San Clemente

Katie's biography, Not Your China Doll, re-examines the life of Hollywood pioneer, Anna May Wong. It's been praised by Marvel star and New York Times Bestseller Simu Liu as well as the Times, the Telegraph and the Guardian. It was nominated for the 2024 Goodreads Choice Awards in History & Biography and selected as one of Entertainment Weekly's 'Books we're excited to read in 2024'.

Katie Gee Salisbury is the author of Not Your China Doll, a new biography of Anna May Wong, the first Asian American movie star. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Vanity Fair, The Ringer, the Asian American Writers' Workshop, and elsewhere. She was a finalist for the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship in 2021 and gave the TED Talk “As American as Chop Suey.” She also writes the newsletter Half-Caste Woman. A fifth-generation Chinese American who hails from Southern California, she now lives in Brooklyn.

Get the book here or at your local seller.

Set against the glittering backdrop of Los Angeles during the gin-soaked Jazz Age and the rise of Hollywood, this debut book celebrates Anna May Wong, the first Asian American movie star, to bring an unsung heroine to light and reclaim her place in cinema history.

Before Constance Wu, Sandra Oh, Awkwafina, or Lucy Liu, there was Anna May Wong. In her time, she was a legendary beauty, witty conversationalist, and fashion icon. Plucked from her family’s laundry business in Los Angeles, Anna May Wong rose to stardom in Douglas Fairbanks’s blockbuster The Thief of Bagdad. Fans and the press clamored to see more of this unlikely actress, but when Hollywood repeatedly cast her in stereotypical roles, she headed abroad in protest.

Anna May starred in acclaimed films in Berlin, Paris, and London. She dazzled royalty and heads of state across several nations, leaving trails of suitors in her wake. She returned to challenge Hollywood at its own game by speaking out about the industry’s blatant racism. She used her new stature to move away from her typecasting as the China doll or dragon lady, and worked to reshape Asian American representation in film.

Filled with stories of capricious directors and admiring costars, glamorous parties and far-flung love affairs, Not Your China Doll showcases the vibrant, radical life of a groundbreaking artist.

Saraid de Silva (she/her) is a Sri Lankan/Pakeha writer living in Tamaki Makaurau, Aotearoa New Zealand. Saraid has worked as an actor, theatre-maker, voiceover artist. In 2022, she graduated from Auckland University's Creative Writing Masters and became the inaugural winner of the Crystal Arts Trust Prize.

She has also released three seasons of the documentary series Conversations With My Immigrant Parents for Radio New Zealand with co-creator Julie Zhu, and works as a writer for NZ's prime-time soap opera, Shortland Street.

Amma has been praised by Diet Paratha, NZ Poet Laureate Chris Tse and Spinoff. It was also nominated for this year's Women's Prize for Fiction.

Get the book here or at your local seller.

“Annie Ano Fernando doesn’t care much for men”

And so begins a novel exploring trauma, displacement, queerness over three generations and three continents of the Sri Lankan diaspora.

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1951, Singapore. Ten-year-old Josephina kills her abuser.

This event becomes the defining moment in the lives of Josephina, her daughter Sithara, and her granddaughter Annie.

The effects cascade through generations as Annie sets out across the world to discover what happened to fracture her family.

Set in Sri Lanka, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia and London, Amma is a novel about how the past lives with us forever, and wherever we are.

Written in sensuous, vivid prose, Amma is a story of the rich history and unknown future of the Sri Lankan diaspora -  and of one family desperately trying to find peace.

Foluso Agbaje has been writing stories since she first learned to write. She loves London but calls Lagos home, and her stories are shaped by these two cities that have captured her heart. When not curled up with her Kindle, you’ll find her in a bookshop, museum, or restaurant. She is a big fan of period dramas and has watched every episode of Downton Abbey more times than she’s willing to admit.

After graduating from the Faber Academy in 2022, Foluso completed her debut novel, The Parlour Wife. She has a Master’s degree in Management and Human Resources from the London School of Economics and a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Loughborough University.

