This week we're diving into the pressure female authors face to turn their personal trauma into marketable content. Why is women’s fiction so often mistaken for ‘autofiction’? And why does the publishing world seem to reward pain over imagination when it comes from women? Writer (and returning guest!) Caroline O’Donoghue joins us to unpack her brilliant recent piece in The Bookseller, deep-diving into everything from the first-person industrial complex, stolen time and tweakments, to her current pop culture picks including books, TV and film. Also this week, K has been to see match-making rom-com The Materialists and E has a book rec! 

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Recs/reviews:

• I Who Have Never Known Men, Jaqueline Harpman 
• Orlanda, Jaqueline Harpman 
• The Materialists, in cinemas
• Materialists review – Celine Song’s Past Lives follow-up is a mixed bag, Guardian 
• ‘Materialists’ Review: When Dakota Met Pedro (and Chris), New York Times 
• Past Lives, Amazon Prime
• Up close and personal, Caroline O’Donoghue for The Bookseller 
• Skip Shock, Caroline O’Donoghue 
• Where's the 'you'? Naoise Dolan on Substack 
• I felt myself split into before and after’: how giving birth triggered a life-changing illness, Guardian 
• The Terrible Things I Have To Do To Be Me, Philippa Snow
• In Love With Love, Ella Rusbridger 
• 84 Charing Cross Road, Helene Hanff
• The Cinemile podcast 
• You’re Wrong About podcast 
• Lena Dunham’s C Word podcast
• Ologies podcast

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