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We’re a podcast for anyone who writes. Every week we talk to writers about their writing journeys and techniques, from early career debuts to self-publishers and narrative designers. We’ve featured Margaret Atwood, Jackie Kay, Sara Collins, Antti Tuomainen, Val McDermid, Sarah Perry, Elif Shafak and many more! The Writing Life is produced by the National Centre for Writing at Dragon Hall in Norwich.
Episodes
Friday Aug 27, 2021
Finding hope in an age of crisis - with Tom Whyman
Friday Aug 27, 2021
Friday Aug 27, 2021
Simon is joined on the pod today by Tom Whyman, author of Infinitely Full of Hope: Fatherhood and the Future in an Age of Crisis and Disaster. Part philosophical theory and part memoir, Tom wrote the book while awaiting the birth of his child and deals with the challenge of maintaining hope in increasingly desperate times.
Meanwhile, Steph and Simon take a look at our Creative Writing Online courses, get over-excited about the books they're currently reading (Daisy Jones and the Six! Lumberjanes!) and Simon finds a way to shoehorn discussion of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power into the show.
Check out our tutored online courses: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/creative-writing-online/
Join our Discord: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/join-our-discord-community/
Everything we do: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/
Music by Bennet Maples.
Friday Aug 20, 2021
Friday Aug 20, 2021
Lewis Buxton returns! Steph talks to Lewis about his new poetry collection Boy in Various Poses, which explores masculinity, mental health and sport. We're also very pleased to have The Writing Life's first references to Lizzo and The Meg. Lewis' poems have appeared in The Rialto, Ambit Magazine, Magma, Oxford Poetry and Ink, Sweat and Tears. In 2020 he won the Winchester Poetry Prize and has previously come third in the Magma Poetry Prize and been shortlisted for the Oxford Brookes International Poetry Prize and the York Literature Festival Prize. In 2018-19 he was selected as one of the Poetry School & Nine Arches Press Primers Volume 4 poets and was the recipient of the Literary Festival Bursary from the University of East Anglia. He is Director of TOAST, a live poetry event and workshops project. Working with the best poets in the UK, TOAST produces monthly events at The Norwich Arts Centre, is supported by the Arts Council England and has won a Norfolk Arts Award for supporting new writing.
Check out out previous episode with Lewis: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/article/poetry-in-lockdown-with-lewis-buxton/
Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/3G39dRW
Hosted by Simon Jones and Steph McKenna.
Music by Bennet Maples.
Friday Aug 13, 2021
Shash Trevett & Geetha Sukumaran on translating Tamil poetry
Friday Aug 13, 2021
Friday Aug 13, 2021
Literary translators Shash Trevett and Geetha Sukumaran talk about their collaboration on the work of Tamil poet Nillanthan and Shash's involvement with our Visible Communities translator in residence programme.
Geetha Sukumaran is a poet and a bilingual translator. She has published two books in Tamil: Tharkolaikku parakkum panithuli (a Tamil translation of Sylvia Plath’s poems, 2013), and her own poems, Otrai pakadaiyil enchum nampikkai in 2014. Her English translation of Ahilan’s poetry, Then There Were No Witnesses, was published by Mawenzi House, Toronto (2018). She is the recipient of the SPARROW R Thyagarajan award for her poetry in Tamil. She is a doctoral student in the Humanities at York University, Toronto.
Shash Trevett is a poet and a translator of Tamil poetry into English. She is a winner of a Northern Writers’ Award and her pamphlet From a Borrowed Land is published by Smith|Doorstop (2021). She is currently co-editing (with Vidyan Ravinthiran and Seni Seneviratne) an anthology of Tamil, English and Sinhala poetry from Sri Lanka and its diaspora communities. She is a 2021 Ledbury Critic and a Board Member of Modern Poetry in Translation.
Workshop details: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/whats-on/workshop-nillanthan/
Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/3G39dRW
Hosted by Simon Jones and Steph McKenna.
Music by Bennet Maples.
Friday Aug 06, 2021
Friday Aug 06, 2021
On the podcast this week is Olivia Hellewell, a translator from Slovene to English of literary fiction, children's fiction, and non-fiction. Olivia is talking to Rebecca DeWald, our Emerging Translator Mentorships Programme Manager. They discuss Olivia's route into literary translation, the challenges of making a living from translation, and the importance of translating cultural references. This is a treasure trove for anyone interested in translation and also contains a surprising amount of discussion about Wotsits. Olivia was BCLT's translator in residence earlier in the year.
Meanwhile, Flo Reynolds is back on the pod to introduce the new NCW Book Club book - Sudden Traveller by Sarah Hall! Find out more and join up here: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/the-ncw-book-club/
Here's the Meet the World video mentioned during the conversation: https://youtu.be/U_7niLTXT0g
And the Mythical English Reader video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8oFttUu2bI
Join our Discord community! https://discord.gg/3G39dRW
We'd love your support. Find out more and donate here; https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/support-us/
Music by Bennet Maples.