The Writing Life

Changing direction with Antti Tuomainen

The King of Helsinki Crime and the 'funniest writer in Europe' Antti Tuomainen joins us on the pod to talk about his books including The Man Who Died and Little Siberia, plus how the crime fiction genre is the perfect engine for telling stories. Many thanks to the Finnish Literature Exchange (FILI) for supporting Antti's visit to the UK. Meanwhile, Steph and Simon introduce the Early Career Awards, launched TODAY, including the news that we are now running the Desmond Elliott Prize. We also share the writing prompt from our first drop-in writing session; "Out of the ashes rose..." Fill in the rest by sending us your microfiction responses on Twitter @writerscentre! Hosted by Simon Jones and Steph McKenna. Find out more: nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk Early Career Awards: http://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/early-career-awards/ Noirwich: noirwich.co.uk

Fiction & Fact: George Alagiah's 2019 Noirwich Lecture

Today we have something particularly special on the pod, in the form of George Alagiah's 2019 Noirwich Lecture. George is of course best known for his journalistic work with the BBC, in particular as presenter of BBC News at Six. He's just released his first work of fiction, The Burning Land, and in his lecture he talks about the power of fiction to better illuminate facts, and how the book complements the factual work he's done as a journalist throughout his career. Hosted by Simon Jones. Find out more about Noirwich: https://noirwich.co.uk What we do: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk UEA: https://www.uea.ac.uk/ Music by Bennet Maples.

Translators Jeremy Tiang & Anton Hur

Jeremy Tiang returns to the pod, this time accompanied by fellow translator Anton Hur and Kate Griffin. In this wide-ranging chat they take in their inaugural Dragon Hall translator residencies, the BCLT summer school, how mentorships can help people getting into translation, the work of Tilted Axis, the history of Singapore and queer Korean literature. The residencies were supported by the National Arts Council of Singapore and the Literature Translation Institute of Korea. Hosted by Simon Jones and Steph McKenna. Find out more about our work at https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk Get your Noirwich tickets: https://noirwich.co.uk http://www.jeremytiang.com/ https://antonhur.com/ http://www.bclt.org.uk/summer-school https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/emerging-translator-mentorships/ https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/article/erasing-histories/ https://www.tiltedaxispress.com/ https://www.wordswithoutborders.org/article/june-2019-korean-queer-korean-litearture-is-stepping-outanton-hur http://www.cedilla.company/ https://smokingtigers.com/ https://literarytranslators.wordpress.com/2019/02/07/focus-on-literary-translation-collectives-an-interview-with-the-smoking-tigers/ Music by Bennet Maples.

Starting an indie bookshop + Primadonna Festival

How do you start a new bookshop in 2019? Leanne Fridd from Bookbugs & Dragon Tales tells us about her new children's bookshop and why she left a comfortable job to start a new business. Meanwhile, Steph and Simon catch up about the first Primadonna Festival, which took place last weekend in Suffolk. Hosted by Simon Jones and Steph McKenna. Sign up to our newsletter: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/ https://bookbugsanddragontales.com/ https://primadonnafestival.com Music by Bennet Maples.