Rippling Pages: Interviews with Writers

"She finds herself in London working in a theatre having to touch people!"

Elaine Garvey, to discuss her novel, THE WARDROBE DEPARTMENT, published by Canongate Books. It’s 2002. Mairéad Sweeney has moved from rural Ireland to work in London’s West End. While the prestige of working in theatre doesn’t exactly wear off, the long hours and spoiled actors make Mairéad’s transition from Ireland more difficult than it should be. Things get even more difficult when Mairéad has to return home for her grandmother’s funeral. It’s here she begins to reconcile with the life, people and values she left behind. This is Elaine’s first book. She has been published in the Dublin Review and the Winter Papers, and has been awarded funding schemes by the Irish Department of Arts for her writing.

“It’s my mum’s favourite book that I wrote!”

We discuss:

https://www.seetickets.com/event/katharina-volckmer-in-conversation/hyde-park-book-club/3381984

‘The people I like to write about are what I would describe as moderately successful failures.’

Tom Layward has made a pact with himself. After his daughter moves out of college, he’s moving out too. His wife had an affair, and he feels like he owes himself a road trip across America. He takes  in the sights, sounds and basketball games of the American heartland and beyond. But he’s deferring some health issues and it seems like it’s only a matter of time before his body asks him to stop and slow down, some of which was inspired by Ben’s own experiences.  

https://www.seetickets.com/event/katharina-volckmer-in-conversation/hyde-park-book-club/3381984

Rippling Points

2.42 - Why Tom goes on a roadtrip

John Updike

The Syme Papers

"Taylor Swift is somebody who has managed to keep reinventing herself to stay relevant."

- Ideas of productivity and how they shouldn't reflect your value in the world

"It builds to women and girls choosing to hide their mouths because of the effect of this trend...things just morph and take on different meanings as they're shared in different contexts"

10.47 - Public and private selves

13.17 - Social media and the writer

14.15 - Theatre in Marni’s stories

18.10 - The different lives characters have

20.15 - How Marni writes about men

23.10 - The significance of mirrors

25.30 - Safe spaces

27.07 - Different registers and discourses

29.16 - Marni's journey to getting the book published.

Melissa Febos

"Being published in English is a big milestone..."

- The global market of translation and the pleasure of being translated into English

Reference Points

Elena Ferrante

“Love is a dangerous topic.”

Vincenzo Latronico is here to talk about his first novel translated into English - PERFECTION, published by Fitzcarraldo editions and translated from the Italian by Sophie Hughes.

Vincenzo is one of the most distinguished novelists writing in Italian today. He has also translated many books into Italian, by authors such as George Orwell, Oscar Wilde, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Hanif Kureishi.

In PERFECTION, there’s something missing from Anna and Tom’s life, and they can’t quite put their finger on what it is that is missing. It drives them to impatience and to the point of leaving their apartment in Berlin. But is it merely an itch they cannot scratch, or does it relate to a deeper lack of authenticity that strikes their core?

If you fancy hearing another Fitzcarraldo essayist, why not buy tickets for my event with Alice Hattrick at Leeds Lit Fest:

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2.18 - Desirability and Familiarity 

Reference Points

Hand Magnus Enzensberger 

“They had one objective - to get rid of certain men”

A little bit more insight and a little bit more inspiration into the craft of writing!

You’ll then hear Pola talking about her next project, Bad Hombre - which features real life accounts collected from Pola of women who were wanting to ‘ruin men’s lives’.

Pola Oloixarac, one of the most exciting voices in world literature today, was here to talk about her two novels that have been translated into English. Most recently SAVAGE THEORIES and then MONA (translated by Roy Kesey and Adam Morris). Both are published by Serpent’s Tail. She was named by Granta as one of the Best Young Spanish novelists as well as this and has written for a wide range of publications and is an Eccles Centre Fellow

SAVAGE THEORIES is a metaphysical, intertextual journey set in 1970s Buenos Aires. Rosa Ostreech struggles with her thesis on violence and culture and sleeps with a bourgeois former guerrilla while trying to kidnap her elderly professor. MONA is a satirical novel set within a global literary prize-giving event. It’s about the fetishisation of characteristics and the global market place of writers. 

“I think it’s much more interesting to explore women through their powers.”

Pola Oloixarac, one of the most exciting voices in world literature today, is here to talk about her two novels that have been translated into English. Most recently SAVAGE THEORIES and then MONA (translated by Roy Kesey). Both are published by Serpent’s Tail. She was named by Granta as one of the Best Young Spanish novelists as well as this and has written for a wide range of publications and an Eccles Centre Fellow

SAVAGE THEORIES is a metaphysical, intertextual journey set in 1970s Buenos Aires. Rosa Ostreech struggles with her thesis on violence and culture and sleeps with a bourgeois former guerrilla while trying to kidnap her elderly professor. MONA is a satirical novel set within a global literary prize-giving event. It’s about the fetishisation of characteristics and the global market place of writers. 

There’s also a festive treat for you in this episode. In the break, hear a reading from A POEM FOR EVERYDAY OF CHRISTMAS edited by Allie Esiri (MacMillan). I read Lemn Sissay’s ‘Let There Be Peace’.

Reference Points

Thomas Bernhard

Robert Bolano

Karl Ove Knausgaard

Dark Constellations - Soho Press

"I think it's a story few people have told before. And it's really about, what does a defender of human rights look like?"