Podcast appearances and mentions of wendy erskine

Debut novelists, Roisin O'Donnell and Chris McQueer, go head to head in a war of the words. They discuss their latest books ("Nesting" and "Hermit"), their writing inspirations, the power of short stories and the rise of toxic masculinity. Whilst Andrew Tate doesn't in any way dominate this conversation (nor should he dominate any conversation), the authors discuss how young boys and men are being radicalised through dangerous people on social media and what, if anything, can be done about it. Both books also look at the theme of coercive control, which again is something else that is on the rise. They also recommend us some brilliant books - and have a bit of a love-off about Wendy Erskine. THE BOOK OFF 'Threats' by Amelia GrayVS'Demon Copperhead' by Barbara Kingsolver Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Send us a textOn this episode we speak to Adelle Stripe about her incredible memoir Base Notes. Published by White Rabbit and described perfectly by Wendy Erskine as ‘a marvel of specificity,' it is everything you'd expect if you've read any of Adelle's previous work. Open, kind and often very funny, it is a deeply humane book and one written with the clear economy of a poet. There are small town break outs, serendipitous strangers, sex line stints and New York hustle but there's no spoilers here. More than anything Base Notes is a book filled with a sense of enduring love and a life lived seizing opportunity. It's true gift to the reader; because at it's best, (and Base Notes is definitely that), memoir is a reminder that we're really all just making it up as we go a long and, if anything, that should only bring us closer together. ‘Adelle's writing has a rare verve, giving vivid evocations of times, places and scents. It's got both style and warmth and made me cry. I loved this rock and roll spirit coming out of small-town Yorkshire.'Amy Liptrot@fieldzine www.fieldzine.comwww.patreon.com/fieldzine

Today I spoke to Blindboy Boatclub – a multi-disciplinary Irish artist and author of the recently published short story collection Topographia Hibernica, a tongue-in-cheek update to the original. Blindboy exploded onto the international scene in late 2010 with his band The Rubberbandits and segued into a weekly podcast which is a cultural phenomenon, with over 1.2 million monthly listeners. He has released three critically acclaimed short story collections and this is his latest one. I thoroughly enjoyed Topographia Hibernica and its absurd, empathetic depictions of contemporary Irish society, flora and fauna. If you're a fan of dynamic short stories with a hard & modern edge, this will appeal to you. Tonally, it's gritty, subversive, and slightly surreal, and narrows in on the way we relate to animals and the natural world in modern culture. Above all, many of the stories are funny. There was something in the energy here that reminded me of early short stories by the Scottish writer Irvine Welsh. The book is a relatively easy read – not lighthearted, but still accessible – and its thematic threads of animal kingdoms interacting with elements of contemporary mythology holds the collection together in a really coherent way.  This episode features an extremely wide-reaching conversation, dipping in and out of Irish folklore, Hiberno English, the impending collapse in global biodiversity, Hieronymus Bosch, creating art with ‘fire in your veins', and a plethora of other fascinating topics. What shines through our conversation most apparently is the remarkable breadth of Blindboy's knowledge, and the all-consuming way he approaches creative pursuits. Incredibly informed and interested in the world around him, he's an artist in the truest sense of the word. Lit with Charles loves reviews. If you enjoyed this episode, I'd be so grateful if you could leave a review of your own, and follow me on Instagram at @litwithcharles. Let's get more people listening – and reading! Books mentioned in the episode: During the episode, Blindboy talked about the Argentinian horror short story collection, The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enríquez (2021); Dance Move, by Wendy Erskine (2022), an eclectic collection of stories set in Belfast; A Shock, by Keith Ridgeway (2021), a subversive novel exploring the absurdity of contemporary London life; The Wounded Cormorant and Other Stories by Liam O'Flaherty (1973), a compassionate portrayal of Irish nature; and Neuromancer, by William Gibson (1984), a genre-forming cyberpunk novel. His favourite book that I've probably never heard of was Ossian's Ride, by Fred Hoyle (1951), a sci-fi detective novel, where Ireland has become a technological superpower. The best book he's read in the last 12 months was Homesick for Another World, by Ottessa Moshfegh (2017), a collection of 14 short stories, most of which were originally published in The Paris Review.  The book he would take to a Desert Island would be The Third Policeman, by Flann O'Brien (1967) a dark, surrealist murder mystery set in a village police force. Finally, a book that changed his mind is The Dead, which is the final, novella-length, story from James Joyce's collection Dubliners (1914). Lit with Charles loves reviews. If you enjoyed this episode, I'd be so grateful if you could leave a review of your own, and follow me on Instagram at ⁠@litwithcharles⁠. Let's get more people listening – and reading! Find Blindboy: Instagram: @blindboyboatclub

