Listen to author and critic Erica Wagner in conversation with Sheena Patel, writer of “I’m a Fan”, her first novel published by Rough Trade Books in 2022, and soon to be published in French by Gallimard. In her novel, Sheena Patel explores the blurred lines between reality and the online world through the involvement of an unnamed female character in an unequal romantic relationship. Through this conversation with Erica Wagner, Sheena Patel talks about her desire to capture the spirit of her time. They also evoke “Four Brown Girls Who Write”, a collective of women writers created with her friends to support each other in their writing processes.

As part of the Rendez-vous littéraires rue Cambon [Literary Rendezvous at Rue Cambon], the podcast "les Rencontres" highlights the birth of a writer in a series imagined by CHANEL and House ambassador and spokesperson Charlotte Casiraghi.

(00:00) Introduction

(00:56) Presentation of Sheena Patel by Erica Wagner

(03:51) On the author’s vocation as a writer and her collective

(07:24) The writers that inspire her

(09:46) On the publication process

(12:12) Reading an extract of “I’m a fan” by Sheena Patel

(14:56) On her narrative choices, her writing and editing process

(20:00) On the sense of having a voice

(21:09) On the blurred lines between reality and the online world

(22:08) The ending questionnaire of “les Rencontres”

Sheena Patel, I'm a fan, © Sheena Patel, 2022. Cover © Granta Books, 2023.  

© Rough Trade Books.  

Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D., published by 

Ballantine Books, copyright © 1992, 1955 by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D.  

Minor Feelings : An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong, Random House, 2020.  

Martine Syms, Shame Space, 2020. © Martine Syms. Published by Primary Information.  

Martine Syms, The African Desperate, © Dominica Publishing, 2022  

Maggie Nelson, Bluets, © Copyright 2009 by Maggie Nelson, Wave Books, 2009  

The Argonauts © 2015 by Maggie Nelson. First published by Graywolf Press, Minneapolis.  

© Guardian News & Media Ltd 2024.  

Kathy Acker, Blood and Guts in High School, © Grove Press, 1984. 

Celia Dale's A Spring Love is available from Daunt Books Publishing.

© The British Book Awards.  

© The Women's Prize.  

© Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize.  

© Jhalak Prize.  

© Foyles. All Rights Reserved.  

© Los Angeles Times. 

Sheena Patel, I'm a fan, Translated into French by French novelist and translator Marie Darrieussecq, © Éditions Gallimard, 2025.  

Juan Carlos Medina, The Limehouse Golem, © 

New Sparta Films, 2016. 

Roshni Goyate, Sharan Hunjan, Sunnah Khan, Sheena Patel, 4 BROWN GIRLS WHO WRITE, © Rough Trade Books, 2020. 

© 4 BROWN GIRLS WHO WRITE