Unsound Methods

Our first guest of 2022 is the novelist Keith Ridgway, author of, among other works, 'the Long Falling' (1998), 'the Parts' (2003), 'Animals' (2006), 'Hawthorn and Child' (2012) and, most recently, 'A Shock' (2021), which was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize. Keith was awarded the Rooney Prize in 2001.

Our chat with Keith took us through the daily fight with the concept of routine, specificity of place, giving up writing and returning, and experiencing a reading crisis - followed by being knocked off the wagon by Georges Simenon.

Keith's books are available through Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/contributors/keith-ridgway - or your local book shop...

Keith is on Twitter: @rid9way

Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloom

Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan

We have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethods

Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/

We have loosely teamed up with the Institute of English Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. Now that some form of normality has (possibly temporarily) returned to the U.K., why not check out their Literature in Lockdown page? : https://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/about-us/ies-virtual-community/literature-lockdown

Our guest this month is Jenn Ashworth, author of A Kind of Intimacy (2009), Cold Light (2011), The Friday Gospels (2013), Fell (2017) and the non-fiction work Notes Made While Falling (2019). Her latest novel is Ghosted: A Love Story out now with Sceptre. She lives in Lancashire and is a Professor of Writing at Lancaster University.
Amongst much else we talk about: getting through lockdown with the support of an online writing group, 100 days of writing, how to trick yourself into writing, not being a morning person, interrupting the previous day's writing and stopping in a good place, drowning in post-it notes, describing your writing problems as a way of solving them, and how the novels you’re writing make you sit in the nastiness of your own filth for several years...

You can find out more about Jenn and her writing at her website: https://jennashworth.co.uk/

Jenn is on Twitter: @jennashworth
And Instagram: @jennashworth82

Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloom

Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan

We have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethods

Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/

We have loosely teamed up with the Institute of English Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. Now that some form of normality has (possibly temporarily) returned to the U.K., why not check out their Literature in Lockdown page? : https://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/about-us/ies-virtual-community/literature-lockdown

This month we are joined by Lucie Elven, short-story writer and author of the Weak Spot, the debut novel published earlier this year by Prototype in the UK. Lucie has written for publications including the London Review of Books, Granta and NOON.  
Our chat took us on an Alpine tour through topics including: how notes demand to be put into short stories or novels, developing a long-term relationship with an editor, the function of ambiguity in fiction, and plenty more.

The Weak Spot is available through Prototype: https://prototypepublishing.co.uk/product/the-weak-spot/

Lucie is on Twitter: @lucieelven
And Instagram: @lucieelven

Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloom

Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan

We have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethods

Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/

We have loosely teamed up with the Institute of English Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. Now that some form of normality has (possibly temporarily) returned to the U.K., why not check out their Literature in Lockdown page? : https://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/about-us/ies-virtual-community/literature-lockdown

As we roll into autumn, we're joined by Rebecca Watson, novelist and arts writer. Rebecca's debut novel, Little Scratch, grew from a short story that was shortlisted for the White Review short story prize and the novel itself was shortlisted for this year's Desmond Elliott Prize. 
Among all the other talking our chat took us through: expanding a short story into a novel. Investigating how writing can replicate the immediacy of thought. Playing with fiction and reality, and much more.

You can find out more about Rebecca and her writing at her website here: https://www.rebeccawatson.co.uk/

Rebecca is on Twitter: @rebeccawhatsun
And Instagram: @rebeccawhatsun

Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloom

Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan

We have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethods

Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/

We are teaming up with the Institute of English Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. Now that some form of normality is cautiously being introduced in the U.K., why not check out their Literature in Lockdown page? : https://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/about-us/ies-virtual-community/literature-lockdown

For our August '21 episode we're joined by Natasha Brown, the author of Assembly, which is published by Hamish Hamilton in the UK and will be released in the U.S. on 14th September 2021 by Little, Brown.

Our discussion with Natasha includes workshopping at different stages, making speech real on the page, liberal use of index cards, and being in the enviable position of having a novel translated into other languages while it was still being edited.

You can find out more about Natasha and her writing at her website here: https://npbrown.com/

Natasha is also on Instagram: @wordsbynatasha

Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloom

Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan

We have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethods

Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/

We are teaming up with the Institute of English Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. Now that some form of normality is cautiously being introduced in the U.K., why not check out their Literature in Lockdown page? : https://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/about-us/ies-virtual-community/literature-lockdown

In this month's episode we're joined by the novelist Sophie Mackintosh, who is the author of 'the Water Cure' (2018) and 'Blue Ticket' (2020).

Topics covered with Sophie include (alongside much more): the shift to writing full time, the importance of music and having a bespoke playlist for each book, and writing a synopsis at the very beginning to help visualise the shape of a project.

