andrew Keen, Keen On features conversations with some of the world's leading thinkers and writers about the economic, political, and technological issues being discussed in the news, right now. In this episode, Andrew is joined by Amit Chaudhuri, author of Sojourn. Amit Chaudhuri is a novelist, essayist, poet, and musician. A fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he lives in Calcutta and the United Kingdom. Sojourn is his eighth novel. Among his other works are three books of essays, the most recent of which is The Origins of Dislike; a study of D.H. Lawrence's poetry; a book of short stories, Real Time; two works of non-fiction, the latest of which is Finding the Raga; and four volumes of poetry, including New and Selected Poems (New York Review Poets, 2023). Formerly a professor of contemporary literature at the University of East Anglia, Chaudhuri is now a professor of creative writing and the director of the Centre for the Creative and the Critical at Ashoka University, as well as the editor of www.literaryactivism.com. He has made several recordings of Indian classical and experimental music, and has been awarded the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction, and the Indian government's Sahitya Akademi Award. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Katherine speaks to multi-award winning author Kim Scott about history, identity, culture and language, particularly of his ancestors the Noongar people. Kim Scott grew up on the south coast of Western Australia. As a descendant of those who first created human society along that edge of ocean, he is proud to be one among those who call themselves Noongar. His second novel, Benang: From the Heart, won the 1999 Western Australian Premier's Book Award, the 2000 Miles Franklin Literary Award and the 2001 Kate Challis RAKA Award. His third novel, That Deadman Dance, also won the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 2011, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the Western Australian Premier's Book Award. His latest book, published in 2017 is Taboo. Kim lives in Fremantle, Western Australia, and is currently Professor of Writing at the School of Media, Culture and Creative Arts, Curtin University. Check out show notes for this episode on our website or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod). Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, écrivaine originaire d'Abba, au sud-est du Nigeria, vit depuis plus de vingt ans aux États-Unis. Elle est l'auteure de plusieurs romans : L'Hibiscus pourpre (2003) (Commonwealth Writers' Prize), L'Autre Moitié du soleil (2006) sur la guerre du Biafra, (Orange Prize for Fiction), Americanah, le parcours d'une jeune femme nigériane émigrée aux États-Unis, et de plusieurs recueils dont Nous sommes tous des féministes, parus chez Gallimard. (Rediffusion)   « Comment dire adieu à un être cher alors que le monde entier est frappé par une crise sanitaire, que le défunt repose au Nigeria et que ses enfants sont bloqués en Angleterre et aux États-Unis ? Le père de Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie vient de mourir. Séparée de ses proches, cette dernière vit un deuil empêché et solitaire. Elle écrit alors sous la forme de courts chapitres, composés comme des soubresauts de chagrin et de rage, où l'amour et l'admiration qu'elle portait à son père explosent à chaque page. James Nwoye Adichie a traversé plusieurs époques de l'histoire du Nigeria. S'il a transmis la culture et la langue igbos à ses enfants, essentielles à l'œuvre de l'autrice, il s'est aussi élevé contre certaines traditions de son pays. En partageant des anecdotes familiales simples et touchantes, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie rend hommage au professeur émérite de l'Université du Nigeria, mais surtout au père humble et affectueux qu'il était, son "dadounet originel". La perte se voit ainsi transcendée par l'amour et la transmission. » (Présentation des éditions Gallimard)

Shikha is a writer based in Uttarakhand, India. Specialising in stories woven around nature and the outdoors, sustainable living, and those with a cultural insight from the remote mountains of India, Nepal and Bhutan.    Her travel stories appear in a wide variety of publications such as the National Geographic Traveller, Travel + Leisure, Conde Nast Traveller, Lonely Planet, and more.    Her environmental and social interest stories have appeared in newspapers such as The Hindu, The New Indian Express, and on platforms such as Nature InFocus and RoundGlass Sustain.    Born and brought up in the mountains, she is a qualified mountaineer who has participated in expeditions in the Himalayas. Her mountaineering stories have appeared in The Outdoor Journal and online on the Red Bull forum.    Shikha is the recipient of a Commonwealth Writers fellowship for her stories on Himalayan ecology, and has also authored an award-winning children's book on Northeast India's first female Everester, Tine Mena, for a literacy NGO, Pratham.    Most recently, she authored a series of Lonely Planet pocket guide books on Nepal.   New episodes of the Tough Girl Podcast go live every Tuesday at 7am UK time - Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss out.    To support the tough girl mission to increase the amount of female role models in the media -  visit www.patreon.com/toughgirlpodcast.      Show Notes Who is Shikha Growing up in the mountains in India Her love of exploration Deciding to become a professional writer Being curious about the world Quitting her job to backpack across the Indian Continent in 2008 Her love of writing and not wanting to be confined to an office cubicle Being drawn to the mountains and wanting to spend more time there Her year of self discovery Her childhood and early years Going into higher education Making the decision to quit her job and go on a gap year Planning her year out and travelling on a shoe string budget Wanting to get off the regular tourist circuit Heading to the North East of India Spending time in Nepal and Bhutan Building her career as a freelance writer Travelling solo in remote places Advice and tips for solo travel Why planning a little ahead can make things a lot easier Advice for travel writing Why you need to find your niche Finding your writing voice Telling the same story but in a different way Learning mountaineering skills  Encouraging more women to gain skills in the outdoors Challenging times in the mountains Walking on unmarked trails  Being underprepared on the mountains and the lessons learned Dealing with challenging situations and her process for handling it Staying positive and having a back up plan How to connect with Shikha  Putting together her website Writing her award-winning children's book on Northeast India's first female Everester, Tine Mena. Wanting to inspire young girls Advice for women and girls to spend more time in the mountains Future dreams and goals      Social Media   Instagram: @shikha_trip   