This month's episode of Field Ramble is a conversation I've been looking forward to for so long. Wendy Erskine needs little introduction. Author of two incredible collections Sweet Home and Dance Move, she is an unbelievable story teller and my go to when I'm asked for a book recommend. Wendy writes through the voices that surround her in her East Belfast home. In them we soon slip beneath the surface of day to day lives to meet abandoned children, paramilitary death squads, extortion, lost love, false accusations, obsession and murder. If you've yet to read either of her books get them on top of the pile. Both are collections to be savoured, each filled with characters that live on long after you've put the book down, characters you'll care deeply for within just a few pages.Huge thanks go to Huw Marc Bennett for the use of his music (Y Gwydd.) Find all of Huw's music on band camp - his latest album Days Like Now is an absolute killer. Please share the episode if you enjoyed it and give us a follow to get each episode dropped directly into your feed.@fieldzine /www.fieldzine.com

The September Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with writer Wendy Erskine about her short story collection 'Dance Move'. The Guardian writes of Wendy Erskine's collection of stories: ‘She identifies what is most fruitful about her characters' predicaments – the emotional core, the most resonant ironies – and traces with rapt and infectious attention their doomed if valiant attempts to shimmy away from the real.' The stories, the Dublin Review of Books writes, ‘are gloriously offbeat tales of people who live on the flip side and are out of step with those around them.' Wendy Erskine's two prize-winning short story collections, Sweet Home and Dance Move, are published by The Stinging Fly Press and Picador. Other fiction has been published by, among others, Rough Trade Book and The Tangerine Press. She recently edited Well I Just Kind of Like It, an anthology about the home and art, produced by Paper Visual Art. In 2022 she was a Seamus Heaney Fellow at Queen's University. She is a full-time secondary school teacher.

A special programme on the theme of home and belonging, recorded recently at the Crescent Arts Centre, Belfast, with Cherry Smyth, Wendy Erskine, Mícheál McCann, John Toal and Maureen Boyle

Some of the highlights of this year's Books for Breakfast, featuring contributions by Gabriel Byrne, Thomas McCarthy, Wendy Erskine, Colm Tóibín, Brian Leyden, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Leland Bardwell, Kevin Power, John McAuliffe, Kelly Michels, Mark Granier, Judith Mok and Mark Roper.Enda and Peter also discuss some of the books on their desks at the moment: The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World by  David W. Anthony; Winters in the World: A Journey through the Anglo-Saxon Year by Eleanor Parker; The Magpie and the Child by Catriona Clutterbuck; Stretto by David Wheatley; My Phantoms by Gwendoline Riley; Crooked Love/Grá fiar by Louis de Paor; Mrs Bridge by Evan S. Connell and Earth's Black Chute by Cian Ferriter. Extract from Lá dá raibh/One Day courtesy of Rockfinch Ltd.Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry' from The Hare's Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Incidental music from Audio Library Plus. Artwork by Freya SirrTo subscribe to Books for Breakfast go to your podcast provider of choice (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google etc) and search for the podcast then hit subscribe or follow, or simply click the appropriate button above. Support the show

Well I Just Kind of Like It is a new collection of writing edited by Wendy Erskine, about art in the home and the home as art - Crash Ensemble are a group of world-class musicians who play the most adventurous and groundbreaking music of today - Slow Horses on Apple TV Plus is back for Season 2, with Gary Oldman as a foul-mouthed spy.

Glen Hansard read The Philosophy Of Modern Song, the long awaited new book from Bob Dylan - Wendy Erskine reading from her short story Anti Treaty about a cut throat tv talent show - Dave Hanratty and Zara Hedderman review Alpha Zulu by Phoenix, Palomino by First Aid Kit, and Back Home by Big Joanie.