You can find out more about Sophie at her website here: https://www.sophiemackintosh.co.uk/

Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloom

Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan

We have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethods

Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/

We are teaming up with the Institute of English Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. With (almost certainly reckless) unlocking on the horizon, why not check out their Literature in Lockdown page? : https://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/about-us/ies-virtual-community/literature-lockdown

“If Adorno was alive today, he’d be writing about football. I don’t think he’d like it… but he’d be writing about it. And Gramsci for sure”

In this, our 40th episode, we've got a special Euro 2020 edition of Unsound Methods, where we speak to writer and academic David Goldblatt. David is the author of non-fiction works which cover sport, particularly football, through a fascinating lens of history, sociology and politics. His books include the Ball is Round (2006), the Game of our Lives (2014) and, most recently, the Age of Football (2020).
Our discussion takes us on a path through football and the Frankfurt school, the Colonization of the Life-world, the roots of Anthony Powell’s antipathy to sport, the growth of interest in football from Britain’s literary culture, and sport as an entry point to Bretton Woods, the IMF and Globalisation.

The Age of Football is published by Picador - you can find out more here.

You can find more about David Goldblatt at his website here: https://davidstephengoldblatt.com/

David is also on Twitter: @Davidsgoldblatt

Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloom

Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan

We have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethods

Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/

We are teaming up with the Institute of English Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. With the current uncertainty in the world, why not check out their Literature in Lockdown page? : https://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/about-us/ies-virtual-community/literature-lockdown

In this episode we speak with DBC Pierre, author of Vernon God Little (for which he won the Booker Prize in 2003), Ludmila's Broken English (2006), Lights Out in Wonderland (2010), Breakfast with the Borgias (2014) and most recently, Meanwhile in Dopamine City which was published in 2020.

Pierre joined us fresh off a bout of working on a non-fiction work and we discussed how this writing differed from fiction, how constantly reworking sections is a gift that provides intimacy with the text rather than drudgery, the perils of using two columns per page in a novel, using lockdown as a chrysalis for the next chapter and much more besides.

Meanwhile in Dopamine City is published by Faber - you can find out more here.

You can find more about DBC Pierre, including his writing and some of the finest book-related merch we've seen in a long while, at his website: http://www.dbcpierre.com/

Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloom

Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan

We have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethods

Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/

We are teaming up with the Institute of English Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. With the current uncertainty in the world, why not check out their Literature in Lockdown page? : https://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/about-us/ies-virtual-community/literature-lockdown

In this month's episode, we speak to Jon McGregor, whose latest novel Lean, Fall, Stand is published by Fourth Estate on 29th April.

Jon joined us in the midst of full fat lockdown to discuss how he constructs his novels, his writing residency in Antarctica and the research with people who suffer from aphasia and their carers that informed Lean, Fall, Stand.

Jon's novels include: If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things (2002), So Many Ways to Begin (2006), Even the Dogs (2010) and Reservoir 13 (2017). Jon has won the IMPAC Dublin Literature Prize, the Betty Trask and Somerset Maugham awards, been longlisted for the Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize.
Photo credit: Jo Wheeler

Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloom

Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan

We have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethods

Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/

We are teaming up with the Institute of English Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. With the current uncertainty in the world, why not check out their Literature in Lockdown page? : https://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/about-us/ies-virtual-community/literature-lockdown

In episode 37 we're joined by Douglas Robertson to celebrate the publication of his brand new translation of Thomas Bernhard's Die Billigesser (the Cheap Eaters) and to discuss our favourite Austrian monologuing misanthrope.

Douglas is a writer and translator based in Keystone, Florida. He studied British and American Literature at the New College of Florida and Johns Hopkins University. He has translated works from German into English by authors including E. T. A. Hoffmann, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Christian Morgenstern, Novalis, and Ludwig Tieck, and he has studied Thomas Bernhard’s work for over ten years.

Thomas Bernhard was one of the most important and unique writers of the twentieth century. Born in 1931, Bernhard published numerous novels and autobiographical writings, as well as short stories, plays, and poetry, including The Loser and Extinction. After years of chronic lung illness, Bernhard died in Austria in 1989.
Douglas would like to give a shout out to his friend flowerville, a native German speaker who proofread the entire rough draft of the translation and was particularly helpful in offering pointers on register; particularly the level of formality or informality of specific expressions in the original German.

The Cheap Eaters by Thomas Bernhard, translated by Douglas Robertson, is published by Spurl Editions, and is available here: https://spurleditions.com/cheap-eaters

Douglas has a blog, The Philosophical Worldview Artist (http://shirtysleeves.blogspot.com).

And he's also on Twitter: @shirtysleeves

Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloom

Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan

We have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethods

Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/

Image of Thomas Bernhard: By Monozigote - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=85846453