Interview with BARBARA TRAPIDO

Barbara Trapido is the author of seven novels including Brother of the More Famous Jack (1982) and Frankie and Stankie (2003). She has been shortlisted for major awards including the Whitbread.

She talks to us about her latest novel Sex and Stravinsky (May 2010), her inspirations and writing processes and being given the label of a “South African writer”. She also tells us a little about the novel she is ‘brooding’ on at the moment, which may involve a lady who uses ‘a pet baboon to deflea the dog’…

Part I

Part II

Interview with
JAMES SHAPIRO

James Shapiro is a professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and author of the award-winning 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare. His most recent book, Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? explores the origins and various incarnations of the authorship controversy surrounding Shakespeare’s plays.

Interview with HANIF KUREISHI

The celebrated novelist, screenwriter and playwright talks about his new Collected Stories, why writing can seem like a waste of time, the ‘blandness’ of multiculturalism, why he’s become a Marxist (‘in the last three days’) and how he liked Thatcher (because he ‘hated her’).

Articles

Open to the World: A Report on the London Review Bookshop’s World Literature Weekend (18 – 20 June 2010)

Get a Green Tie, Be a New Man: Guy Cuthbertson has bought a green tie. He tells us why it represents great artistic and literary expectations.

T.S. Eliot Prize Reading Report: At the British poetry world’s biggest annual prize, a strong shortlist including three former winners battle for the prestige and the cash.

‘Writ in Water’: Shelley, Byron, Keats and the Italian Sea

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Keep an eye on…

We present an exciting new voice in literature and ask them a few questions:

Michael Mckimm

Roast Books and A.C.Tillyer ——————–

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Poetry

Barefoot in the Park Poetry Competition Winners

‘The Studio of Paula Rego’ by Anna McKerrow

‘From America’ by Joshua Roche

‘Poem for a Partnership’ by Alan Fielden

‘A Visitor’ by Alex Christofi

Short Stories

‘177′ by Howard Colyer

‘Dog Days’ by Jocelyn Meermans

‘Chicken in a Basket’ by Anna Towers

Reviews

Incisive comments on latest releases by our team of reviewers.

Apologies for any disturbance to the site while we upload Issue 2. It will be worth it!

INTERVIEWS

The retiring poet laureate ANDREW MOTION talks to us about getting over writer’s block and the poems he regrets writing.

The leading Shakespeare expert PROFESSOR STANLEY WELLS on the life portrait and loopy conspiracy theorists.

Renowned Faber poet MARK FORD on his love of oddities, fear of clichés and a swimming pool full of peanuts.

Keep an eye on…KATHRYN SIMMONDS. Exciting new award-winning poet.

ARTICLES

Stanza Festival report: Are poetry readings a waste of time?

Nightmare of Existence: The ordeal of Samuel Beckett’s Not I

Guilty Pleasures: The delicious appeal of shiny shiny vampires and bad writing.

Disconnection/Dystopia: Losing yourself in dystopian novels

POETRY

New Voices in Poetry. This issue, Oli Hazzard, Colette Sensier, Anna Kirk and Liz Fincham.

SHORT STORIES

Recordings by a man literally falling apart in a story by Anna Towers

A Minotaur, chess, a prodigy and disappointment in ‘China Shop’ by Eley Williams
REVIEWS
Incisive comments on latest releases by our team of reviewers.