A storyteller at heart, Foluso is always drawn to narratives that explore identity, culture, and resilience. She continues to write, inspired by the complexities of the human experience.

Get the book here or at your local seller.

Chloe Abrahams is a Sri Lankan British artist and filmmaker. Using methods drawn from both documentary and fiction practices, she investigates the therapeutic potential of the confessional, culminating in visceral work spanning moving image, sound, writing and performance. Chloe’s debut non-fiction film, The Taste of Mango, premiered at True/False 2023 where it was named the #1 film by Sight & Sound. The film went on to win the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the BFI London Film Festival, followed by the BIFA for Best Debut Director – Feature Documentary.​In 2020 Chloe was awarded the John Brabourne Award and has three times been shortlisted for the Bloomberg New Contemporaries (2018, 2019, 2022). She had her first solo exhibition at OVADA (2014), and has since been selected for exhibitions worldwide, including The London Open at the Whitechapel Gallery 2022. Previously, Chloe worked as the Marketing Coordinator for documentary distributor Dogwoof, responsible for the execution of all UK theatrical campaigns, and recently completed a Master’s in Moving Image at the Royal College of Art where she was nominated for the HIGH Prize for Excellence.

Follow Chloe on instagram @chloeabr

Michael’s debut novel, The Boyhood of Cain, has been praised by the Times, the Guardian, the New Yorker and Call Me By Your Name author André Aciman. In this episode we talk about the benefits of not knowing yourself, relentless productivity and the forms of knowledge contained in literature that can't be communicated by AI.

Michael is also a non-fiction writer with work published in the Guardian, New Statesman, the Spectator, The White Review and Contrappasso magazine.

His short fiction has been longlisted for the BBC National Short Story Prize and shortlisted for the Bridport Prize, among others. Meanwhile, his book-length essay, Go the Way Your Blood Beats, a meditation on truth and desire, won the 2019 Stonewall Israel Fishman Award for Nonfiction (sponsored by the American Library Association).

He is also the winner of the 2020 Hubert Butler Essay Prize and was shortlisted for the 2021 Observer/Anthony Burgess Prize for Arts. His essay, ‘Does a Silhouette Have a Shadow?’, examining the relationship between mind and body through the lens of chronic illness, is published in anthology On Bodies. 

Previously he has worked for Just Detention International, a health and human rights organisation that seeks to end sexual abuse in all forms of detention. He served as a commissioner on the Howard League’s Commission on sex in prisons – the first of its kind in the UK – which reported in 2015.

Get the book here or at your local seller.

Catherine Airey’s debut novel Confessions features on the “Books to Look Forward to in 2025” lists for the Financial Times and The Sunday Times. Catherine has been praised by The Guardian, The Atlantic, The Independent, Publishers Weekly and The Irish Times. 

The Guardian named her as one of 2025’s Best New Novelists. The Radio Times says she’s “bound to become a household name very soon.” 

Authors who love her work include Yael van der Wouden, author of The Safekeeping which was nominated for the Booker last year. She’s been interviewed for The Times Radio, The Bookseller, Country and Town House, and Radio 4’s prestigious Woman’s Hour. She was also recently in conversation with 2024 star Ferdia Lennon, author of Glorious Exploits, for Waterstones in Deansgate. 

We talk about her journey to writing Confessions, favourite reads and the complexity of family stories. 

Get Confessions here or at your local bookshop! 

Find Catherine on Instagram @catherineairey. 

CONFESSIONS:

It is late September in 2001 and the walls of New York are papered over with photos of the missing. Cora Brady’s father is there, the poster she made taped to columns and bridges. Her mother died long ago and now, orphaned on the cusp of adulthood, Cora is adrift and alone. Soon, a letter will arrive with the offer of a new life: far out on the ragged edge of Ireland, in the town where her parents were young, an estranged aunt can provide a home and fulfil a long-forgotten promise. There the story of Cora's family is hidden, and in her presence will begin to unspool…

An essential, immersive debut from an astonishing new voice, Confessions traces the arc of three generations of women as they experience in their own time the irresistible gravity of the past: its love and tragedy, its mystery and redemption, and, in all things intended and accidental, the beauty and terrible shade of the things we do.

