Literary Friction
181 episodes - English - Latest episode: 7 months ago - ★★★★★ - 180 ratingsA monthly conversation about books and ideas on NTS Radio hosted by friends Carrie Plitt, a literary agent, and Octavia Bright, a writer and academic. Each show features an author interview, book recommendations, lively discussion and a little music too, all built around a related theme - anything from the novella to race to masculinity. Listen live on NTS Radio www.nts.live
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Episodes
Literary Friction - The Silver Screen With Dana Spiotta
August 10, 2017 05:24 - 1 hour - 145 MBEver since the Lumière brothers showed their 1895 film of a train pulling into a station, we have been captivated by the silver screen, and this month’s show is an ode to what happens when cinema and literature cross paths. We interviewed award-winning American novelist Dana Spiotta about her latest book, Innocents and Others, which tells the story of two friends who are both filmmakers, and the stress their relationship suffers when an enigmatic woman named Jelly comes into their lives. As u...
Literary Friction - Race with Reni Eddo-Lodge and Kishani Widyaratna
July 13, 2017 07:23 - 1 hour - 146 MBThis month we're discussing a subject that isn't covered enough: race in Britain. Our brilliant author/guest is Reni Eddo-Lodge, who came in to talk about her first book, Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, a vital and passionate look at this country's long and complicated relationship with structural racism. We're also thrilled to be joined in the conversation by Kishani Widyaratna, from Picador and The White Review.
Literary Friction - Conversations With Sally Rooney
June 14, 2017 05:31 - 1 hour - 152 MBWe have a very meta show for you this month: the theme is conversation, so we’ll be talking about writing about talking, from the conversation between Marco Polo and Kublai Khan in Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities to the pithy dialogue in Bridget Jones’ Diary. You could even say that it’s a conversation about… conversations! As usual, our theme is inspired by our guest Sally Rooney, whose excellent debut novel Conversations with Friends tells the story of two female friends and former lovers,...
Literary Friction - Essays With Brian Dillon
May 17, 2017 01:25 - 1 hour - 141 MBThe literary essay is a slippery and expansive form, and has encompassed everything from an attempt to define the word ‘camp’ to a dispatch from a cruise ship. This month we interview writer Brian Dillon about his forthcoming book, Essayism – a collection of essays about essays and an ode to the form in all its machinations. We also discuss some of our favourite essay writers including Michel de Montaigne, Joan Didion and David Foster Wallace, plus all the usual recommendations.
Literary Friction - Medicine with David France and Sarah Moss
April 20, 2017 09:25 - 58 minutes - 134 MBFrom Thomas Mann to Oliver Sacks and Atul Gawande, library shelves heave with stories about the struggle to understand and overcome illness. This month, we've teamed up with The Wellcome Book Prize, which celebrates literature that engages with the topics of health and medicine and the many ways they touch our lives. We interviewed two of the authors on their excellent shortlist: David France, whose narrative history How to Survive a Plague is a riveting and devastating first-hand account of ...
Literary Friction - Immigrants With Julianne Pachico
March 23, 2017 12:44 - 1 hour - 139 MBIt seems the Western world has begun to eat itself, so in defiance, this month we bring you a show celebrating the rich diversity of immigrants in literature. From Vladamir Nabokov to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, immigrant writers have been getting the job expertly done for a very long time. Our guest is Julianne Pachico, a Colombian-American writer whose debut book The Lucky Ones is a collection of linked stories set in Colombia and New York. Just push play to hear Julianne's take on the immigr...
Literary Friction - Illustrations With Sara Baume
March 03, 2017 12:54 - 57 minutes - 130 MBDo illustrations have a place in the novel? Pictures were commonplace in nineteenth-century books by authors like Thackeray and Dickens, and yet today almost all grown-up fiction is devoid of any illustrations, with a few notable exceptions including the work of W.G. Sebald and Douglas Coupland. Should a case be made for bringing them back? Our guest is the Irish writer Sara Baume whose first novel, Spill Simmer Falter Wither has won and been shortlisted for a whole host of prizes, including ...
Literary Friction - Short Stories With Jessie Greengrass
January 27, 2017 10:29 - 57 minutes - 131 MBThe short story is literature in a single shot, and the form has many masters, from Guy de Maupassant to Edgar Allan Poe to Lorrie Moore to Junot Diaz. This month join us in conversation about what a short story actually is, how to write a good one, and who writes them best. We interviewed Jessie Greengrass about her wonderful debut collection, An Account of the Decline of the Great Auk, According to One Who Saw It, which was published last year by John Murray Press. Pull up a chair and let’s...
Literary Friction - Future Sex With Emily Witt
January 05, 2017 07:30 - 58 minutes - 134 MBBaby, it's cold outside, so come and warm your cockles with us as we talk FUTURE SEX. Writer Emily Witt joined us all the way from America to talk about her ace debut of the same name - a personal and journalistic exploration of the possibilities of free love in today’s world. We’ll also be talking about how writers from have helped us to imagine the future of sex, sexuality and relationships. Bring an open mind and come along for the ride.
