"The world of the imagination is being diminished by the day, with theatres dark, cinemas closed, and actors and musicians encouraged to retrain in more ‘viable’ professions, so books are more vital than ever, bringing us together safely at a time when we have never felt more isolated." The wonderful Nicola Upson returns to the podcast to talk about her early career, finding her confidence and how the Escalator talent development scheme helped to demystify the publishing industry.

We're currently fundraising for Escalator so that we can help as many new writers as possible. To find out more and donate head over here: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/escalator-donations-2020/

Find out more about our Start Writing Crime Fiction course and join the waiting list: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/whats-on/introduction-to-crime-fiction/ 

Hosted by Simon Jones and Steph McKenna.

Music by Bennet Maples.

Escalator needs your help! Our talent development scheme has helped 10 writers every year since 2004 but austerity and funding challenges means we can only fund 6 places in 2021. If you'd like to donate to help us help more writers, visit https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/escalator-donations-2020/ 

On the podcast is previous Escalator participant Owen Nicholls, whose debut novel was published in 2019. Owen talks about shifting from screenwriting to novels, how he completed his first book and how Escalator helped him on the road to creating Love, Unscripted. Simon also talks to Owen about surreptitiously enjoying the film Garden State.

Meanwhile, Steph and Simon are joined by the inimitable Vicki Maitland to talk about Chrysalis, a fantastic mini-festival created by the Lit from the Inside group of young arts professionals. Find out more: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/chrysalis/ 

More on what we do: http://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/ 

Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe!

Music by Bennet Maples.

Happy New Year! We begin 2021 with a conversation with Desmond Elliott Prize shortlisted Abi Daré, whose debut The Girl With The Louding Voice caught everyone's attention last year. Abi talks about her approach to world building and how she used the narrative voice in the book to explore its setting. Asking the questions is novelist Sarah Bower.

Hosted by Simon Jones and Steph McKenna, who start the episode by celebrating that it's not 2020 anymore.

If you like this episode don't forget to subscribe!

Get more free resources on world building: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/5-world-building/ 

Find out about our Early Career Awards, including the Desmond Elliott Prize: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/early-career-awards/ 

Check out our online courses: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/creative-writing-online/ 

More on what we do: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/ 

Made possible with support from Arts Council England.

Music by Bennet Maples.

We're joined on the pod by Dutch writer Thomas Heerma van Voss, who is talking about his new chapbook, Thank You For Being With Us. We're also very pleased to have editor, writer and lecturer Andrew McDonnell asking the questions. They discuss the translation of Thomas' work, how lockdown has affected his writing in 2020 and how he crafted his short stories.

Thomas' residency was made possible by support from the Dutch Foundation for Literature and New Dutch Writing.

Hosted by Simon Jones and Steph McKenna.

Find out more at https://nationalcentrefowriting.org.uk

More info on our residency programmes: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/residencies/ 

Music by Bennet Maples.

We talk to producer Tamsin Flower about Black Writers on Democracy, a project conceived following the Black Lives Matters protests in 2020. Funded rapidly via crowdfunding, a commissioning call was sent out to find writers from around the world to address the theme. The five written pieces have now been published and on the podcast today we talk to Olu Alakija, Nike Igbaroola, Chinua Ezenwa-Ohaeto and Tamsin about how it was put together.

Read and watch the pieces on the StreamLyric website: https://streamlyric.co.uk/digital/

Our previous episode talking to Tamsin in 2018: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/article/the-importance-of-arts-funding/

Hosted by Simon Jones.

Find out more about we do: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/

Join our free Discord community: https://discord.gg/3G39dRW 

Music by Bennet Maples & library sources.

Award-winning poet Will Harris, creator of RENDANG (Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection and a Guardian best poetry book of 2020), is our guest this week. Will discusses how he perceives his writing career and explores form and feeling with Flo Reynolds. 

Meanwhile Simon and Steph talk about our fundraising campaign for the Escalator talent development scheme, our lovely 'All Shall Be Well' prints to cheer everyone up in this tail end of 2020 and whether it's OK to have your Christmas tree up already.

Hosted by Simon Jones and Steph McKenna.

Find out more at https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/

Donate to the Escalator campaign: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/escalator-donations-2020/

Get your 'All Shall Be Well' print: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/article/buy-a-julian-of-norwich-screen-print/

Music by Bennet Maples.

Think you know everything there is to know about Charles Dickens? Professor John Mullan is back with his new book The Artful Dickens to show us Dickens and his work in a completely new light, exploring the famous author's often overlooked experimental and ground-breaking techniques. John came on the show to talk everything Dickens, from the original serialisation of his novels (which gets Simon very excited) to his surviving manuscripts and why he was often dismissed in his time.

Whether you're a fan of Dickens or not, this episode (and John's book!) will make you think again about one of Britain's best-loved authors. And, yes, we do discuss Muppet's Christmas Carol.

Hosted by Simon Jones and Steph McKenna.

Find out more about our Creative Writing Courses: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/creative-writing-online/ 

More info on why we're asking for donations to Escalator: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/escalator-donations-2020/

Music by Bennet Maples.

Stuart Turton discusses the research, editing and planning process behind The Devil and the Dark Water, as well as his route into publishing his first novel, The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. Stuart's talking to Vicki Maitland and their conversation is packed full of practical tips, fascinating insights and historical stories you will feel compelled to immediately Google.

Meanwhile, Simon talks to Peggy Hughes about Open Doors, the new fund of exciting commissions from the National Centre for Writing.

Hosted by Simon Jones.

Join our free Discord community: https://discord.gg/3G39dRW

Full details about the Open Doors commissions: http://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/open-doors/ 

And to save you the need to manually search, a link to the astonishing true story of the Batavia shipwreck: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batavia_(1628_ship)

Check out what we do: http://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/ 

Music by Bennet Maples.

Debut author Sally-Anne Lomas shares her route to being published, which resulted in Gatehouse Press picking up her book Live like Your Head’s on Fire. Sally-Anne talks about her experiences on our Escalator talent development scheme and the process of  reaching publication. We're also joined by Sam Ruddock of Gatehouse who talks about assessing manuscripts and why small presses are essential to the literary ecology and early career writers. Asking the questions is Sarah Bower.

For more information on the Escalator talent development scheme: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/escalator/

Can you donate to Escalator? http://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/escalator-donations-2020/

Listen to Michael Donkor on the pod: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/article/creating-characters-with-michael-donkor/

Join our Discord community! https://discord.gg/3G39dRW 

Sign up to our newsletter: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/ 

Hosted by Simon Jones and Vicki 'Rock DJ' Maitland.

Music by Bennet Maples.

Lockdown didn't stop us from putting on the Noirwich Crime Writing Festival this year in partnership with our friends at the University of East Anglia. One of the many highlights was this conversation between Oyinkan Braithwaite and Femi Kayode, discussing Oyinkan's My Sister, The Serial Killer. If you missed it during the festival, now's your chance to listen on the pod!

Meanwhile, Steph and Simon are joined by Flo to introduce the latest NCW Book Club book: Our Place by Mark Cocker. Find out more here: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/the-ncw-book-club/

You can watch the video version of Oyinkan's event here: https://youtu.be/aQx3AcmpW6Q

Catch up on Noirwich 2020 here: https://noirwich.co.uk/  

Find out more about what we do: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/

Hosted by Simon Jones and Steph McKenna.

Music by Bennet Maples.

Oyinkan photo by Amaal Said.