On the latest episode of Book Off we welcome short story writer Wendy Erskine and novelist Anthony Mara, who get head to head in a war of the words. They discuss their latest work, Hollywood, the impact of short stories...and they give us some great book recommendations as well. The Book Off:"We Are The Animals" by Justin TorresVS"The Age Of Innocence" by Edith Wharton Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As part of our Rough Trade Books shows, Wendy Erskine chats with Matt Rowland Hill to discuss the release of his debut book 'Original Sin'.You can catch the full show with all the fun and tracks here on our Mixcloud: https://www.mixcloud.com/sohoradio/rough-trade-books-strange-religion-08082022/.This is the Soho Radio podcast, showcasing the best broadcasts from our online radio station in the heart of London.Across our Soho and NYC + Culture channels, we have a wide range of shows covering every genre alongside chat, discussions and special productions.To catch up on all things Soho Radio head on over to mixcloud.com/sohoradio, tune in live anytime at sohoradiolondon.com or get the app.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/soho-radio. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

After 93 well-lived years, Violet MacAskill is ready to simplify her life. Her eccentric solution? She'll throw a decanting and decluttering party at her family home—a Scottish Baronial manor near the seaside town of Inversgail, Scotland. Violet sets aside everything she wants or needs, then she invites her many friends in to sip sherry and help themselves to whatever they want from all that's left.Janet Marsh and Christine Robertson, two of the women who own Yon Bonnie Books in Inversgail, enjoy themselves at the party. Not everyone who attends has a good time, though. Wendy Erskine, director of the Inversgail museum, is found dead, and rumors swirl about food poisoning from a local food truck. Then Violet tells Constable Hobbs that a tin of rat poison is missing. And when Hobbs' own grandmother comes under suspicion for murder, he enlists the women from Yon Bonnie Books, and the race is on to find the murderer.But where do they begin? Are there clues in the “Shocking Stockings” exhibit at the museum? Will the antique scrapbook pasted full of trivia about arsenic and bygone poisoners offer a solution? Or does the answer lie closer to home—is one of Violet's friends truly toxic? Poisonous games are afoot in Inversgail and the women of Yon Bonnie Books are playing to win.About Molly MacRaeMolly MacRae writes the Highland Bookshop Mysteries, about four women who reinvent their lives when they buy a bookshop in Inversgail on the west coast of Scotland, and the award-winning Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries, about a textile preservation specialist in Blue Plum, Tennessee, who ends up with a depressed ghost on her hands.Molly spent twenty years in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in northeast Tennessee, where she managed the Book Place, an independent bookstore; may it rest in peace. Before the lure of books hooked her, she was the curator of the history museum in Jonesborough, Tennessee's oldest town. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine for more than twenty years, and she won the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. Molly lives with her family in Champaign, Illinois, where she connects children with books at the public library.

On this episode of The Writer and the Critic your hosts, Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond, first take some time to shamelessly plug Kirstyn's forthcoming collection of short fiction, Hard Places, out soon through Trepidatio Publishing. The books up for discussion this month are Dance Move by Wendy Erskine [9:55] and Ariadne, I Love You by J. Ashley-Smith [36:05]. Listeners may also want to check out other books by the same authors, including Sweet Home by Erskine and The Attic Tragedy by Ashley-Smith. The two interviews with J. Ashley-Smith mentioned on the podcast can be found at Tomes and Tales and paulsemel.com. If you've skipped ahead to avoid spoilers, please come back at 102:05 for final remarks, including an unexpected and possibly ill-advised foray into Top Gun. Next month, the two books on the slab will be: Checkout 19 by Claire-Louise Bennett Such a Pretty Smile by Kristi Demeester Read ahead and join in the spoilerific fun!

Inside Books is a regular podcast presented by Breda Brown. This episode features Wendy Erskine.

Artist Niamh O'Malley is representing Ireland at this year's Venice Biennale. Katharine Hepburn: Woman of the Year is a new season of the screen icon's films at the IFI. Wendy Erskine reads from a short story called Nostalgie. Lenny, Laura McVeigh's new novel of two connected tales, one in the Louisiana bayou, one in the Libyan desert.

On this morning's show we talk to Wendy Erskine, whose second collection of short stories, Dance Move, has just been published by The Stinging Fly. And we feature two Ukrainian poems: 'Crow, Wheels' by  Lyuba Yakimchuk, with permission from Words without Borders where it first appeared, and Ilya Kaminsky's 'We Lived Happily During the War'  from his acclaimed collection Deaf Republic. Praise for Wendy Erskine's work:‘I found Dance Move to be a profound, moving and brilliant collection of short stories.'—Adrian Duncan‘Wendy Erskine writes a damn good story. She accomplishes something rare in having a style so distinctive that, just a few sentences in, each story is unmistakably hers….'—Caoilinn Hughes‘Wendy Erskine is the greatest short story writer of her generation. Dance Move is a masterpiece.'—David Keenan‘Dance Move is a triumph, each story so perfectly formed, each character vividly set and startling. I could not put this book down and loved every page. Wendy Erskine is a profound and ingenious story teller, a magnificent writer of the highest calibre.'—Salena GoddenIntro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry' from The Hare's Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.Artwork by Freya SirrTo subscribe to Books for Breakfast go to your podcast provider of choice (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google etc) and search for the podcast then hit subscribe or follow, or simply click the appropriate button above. Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/books4breakfast)

