This episode is our first Past Contributor Conversation (we’re still workshopping the name…), featuring Lincoln Hirn!

Lincoln has one story out with us already—Until You Return in Issue Five—and one forthcoming in Issue Seven, as a Finalist in the 2026 Clarissa Dalloway Prize, Carry Me Along.

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We talk about both pieces, as well as Lincoln’s ongoing pursuit of his PhD in American History and how both his academic work in slave narratives and his reading of writers such as Melville, Faulkner, and Morrison have influenced his creative style. As Lincoln puts it on the show, his goal is to “write in a way that is somewhat oceanic,” which is great—and can be seen in both his pieces at L’Esprit.

We close off this wonderful conversation with Lincoln reading from the opening of his new story. I hope everyone enjoys this talk, and please do go check out Lincoln’s work on his website and elsewhere—it’s formidable!

Happy New Year! This episode is the second half of our conversation on Mrs Dalloway intertextualities, looking at Michael Cunningham's The Hours and Robert Lippincott's Mr. Dalloway. We dove right back into composition, looking at how both novels look to make their readerly impact through plot-based narrative developments rather than through narration itself, which differs from Woolf's approach in MRSD.

We also covered the books’ status as queer literature, their meta-textual elements, and a look at how POV functions in each. In this second part, we focused a lot on the various ways in which Lippincott and Cunningham “win”—by which we simply mean how they seek to execute the plans and goals of their work and, ultimately, achieve an emotional resonance.

Check out the Substack post with complete show notes, and in the meantime—stay critical.

Merci !

This episode is the first half of our conversation on the intertextualities of Mrs Dalloway, looking at Michael Cunningham's The Hours and Robert Lippincott's Mr. Dalloway. We introduced the books, spending a little time on each and discussing the MRSD legacy more broadly before turning to the texts themselves.

We talk about how both authors approach narration differently, with Lippincott using a more playful style that closely mimics Woolf's technique of moving between multiple character perspectives within a single point of view, particularly during a party scene set on a train. Cunningham's approach is a bit more structured, with distinct chapters for each timeline and perspective character. Ultimately, these are both very accomplished novels that are super cool emanations of the great Mrs Dalloway.

Check out the Substack post with complete show notes, and in the meantime—stay critical.

Merci !

Katharine Smyth joins the show to talk about her memoir, All The Lives We Ever Lived, her Woolfian inheritance, her family, and much more. She takes us through how Woolf inspired the emotional symbolism of her memoir and connected it with the impact of her father’s death.

Listen in as Dan and Katharine discuss tattoo parallels, going to Woolf’s former house, and how the publication of her memoir affected her family. In the meantime, check out Katharine’s website and, as always, stay critical!

Suddenly Elizabeth stepped forward and most competently boarded the omnibus, in front of everybody.

This episode is the first in our series on Mrs Dalloway, for the 100th anniversary of its publication.

In this episode, we talk somewhat generally about the novel, getting into Woolf’s style and narrational mode, and how she manages to create a sense of her book being “lived-in.” What’s really interesting about MRSD, (well, one of the many, many things), is how scenic it is. Literally: the novel is almost entirely scene. This creates a sense of it being “shot in one continuous take,” to use a cinematic comparison, and deepens the feeling of life at its core. This universality, I think, gives MRSD its remarkable staying power.

This series will continue over the rest of the year, looking at other texts, taking a deeper dive into MRSD itself, and having a guest or two on to discuss. It’s my favorite book and I really enjoyed recording this one; an excellent way to spend Halloween.

Stay tuned for the Substack post with complete show notes next week, and in the meantime check out everything happening at the journal and the press and, of course—stay critical.

Merci !

This episode features the excellent Rachel León joining the show to discuss Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day. Rachel wrote for L’Esprit way back in Issue Zero, and has all sorts of cool stuff going on.

We get into the novel and break down its use of first person narration, and Stevens’ endless search for the appropriate invocation of banter. It’s a wild book and a fun conversation; hope you enjoy it. In the meantime, check out Rachel’s website and, of course, stay critical!

Our first memoir in the Cordlivres Club! On this episode, we’re talking Rachel Cusk’s The Last Supper, from 2009, about a summer spent in Italy with her family. It’s all about art, language, meaning, truth, tennis—you know, typical stuff.

We get into Cusk's distinctive writing style, particularly her ability to blend abstract philosophical concepts with concrete human experiences through figurative language. I touch on her unique narrative technique of "first-person free and direct," which allows readers to experience conversations more intimately by subtly incorporating other characters' speech patterns into the narration.

We share a few passages from the book to demonstrate how Cusk explores the relationship between language, art, and experience, observing how she approaches memoir writing with those novelistic techniques that make her nonfiction particularly compelling.

Check out the free Substack post with complete show notes. More soon, and in the meantime—stay critical.

Merci !

What better way to tackle the most titanic of twentieth century novels—both within and beyond the text itself—than to bring in a very special guest? Indirect Books’ debut author, and noted literary maverick, Michael Nath joins to show to get stuck in to Joyce’s monumental Ulysses. We take a look at Episodes Four (“Calypso”) & Five (“The Lotus Eaters”), more or less, in this epic two-part conversation.

In this second episode, we get into Episode Five of the novel, talk a little about the resonances to Michael’s own Talbot & The Fall, and generally carry on much as we did in Part One. We also look at some of the very funny and insightful letters written by Margaret Anderson and Jane Heap, as found in my copy, The Little Review “Ulysses”. We also talk about T. S. Eliot’s essay “Ulysses, Order, and Myth”.

I hope everyone enjoys this excellent discussion; I know I did. More episodes on the way next week. In the meantime—stay critical.

Merci !

What better way to tackle the most titanic of twentieth century novels—both within and beyond the text itself—than to bring in a very special guest? Indirect Books’ debut author, and noted literary maverick, Michael Nath joins to show to get stuck in to Joyce’s monumental Ulysses. We take a look at Episodes Four (“Calypso”) & Five (“The Lotus Eaters”), more or less, in this epic two-part conversation.

Michael starts us off with his personal connection to the book, having first read it in 1983 and falling in love with both its humor and its thought. He suggests that Ulysses provides a sense of home for readers over time, much like its own thematic. From there we get into all manner of things, from Joyce's skillful manipulation of voice to the idea of Ulysses as a secular Bible and its expansive nature, even in these (seemingly) straightforward episodes of the novel.

I hope everyone enjoys this excellent discussion; I know I did. We’ll definitely have Michael back on the show (maybe for Hamlet), and we’ve got another great conversation coming in Part Two on Thursday. In the meantime—stay critical.

Merci !

Our latest guest episode in the Cordelives Club doubles as our first author talk! The marvellous H. S. Cross joins us to talk about her new novel, Amanda.

Heather and I talk about her belief in point-of-view, the MFA-less route she took to writing, how she researched and thought about her novel, and so much more. Amanda is a super cool book, and this episode is a great look both at it and at Heather’s approach to her craft. A fascinating conversation that might offer a lot of insight for those thinking about how longterm careers in writing.

I’ve got a review of the novel coming out with Chicago Review of Books, and Heather and I did a written interview that’ll be out in L’Esprit Issue Seven, in October. For now, check out Heather’s website, and order one of her books! You can preorder Amanda now and find her first two novels via her website. If you can, please consider buying them direct from FSG.

Thanks so much to Heather for coming on the show. I hope everyone enjoys this excellent discussion; I know I did. More soon, and in the meantime—stay critical.

Merci !