San Clemente

Andrew quite rightly features on The Standard's 2024 New Art Power List and hailed by The Telegraph as an artist saving public galleries. Today, he talks about creating a space through sonic and visual art for the viewer to think and find new ideas. His current exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery is a love letter to one of London's most diverse neighbourhoods. It's also praised by TimeOut. This episode is a moment of celebration for the way we all experience art and what it means for the world.

Andrew earned his MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art (2019) and BA in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Arts (2017). He's also an Associate Lecturer at The Royal College of Art's MA Painting programme. On top of that, he's won the ArtAngel 'Thinking Time' Award (2020) and Tiffany & Co. x Outset Studiomakers Prize (2019).

Check out Whitechapel Gallery here.

For more art, head to sanclemente.co.uk, catch up on previous episodes or get ready for more this week.

[Note: the intro has been edited to correct Royal Academy to Royal College x] 

One of New Zealand’s most successful authors, Rebecca is finally here in UK bookshops. Greta & Valid, which spent a year at the top of the bestseller list, is a hilarious examination of humanity through two siblings trying their best in Aukland. It’s one of BBC’s Most Anticipated Reads of the Year and recently reviewed in the NYT. 

We talk about the book in passing and die laughing instead. Pt.1 covers messy butches, stories about Lorde and public transport. 

Rebecca K Reilly (Ngaati Hine, Ngaati Rehua Ngaatiwai ki Aotea) is a Maaori novelist from Waitaakere, New Zealand. She has a BA (hons) in German and European studies from the University of Auckland and an MA from the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University of Wellington, where she won the Adam Foundation Prize in Creative Writing for 2019.

Find the book here. Or at your local seller. 

For more literature, head to sanclemente.co.uk, catch up on previous episodes or get ready for more this week. 

Elizabeth's novel The Bullet Swallower has sparked a huge buzz from Shondaland, Esquire, the LA Times, NPR and The Telegraph. It covers the beloved tropes of Westerns and goes far beyond with magical realism, dual timelines and a literally damning exploration of colonial heritage. It's one of Good Reads' most anticipated books of 2024- rightly so.

More info on Elizabeth from her website:

Elizabeth Gonzalez James is the author of the novels Mona at Sea (SFWP, 2021) and The Bullet Swallower (forthcoming Simon & Schuster, 2024), as well as the chapbook, Five Conversations About Peter Sellers (Texas Review Press, 2023). Her stories and essays have appeared in The Idaho Review, Southern Humanities Review, The Rumpus, StorySouth, PANK, and elsewhere, and have received numerous Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominations. She was Interviews Editor at The Rumpus, and a former contributor to Ploughshares Blog. Originally from South Texas, Elizabeth now lives with her family in Massachusetts.

Find the book here. Or at your local seller. 

For more literature, head to the sanclemente.co.uk, catch up on previous episodes or get ready for more this week. 

One of GQ’s Ones to Watch 2024, Lucy has been all over our social media feeds with her hits Kulture Klub and ADHD. Bella Hadid, the inspiration for the former, is also a fan. Kulture Klub's sped up version has 175k+ uses, an accomplishment for even a seasoned star.

Not only is she a producer and singer, Lucy, along with Rina Sawayama, is a member of ESEA, a writing camp for East and South Asian artists.

In case that wasn’t enough, Lucy completed her degree in Economics and Burmese at SOAS during the pandemic. As she explains herself, Lucy performed to 60,000 people as a special guest for Bunny Phyoe’s televised NYE countdown in Myanmar.

We talk about her advice for fellow young musicians, personae, being in your 20's and keeping up friendships.

You can listen to Lucy here or follow her @lucytun on TikTok + @lcytn on Instgram.

One of New Zealand’s most successful authors, International Bestseller Rebecca is finally here in UK bookshops thanks to Cornerstone. Greta & Valid, which spent a year at the top of the bestseller list, is a hilarious examination of humanity through two siblings trying their best in Aukland. It’s listed on BBC’s Most Anticipated Reads of the Year and recently reviewed in the NYT. 

We talk about the book in passing and die laughing instead. Pt.1 covers messy butches, stories about Lorde and public transport. 

Rebecca K Reilly (Ngaati Hine, Ngaati Rehua Ngaatiwai ki Aotea) is a Maaori novelist from Waitaakere, New Zealand. She has a BA (hons) in German and European studies from the University of Auckland and an MA from the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University of Wellington, where she won the Adam Foundation Prize in Creative Writing for 2019. (Courtesy of Penguin's site)

Find the book here. Or at your local seller. 

For more literature, head to sanclemente.co.uk, catch up on previous episodes or get ready for more this week. 

Viktoria is the first autistic author nominated for the Booker Prize. All the Little Bird Hearts explores the autistic perspective through motherhood, new friendship and class as the arrival of a glamorous couple one summer in the Lake District threatens life as she knows it. 

We talk about writing from a neurodivergent perspective, Sicilian folklore and developing character. It’s really a masterclass for aspiring writers and a very lovely bookclub episode. 

Find the book here. Or at your local seller. 

For more literature, head to the sanclemente.co.uk, catch up on previous episodes or get ready for more this week. 

“Part of being an autistic person is you are created by necessity because you’re always having to find ways to translate and ways to connect where they’re not coming naturally. So I think that makes us creative just to survive. We’re creative because we’re always trying to find new approaches that neurotypical just don’t need to look for because those things come organically for them.” 

It's not often you get to talk to an author about their seminal novel. Dinah's Lord Jim at Home shocked readers in the 70's and now has an intro from Ottessa Moshfegh for its republication. We talk about the public school system, making a murderer and her time in the Osho cult. Of course, I got her answer on how to become a writer.

Poet, Novelist, Translator and lecturer at NYU & Princeton (deep breath) Idra Novey talks about polarisation, rural America, Brooklyn and how to just DO it.

Her book Take What You Need is out. READ IT.

Sîan is both a Seamus Heaney Award Winning poet and a Book Prize Longlisted author. We talk about ghost stories, memory, the Gawain Poet, and the Old English classic Perl.

Her gorgeous book Pearl is out now.

Booker Longlisted and Winner of the Seamus Heaney Award, Sîan is the writer/poet we aspire to be. Her book Pearl is stunning and available where you buy books (maybe even some places you don't). This episode gets into the meaning of place, killing your darlings and writing about complex mental health.

Part 2 is out on Wednesday! Get ready for more on the original poem Pearl and GHOST STORIES (oooOOOOoo).

If you're struggling with postpartum mental health issues, go to see the NHS's information here.