Small Island by bestselling author Andrea Levy won the Orange Prize for Fiction, as well as many other awards, including the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the Whitbread. Now a major BBC drama starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Naomie Harris, its enduring appeal will captivate fans of Maya Angelou and Zadie Smith. 'A great read... honest, skilful, thoughtful and important' - Guardian It is 1948, and England is recovering from a war. But at 21 Nevern Street, London, the conflict has only just begun. Queenie Bligh's neighbours do not approve when she agrees to take in Jamaican lodgers, but Queenie doesn't know when her husband will return, or if he will come back at all. What else can she do? Gilbert Joseph was one of the several thousand Jamaican men who joined the RAF to fight against Hitler. Returning to England as a civilian he finds himself treated very differently. It's desperation that makes him remember a wartime friendship with Queenie and knock at her door. Gilbert's wife Hortense, too, had longed to leave Jamaica and start a better life in England. But when she joins him she is shocked to find London shabby, decrepit, and far from the golden city of her dreams. Even Gilbert is not the man she thought he was...

Small Island by bestselling author Andrea Levy won the Orange Prize for Fiction, as well as many other awards, including the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the Whitbread. Now a major BBC drama starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Naomie Harris, its enduring appeal will captivate fans of Maya Angelou and Zadie Smith. 'A great read... honest, skilful, thoughtful and important' - Guardian It is 1948, and England is recovering from a war. But at 21 Nevern Street, London, the conflict has only just begun. Queenie Bligh's neighbours do not approve when she agrees to take in Jamaican lodgers, but Queenie doesn't know when her husband will return, or if he will come back at all. What else can she do? Gilbert Joseph was one of the several thousand Jamaican men who joined the RAF to fight against Hitler. Returning to England as a civilian he finds himself treated very differently. It's desperation that makes him remember a wartime friendship with Queenie and knock at her door. Gilbert's wife Hortense, too, had longed to leave Jamaica and start a better life in England. But when she joins him she is shocked to find London shabby, decrepit, and far from the golden city of her dreams. Even Gilbert is not the man she thought he was...

Small Island by bestselling author Andrea Levy won the Orange Prize for Fiction, as well as many other awards, including the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the Whitbread. Now a major BBC drama starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Naomie Harris, its enduring appeal will captivate fans of Maya Angelou and Zadie Smith. 'A great read... honest, skilful, thoughtful and important' - Guardian It is 1948, and England is recovering from a war. But at 21 Nevern Street, London, the conflict has only just begun. Queenie Bligh's neighbours do not approve when she agrees to take in Jamaican lodgers, but Queenie doesn't know when her husband will return, or if he will come back at all. What else can she do? Gilbert Joseph was one of the several thousand Jamaican men who joined the RAF to fight against Hitler. Returning to England as a civilian he finds himself treated very differently. It's desperation that makes him remember a wartime friendship with Queenie and knock at her door. Gilbert's wife Hortense, too, had longed to leave Jamaica and start a better life in England. But when she joins him she is shocked to find London shabby, decrepit, and far from the golden city of her dreams. Even Gilbert is not the man she thought he was...

Henry talks with Ashley Hay, the editor of Griffith Review, a former literary editor of The Bulletin, and a prize-winning author who has published three novels and four books of narrative non-fiction. Her work has won several awards, including the 2013 Colin Roderick Prize and the People's Choice Award in the 2014 NSW Premier's Prize. She has also been longlisted for the Miles Franklin and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and shortlisted for prizes including the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the Kibble. In 2014, she edited the anthology Best Australian Science Writing. This conversation was originally broadcast on 3SER's 97.7FM Casey Radio in February 2022. It was produced by Rob Kelly.

On November 9th, 2021, the Lannan Center presented a reading and talk featuring author Aminatta Forna and editor John Freeman. Introduction by David Gewanter.About Aminatta FornaAminatta Forna was born in Scotland, raised in Sierra Leone and Great Britain and spent periods of her childhood in Iran, Thailand and Zambia. She is the award-winning author of the novels Happiness, The Hired Man, The Memory of Love and Ancestor Stones, and a memoir The Devil that Danced on the Water, and most recently the essay collection, The Window Seat: Notes from a Life in Motion. Forna is the recipient of a Windham Campbell Award from Yale University, has won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize Best Book Award 2011, a Hurston Wright Legacy Award the Liberaturpreis in Germany and the Aidoo-Snyder Book Prize, and was made OBE in the Queen's New Year's Honours 2017. She is currently Director and Lannan Foundation Chair of Poetics of the Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice at Georgetown University. About John FreemanJohn Freeman is the editor of Freeman's, a literary annual of new writing, and executive editor at Alfred A. Knopf. His books include How to Read a Novelist and Dictionary of the Undoing, as well as Tales of Two Americas, an anthology about income inequality in America, and Tales of Two Planets, an anthology of new writing about inequality and the climate crisis globally. He is also the author of two poetry collections, Maps and The Park. His work is translated into more than twenty languages, and has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and The New York Times. The former editor of Granta, he teaches writing at New York University.Music: Quantum Jazz — "Orbiting A Distant Planet" — Provided by Jamendo.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie est une écrivaine originaire d'Abba, au sud-est du Nigeria, qui vit depuis plus de vingt ans aux États-Unis. Elle est l'auteure de plusieurs romans : « L'Hibiscus pourpre »(2003) récompensé par le Commonwealth Writers' Prize, « L'Autre Moitié du soleil » (2006) sur la guerre du Biafra, Orange Prize for Fiction, de « Americanah », le parcours d'une jeune femme nigériane émigrée aux États-Unis, et de plusieurs recueils dont « Nous sommes tous des féministes » parus chez Gallimard.   "Comment dire adieu à un être cher alors que le monde entier est frappé par une crise sanitaire, que le défunt repose au Nigeria et que ses enfants sont bloqués en Angleterre et aux États-Unis ? Le père de Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie vient de mourir. Séparée de ses proches, cette dernière vit un deuil empêché et solitaire. Elle écrit alors sous la forme de courts chapitres, composés comme des soubresauts de chagrin et de rage, où l'amour et l'admiration qu'elle portait à son père explosent à chaque page. James Nwoye Adichie a traversé plusieurs époques de l'histoire du Nigeria. S'il a transmis la culture et la langue igbos à ses enfants, essentielles à l'œuvre de l'autrice, il s'est aussi élevé contre certaines traditions de son pays. En partageant des anecdotes familiales simples et touchantes, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie rend hommage au professeur émérite de l'Université du Nigeria, mais surtout au père humble et affectueux qu'il était, son « dadounet originel ». La perte se voit ainsi transcendée par l'amour et la transmission." (Présentation des éditions Gallimard)

