Eleanor Catton’s debut novel, The Rehearsal, was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, and the Dylan Thomas Prize, longlisted for The Orange Prize and received a Betty Task award. Her second novel, The Luminaries, has been shortlisted for the 2013 Man Booker prize. 

Here, Granta Books editor Anne Meadows talks to Catton about opium sand gold, the ideas of the modern and the archaic, whether a good author can also be a sadist, and what it means to be a New Zealand writer today. ‘I am very firm in the belief that literature is not a competitive sport, we’re all doing the same thing, and hopefully for similar reasons.’

Eleanor Catton: The Granta Podcast, Ep. 71

From Nobel laureates to debut novelists, international translations to investigative journalism, each themed issue of Granta turns the attention of the world’s best writers on to one aspect of the way we live now. Our podcasts bring you readings and in-depth discussions with highly acclaimed authors and rising stars from the quarterly magazine of new writing.&nbsp;

Arts

Literature

Performing Arts

Design

Food

Fashion & Beauty

Visual Arts

Books

Fiction

In this episode of the Granta Podcast, we speak to the novelist and critic Lauren Oyler, author of No Judgement (2024) and Fake Accounts (2024), about living in Berlin, the boundary between our private and public selves, and the trajectory of autofiction. 
 
We also discuss Oyler’s essay, ‘Last Week at Marienbad’, which appeared in Granta 165: Deutschland. 

You can read ‘Last Week at Marienbad’ here.

Follow these links to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Leo Robson is a cultural journalist whose work has appeared in the London Review of Books, the New Yorker, and the New Left Review, among other publications. His first novel will be published in 2024. 

Josie Mitchell is online editor at Granta. 

Lauren Oyler, The Granta Podcast

In this episode of the Granta Podcast, we speak to the novelist Brandon Taylor, author of Real Life (2020) and The Late Americans (2023), about naturalism, the future of fiction, and the connection between Émile Zola and The Sims.

We also discuss Taylor’s short story ‘Stalin, Lenin, Robespierre’, which appeared in Granta 166: Generations.

You can read ‘Stalin, Lenin, Robespierre’ here. Follow these links to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Brandon Taylor, The Granta Podcast

In 2022 Jamaica Kincaid spoke to editor Josie Mitchell about childhood, the concept of memory and her early love of Paradise Lost.

Jamaica Kincaid grew up on the island of Antigua. She began writing for the New Yorker and went on to publish many books, including the novel Annie John and the collection of stories At the Bottom of the River. A number of her books have recently been reissued, or are forthcoming, from Picador in the UK.




Jamaica Kincaid, The Granta Podcast, Ep. 111

Last year Claire-Louise Bennett and editor Josie Mitchell talked about rereading, resisting homogenisation and committing to the process of unravelling. 

Claire-Louise Bennett is the author of Pond, a collection of short stories, and the 2021 novel Checkout 19.

Read an extract of Bennett's novel here.



Claire-Louise Bennett, The Granta Podcast, Ep. 110

In 2022 Lynne Tillman and editor Josie Mitchell discussed the afterlife of novels, haunted houses and the sexual revolution.  Lynne Tillman is the author of many books, including the 2006 novel American Genius: A Comedy and the 2014 essay collection, What Would Lynne Tillman Do?  Two of Tillman’s early works are now published in the UK by Peninsula Press: Weird Fucks and Haunted Houses.

Read an excerpt from Tillman’s memoir Mothercare here.   


Eleanor Catton: The Granta Podcast, Ep. 71

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