After 93 well-lived years, Violet MacAskill is ready to simplify her life. Her eccentric solution? She'll throw a decanting and decluttering party at her family home—a Scottish Baronial manor near the seaside town of Inversgail, Scotland. Violet sets aside everything she wants or needs, then she invites her many friends in to sip sherry and help themselves to whatever they want from all that's left.Janet Marsh and Christine Robertson, two of the women who own Yon Bonnie Books in Inversgail, enjoy themselves at the party. Not everyone who attends has a good time, though. Wendy Erskine, director of the Inversgail museum, is found dead, and rumors swirl about food poisoning from a local food truck. Then Violet tells Constable Hobbs that a tin of rat poison is missing. And when Hobbs' own grandmother comes under suspicion for murder, he enlists the women from Yon Bonnie Books, and the race is on to find the murderer.But where do they begin? Are there clues in the “Shocking Stockings” exhibit at the museum? Will the antique scrapbook pasted full of trivia about arsenic and bygone poisoners offer a solution? Or does the answer lie closer to home—is one of Violet's friends truly toxic? Poisonous games are afoot in Inversgail and the women of Yon Bonnie Books are playing to win. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/houseofmysteryradio. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this concluding part of my conversation with the writer Wendy Erskine, we talk in more detail about stories from Wendy's new collection Dance Move, including how the stories were sequenced in the book and how the artwork was chosen for the Stinging Fly and Picador editions. Wendy also talks about the course in short story writing which led her to becoming a published author, including some of the things she learned there. Finally we pick up our conversation around the playlist Wendy has put together for these episodes, discussing her choices and how they inform characters and stories in Dance Move. Please note: while we try to avoid spoilers, if you haven't read Wendy's work before please be aware we do discuss many stories, and those in Dance Move in particular, at length.If you're enjoying this podcast please take a few seconds to leave a review or rating if you can, it really helps.Show links:Wendy Erskine playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4fpH3KP5eIjafUxMRSKSvH?si=37f5922557d6464fDance Move: https://stingingfly.org/product/dance-move/Support Ukraine:https://www.dec.org.uk/appeal/ukraine-humanitarian-appeal Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From Belfast, Wendy Erskine has been called the greatest short story writer of her generation, by David Keenan no less. She has just published her second collection of short stories entitled Dance Move, and I was really lucky to be able to chat to her last month around the time of publication. Wendy has kindly put together a short playlist to go along with these episodes (see show notes). We started our conversation by talking about the first track in her playlist, but we then veered off in various directions. We do circle back to it in part two of this conversation, which will be available next week. This week we discuss Wendy's writing methodology, how music inspires her work, her ideal word count, the complexity inherent in her depiction of characters and how to end a short story. Along the way our conversation takes in Chekhov, Throbbing Gristle, Jacques Brel, George Eliot and Raymond Carver, among many others. Please note: while we try to avoid spoilers, if you haven't read Wendy's work before please be aware we do discuss many stories, and Dance Move in particular, at length.Show Links:Wendy Erksine playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4fpH3KP5eIjafUxMRSKSvH?si=4kKrPqGpTBegPFfbk9inpg&nd=1Dance Move: https://stingingfly.org/product/dance-move/Chekhov's Gun: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chekhov%27s_gunSupport Ukraine:https://www.dec.org.uk/appeal/ukraine-humanitarian-appeal Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode of Backlisted features Andy, John and Nicky chatting about short stories and the perennial appeal of the form to both writers and readers. This is a sequel to the first Winter Reading show we posted in January. Books under discussion include Wendy Erskine's new collection Dance Move; The Voice in My Ear by Frances Leviston; Rupert Thomson's memoir This Party's Got to Stop; Randall Jarrell's Book of Stories; A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders; and, ahead of our full episode on her novel South Riding, coming next week, Pavements at Anderby by Winifred Holtby. Andy reads a story entitled The Old Spot from the latter volume which has not been republished, anthologised or broadcast in full since its original appearance in 1937. (He promises to work on his Yorkshire accent in the meantime.) For more information visit backlisted.fm. Please support us and unlock bonus material at https://www.patreon.com/backlisted