Zukiswa Wanner is a South African journalist, novelist and editor born in Zambia and now based in Kenya. Since 2006, when she published her first book, her novels have been shortlisted for awards including the South African Literary Awards and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and has since become one of the most important voices in African literature. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What does it really mean to be courageous? Bridget van der Zijpp explores this in her new novel I Laugh Me Broken. Bridget's first novel, Misconduct was shortlisted for the 2009 Commonwealth Writers' Best First Book Prize, and for the 2009 Montana New Zealand Book Awards Best First Book of Fiction. In I Laugh Me Broken, Ginny the narrator learns of a potential threat to her health soon before her wedding. She faces a dilemma. She could get tested to see if she's inherited genes for a life threatening condition. Instead she takes off to the other side of the world, telling everyone that it's to research her next book.

Born in the remote Khojand province of Tajikistan in 1964, Farzaneh Khojandi is widely regarded as the most exciting woman poet writing in Persian today and has a huge following in Iran and Afghanistan as well as in Tajikistan, where she is simply regarded as the country's foremost living writer. Her frequently playful and witty poetry draws on the rich tradition of Persian literature in an often subversive and humorous way.  Khojandi was translated by Narguess Farzad, Senior Lecturer, Persian Studies, at SOAS and Chair of Centre for Iranian Studies WITH the UK poet Jo Shapcott, who has won a number of literary prizes including the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Collection, the Forward Prize for Best Collection and the National Poetry Competition. Persian poetry is rightly famed for the richness of its heritage and many classical Persian poets, such as Rumi and Hafez, are famous across the world. But little is known about how contemporary Persian-language poets have continued to enrich and enliven their tradition, a gap that the PTC sought to fill in its early days translating Persian poets working within the local variations of Dari spoken in Afghanistan, Farsi from Iran and Tajik from Tajikistan.

An original short story specially commissioned by BBC Radio 4 by the Northern Irish writer Lucy Caldwell. As read by Louise Parker (The Northern Bank Job.) Lucy Caldwell is the award-winning author of three novels, several stage plays and radio dramas, and most recently two collections of short stories: Multitudes (Faber, 2016) and Intimacies (Faber, 2021). She is also the editor of Being Various: New Irish Short Stories (Faber, 2019). Awards include the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the George Devine Award, the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Imison Award, the Susan Smith Blackburn Award, the Irish Writers' and Screenwriters' Guild Award, the Commonwealth Writers' Award (Canada & Europe), the Edge Hill Short Story Prize Readers' Choice Award, a Fiction Uncovered Award, a K. Blundell Trust Award and a Major Individual Artist Award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. Reader: Louise Parker Writer: Lucy Caldwell Producer: Michael Shannon Exec Editor: Andy Martin A BBC Northern Ireland production.

Dr Shashi Tharoor, a third-term Member of Parliament for Thiruvananthapuram, is the bestselling author of twenty-two books, both fiction and non-fiction, besides being a former Under Secretary-General of the United Nations and a former Minister of State for Human Resource Development and for External Affairs in the Government of India. He has won numerous awards, including the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, a Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the Crossword Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2019, Dr. Tharoor was also awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in the category of ‘English Non-Fiction' for his book An Era of Darkness. He chairs Parliament's Standing Committee on Information Technology.

Ashley Hay is a former literary editor of The Bulletin, and a prize-winning author who has published three novels and four books of narrative non-fiction. Her work has won several awards, including the 2013 Colin Roderick Prize and the People's Choice Award in the 2014 NSW Premier's Prize. She has also been longlisted for the Miles Franklin and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and shortlisted for prizes including the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the Kibble. In 2014, she edited the anthology Best Australian Science Writing. In this episode of the podcast, Henry talks wish Ashley about the latest Griffith Review. This conversation was originally broadcast on 3SER's 97.7FM Casey Radio in June 2021. It was produced by Rob Kelly.

