The Secret Life of Writers by Tablo

Featuring: Steve Toltz's new book Here Goes Nothing and why it’s set in the afterlife; using time in the writing process like a painter uses light; Steve’s spiritual home; juggling editorial notes from different countries; the overarching project of Steve’s work; a short reading; on writing humour and hilarious characters (who are also very entertaining to write); his experience in writers' rooms, how Steve first got an agent; his play that didn't eventuate; what's next and some wonderful reading recommendations. ‘A writer uses time like a painter uses light - without time you can’t even see what it is that you’ve done.’ ‘Years go by without ever showing anyone a word…I get it as good as I can possibly get it without burying it in the garden for six months' ‘I don’t feel like I’ve ever really been in a literary world that much’ On editorial notes: ‘There’s always the clear understanding that you can take them or leave them...I end up always taking about 80% of the notes because they’re always generally great.'

Featuring: Hannah's earlier books Burial Rites and The Good People; the landscape in her life and work; the messiness of first drafts; on writing Devotion, a modern novel that's 'a queer love story'; celebrating the light; returning to that place of play; balancing imagination and research; the Prussian and Lutheran history of South Australia; the occult; exploring places of absence and silence; the experience of screenwriting; what working at Kill Your Darlings taught Hannah; a love of poetry.

'To commit to art is to commit to living.' 'I do believe in agency and I do believe in the power of the story and the power of your own story.' Featuring: the Irish storytelling tradition; writing about illness; resilience; the agency in telling your own story; books and music as saviours; the artists whose lives and art were beacons of hope; advice from John Banville; on interviewing; watching New York go by with George Saunders; how to decide what goes into an anthology; a love of the short story; the elasticity of the essay; overriding fear; ghosts in the family; the novel-in-progress, and the upcoming music anthology Sinéad has edited with Kim Gordon.

Featuring: how it took some time for Katie to call herself a writer; the effect of teaching on her own writing; influential authors; where the idea for Intimacies came from; connective points between A Separation and Intimacies; crafting tension; characters who work with language and Katie’s own relationship with languages; why Katie set Intimacies in The Hague; structures of power and our complicity; different ways of writing violence; the role of performance in court; the interiority and unreliability of the narrator; and keeping doors open.

Featuring: The experiences of Louise’s parents in Europe and her father’s time in the French Resistance; how her parents' passion for the arts impacted Louise’s life; an early obsession with books; studying and teaching at Columbia University; her time as Edward Said’s teaching assistant; being socially engaged; her major roles in publishing and the arts, and what she learnt from them; a love of commissioning; finding Australian stories and readers; Hilary McPhee’s brief for MUP; the role of a publisher; some stand-out titles Louise published in the past and what she is publishing now (and some wonderful reading recommendations).

Featuring: Evie’s life and books; writing every novel very differently; where The Bass Rock came from; religion and paganism; when in doubt; paying attention to negative reviews; getting nothing done at writers’ retreats; what Australia meant to Evie as a child; the role of character and landscape; writing confronting scenes and the high body count; the exhaustion for women in constantly being vigilant; ghosts and hauntings; the links between religion and misogyny; Evie’s first reader and editor; the writers who helped teach Evie to write; the Victorian idea of a companion; behind the scenes of Review, Evie’s bookshop in Peckham; and book recommendations. In Australia find Evie's books at all good bookshops such as Readings: https://www.readings.com.au In the UK find Evie's books and browse many other delights at Review in Peckham http://www.reviewbookshop.co.uk

Featuring: Living in London, a fierce love of Australia, juggling work and family, bringing unspoken things into the light, strong headstrong women, on Nikki's book After and her mother’s suicide, the importance of cherishing loved ones, memories of getting published, the women in publishing who lifted Nikki up, getting outed as the writer of The Bride Stripped Bare, the pleasures of editing, and the writers who excite Nikki today.

Featuring: wonder, silliness and how Andy has made millions of kids fall in love with reading. He talks about the early days figuring out what kind of writer he was; dealing with initial rejections; the algebra of comedy and fiction; his characteristic too-much-information detail; the joy of collaborating and the genius of Terry and Jill; the endless rewrites and hard work alongside many laughs; how deadlines are useful; why the Treehouse series went ballistic; the art of performance; working with The Indigenous Literacy Foundation and what books are coming next. There are also loads of book and film recommendations. * You might want to listen to this interview in a few sessions as it’s much longer than usual (everything Andy said was gold so I didn't edit it down). He’s incredibly humble, generous and funny (forgive my excessive laughter) and his life story is an inspiration. Enjoy.

Featuring: Giving a voice to the voiceless, observations of America today, from war zones to living Paris and New York, the concept of moral injury, ghosts from Bosnia and living with injustice, Syria and the mass exodus of refugees, investigating human rights, the nature of ‘evil’, how foreign reporting has drastically changed, the anchor of faith, and Janine's new book ‘The Vanishing: The twilight of Christianity in the Middle East’. *Some of the content in this conversation is disturbing as we’re talking about the reality of war. *The film Janine recommends is ‘Quo Vadis, Aida?’ A 2020 Bosnian film written, produced and directed by Jasmila Žbanić.

The first episode of season two! Featuring: Lang self-publishing her first book then getting an agent and a publishing deal; becoming a bestselling author and social media sensation; Lang’s remarkable mother; the power of words to change lives; the impact of speaking different languages (including a rare form of Chinese) on her writing; and writing to her past and future self. Lang also gives some readings of her work. * This interview was recorded at the end of 2020. Enjoy!

Featuring: Living in France, the different ways of acquiring books, finding treasures in the slush pile, the evolution of Text Publishing, bridging the chasm between languages in translation, the relationship between author and translator and the work of Marie Darrieussecq.

Featuring: deciding to write professionally, dealing with rejection, finding an agent and getting published for the first time, the good and bad of 2020, living in New York during the pandemic, the terrifying mystery of illness, the conversation between Emily’s novels, Ponzi schemes, ghosts and the counterlife. The discussion weaves between Emily’s various books from her first novel Last Night in Montreal to Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel.

Featuring: memories of childhood, the international hit 'The Barber Shop Chronicles', the pleasure of writing for television, the huge impact of the pandemic on artists, The National Theatre’s 'Three Sisters', adapting 'The Little Prince' into an Afro-futurist world facing ecological disaster, the process of drafting, The Midnight Run, 'The Half-God of Rainfall', a reading from the new book of poetry 'The Actual' and the audio documentary 'Nuskka Is Burning' on Nigeria’s first indigenous university that’s produced formidable voices like Chinua Achebe and Chimamanda Adichie.