Ghosts of Baggotonia, a semi-autobiographical film by Alan Gilsenan - Dance Move by Wendy Erskine, a collection of acutely observed short stories - Three decades of Dorothy Cross's art in Crossing - A review of the Australian mini-series Wolf Like Me

Wendy Erskine Show notes Links Pre-orders for Dance Move here https://noalibis.com/product/dance-move-wendy-erskine-pre-order/ @WednesdayErskin Gateway books /authors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baba_Yaga Happy Venture Readers Book 4 https://marchhousebookscom.blogspot.com/2012/08/can-you-help-identify-this-book.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noel_Streatfeild Current reads /recently enjoyed and looking forward to https://www.republicofconsciousness.com/prize Ten Thousand Apologies: Fat White Family and the Miracle of Failure - Adelle Stripe and Lias Saoudi Small Town Girl: Love, Lies and the Undercover Police - Donna McLean Re-reading William Faulkner - Light in August Looking forward to - Nicole Flattery - Nothing Special Top 10 Bluest Eye - Toni Morrison Hellfire- Nick Tosches Alma Cogan - Gordon Burn Good Behaviour - Molly Keane Light in August William Faulkner Pat Barker - Blow Your House Down Problems - Jade Sharma Monument Maker - David Keenan Age of innocence - Edith Wharton Beware of Pity- Stefan Zweig Honorable mention Will and Testament - Vigdis Hjorth

Author Wendy Erskine talks to Books Ireland editor Ruth McKee about Molly Keane's Good Behaviour, Ian Hunter's Diary of a Rock and Roll Star and how reading a book when you're twenty is very different to encountering it at fifty—as she reveals which books she would save if her house was on fire. Wendy Erskine's first short story collection, Sweet Home, was published by The Stinging Fly Press in Sept 2018, and Picador in 2019. Her new collection Dance Move will be published by Picador in February 2022. 

Author Wendy Erskine talks to Books Ireland editor Ruth McKee about Molly Keane's Good Behaviour, Ian Hunter's Diary of a Rock and Roll Star and how reading a book when you're twenty is very different to encountering it at fifty—as she reveals which books she would save if her house was on fire. From Friday 17th December, wherever you get your podcasts.

Jack and Robin are back with the first of our post-series extra podcasts. This week, Belfast-based author Wendy Erskine joins us to share her personal Beatles, as well as discussing her recent interview with Paul McCartney: The Lyrics editor, poet Paul Muldoon, and her own short stories including 2018's Sweet Home.We also have an extended intro in which Jack and Robin discuss Paul's new book and his recent live Q and A with Paul Muldoon at the Royal Festival Hall. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this final doorstep chat of the season (and perhaps forever!), I speak to my close friend Emma Cummins - a writer, copywriter and reader who works in the books and media industry, and lives between Northern Ireland and London. We talk about how nurturing a creative practice can help us to navigate transitions, connect with ourselves, and lead an honest life. Emma generously shares how she has turned to writing in times of grief, both after losing her father in 2013 and, more recently by writing an open letter to her late uncle and brilliant artist, Peter McConville - a letter Emma began in March 2020 after receiving news of his terminal diagnosis as a way to connect with him across the Atlantic. We talk about how lockdown has engendered the difficult, but ultimately freeing, process of accessing deeper emotional recesses, and how that's impacted Emma's writing. And inspired by poet and critic Yanyi's theory that the way we treat our writing is the way we treat ourselves, Emma shares how she's built more kindness, flexibility and rest into her writing practice. Finally, we explore how giving ourselves permission to be who we are in our writing – or any creative practice – can bring a sense of contentment and empowerment. In Emma's case, this has been through embracing her Northern Irish accent, and seeking out other writers who've given her the confidence to do so. During the episode, Emma reads extracts from two pieces: her letter to her uncle Peter, and Up the Town, a short story based on Emma's experience of the explosion of a car bomb in Banbridge, Northern Ireland in August 1998. Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoy this doorstep chat. Links: Emma's website: https://emmacummins-writer.com Dear Peter: an Open Letter to ‘My Uncle the Artist', by Emma Cummins: https://emma-cummins.medium.com/dear-peter-an-open-letter-to-my-uncle-the-artist-115086fc172d Inside Outside: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inside_Out_(2015_film) Safe Words, by Sean O'Reilly: https://stingingfly.org/2018/12/13/safe-words/ Yanyi https://yanyiii.com Wintering, Katherine May https://uk.bookshop.org/books/wintering-the-power-of-rest-and-retreat-in-difficult-times/9781846045998?aid=7019 Writing Down the Bones, by Natalie Goldberg https://uk.bookshop.org/books/writing-down-the-bones-freeing-the-writer-within/9781611803082?aid=7019 A String of Pearls, by Emma Cummins, The Quietus: https://thequietus.com/articles/25046-the-cost-of-living-deborah-levy The Cost of Living, by Deborah Levy: https://uk.bookshop.org/books/the-cost-of-living-9780241977569/9780241977569?aid=7019 Milkman, by Anna Burns: https://uk.bookshop.org/books/milkman-winner-of-the-man-booker-prize-2018/9780571338757?aid=7019 Sweet Home, by Wendy Erskine: https://uk.bookshop.org/books/sweet-home-9781529017069/9781529017076?aid=7019 Multitudes, by Lucy Caldwell: https://uk.bookshop.org/books/multitudes-9780571313518/9780571313518?aid=7019 My website: https://www.somethingilearnt.co.uk

