First Graft Podcast

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Stu Hennigan and Heidi James discuss Stu's brilliant first novel, Keshed, published by Ortac Press in 2025. This podcast is an edited recording of the live event. 

Stu Hennigan is a writer, poet, editor and musician from the North of England. His book about Austerity and the pandemic, Ghost Signs (Bluemoose, 2022) was shortlisted for Best Non-Fiction at the Books Are My Bag Awards and Best Political Book by a Non-Parliamentarian at the Parliamentary Book Awards in 2022/23. His short fiction, essays, poetry, criticism and articles have been published widely in print and online including by Prospect, 3:AM, Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal, Broken Sleep Books, White Rabbit, Lune, Visual Verse, Lunate and Expat. His next book, Disappear Here, a social and cultural history of United States from the late sixties to the present day, analysed and interpreted via the thousands of pop-culture references in the novels of Bret Easton Ellis, will be published in 2027 by Ortac Press. He also plays guitar in the rock band Kamień. Keshed is his first novel.

Heidi James is the author of critically acclaimed novels Wounding, So the Doves (a Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month) and The Sound Mirror. She won The Saboteur Award for her novella, The Mesmerist’s Daughter and was a finalist in The Cinnamon Poetry Collection Prize.  Her short stories, poetry and essays have been published various anthologies and magazines including, among others, We’ll Never Have Paris, Somesuch, Dazed and Confused and Galley Beggar Press. She hosts a podcast, First Graft, where she discusses the writing process with other writers. She has a PhD and lectures in English Literature and Creative Writing.

https://www.ortacpress.com

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In this episode Adelle Stripe and I talk about her writing process, living with another writer, working through self-doubt and the punk rock gardening club. We also give a shout out to 3:AM, Andrew Gallix, Ben Myers and Lee Rourke. 

Adelle Stripe is a writer based in West Yorkshire.
Her books include the Sunday Times bestseller Ten Thousand Apologies and Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile, a fictionalised biography inspired by the playwright Andrea Dunbar. She has been shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize, Portico Prize for Literature and Penderyn Music Book Prize. As a journalist, she has contributed to The Quietus, TLS, New Statesman and Record Collector. She is a recipient of Manchester University's Burgess Fellowship.

https://www.adellestripe.co.uk

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/feb/13/base-notes-by-adelle-stripe-review-an-olfactory-trip-down-memory-lane

This is the last episode in this series... time for me to work on the next novel... chat soon.

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In this episode I talk with Naomi Booth about how place sparks inspiration, enmeshment, resistance to and the demands of the creative impulse and how vital it is to decolonise our minds from patriarchal capitalism if we are to create.

Naomi Booth is the author of the short-story collection Animals at Night and the novels Sealed and Exit Management. Her work has been listed for the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award, included in the Guardian’s Best Fiction of the year 2020, and shortlisted for the Edgehill Prize. Her story, ‘Sour Hall’, which is set in the Calder Valley, won the Edgehill Reader’s Award and was adapted into an Audible Originals drama series. Naomi was born in Bradford and grew up in West Yorkshire. She now lives in York and teaches at Durham University. Her new novel, raw content, is set between York and the Colne Valley, and will be published in March 2025.

Raw Content is published on the 13th of March 2025

https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/naomi-booth/raw-content/9781472159359/

https://naomibooth.com

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In this episode I talk to Cauvery about self doubt, claiming your voice, and the importance of naming in finding your characters. 

Born in India, Cauvery Madhavan moved to Ireland 38 years ago and has been in love with the country ever since. Her books Paddy Indian and The Uncoupling were published to critical acclaim. Her last novel, The Tainted, was chosen by Laureate Sebastian Barry for his Laureate Picks 2020. It was one of An Post Irish Book Awards’ Top Summer Reads. The book was chosen by The Times for their list of top 40 Historical Fiction novels and won the runner-up prize for the SAHR Prize for Military Fiction. Cauvery was an  Ambassador for the Play It Forward Fellowship and served as a judge for the Irish Novel Fair 2022. Her new book, The Inheritance, has been widely hailed as a sumptous, moving evocation of landscape, history and the human spirit. A very keen golfer and cook, she has three children and lives with her husband in County Kildare.

https://cauverymadhavan.com

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In this episode I talk to Annabel about her painting, writing in fragments, the value of small things and writing with and through depression.

