Podcasts about serpent's tail

Today So and Sam are joined by Serpent's Tail's Hannah Westland to talk about being the OG indie press, who shares some exciting news viz. Esi Edugyan, along with celebrations for Independent Bookshop Week. Also the usual banter and nonsense from Dan et. al.    

For Minisode Nineteen we’re doing something a little different - this episode is sponsored by publisher Serpent’s Tail, who are celebrating their thirty-fifth birthday this year (just like both of us!). We’ve had many of their authors on the show over the years, including Chris Kraus, Carmen Maria Machado, Mary Gaitskill, Esi Edugyan and Sarah Perry. So in honour of their birthday, we talked to Serpent’s Tail publisher Hannah Westland about what it's like to be an editor, how she works with authors and with text, and what it means to be looking for fresh talent. Plus she gave some hot tips about upcoming books this Spring. We hope you enjoy it! https://serpentstail.com/

Hannah Westland is the publisher at Serpent's Tail, the literary arm of Profile Books. Serpent's Tail launching the careers of writers such as David Peace, Michel Houellebecq and Colm Tóibín and made books such as Lionel Shriver’s We Need To Talk About Kevin and Karen Jay Fowler's We Are Completely Beside Ourselves into bestsellers.Hannah joined me to talk about books like Alix Nathan's The Warlow Experiment and the literary phenomenon that is Sarah Perry's The Essex Serpent. Hannah also tells us how representing Esi Edugyan, the author of the Booker shortlisted Washington Black, as an agent helped Hannah transition into publishing. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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/

A very special episode, live from London Book Fair: host Anna Fielding is joined by three authors for a discussion of historical fiction, the genre that unites their latest books:Jess Kidd's Things in Jars is set in London in 1863. Bridie Devine, the finest female detective of her age, is taking on her toughest case yet: the kidnapping of a young girl. But Christabel Berwick is no ordinary child. She is not supposed to exist. As Bridie fights to recover the stolen child she enters a world of fanatical anatomists, crooked surgeons and mercenary showmen. Things in Jars is an enchanting Victorian detective novel that explores what it is to be human in inhumane times. (Canongate, April 2019)Meanwhile Claire McGlasson's The Rapture centres on Dilys, a devoted member of a terribly English cult: The Panacea Society, populated almost entirely by virtuous single ladies. When she strikes up a friendship with Grace, a new recruit, God finally seems to be smiling upon her. But Dilys is wary of their leader's zealotry and suspicious of those who would seem to influence her for their own ends. As her feelings for Grace bloom, the Society around her begins to crumble. Faith is supplanted by doubt as both women come to question what is true and fear what is real. (Faber & Faber, June 2019)And The Warlow Experiment by Alix Nathan takes the late eighteenth century as its setting. Inspired by a real document uncovered by Nathan, it tells the story of a semi-literatre labourer, John Warlow, recruited by a wealthy man of science to live, as an experiment, in the cellar of the main house, without human contact but with meals and luxuries provided, for a period of seven years. The experiment is, of course, a classic Enlightenment exercise gone mad, that promises unforeseen consequences for all included. In this seductive tale of self-delusion and obsession, Alix Nathan has created an utterly transporting historical novel which is both elegant and unforgettably sinister. (Serpent's Tail, July 2019)Listen to Alix, Claire and Jess discuss their novels with Anna, tell you about books they've loved or yearn to read, and about their favourite independent bookshops. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Carmen Maria Machado's genre-bending short story collection, Her Body and Other Parties, has met with widespread acclaim. Shortlisted for the American National Book Award and the International Dylan Thomas Prize, it demolishes the borders between magical realism and science fiction, comedy and horror, fantasy and fabulism. Startling narratives map the realities of women's lives and the violence visited on their bodies, both in myth and in practice. It is a dark, shimmering slice of fiction, that reminded reviewers of Angela Carter.We caught up with Carmen in the summer of 2018 in Edinburgh, where she was appearing at the book festival, and asked her to tell us about books she loves and the bookshops she can't resist. Carmen responded with a brilliant selection of books with one thing in common: they are all retellings of myths.Her Body and Other Parties is published by Serpent's Tail and out now in paperback from all good bookshops. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In our Read Like a Writer Christmas special, each of this season's five guests tells us which books they'll be giving and receiving this Christmas. With thanks to Matt Haig, E. Foley and B. Coates, Ambrose Parry (aka Chris Brookmyre & Marisa Haetzman), Shaun Bythell, Sarah Perry and of course to our wonderful host, Anna Fielding.Join us on Twitter @readlikeawriter and tell us your Christmas book recommendations.Wishing you a merry Christmas, a happy new year and abundant reading over the break from all of us at Faber & Faber, Canongate, Profile and Serpent's Tail. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Winner of Waterstones Book of the Year 2016 for The Essex Serpent, as well as the Book Industry Book of the Year Award, Sarah Perry lives in Norwich. Her latest novel Melmoth is a Gothic horror and a retelling of Charles Robert Maturin's Melmoth the Wanderer. It tells the story of Melmoth, a mysterious figure who appears to those who refuse to bear witness, and entices them to follow her through time.Melmoth is published by Serpent's Tail and out now from all good bookshops. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Kassia and Simon speak to Hannah Westland, the publisher at Serpent's Tail, an independent imprint that published Lionel Shriver's We Need to Talk About Kevin and Sarah Perry's The Essex Serpent. She spoke to us about her early career — she started out as a literary agent — some of the projects she's currently working on and the role of independent firms in the publishing marketplace. https://serpentstail.com/ https://twitter.com/hannahwestland?lang=en You can find us online at alwaystakenotes.com, on Twitter @takenotesalways, and on Facebook atfacebook.com/alwaystakenotes. Always Take Notes is presented by Kassia St Clair and Simon Akam, and produced by Olivia Crellin, Ed Kiernan and Elizabeth Davies. Ed Kiernan edited this episode. Zahra Hankir is our communities editor and deals with all things social media. Our music is by Jessica Dannheisser and our logo was designed by James Edgar.