Read by the author. Cut-throat tv talent show UK OK, gets more than it bargained for with E-Zee or Ballyshannon girls, Eimear and Zofia, among its contestants.

HAPPY XMAS EVERYONE! We bring series one of What Goes Around to an end in fine style with a BUMPER Christmas cracker of a show featuring some familiar voices from our first year in the pod-o-sphere! What a show it is too, like many a Christmas we start off with a quick trip to A&E. Anne and Eamon reminisce about their experiences over the first 20 episodes and the amazing guests they have had on, then theres an exchange of gifts and warm glow of seasonal joy. From there we welcome a cavalcade of Christmas guests including M Z Harrison who pops in to wish us well and share her 'Solitary.Christmas' project with us. The wonderful Jo Wallace of Ramrock Records is back as our resident Agony Aunt, sharing her wisdom and bearing her soul to listeners in desperate need of advice. The irrepressible Wrongtom returns to help us choose our official What Goes Around Christmas theme. We have an alternative Queens speech from our very own Queen, Karen Arthur. And finally Bibi Lynch brings the show to a climax by offering Anne and Eamon the chance to share their own Phonographic Memories with you at last. We would like to say thank you to each and every listener who helped the show grow so fast this year and we would also like to offer our eternal gratitude to our fabulous roll call of guests: Wrongtom, M Z Harrison, Tim Plester, Hannah Cartwright, Pete Rogers, Marcus Brigstocke, Bibi Lynch, Karen Arthur, Tom Ravenscroft, Miles Chapman, Soweto Kinch, Kieron J Walsh, Jo Wallace, Wendy Erskine, Prof. Sophie Scott, Andy Dawson, Labi Siffre, Craig Charles & Malik Al Nasir. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR LISTENING TO OUR OLD BLATHER! XXX Theres no playlist this week because it's Christmas and we are lazy. We will be taking a few weeks off now until we are ready to start Series 2! In the meantime go back through the archive and enjoy yourselves. All the playlists for Series 1 can be found on our Spotify profile page: https://open.spotify.com/user/qle316syogabqxq57c6lbji8u The YouTube versions of the playlists can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOS09xm0G7xyruFqNi1Vnuw/playlists