The French philosopher Jacques Derrida once described his idea of absolute hospitality as follows: Absolute hospitality requires that I open up my home and that I give not only the foreigner, but to the absolute, unknown, anonymous other, and that I give place to them, that I let them come, that I let them arrive, and take place in the place I offer them, without asking of them either reciprocity (entering in a pact) or even their names.  Be My Guest: Reflections on Food, Community, and the Meaning of Generosity (Knopf, 2020) by Priya Basil uses food — the act of cooking, eating, and hosting — as a vehicle to discuss the meaning of generosity. Drawing on her family's and her own experiences in India, Kenya, and Germany, along with many other cultural references, she discusses what it means to be a host and guest, on the personal and the social-political level. Some of the themes of Be My Guest are discussed in her 2019 essay for The Observer, “Being a good host is about more than just the food,” and in a video for the Humbodlt Forum, “Locked in and Out”. In this interview, Priya and I talk about the meaning of generosity, and how it relates to food. We talk about whether there are differences in how people both offer and receive generosity, and how these differences connect to our politics. Priya Basil was born in London to a family with Indian roots, and grew up in Kenya, moving to Berlin in 2002. She has published two novels and a novella, as well as numerous essays for various publications, including The Guardian. Her fiction has been nominated for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, the Dylan Thomas Prize, and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Basil is also the cofounder of Authors for Peace, a political platform for writers and artists, established in 2010. She is also a co-founder and co-editor of the literary-political journal Rhinozeros – Europe in Transition. You can find more reviews, excerpts, interviews, and essays at The Asian Review of Books, including its review of Be My Guest. Follow on Facebook or on Twitter at @BookReviewsAsia. Nicholas Gordon is a reviewer for the Asian Review of Books. In his day job, he's a researcher and writer for a think tank in economic and sustainable development. He is also a print and broadcast commentator on local and regional politics. He can be found on Twitter at @nickrigordon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/asian-review

Mandla Langa (born 1950 in Stanger, Durban) is a South African poet, short story writer, and novelist. He grew up in KwaMashu township.[1] His novel The Lost Colours of the Chameleon won the 2009 Commonwealth Writers' Prize (Africa region).[2][3] Langa studied at the University of Fort Hare, graduating in 1972 with a B.A. degree in English and Philosophy.[4] In 1976, he went into exile and has lived in different countries of Southern Africa as well as in Hungary and the United Kingdom.

Georgina Godwin meets filmmaker, playwright and writer Tsitsi Dangarembga, whose 1988 novel ‘Nervous Conditions’ was the first published in English by a black Zimbabwean woman and won the Commonwealth Writers’ prize. Thirty years on, at a time of political turmoil in the country, her follow-up, ‘This Mournable Body’, has been long-listed for the Booker prize.

The Seamus Heaney Centre Podcast is produced in a small back room by Ian Sansom, Stephen Sexton, and Rachel Brown. With thanks to our producer Chantal Ailsby, and to Nick Boyle for his music. This is one of a series of masterclasses with novelists, poets, playwrights and screenwriters, designed to support a life of writing. Special thanks to the Queen's Annual Fund.  Lucy Caldwell (b. 1981, Belfast) is the multi–award winning author of three novels, several stage plays and radio dramas and, most recently, two collections of short stories: Multitudes (Faber, 2016) and Intimacies (forthcoming, Faber, 2020). She is also the editor of Being Various: New Irish Short Stories (Faber, 2019). She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2018.  Awards include the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the George Devine Award, the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Imison Award, the Susan Smith Blackburn Award, the Irish Writers' and Screenwriters' Guild Award, the Commonwealth Writers' Award (Canada & Europe), the Edge Hill Short Story Prize Readers' Choice Award, a Fiction Uncovered Award, a K. Blundell Trust Award and a Major Individual Artist Award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. 

Catherine Elizabeth Grenville AO has published fifteen books, including fiction, non-fiction, biography, and books about the writing process. In 2001, she won the Orange Prize for The Idea of Perfection, and in 2006 she won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for The Secret River. The Secret River was also shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Ahead of the release of her new book, 'A Room Made of Leaves', Ben and Jo sat down with Kate to discuss her new book, the relevance of telling this story now, the hidden life of Elizabeth Macarthur and more. Books mentioned in this podcast: 'A Room Made of Leaves' by Kate Grenville: https://bit.ly/2wSmM7w Hosts: Ben Hunter & Jo Lewin Guest: Kate Grenville Producer: Nick Wasiliev

To celebrate the end of 2019, we've re-released our highest rating fiction interviews of the year: #1 is Christos Tsiolkas. Christos is one of Australia's most courageous writers. He has published six novels, several of which have been adapted for the screen. Damascus (2019) is his latest work. Christos is best known for Loaded (1995), which became the movie Head On, and The Slap (2008) was turned into an Australian and U.S. television miniseries after it won the 2009 Commonwealth Writers' Prize, was shortlisted for the 2009 Miles Franklin Literary Award and was longlisted for the 2010 Man Booker Prize. Christos is also a playwright, essayist, screen writer and film critic. His other works include Dead Europe (2005), which won the Age Fiction Prize and the Melbourne Best Writing Award, and The Jesus Man (1999). His critical literary study On Patrick White came out in 2018.  About The Garret You can also follow The Garret on Twitter and Facebook, or follow our host Astrid Edwards on Twitter or Instagram. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Christos Tsiolkas is one of Australia's most courageous writers. He has published six novels, several of which have been adapted for the screen. Damascus (2019) is his latest work. Christos is best known for Loaded (1995), which became the movie Head On, and The Slap (2008) was turned into an Australian and U.S. television miniseries after it won the 2009 Commonwealth Writers' Prize, was shortlisted for the 2009 Miles Franklin Literary Award and was longlisted for the 2010 Man Booker Prize. Christos is also a playwright, essayist, screen writer and film critic. His other works include Dead Europe (2005), which won the Age Fiction Prize and the Melbourne Best Writing Award, and The Jesus Man (1999). His critical literary study On Patrick White came out in 2018.  About The Garret You can also follow The Garret on Twitter and Facebook, or follow our host Astrid Edwards on Twitter or Instagram. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My guest for this episode is Abidemi Sanusi. Abidemi is a Nigerian born former human rights worker turned author, and has been writing and publishing books across multiple genres for fifteen years. Her novel, Eyo, about a 10 year old girl trafficked to the UK with promises of a better life, was nominated for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. She's also the founder of abidemi.tv, the website for ambitious writers', and she provides business success templates for freelance writers. A self-confessed tech geek, she is also the founder of writethemes.com - gorgeous Wordpress themes for writers that turn their Wordpress website visitors into paying fans.