David Gates is a novelist, musician, journalist and teacher. His debut, Jernigan (1991), was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and was shortlisted for the National Book Award. ----more----Another novel, Preston Falls, followed, along with two story collections. We met in London to discuss the second of these, A Hand Reached Down to Guide Me, and also return to Jernigan, both of which have been published in the United Kingdom by Serpent's Tail. We met at their London offices, beneath a slightly noisy fan, which I have tried to limit in the recording. We began by talking about Rhinebeck, the small town in Upstate New York that is the setting for 'Banishment', which opens the new book.  From there, we moved to: his idyllic upbringing in Clinton, Connecticuthunting, deer and totaled carsinterviews and teaching literature'I am more comfortable explaining other writers than I am trying to explain myself'which writer made David Gates want to write? 'At high school I wanted to be a writer as opposed to wanting to write'how Gates started to write'It was a case of wanting to write, and needing to write. God that sounds so pretentious'hate mail, Newsweek and journalism Gates' first, unpublished, novel 'I was a dedicated writer for 11 years before Jernigan was published''You don't think there is an element of self-portraiture in these things?'women characters

Quinn Slobodian reads from The Bridge of the Golden Horn by Emine Sevgi Ozdamar, published by Serpent's Tail. "It was about words. All the students had big ears, because they heard every word and, like surgeons, immediately dissected them."

This week Anita Anand is joined by David Westhead, Thapelo Motsumi, Kamin Mohammadi, Pauline Black and Paul Magid. David Westhead is an actor and filmmaker who organised a photographic course for disadvantaged teenagers from Johannesburg townships. Thapelo Motsumi was one of the young people who attended the course and is now working as a professional photographer. An exhibition of their photographs, 'Wembley to Soweto', is at the Oxo Gallery in London. Kamin Mohammadi is a journalist who fled the Iranian revolution in 1979 aged nine with her mother, father and sister, leaving behind their large, close-knit family. They came to London where she found a very different world. It took her nearly twenty years to return to her homeland and she tells her story in the book 'The Cypress Tree', which is published by Bloomsbury. Pauline Black is the actor/director and lead singer with 2-Tone band, The Selecter. Born of Anglo-Jewish/Nigerian parents, she was adopted by a white, working class family from Essex in the fifties. Never quite at home there, she escaped her small town background, and discovered a different way of life, making music. Her memoir, 'Black by Design', is published by Serpent's Tail. Paul Magid is part of The Flying Karamazov Brothers, the anarchic Californian jugglers who are performing in London for the first time in seventeen years. He founded the group on the streets of Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco in the 1970s, born out of the old beat generation and the anti-war movement. 'The Flying Karamazov Brothers' is at London's Vaudeville Theatre.