Dr. Julia Lovell is a lecturer in modern Chinese history at Birkbeck College, University of London. She speaks with Phil over her new non-fiction work The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams and the Making of China, published by Picador.

Karl Taro Greenfeld, a longtime writer and editor for Time, The Nation and Sports Illustrated and the author of five books drops by. He talks about the difference between choosing fiction and non-fiction to tell a story.

Sarah Passmore is joined by American writer Robert Olen Butler to talk about his life and his writing.

Sarah Passmore is joined by Vanessa Collingridge to talk about her book, "Boudica".

Sarah Passmore speaks to Susan Conley about her memoir "The Foremost Good Fortune".

Sarah Passmore is joined by Justin Hill to talk about his latest work Shieldwall and explain why he likes history.

Junot Diaz is the author of two bestselling books: Drown, a short story collection published in 1996, and the Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. He talks to Phil Whelan about his work and the art of teaching.

Professor Joseph Wong explains to Angie Man why he chose Barack Obama 's book 'The Audacity of Hope' as his favourite.

Sarah Passmore spoke to Bi Fei-yu, Chinese writer about the feeling of winning the award.

Homi K Bhabha and Teo Hsu-Ming, judges of The Man Asian Literary Prize, speak to Sarah Passmore on the shortlisted books, ahead of the Award Ceremony held in 17 March 2010.