My guest for this episode is Abidemi Sanusi. Abidemi is a Nigerian born former human rights worker turned author, and has been writing and publishing books across multiple genres for fifteen years. Her novel, Eyo, about a 10 year old girl trafficked to the UK with promises of a better life, was nominated for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. She's also the founder of abidemi.tv, the website for ambitious writers', and she provides business success templates for freelance writers. A self-confessed tech geek, she is also the founder of writethemes.com - gorgeous Wordpress themes for writers that turn their Wordpress website visitors into paying fans.

This week's call is with Vikram Chandra, novelist, software developer, and deep thinker about the creative process. I first discovered his work when I read his bestseller Geek Sublime: The Beauty of Code, the Code of Beauty, a book about the creative drives and lives shared by writers and coders. One of the book's most mind- blowing sections (I am re-reading it this week) is about the precision of Sanskrit as a language. In 500 BCE, a scholar named Panini wrote a grammar of Sanskrit that fit in just 40 dense pages. His work has influenced Western grammatical theory for centuries, and that theory "became the seedbed for high-level computer languages," as Vikram points out in his book. You can draw a line connecting Sanskrit with how computer programs are conceived and written. That was my point of entry into his work, but I wanted to interview him because he wrote something that terrified me. I learned from reading a blog he wrote that he doesn't outline his long, complex novels. He writes with purposeful ambiguity. As you begin, you know very little about what the book is. But the thoughts and visions persist, which means that this character and her world have some kind of special energy for you, and you want to know more about this character, what her situation is. - Vikram ChandraThis means that he may spend years writing his way into a story, leaving big plot holes, learning about the characters as he goes, until the novel comes into focus. This seems like a scary way to write, but it has successful practitioners. His first novel, Red Earth and Pouring Rain, won the 1996 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book. Sacred Games is a literary novel that is also a crime novel, a detective story, and a thriller. It has a hundred characters. It became the first original television series from India on Netflix. So feeling along in the dark might be a good way to write a book. Novelist E. L. Doctorow described his writing process like this: “You know the headlights are on in the fog and you can see just so far, but you realize you can drive the whole way like that.” Joan Didion wrote something like, I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see, and what I think it means. I can keep throwing quotes at you all day. They will do nothing to push back my terror of wading into a long book without an outline. On the call, Vikram and I talk about his discovery process and my planning process. Since he is the rare person who values purposeful ambiguity and also has an engineer's mind, he is working on a kind of super-software for writers that keeps track of who, what, where, and when. You can use kind of hacky solutions like the old-time honored index cards on the wall, your hand drawn or a software based timelines. But the problem is again that none of this knowledge is attached to the text. And so that's what I obsessed about for nearly a decade and discovered that it's actually a pretty hard problem, attaching facts to text, which has a very honorable and long effort.  - Vikram ChandraHis answer is called Granthika, which is in beta now with an official launch coming in October. You can try it out. Here’s the link: https://granthika.co  Easily as mind expanding as Sanskrit grammar forming the conceptual basis of computer programming languages, Granthika is an AI word processor that tracks and corrects continuity errors in your timeline, characters, and events. It's an editor by your side who constantly tests your story's factual correctness. As Vikram suggested in our call, "if you move the inquest up before the murder, it tells you" and you can fix it. Learn more about Granthika. Read the blog that got me terrified about feeling you way through writing: Finding a Book: The Writer’s JourneyCheck out Vikram Chandra's books on his website. Thanks for listening,Lee A technical noteA reminder, On a Call With … is just a phone call. Actually, a Zoom call. But it’s not a fancy podcast with all the fancy studio equipment. It’s meant to be informal and easy to do. If you want to hear some fancy studio stuff with engineers, multiple cities synced up, location recording, custom music, and all of that, have a listen at this link. Get full access to 500 Words at 500words.substack.com/subscribe

photo by Adrian Pope Vahni Capildeo is a Trinidadian Scottish writer inspired by other voices, ranging from live Caribbean connexions and an Indian diaspora background to the landscapes where Capildeo travels and lives. Their poetry (seven books and four pamphlets) includes Measures of Expatriation, awarded the Forward Prize for Best Collection in 2016. Following a DPhil in Old Norse literature, Capildeo has worked in academia; in culture for development, with Commonwealth Writers; and as an Oxford English Dictionary lexicographer. Capildeo held the Judith E. Wilson  Poetry Fellowship and Harper-Wood Studentship at Cambridge, and more recently a Douglas Caster Cultural Fellowship at the University of Leeds. Feather sculpture and photo for Measures of Expatriation by Elspeth Duncan, cover design by Luke Allan. The cover design for Venus as a Bear by Luke Allan