Through a variety of media including painting, photography, video, cyanotype, and drawing. Annabel Dover engages the viewer in untold tales of wonder. Throughout her practice she finds herself drawn to objects and the invisible stories that surround them. 

Her work is part distillation, part peripatetic ramble through her influences which range from archaeological illustration, archaic scientific techniques and the enthusiasms of a Victorian lady to the theories of Freud and anthropological research. 

Dover was born in Liverpool, educated in Newcastle and London. Her PhD at Chelsea College of Art explored a practice-led response to the cyanotype albums of Anna Atkins. She has exhibited her work nationally and internationally. 

 https://www.annabeldover.uk

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In this episode I talk to Kirsteen McNish about writing grief, place and writing as an act of vulnerability.

Kirsteen writes a regular column for Caught By The River, and was long listed for the Nan Shepherd Prize in 2023.  She is also an events curator who works with writers, filmmakers, musicians and artists on special one off events in unusual places often outdoors. She curated  the album "Mirry" around lost work by a female musician with musicians Simon Tong and Tom Fraser. She is interested in the micro and the macro and stories of lesser heard people and how that interpolates with place.


https://www.caughtbytheriver.net/2023/01/shadows-reflections-kirsteen-mcnish/

https://www.littletoller.co.uk/the-clearing/aqua-vitae-by-kirsteen-mcnish/

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In this episode I talk to filmmaker and musician, Luke Seomore, about finding your own style as an artist, collaboration, falling in love with image and our mutual love for the Werner Herzog film, Stroszek.

Luke Seomore is an award winning filmmaker whose thought-provoking work spans commercials, features, documentaries and art installations. Working alongside his directing partner Joseph Bull, their debut fictional feature, BLOOD CELLS premiered at Venice Film Festival. It was released by Picturehouse following its UK premiere at the Edinburgh Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Michael Powell Award. A hypnotic road movie that offers a distinctive look at contemporary Britain, the drama found wide critical acclaim following its release.

Their previous film, the feature documentary ISOLATION (about the experiences of ex-soldiers, seen through the eyes of paratrooper turned photographer, Stuart Griffiths), premiered at Edinburgh and was described by the Guardian as "a beautifully attuned piece of work." Luke composes their music and soundtracks under the guise BLESSED ARE THE HEARTS THAT BEND, and released his debut album through Berlin label Vaagner in 2020. He has performed live scores to their lauded feature documentary ISOLATION in a series of sold-out shows at venues including the Roundhouse and the Barbican in London.

Blessed Are the Hearts That Bend's latest album is 'A gentle death / a sudden birth' released in December 2024.

https://www.unit9.com/director/luke-and-joseph

https://www.instagram.com/lukeseomore/

https://lukeseomore.bandcamp.com

https://player.bfi.org.uk/subscription/film/watch-stroszek-1977-online

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In this episode I talk Amanda Mason, author of The Wayward Girls, about writing the uncanny, fear, nostalgia-washing, and art as reciprocity. 

https://greyhoundliterary.co.uk/authors/amanda-mason

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In this episode I talk to author of Mary and the Rabbit Dream, Noemi Kiss-Deaki about writing as a form of exorcism after a long pause, indulging in playfulness and anger as a fuel for creativity. 

https://www.galleybeggar.co.uk/noemi-kissdeaki-author-bio

https://www.instagram.com/noemikissdeaki_author/

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In this episode I talk about writing, visual art, trauma and noticing with Rose Ruane; Rose is an artist & writer who lives in Glasgow with her ever expanding collection of 20th Century kitsch.
Her novels This is Yesterday and Birding are published by Corsair Books.
She is chair of The Adamson Collection: work created in the art therapy studio at Netherne Hospital by individuals who were compelled to live there during the 20th century.

https://www.instagram.com/regretteruane/

https://www.waterstones.com/author/rose-ruane/4001388