Author Interviews | Page 1

Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi | 'Stories have such power you cannot imagine'

The First Woman, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi's powerful feminist novel about a headstrong young woman’s coming-of-age in 1970s Uganda, has had a long and fraught path... Read more

Safiya Sinclair | 'There wasn’t much space for me as a woman to grow and thrive'

Safiya Sinclair’s début poetry collection is about to be published in the UK for the first time but it already comes garlanded with praise and... Read more

Douglas Stuart | 'Representation of the working-class is essential for diversity in literature'

Scottish author Douglas Stuart talks to us about his Booker Prize 2020-shortlisted début novel, Shuggie Bain. Read more

Stevie Davis | 'I’ve drawn on every place and era that I have inhabited for my fiction'

Award-winning Swansea writer Stevie Davies reveals how Wales permeates her work as she publishes a domestic noir novel with a difference Read more

Sasha Swire | 'I just want it to stand as a portrait of a political decade'

The hilarious and insightful diaries of Sasha Swire provide a laser-sharp view of British politics over the past decade Read more

Jasbinder Bilan | 'There’s so much inequality in this country for children; magical stories can give them real hope and open up possibilities'

Costa Children’s Book of the Year winner Jasbinder Bilan follows up her spectacular début with a novel about identity, tinged with the magical.... Read more

Richard Ovenden | 'I wanted to get across why [libraries] are so important for society'

The 25th Bodley’s Librarian, Richard Ovenden, makes the case for libraries as vital arbiters of history and guardians of rights in his stirring first book... Read more

Sarah Moss | 'In some ways it’s a novel in which nothing happens until the end—when it really does!'

The seventh novel by Sarah Moss is set over a single day and explores our potential for connection and for cruelty in these divided times... Read more

Helen Macdonald | 'When I start writing [an essay], it always feels like a kind of puzzle'

Helen Macdonald follows her acclaimed début with an eclectic anthology, one which is overtly political Read more

Daisy Johnson | 'I loved the idea of things, trauma or memory, passing down through the body"

Daisy Johnson’s latest novel revolves around an intense sibling relationship and the horrors that lie within Read more

Sophy Henn | 'All of my books are little letters to my daughter at a younger age'

Not all heroes wear capes but Sophy Henn's newest protagonist, Pizazz, certaibly does... and it is glittery. Read more

Robin Stevens | 'They have been in my head every day, but it feels like the right moment to move on'

Award-winning Robin Stevens reflects on closing her Murder Most Unladylike series with its ninth adventure Read more

Christine Dwyer Hickey | 'Dublin’s gone from boom town to Zoom town'

One of the busiest periods in Christine Dwyer Hickey’s career was meant to have been this April and May, with 31 events scheduled to celebrate... Read more

Nick Pettigrew | 'My default way of dealing with it all was in a blackly comic way'

In his début book, former comedian Nick Pettigrew reveals the lows and occasional highs of working as an anti-social behaviour officer. Read more

M John Harrison | 'Boundaries can be fluid, to everyone’s advantage'

Comma collects the work of writing stalwart M John Harrison in a new collection that spans genres—and five decades of writing Read more