Born in London in 1954, Louis de Bernières published his first book in 1990 and since then has written two volumes of poetry, numerous works of short fiction and eight novels. He's best known for Captain Corelli's Mandolin, a musical, richly-layered love story, set during the Second World War - which won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Novel in 1994 and was later made into a film with Nicolas Cage and Penelope Cruz. In a lively and unusually revealing conversation, he speaks to the Telegraph's Laura Powell about his successes, his struggles, and the three books that have most profoundly shaped him. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today our podcast connects with Akwaeke Emezi. Akwaeke Emezi is an Igbo and Tamil writer and video artist based in liminal spaces. Her debut autobiographical novel FRESHWATER (Grove Atlantic, February 2018) has been reviewed by the Wall Street Journal ('[a] witchy, electrifying story of danger and compulsion') and the LA Times ('a dazzling, devastating novel'). It also received starred reviews from Library Journal and Booklist, and has been recognized on 2018 best/most anticipated books lists by Esquire, ELLE, Cosmopolitan, Buzzfeed, Huffington Post, Bustle, OZY, Electric Lit, and Book Riot, among others. Emezi's first young adult novel, PET, will be published in 2019 by Make Me a World, Christopher Myers' imprint in partnership with Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers. Her short story 'Who Is Like God' won the 2017 Commonwealth Short Story Prize for Africa. She was photographed by Annie Leibovitz and profiled in the February 2018 issue of Vogue Magazine (Modern Families With A Cause). Her video art series THE UNBLINDING recently premiered at Gavin Brown's enterprise in Harlem. Born in Umuahia and raised in Aba, Nigeria, Emezi holds two degrees, including an MPA from New York University. In 2017, she was awarded a Global Arts Fund grant for the video art in her project The Unblinding, and a Sozopol Fellowship for Creative Nonfiction. She received a 2015 Morland Writing Scholarship to write her second novel, and is a 2016 Kimbilio Fellow. Emezi's writing has been published by Granta Online, Vogue.com, and Commonwealth Writers, among others. Her memoir work was included in The Fader's 'Best Culture Writing of 2015' ('Who Will Claim You?') and her experimental short UDUDEAGU won the Audience Award for Best Short Experimental at the 2014 BlackStar Film Festival. She is currently making video art and working on her third novel.     The How The Why is a half-hour podcast documenting the creative process and the creative purpose hosted by Jon-Barrett Ingels. This free weekly series is an educational resource provided to discuss the evolution of literary arts with industry innovators. Interviews are structured as friendly conversations and conducted via telephone. Occasionally, episodes will be recorded live at special events and highlight multiple guests.   Producer: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guest: Akwaeke Emezi

Today I'm talking with author, Uwem Akpan about his critically acclaimed book of short stories called, “Say You're One of Them”. “Say You're One of Them” has won many accolades and awards. It won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, the PEN Open Book Award, and was picked by the Oprah Winfrey Book Club in 2009. USA…

Lawrence Hill talks about his book, The Book of Negroes, which is being reissued in paperback to coincide with the BET miniseries airing in February.In The Book of Negroes, Hill brings to life the journey of Aminata Diallo, an African, a South Carolinian, a New Yorker, a Nova Scotian, and a Londoner, as she travels from continent to continent and from freedom to enslavement. She becomes the embodiment of the African diaspora.Lawrence Hill is the author of nine books of fiction and nonfiction. The Book of Negroes (formerly published as Someone Knows My Name) won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. The BET miniseries, directed by Clement Virgo, was filmed in South Africa and Canada and stars Cuba Gooding, Jr., Jane Alexander, Louis Gossett, Jr., and Aunjanue Ellis.The Brown Lecture Series is supported by a generous grant from the Eddie C. and C. Sylvia Brown Family Foundation. Recorded On: Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Louis de Bernières talks about the life and poetry of Cavafy. Louis de Bernières, who lives in Norfolk, published his first novel in 1990 and was selected by Granta magazine as one of the twenty Best of Young British Novelists in 1993. Since then he has become well known internationally as a writer, with Captain Corelli's Mandolin winning the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Novel in 1994. His sixth novel, the acclaimed Birds Without Wings, came out in 2004., A Partisan's Daughter (2008) was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and Notwithstanding: Stories from an English Village was published in Autumn 2009, followed by de Bernieres’ first collection of poetry, Imagining Alexandria: Poems in Memory of Constantinos Cavafis, in 2013; it is also available in audio, read by the author. Publication of his major new novel, The Dust That Falls From Dreams, was in July 2015, and his new collection of poems, OF LOVE AND DESIRE, is out in February 2016. As well as writing, de Bernieres plays the flute, mandolin and guitar. 5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirations. There are only two rules - no scripts and only 15 minutes each. Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories

