The Writing Life

A Delicate Sight: Max Porter & Sam Winston

City of Literature 2020 begins! Today's special episode features Max Porter and Sam Winston, talking about the collaborative exhibition A Delicate Sight. Originally intended to be part of this year's Norfolk & Norwich Festival, we're now taking the event online so that you can experience it at home. Place darkness at the centre of your perception and explore how your senses, thoughts and emotions are heightened with this free creative resource. A number of the UK’s leading writers – including Bernardine Evaristo, Max Porter, Raymond Antrobus and Don Paterson – were commissioned to spend time in a dark room installation as part of artist and producer Sam Winston’s interactive exhibition A Delicate Sight. Now it’s your turn! Find out more and get involved: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/city-of-literature/ Thanks to Arts Council England. Hosted by Simon Jones and Steph McKenna. Join the Discord community: https://discord.gg/ERQhsGj Music by Bennet Maples.

Creating Characters With Michael Donkor

Michael Donkor, author of HOLD, graduate of our Escalator talent programme and a Desmond Elliot Prize nominee, guests on the pod to talk about creating and developing characters. It's a chat full of amazing tips for any writer - and you can find even more with our Early Career Writers' Resources Pack this month, as it's all about CHARACTER and is packed full of insight from Sarah Perry, Joe Dunthorne and more. Check out the full pack: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/pack-3-character/ Join the Discord community with this limited-time invite: https://discord.gg/ERQhsGj Hosted by Simon Jones and Steph McKenna. Music by Bennet Maples.

Join our Book Club!

We have something of a mini-episode this week as NCW Programme Officer Flo Reynolds joins Simon and Steph to introduce our new Book Club. Starting today, the Book Club is reading A Line Made By Walking by Sara Baume - we hope you'll join us on the read! There are many ways to get involved - all of them free, of course. Read along, chat with us on Twitter and join our scheduled Zoom chats to share your opinions. We're also launching a new online community on Discord, which is open now and you can find an invite for podcast listeners below. We can't wait to discuss the book with you all! Follow this link to join the new NCW community on Discord (limited places available): https://discord.gg/ERQhsGj Book your place on the free Zoom chats: Thursday 21 May: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/whats-on/ncw-book-club-a-line-made-by-walking/ or Tuesday 26 May: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/whats-on/virtual-book-club-2-a-line-made-by-walking/ Full details on the Book Club can be found here: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/article/join-the-ncw-virtual-book-club/ Hosted by Simon Jones and Steph McKenna. Find out more about what we do: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk Music by Bennet Maples.

Becoming A Translator with Motoyuki Shibata

Moto Shibata returns to the podcast for an in-depth conversation about how he became a translator, balancing the academic and more accessible styles of translation and his new serialised adaptation of Gulliver's Travels. Asking the questions: Peggy Hughes! Hosted by Simon Jones and Steph McKenna, who talk excitedly about our new Time To Write workshops for younger writers (https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/working-with-schools/young-workshops/), the transformed INN CROWD (remote) residencies (https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/article/apply-to-be-a-remote-writer-in-residence/) and why you should sign up to our excellent newsletter (https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/newsletters/). Enjoy and hear you next week! More about what we do: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/ Music by Bennet Maples.

The responsibilities of writers - with Kendel Hippolyte

Poets Kendel Hippolyte and Flo Reynolds talk on the pod about Kendel's career, taking in his work on page and stage, sharing tips and techniques for poets and considering the responsibilities - and obligations of artists to society. Hosted by Simon Jones and Steph McKenna. Find out more at https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk Music by Bennet Maples.

Researching True Crime with Stephanie Scott

Stephanie Scott's debut What's Left Of Me Is Yours releases on April 21st - that's Tuesday, for fast listeners - and Laura Stimson sat down to discuss the creation of the book and its true crime inspiration. There's great tips from Stephanie about conducting research, finding agents and working through a large project. Meanwhile, Simon and Steph talk about the on-going weirdness of working from home during Covid-19 and highlight some of the exciting opportunities and writer resources we're putting out every week. Hosted by Simon Jones and Steph McKenna. Find out more about what we do: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk Music by Bennet Maples.

Writing In Interesting Times - with Vahur Afanasjev

Former Dragon Hall resident Vahur Afanasjev joins the pod to talk to Lewis Buxton about his books, how coronavirus has affected his writing and why he writes a lot about fish. Vahur is an Estonian author and creator of the award-winning Serafima and Bogdan, a bloody, funny and surreal family saga about the Russian Old Believer minority in Estonia. ALSO on this week's episode is guest-host Peggy Hughes, joining Steph and Simon to talk about Bibliotherapy and recommend some great books for us all to read while stuck in isolation. Hosted by Steph McKenna & Simon Jones. Music by Bennet Maples.

Finding Your New Normal - Mark Stay returns!

Writer and presenter Mark Stay, co-creator of The Bestseller Experiment and author of Robot Overlords and The End of Magic, returns for this week's episode to discuss his publishing experiments and why 'finding a new normal' is something we all do multiple times in our lives. If you're struggling to be productive while under isolation, listen to this right now. Hosted by Simon Jones and Steph McKenna. Find out more about what we do: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk Mark's website: https://markstaywrites.com/ Listen to the Bestseller Experiment: https://bestsellerexperiment.com/ Music by Bennet Maples.

Method And Digital Tools - Bregje Hofstede & Moto Shibata

It's a bumper edition of the pod today, with TWO special guests: Bregje Hofstede and Motoyuki Shibata. As part of our new Early Career Writers' Resource pack they are talking all about their METHOD: from the writer's perspective and the translator's. Simon also shares his favourite digital tools for writers! Check out the full METHOD resource pack: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/2-method/ Hosted by Simon Jones and Steph McKenna. Find out more: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk Music by Bennet Maples.

Jenny Offill: Catastrophising, coronavirus & Weather

None other than Jenny Offill joins the podcast to talk about her new book Weather with Joe Dunthorne. Along the way they discuss catastrophising, doomers, coronavirus and seismic historical events. This conversation is in partnership with The Book Hive. Weather is available direct from them at a special discount for pod listeners and event ticket holders! Hosted by Steph McKenna and Simon Jones. Find out more about what we do: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/ Writing courses: https://courses.nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/ Music by Bennet Maples.