Samuel Rigg: 'Often I find I'm writing about people who are not me'

About this episode

Samuel Rigg discusses his short story 'At the Rink' and the themes of parenthood and loss in his writing.

After hearing from Cynthia Zarin, Rodrigo Urquiola Flores and the translator Shaina Brassard, and Tim Conley, this Winter series of podcasts enters the final stretch. We'll be rounding off with Cynthia Banham next time, but stepping out on to the ice this week is Samuel Rigg and his short story, At the Rink. Although a short story that explores parenthood and loss is far from his own life, Rigg tells us his short fiction rarely starts close to home. "Often I find I'm writing about people who are not me," he says, "or are relatively far from my own experience. You obviously need to find a way in that connects." This connection with an issue that might seem remote can sometimes be fairly abstract, Rigg continues. "If the form comes to you with that subject, then you don't really question it, you just think, 'OK, I know what I'm going to do,' and you go with it." At the Rink took the author all the way to Scarsdale, a suburb north of New York City where Rigg – like his protagonist – has spent some time. "Maybe there was a sense in which I wanted to write a character who was an outsider," he says, "because that's how I came to that place myself." The nuclear family and the picket…

People in this episode

Guest: Samuel Rigg

Topics covered

• parenthood
• loss
• short fiction
• writing process
• cultural resonance
• outsider perspective

Keywords

• Samuel Rigg
• At the Rink
• parenthood
• loss
• short story
• writing
• cultural significance

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: At the Rink

Places: Scarsdale, New York City, Britain

More episodes of Fictionable

• Takiguchi Yūshō: 'When I’m writing fiction, I have very little sense I’m the one inventing the story' · May 16, 2026 · 20 min
• Holly Edwards: 'There's obviously something political about presenting trans characters' · May 9, 2026 · 17 min
• Joel Cox: 'It's fine to have jerks in stories, but you have to have something that makes the reader keep reading' · May 3, 2026 · 25 min
• Bruna Martini: 'I have spent too many months without drawing' · April 24, 2026 · 26 min
• Diana Evans: 'Writing is an act of hope' · April 16, 2026 · 20 min
• Cynthia Banham: 'Writing is a dangerous act' · February 20, 2026 · 26 min