Literary Friction - Resistance with Salena Godden
December 05, 2016 12:37 - 59 minutes - 135 MBDonald Trump is going to be the next president of the next United States, and we are despairing. But we’re also preparing: this worldwide trend towards the normalisation of misogyny, racism, xenophobia and blatant disregard for truth demands action. What can we do? And what can books do? This show is about resistance, and we are joined by the perfect guest: Salena Godden, poet, author, essayist, performer, once described as ‘everything the Daily Mail is terrified of’. She recently contribute...
Literary Friction - Bohemian Rhapsody With Eimear McBride
November 03, 2016 20:25 - 57 minutes - 132 MBThis month we're joined by the celebrated Irish author Eimear McBride, who came in to discuss her fabulous second novel The Lesser Bohemians. In honour of the book's title, this show is all about La Vie Boheme. From the original Parisian bohos of the 1850s, to the Pre-Raphaelites, to the beats, the bohemian lifestyle and its artistic output has always held romantic sway in our culture. Listen in as we chat to Eimear and talk about what it really means to be a modern bohemian.
Literary Friction - The Death Of America With Gary Younge
October 17, 2016 11:50 - 59 minutes - 135 MBEach week we seem to get more news about violent deaths in America. What is it with America and violence, America and guns? And what can books tell us about it? Our guest this month is Gary Younge, author, broadcaster, and award-winning columnist for the Guardian, whose latest book is Another Day in the Death of America. A moving and important meditation on the violent reality of life in the US, it tells the stories of 10 children who died from gun violence in America on a random day in 2013....
Literary Friction - Back to School: The Ultimate Reading List
September 15, 2016 11:30 - 56 minutes - 128 MBIt's that time of year again - leaves are falling and publishers are pushing out their heavy-weight literary titles - so this month we're going BACK TO SCHOOL for the Ultimate Reading List. Join us as we talk to author Dan Richards (Climbing Days) and publisher Anna Jean Hughes (The Pigeonhole) about the differences between summer and autumn reading, what they read over the holidays and what they're looking forward to reading as the nights draw in. We'll be giving our own recommendations too,...
Literary Friction - Translation with Milena Busquets, Deborah Smith and Meike Ziervogel.
August 17, 2016 07:03 - 58 minutes - 133 MBWe’ve got the Brexit Blues here on Literary Friction, so for this show we’re celebrating something that bridges borders rather than closes them: literary translation. We’ve deviated slightly from our usual format to bring you not one but three interviews around the theme: we'll be talking to Spanish writer Milena Busquets, author of This Too Shall Pass, which has been translated into 27 different languages; literary translator Deborah Smith, who translates from Korean into English and is also...
Literary Friction - Black Sheep With Joanna Cannon
July 18, 2016 07:26 - 58 minutes - 134 MBEver wonder if you're with the flock, or against it? British author and psychiatric doctor Joanna Cannon’s debut novel The Trouble with Goats and Sheep (a Sunday Times bestseller) explores how we treat - or more often mistreat - people who don't quite fit in. It tells the story of two young girls who decide to investigate a housewife’s disappearance from their tight-knit estate during the heat wave of 1976, and the unlikely truth they uncover. In honour of rebels and misfits everywhere, our t...
Literary Friction - Abstract Romanticism with Chris Kraus
June 20, 2016 11:48 - 55 minutes - 126 MBWe are incredibly excited to be joined by American artist and writer Chris Kraus, here to discuss her novel I Love Dick. A feminist classic from the 90s recently published in the UK for the first time, I Love Dick is a hybrid of memoir, fiction and theory that focuses on the main character’s desire for an academic named Dick. We rarely see the object of our desire for what they really are, and literature has always been a rich medium through which to explore these romantic abstractions. So th...
Literary Friction - Vile Bodies with Sara Pascoe
May 24, 2016 07:17 - 1 hour - 138 MBThe body – especially the female body – has forever been an object of literary fascination and desire. But what about the intimate bits that make us squirm, the pungent underarms, abject anuses? Welcome to VILE BODIES, a show dedicated to literature’s uncomfortable relationship with all things corporeal, from Philoctetes' festering foot, to James Joyce’s filthy letters to his wife, to the Vagina Monologues. We interviewed brilliant comedian and writer Sara Pascoe about her debut, ANIMAL, an i...
Literary Friction - Down The Rabbit Hole with Kevin Barry
April 22, 2016 11:37 - 1 hour - 139 MBSpring has sprung, so we're going down the rabbit hole with Kevin Barry, who joins us this month to talk about Beatlebone, his wonderful novel about a very famous John's quest to reach a tiny island that he owns in Clew Bay, off the West Coast of Ireland. Inspired by his trip, our theme is about all those literary escapes to the ends of the earth and to the centre of the mind. We'll be following that elusive rabbit's fluffy tail and lighting out for the territory with Huck Finn, breaking out ...