Megan is one of Ireland's rising stars, according to The Times. Her novels Acts of Desperation and Ordinary Human Failings have earned huge acclaim over the past few years.

Among those accolades are shortlist nominations for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, the Nero Prize, the Royal Society of Literature's Encore Award & the Gordon Burn Prize. She's been longlisted for the Women's Prize this year and the Dylan Thomas Prize 2022.

Not only is she a contributor to major outlets (including New Statesman, Frieze, The Telegraph and The Independent), Megan has been interviewed by The Guardian, The Times, Interview Magazine, Metal Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Penguin Random House, NYLON and Stylist.

Get your copy of Ordinary Human Failings here or at your local seller.

Abi became a New York Times Bestseller with her book The Girl With the Louding Voice.

It was loved by Malala Yousafzai, Dolly Parton, Andi Oliver & Elizabeth Day, among many, many others. It was a Radio 4 Bookclub Pick, Shortlisted for the Desmond Elliot Prize for Fiction, and an International Word-of-Mouth Bestseller.

It also featured on The Guardian's Not The Booker List. It was also a Good Morning America Bookclub Pick by Kiley Reid. Abi's been interviewed on the Today Show, The Women's Prize Podcast, LitHub and Sky Arts.

She's been featured in the press internationally including the NYT, The Independent, Stylist and Harper's Bazaar.

The Girl With the Louding Voice has been translated into over 20 languages and has 150k+ 4 star reviews.

And So I Roar follows on from Adunni's story the night before she starts school. Find it here or at your local seller. It's out tomorrow 8/7/24!

Abi also has a her own foundation for female education: the Louding Voice Educational and Empowerment Foundation. It provides scholarships for girls in rural Nigeria like Adunni.

Sean Wang is one of the most exciting directors in the world right now. His debut feature film Dídi comes out this week in cinemas near you.

It was presented at this year's Sundance, where it won the US Dramatic Audience Award and Special Jury Prize for Best Ensemble Cast, and closed Sundance London. It was also acquired by Focus Features.

Sean was Oscar Nominated for his short doc, Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó, about his grandmothers and their beautiful friendship. It won the SXSW Grand Jury Prize & Audience Award. You can find it on Disney+ and Hulu.

Sean is a Fellow of the Sundance Screenwriters & Directors Lab, having previously been a fellow of Sundance Ignite and Google Creative Lab 5.

For our 50th episode (!!) Leïla Slimani joins to talk about her latest book Watch Us Dance, which follows on from The Country of Others.

Leïla is a French-Moroccan writer and journalist. In November 2018, she was named the second most influential French person in the world, ahead of the President and Mbappé, in Vanity Fair's esteemed annual list. France Today listed in last year as one of 12 Influential French Women You Should Know About, alongside the Prime Minister and the Mayor of Paris.

She is also a French diplomat in her capacity as the personal representative of the French president Emmanuel Macron to the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie.

She was made an Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2017.

In 2016, she was awarded the Prix Goncourt for her novel Lullaby. It sold over 600k copies its first year and 100k in its first week.

She was Chair of the Judges for last year’s International Booker Prize.

She also won the British Book Award for Debut Novel of the Year in 2019.

Her non-fiction book Sex and Lies: Sex Life in Morocco sparked nationwide conversation about women’s rights. Her work as a journalist has involved covering the Arab Spring and interviewing Michelle Obama in 2022.

She’s been interviewed by leading outlets and publications around the world including Vogue, Vogue Arabia, The Guardian, The New York Times, TIME Magazine, El País, Morocco World News and Le Monde. 

Get her latest book here, or at your local bookshop.