This week we wax lyrical about lyrics. Do lyrics matter? Can you ignore a bad lyric and still enjoy the tune? Anne and Eamon are not so sure. We also have a plague rave update and learn how the Sheffield hardcore massive don't take kindly to day trippers. This weeks feature is Let's Work! Anne calls up an old friend to talk about Bandcamp. Since the beginning of Lockdown Bandcamp have achieved almost saintly status through their continued support for independent artists so we thought we would ask Aly Gillani, label representative for Bandcamp Europe, exactly who they are, what they do, and why it matters. Not only that but we got three tip-top recommendations from Aly who also runs First Word Records and DJ's on Worldwide FM. Finally our guest is Northern Irish author Wendy Erskine. Wendy is a real music lover and what with her latest book 'Satan is real' being published by none other than Rough Trade she has an affinity with music both in her writing and in her life. Our Spotify playlist is available for those of you keen to know more about every single song we mention. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3KipWIafsAD9hnDNjhDiPG?si=9J7ae075TU6dLSt0jZxdXw For those of you unwilling to give the Spotify man your money we have also made a YouTube version https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPPl5xM2fbUoUeda0pyDzmooxM9OSIXBi We were very pleased that Steve from Sheffield contacted the show about the rebirth of the illegal raves and how the story up north differs slightly from the plague raves down south. He wrote the following: "You'll be pleased to know that Illegal raves are very much still a thing up here, (normally) happening each weekend somewhere in a remote rural location or the occasional warehouse. Free Parties are well attended with good people (always a few knobheads in my experience, this is England after all). The cops sometimes show up but the rules are "Don't let anyone hurt themselves, tidy your rubbish and put your fires out". I've never been to one where we had to pay to get in. Around the summer solstice, there was a rumour of one happening in Sheffield, when the local soundsystem crews found out that it was out-of-towners, they mobilised and blocked off all the usual Free Party Spots, making sure the chancers didn't put on a party that was going to be another shit show (like Manchester). It even made the local rag!" https://www.thestar.co.uk/news/crime/sheffield-music-community-and-police-work-together-prevent-illegal-lockdown-raves-2890778 We reference a bit of Heavy Metal devilment in this show so here is a link to Judas Priest fronting up in a US court. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiU9zkhgb0I Please share our posts on social media it will really help the show grow. CONTACT US: WHATGOESPOD@GMAIL.COM @WHATGOESPOD - Twitter @WHATGOESPOD - Instagram

The annual Arts Over Borders festival reaches into rural and urban communities on both sides of the Irish border. Curated with a strong sense of place and extending across four counties – from Fermanagh to Donegal, Tyrone to Derry/Londonderry- the border itself looms large in the festival. Recorded in front of live audiences at the 2019 Arts Over Borders festival in Enniskillen and Derry/Londonderry, five writers explore the theme of boundaries. At the Royal Grammar School, Enniskillen, the writer Wendy Erskine takes us through doorways as portals into other worlds in art, literature and life. Producers: Ophelia Byrne & Cathy Moorehead

It has been some year for Danielle McLaughlin. On Thursday, she won the 2019 Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award, whose £30,000 (€33,500) prize money makes it the world's richest for a short story. Last March, she was awarded the $165,000 (€150,000) Windham-Campbell Prize for fiction. The former solicitor from Co Cork, who only took up writing seriously 10 years ago at the age of 40 when illness forced her to stop practicing law, spoke to me for The Irish Times Books podcast from London the morning after her latest success. We talked about her winning story, A Partial List of the Saved, her debut collection, Dinosaurs on Other Planets, and the remarkable strength of the Irish short story tradition. Two of the other five writers on the shortlist were also Irish – Kevin Barry, a previous winner and like her a protégé of Declan Meade, publisher of the Stinging Fly, and Louise Kennedy – while Caoilinn Hughes, Wendy Erskine and Gerard McKeague made it six out of 18 on the longlist. She also discusses her forthcoming debut novel, Retrospective, which will be published by John Murray in 2021. “It began back in 2012 in a writing workshop given by Nuala O'Connor at Waterford Writers Weekend. I can still remember the chalky feel of the prompt – a piece of broken crockery – in my hand. It's set between Cork city and west Cork and the main character is a fortysomething woman whose past intrudes on her personal and professional life at the worst possible time in the guise of her dead friend's son and his father.”