Literary Friction - Objects With Harry Parker
March 29, 2016 10:43 - 53 minutes - 122 MBHarry Parker's debut novel Anatomy of a Soldier is narrated by objects, 45 things – ranging from dog tags to a bomb to a mattress – that witness the life of Captain Tom Barnes during and in the aftermath of war in the Middle East. Inspired by the novel, our theme is OBJECTS, and in addition to interviewing Harry we look at all those things that populate our favourite books, from King Arthur's Excalibur to Desdemona's handkerchief.
Literary Friction - New Voices LIVE with Ned Beauman, Evie Wyld, Joanna Cannon and Faber New Poets
March 08, 2016 11:24 - 56 minutes - 128 MBIn January we teamed up with our friends at Faber Social and put together an evening of live literary excitement with the theme of 'New Voices'. It was a total sell out, but if you couldn't get a ticket, never fear! Here it is, for your listening pleasure. Tune in to hear readings from some of the fabulous Faber New Poets and bestselling debut author Joanna Cannon, followed by a four-way interview with authors Evie Wyld and Ned Beauman. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
Literary Friction - OZ With Evie Wyld
January 28, 2016 13:09 - 55 minutes - 127 MBOz, that mythical land, where days are hotter than chilli sauce and water goes down the plughole the wrong way... This month we're talking to Evie Wyld about her books 'All the Birds, Singing', and 'Everything is Teeth', both set in Australia. From the writing of Miles Franklin to Richard Flanagan via the mad world of Paul Jennings, we chat about Australia's many depictions in literature, but we also ponder the metaphorical meaning behind that nickname: Oz as the foreign, the distant, the mag...
Literary Friction - Arrested Development with Emma Jane Unsworth
December 25, 2015 11:08 - 50 minutes - 115 MBChristmas is all about kids, big and small, so our present to you is our Arrested Development show from earlier this year - we were joined by the wonderful (and Lena Dunham fave) Emma Jane Unsworth to talk about Animals, her raucous second novel about two friends who are in no hurry to grow up. Long live Peter Pan!
Literary Friction - Generations with Sara Taylor
December 07, 2015 23:42 - 53 minutes - 122 MBThis month novelist Sara Taylor joins us for a show all about literary families that span multiple generations. From the Forsytes of The Forsyte Saga to the Buendías of One Hundred Years of Solitude, we continue to be fascinated by stories that follow bloodlines across decades. In Sara’s beautifully-written debut novel The Shore, multiple descendants of one family live and survive on a group of islands in the Chesapeake Bay off the coast of Virginia.
Literary Friction - Last Night A DJ Saved My Life W/ David Cavanagh
November 05, 2015 17:08 - 1 hour - 141 MBThis month we're joined by author and journalist David Cavanagh for a show all about music in literature. David's book, Good Night and Good Riddance, is an impressive analysis of DJ John Peel's extraordinary career, and how his eclectic taste shaped the British music scene.
Literary Friction - Animal Grammar with Max Porter
October 15, 2015 11:16 - 1 hour - 139 MBThis month we're interviewing Max Porter about his first book, Grief is the Thing with Feathers, which features Crow – antagonist, trickster, healer, babysitter – who visits a family after losing their mother. Inspired by Crow, we're discussing talking animals: not just our favourite childhood bears and bunnies, but the complex creatures in books for grown ups.
Literary Friction - Corpses With Caitlin Doughty
September 30, 2015 23:33 - 1 hour - 140 MBThis month’s theme is Corpses, and our guest is Caitlin Doughty, whose book Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: and Other Lessons from the Crematory is a fascinating, honest, and often hilarious memoir about her life as a mortician. We also talk literary corpses in all their various states of decomposition.
Literary Friction - Confessions with Petina Gappah
September 14, 2015 09:57 - 55 minutes - 129 MBThis month we interview Guardian First Book Award winner Petina Gappah, whose new novel THE BOOK OF MEMORY is narrated by an albino woman convicted of murder in Harare, Zimbabwe. We also discuss confessions in literature, from St Augustine to James Frey.
Literary Friction - Imposters With Sarah Perry
August 12, 2015 21:37 - 56 minutes - 128 MBThis month’s guest is Sarah Perry, who joins us to talk about her gothic, dreamy debut novel AFTER ME COMES THE FLOOD. The theme is imposters, encompassing everything from Mr. Ripley to why we all identify with the Wizard of Oz.
Literary Friction - The Hidden City w/ Ramita Navai
July 13, 2015 13:53 - 1 hour - 142 MBThis month we talk to Ramita Navai about her fascinating book CITY OF LIES: Love, Sex, Death & the Search for Truth in Tehran, and discuss the hidden cities of literature, both real and imaginary.
Literary Friction - Coastlines with Patrick Barkham
June 17, 2015 23:10 - 51 minutes - 118 MBJoining us this month is Patrick Barkham, whose book COASTLINES: The Story of our Shore is a history of the swathes of English coast protected by the National Trust. We also talk about the British coast in literature, from Brighton Rock to Chesil Beach.
Literary Friction - Politics w/ Terry Stiastny
June 01, 2015 20:16 - 58 minutes - 133 MBThis month we talk to Terry Stiastny, whose debut novel ACTS OF OMISSION won the Political Novel of the Year. We also discuss politics in literature. What makes a good political book? Is a novel a good form of protest?