In this episode, I was in conversation with Matilde Pratesi, author of Caledonia Novel Award-shortlisted Pig, about big passions, the animal channel that opens up during the writing process, and the strange experience of having her dreams come true. 

We talked about:
💘 Romantic female friendships that can turn toxic.
🐷 Writing from the perspective of a neurodivergent character with a passion for pigs.
🖊️ The possibility of fiction to rewrite narratives of repression.
🌈 Writing about gender and sexuality.

Matilde's ceremonies for writing are:
⚡Finding an animal channel.
⚗️ Using writing to alchemise her inner and outer worlds.
🗂️ Researching everything there is to know about pigs.

Matilde grew up in Italy and moved to London in her early twenties. Once there, she immersed herself in the literary community, writing in forums that met online and around the pub table, taking courses in local community hubs and working men’s colleges.

After postponing the second year of her MA in Creating Writing at Birkbeck University of London because of the onset of the Covid pandemic, she decided to try her hand at writing a novel.

If writing fiction fills up her evenings and weekends, it’s copywriting for the advertising industry that fills up her weekdays. And when all the writing has been done, she enjoys exploring the countryside around London with her wife and daughter.

Her Twitter handle is @1Matilde.

To read the transcript, go to the episode page here.