Westminster rules in favour of gay marriage and abortion rights in Northern Ireland, former EDL leader Tommy Robinson is sentenced to 9 months in prison (and banned from YouTube), a man dressed in a gimp suit terrorises the people of Somerset, and a love letter from Tupac to Madonna is expected to fetch $300,000 at auction. Plus, how do YOU feel about Matt Hancock's plan to link up Alexa and the NHS? (Spoiler alert: Dolly doesn't like robots.)Today we have the man who has sold 8 million books, who possesses the most delicious voice you've ever heard (it even beats Philippe Sands), the one and only David Nicholls, on the show. The screenwriter of multiple hits such as Great Expectations and Patrick Melrose and the best-selling author of Starter for 10, The Understudy, One Day and Us, he is back with a new novel, Sweet Sorrow, about a teenage summer romance in the 80s. We talk about teenage love, parenting and being parented, writing, anxiety in the internet age and that twist in One Day. E-mail thehighlowshow@gmail.comTweet @thehighlowshow LinksPre-order Dolly's novel, Ghosts, here! https://www.waterstones.com/book/ghosts/dolly-alderton/9781785177255Sweet Sorrow, by David Nicholls https://www.waterstones.com/book/sweet-sorrow/david-nicholls/9781529393088Sweet Home, by Wendy Erskine https://www.waterstones.com/book/sweet-home/wendy-erskine/9781906539726My Name Is Why, by Lemn Sissay https://www.waterstones.com/book/my-name-is-why/lemn-sissay/9781786892348The Lingering of Loss, by Jill Lepore for The New Yorker https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/07/08/the-lingering-of-lossKids Don't Damage Women's Careers - Men Do, by Jessica Valenti for Medium's GEN https://gen.medium.com/kids-dont-damage-women-s-careers-men-do-eb07cba689b8David Szalay on All That Man Is, for BBC Radio 4's Bookclub https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0005mg6Lemn Sissay on Radio 4 Desert Island Discs https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06gthszThe Adam Buxton Podcast: episode 100 http://adam-buxton.co.uk/podcasts/ep100-joe-cornish-louis-theroux See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Wendy Erskine, author of the acclaimed debut collection Sweet Home, joins Danny Denton at the Belfast Book Festival to read and talk about 'Prosinečki', a story by Adrian Duncan taken from our Summer 2018 issue of the magazine. Wendy Erskine's work has been published in The Stinging Fly, Winter Papers, and on BBC Radio 4. Her work has been collected in Stinging Fly Stories, Female Lines: New Writing by Women from Northern Ireland (New Island Books), and Being Various: New Irish Short Stories (Faber and Faber). Sweet Home is her first collection, published in 2018 by The Stinging Fly Press and in 2019 by Picador. Sweet Home has been nominated for the Republic of Consciousness Prize and the Gordon Burn Prize. Adrian Duncan is an artist and writer based in Ireland and Berlin. His visual-art work is primarily installation based, most often using photography, film and sculpture. His process of making and the aesthetic of his works derives from an interest in language, and the processes of construction – amateur and professional. His writing has been published by Frieze, the Times Literary Supplement (UK), Art & the Public Sphere (UK), the Dublin Review, Architecture Ireland, The Stinging Fly, and the Irish Times, among others. His debut novel Love Notes from a German Building Site was published by The Lilliput Press in 2019. He is coeditor of Paper Visual Art Journal (IRL/DE). The Stinging Fly Podcast invites Irish writers to choose a story from the Stinging Fly archive to read and discuss. Previous episodes of the podcast can be found here. The podcast's theme music is ‘Sale of Lakes', by Divan. All of the Stinging Fly archive is available for subscribers to read – subscribe now and access 20 years of the best new writing.

Belfast writer Wendy Erskine released one of the best collections of short stories in 2018 with her debut, Sweet Home, out on Stinging Fly. Comprising ten stories, it's a book that excites at every turn, always keeping you on your toes. Irish Times new fiction critic Sarah Gilmartin said Sweet Home is "a thought-provoking collection of stories that sparkled with dry wit and prose precision". I talked to Wendy on the same day that the TLS longlisted Sweet Home on its Republic of Consciousness Prize 2019, an award for the best book from a small press of five full-time employees or fewer with the criteria of “hard-core literary fiction, and gorgeous prose”. There are 13 books on the longlist and the shortlist will be announced on March 2. On the podcast, Wendy talks about how she found her literary voice after burying it decades before, Belfast, Ireland's thriving literary scene, some of the stories in Sweet Home and lots more.

In the November edition of the podcast, Sally Rooney is joined in the studio by Jessica Traynor. They read and discuss Wendy Erskine's story, 'To All Their Dues', first published by the Stinging Fly in Summer 2016 and included in Erskine's recently-published debut collection, Sweet Home. Jessica Traynor was born in Dublin in 1984. Her poems have been published widely, and her debut collection, Liffey Swim (Dedalus Press, 2014), was shortlisted for the Strong/Shine Award. She won the Listowel Poetry Prize in 2011, was named Hennessy New Irish Writer of the Year in 2013, and in 2014 was the recipient of the Ireland Chair of Poetry Bursary. She has been commissioned by the Arts Council, Poetry Ireland, and the Salvage Press. She has worked as Literary Manager for the Abbey Theatre and is currently Deputy Museum Director at EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum. Her latest collection, The Quick, has just been published by Dedalus Press.  Wendy Erskine lives in Belfast. Her work has been published in The Stinging Fly, Stinging Fly Stories and Female Lines: New Writing by Women from Northern Ireland (New Island Books) and is forthcoming in Being Various: New Irish Short Stories (Faber and Faber), Winter Papers and on BBC Radio 4. Erskine's debut collection, Sweet Home, was published by the Stinging Fly Press in September 2018.