The Betrayers (Little Brown and Company) Please welcome back to Skylight Books David Bezmozgis, the award-winning author of Free World and Natasha and Other Stories. His latest, The Betrayers is a compact saga of love, duty, family, and sacrifice from a rising star whose fiction is "self-assured, elegant, perceptive . . . and unflinchingly honest" (New York Times) These incandescent pages give us one fraught, momentous day in the life of Baruch Kotler, a Soviet Jewish dissident who now finds himself a disgraced Israeli politician. When he refuses to back down from a contrary but principled stand regarding the settlements in the West Bank, his political opponents expose his affair with a mistress decades his junior, and the besieged couple escapes to Yalta, the faded Crimean resort of Kotler's youth. There, shockingly, Kotler comes face-to-face with the former friend whose denunciation sent him to the Gulag almost forty years earlier. In a whirling twenty-four hours, Kotler must face the ultimate reckoning, both with those who have betrayed him and with those whom he has betrayed, including a teenage daughter, a son facing his own moral dilemma in the Israeli army, and the wife who once campaigned to secure his freedom and stood by him through so much. Stubborn, wry, and self-knowing, Baruch Kotler is one of the great creations of contemporary fiction. An aging man grasping for a final passion, he is drawn inexorably into a crucible that is both personal and biblical in scope. In prose that is elegant, sly, precise, and devastating in its awareness of the human heart, David Bezmozgis has rendered a story for the ages, an inquest into the nature of fate and consequence, love and forgiveness. The Betrayers" is a high-wire act, a powerful tale of morality and sacrifice that will haunt readers long after they turn the final page.  Praise for The Betrayers“The Betrayers is a moral thriller in the tradition of Bernard Malamud, but the generosity, grace, and wisdom of the writing belong entirely to David Bezmozgis. The magic of fiction is that it makes the reader care deeply about imaginary strangers, and Bezmozgis is a magician.”—Aleksandar Hemon, National Book Award finalist for The Lazarus Project “This outstanding novel definitively establishes David Bezmozgis as one of the foremost writers of his generation.”—Ben Fountain, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk “This unforgettable novel squanders no words in its brilliant, deft depictions of love, of memory, of compassion—and, ultimately, despite its title, of loyalty.”—Edith Pearlman, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award forBinocular Vision  David Bezmozgis moved from Latvia to Canada at the age of six. After studying English literature at McGill University and fine arts at the Southern California School of Cinema-Television, he created his first documentary in 1999, entitled L.A. Mohel, capturing the busy lives of three mohels (Jewish ritual circumcisers) in Los Angeles. His debut short story collection, Natasha and Other Stories, won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book and was nominated for a Governor General's Award. Bezmozgis is currently a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.

The Moor's Account (Pantheon) Tonight's reading is part of the Los Angeles/Islam Arts Initiative (LA/IAI). From the author of Secret Son and Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits comes  The Moor's Account, the imagined memoirs of the New World's first explorer of African descent, a Moroccan slave known as Estebanico. In 1527, Panfilo de Narvaez sailed from Spain with a crew of six hundred men, intending to claim for the Spanish crown what is now the Gulf Coast of the United States. But from the moment the expedition reached Florida, it met with ceaseless bad luck--storms, disease, starvation, hostile natives--and within a year there were only four survivors, including the young explorer Andres Dorantes and his slave, Estebanico. After six years of enslavement by Native Americans, the four men escaped and wandered through what is now Florida, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. The Moor's Account brilliantly captures Estebanico's voice and vision, giving us an alternate narrative for this famed expedition. As this dramatic chronicle unfolds, we come to understand that, contrary to popular belief, black men played a significant part in New World exploration, and that Native American men and women were not merely silent witnesses to it. In Laila Lalami's deft hands, Estebanico's memoir illuminates the ways in which stories can transmigrate into history, even as storytelling can offer a chance at redemption and survival. Praise for The Moor's Account “A beautiful, rousing tale that would be difficult to believe if it were not actually true. Lalami has once again shown why she is one of her generation's most gifted writers.” —Reza Aslan, author of Zealot “¡Qué belleza! Laila Lalami has given us a mesmerizing reimagining of one of the foundational chronicles of exploration of the New World and an indictment of the uncontainable hubris displayed by Spanish explorers—told from the point of view of Estebanillo, an Arab slave and Cabeza de Vaca's companion in a trek across the United States that is as important as that of Lewis and Clark. The style and voice of sixteenth-century crónicas are turned upside down to subtly undermine our understanding of race and religion, now and then. The Moor's Account is a worthy stepchild of Don Quixote de la Mancha.”—Ilan Stavans, author of On Borrowed Words: A Memoir of Language and general editor of The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature “A novel of extraordinary scope, ambition and originality. Laila Lalami has given voice to a man silenced by for five centuries, a voice both convincing and compelling. The Moor's Account is a work of creativity and compassion, one which demonstrates the full might of Lalami's talent as a writer.”—Aminatta Forna, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and Hurston Prize Legacy Award winning author of The Memory of Love, Ancestor Stones, and The Devil That Danced on the Water Laila Lalami was born and raised in Morocco. She attended Université Mohammed V in Rabat, University College in London, and the University of Southern California, where she earned a Ph.D. in linguistics. She is the author of the short story collection Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, which was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award, and the novel Secret Son, which was on the Orange Prize longlist. Her essays and opinion pieces have appeared in Newsweek, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, The Guardian, The New York Times, and in numerous anthologies. Her work has been translated into ten languages. She is the recipient of a British Council Fellowship, a Fulbright Fellowship, and a Lannan Foundation Residency Fellowship, and is currently an associate professor of creative writing at the University of California at Riverside. This reading is a part of the Los Angeles / Islam Arts Initiative (LA/IAI) Launching this fall, the Los Angeles / Islam Arts Initiative (LA/IAI) brings together nearly 30 cultural institutions throughout Los Angeles to tell various stories of traditional and contemporary art from multiple Islamic regions and their significant global diasporas. LA/IAI is the first-of-its kind, wide-scale citywide initiative on Islamic arts producing and presenting programming such as art exhibitions, panels, discussions, and performances. Anchoring LA/IAI are two connected exhibitions, Doris Duke's Shangri La: Architecture, Landscape, and Islamic Art and the contemporary art exhibition, Shangri La: Imagined Cities commissioned by the Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) to be held at DCA's Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery (LAMAG) at Barnsdall Park from October 26 to December 28, 2014. Los Angeles' substantial populations from areas with strong Islamic roots make LA a compelling location for this initiative. LA/IAI casts a wide net, being inclusive and welcoming, with art as its central focus. The term “Islamic art” includes work created by non-Muslim artists from Muslim-dominant countries, work by Muslims creating art in non-Muslim dominant countries, and work by artists culturally influenced by Islam. Designed to build a greater understanding of the role of Islamic arts, LA/IAI seeks to stimulate the global conversation in connection to cultural, political, and social issues. The celebration of Islamic art and culture is presented by DCA with major support from the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Community Foundation, the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), and the Barnsdall Park Foundation. For more information, please visit:  http://www.laislamarts.org/

Winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, Zakes Mda is regarded as one of the most important novelists to have emerged on South Africa’s literary scene since the end of apartheid. The author of more than 20 novels and plays, Mda is now resident in the USA where he is a professor at Ohio University. In this event, recorded live at the 2014 Edinburgh International Book Festival, you can hear him discuss his creative output, including his new mystic-realist epic The Sculptors of Mapungubwe.

A series of five essays from writers around the Commonwealth which start on Commonwealth Day 10th March and tackle the past, present and future of this unique international organisation.Farah Ghuznavi from Bangladesh has been Writer in Residence for Commonwealth Writers. She saw the Commonwealth as an irrelevance in her early life. Here she explains what changed her mind.

Sade Adeniran is the author of “Imagine This”, a novel,  which won the 2008 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book (Africa Region), and was shortlisted for The Book to Talk About 2009. “Imagine This” is the journal of Lola Ogunwole as she charts her survival from childhood to adulthood. Born in London, Lola and […]

David Hewson explains how he's transported the cult Danish TV series The Killing into novel form and why readers should expect a twist in the tale. The programme looks at the experiences of writers and the state of publishing across Commonwealth countries with Jeremy Poynting, managing editor of Peepal Tree Press, and Lucy Hannah who runs the culture programme at the Commonwealth Foundation. And short story writer Helen Simpson discusses her new collection of her much loved tales dating back over 25 years.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the author Vikram Seth. His novel A Suitable Boy was nearly a decade in the writing, but it was a huge and immediate hit and won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. He is now working on a follow-up novel called A Suitable Girl. He's due to finish work on it in 2013 - 20 years after the original work was published. The pace of work, he admits, is slow: "The sound of deadlines pushing past is one of the sounds that authors are most familiar with - it's very much in the gestational period." Producer: Leanne Buckle.

Lawrence Hill's third novel was published as The Book of Negroes in Canada and the UK, and as Someone Knows My Name in the USA, Australiaand New Zealand. It won the overall Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book, the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, the Ontario Library Association's Evergreen Award and CBC Radio's Canada Reads. The book was a finalist for the Hurston/Wright LEGACY Award and longlisted for both the Giller Prize and the IMPAC Award. Hill is also the author of the novels Any Known Blood (William Morrow, New York, 1999 and HarperCollins Canada, 1997) and Some Great Thing (HarperCollins 2009, originally published by Turnstone Press, Winnipeg, 1992). Hill's most recently published fiction is the short story 'Meet You at the Door', which appeared in the January-February, 2011 issue of The Walrus magazine.   Hill's most recent non-fiction book The Deserter's Tale: the Story of an Ordinary Soldier Who Walked Away from the War in Iraq (written with Joshua Key) was released in the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan and several European countries.   In 2010, Hill received honorary doctorates from the University of Toronto and Wilfrid Laurier University, the Bob Edwards Award from the Alberta Theatre Projects, and was named Author of the Year by Go On Girl, the largest African-American women's book club in the United States.  

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie grew up in Nigeria. Her work has been translated into 30 languages and has appeared in various publications, including The O. Henry Prize Stories 2003, The New Yorker, Granta, Financial Times, and Zoetrope. Her novel, Half of a Yellow Sun, won the Orange Broadband Prize, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, was named a New York Times Notable Book, and was a People and Black Issues Book Review Best Book of the Year. Her first novel, Purple Hibiscus, won the Commonwealth Writers

This from contemporary writers: One of South Africa's most distinguished writers, André Brink was born in 1935. Poet, novelist, essayist and teacher, he began work as a University lecturer in Afrikaans and Dutch Literature in the 1960s. He began writing in Afrikaans, but when censored by the South African government, began to also write in English and became published overseas. He remains a key figure in the modernisation of the Afrikaans language novel. His novel, A Dry White Season (1979), was made into a film starring Marlon Brando while An Instant in the Wind (1976), the story of a relationship between a white woman and a black man, and Rumours of Rain (1978) were both shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction.  Devil's Valley (1998) explores the life of a community locked away from the rest of the world, and The Other Side of Silence (2002), set in colonial Africa in the early twentieth century, won a Commonwealth Writers regional award for Best Book in 2003. He has also written a collection of essays on literature and politics, Reinventing a Continent (1996), prefaced by Nelson Mandela.  He is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Cape Town. His latest novels are Praying Mantis (2005) and The Blue Door (2007). His memoir, A Fork in the Road was published in 2009 I met Andre Brink at his home in Cape Town. (His lovely young wife Karina greeted me at the door and led me into his book-lined study).  Once seated we talked mostly about his life, about his father, about love and duty, justice, Apartheid, inter-racial sex, J.M. Coetzee, Nadine Gordimer; his love affair with poet Ingrid Jonker, her suicide, her poem ‘Plant me a Tree,' English as his second language, Picasso, recommended wines and staying in South Africa despite his nephew having been shot dead by intruders at his home just north of Johannesburg.