The Writing Life: Recent Episodes
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We're a weekly podcast for anyone who writes. We talk to writers about their writing journeys and techniques, from early career debuts to self-publishers and narrative designers. We've featured Margaret Atwood, Jackie Kay, Sara Collins, Antti Tuomainen, Val McDermid, Sarah Perry, Elif Shafak and many more!Brought to you by the National Centre for Writing at Dragon Hall in Norwich.
In this episode of The Writing Life podcast, NCW Communications Assistant Caitlin is joined by author PJ Ellis to discuss writing romantic comedies. PJ Ellis is a journalist covering relationships, pop culture and LGBTQ+ issues. His writing has appeared in publications including GQ, Teen Vogue, Man Repeller, Men’s Health and MTV. His short fiction has...
In this episode of The Writing Life podcast, NCW Chief Executive Peggy Hughes is joined by author Jon McGregor to discuss researching for fiction. Jon McGregor is an award-winning author and short story writer. He has been nominated for the Booker Prize for three of his novels, including his 2002 debut If Nobody Speaks of...
In this episode of The Writing Life, scriptwriters Stephen Keyworth and James McDermott discuss the craft and industry of writing for long-running radio or television serials, commonly known as soaps. Stephen Keyworth is an award-winning director and writer who has worked extensively as a director in theatre and written over 60 hours of television, film...
In this episode of The Writing Life, we’re joined by writers and NCW Academy tutors Dan Richards and Edward Parnell to discuss the process of researching, writing, and publishing narrative non-fiction books.Dan Richards is a writer and journalist wh...
In this episode of The Writing Life podcast, NCW Chief Executive Peggy Hughes is joined by author and professional campaigner Sarah P Corbett to discuss craftivism, a form of activism and collective empowerment that is centered on practices of craft....
In this episode of The Writing Life, Holly is joined by Colchester-based playwright and HighTide/Peggy Ramsay Foundation writer in residence Nicola Werenowska and Norwich-based folk musician Georgia Shackleton to discuss writing for performance.Nico...
In this episode of The Writing Life, NCW Chief Executive Peggy Hughes is joined by award-winning poet Martin Figura to discuss the process of writing poetry, and how things make their way into his poetic imagination.Martin Figura was born in Liverpo...
In this episode of The Writing Life, NCW Chief Executive Peggy Hughes is joined by writers and members of The Martineau Society Stuart Hobday and Gaby Weiner to discuss their new book Reintroducing Harriet Martineau: Pioneering Sociologist and Activi...
In this episode of The Writing Life, NCW Head of Programmes & Creative Engagement Holly speaks with novelist Michael Donkor about crafting identity in fiction.Michael Donkor was born in London to Ghanaian parents. He studied English at Wadham Co...
In this episode of The Writing Life, former NCW Communications Assistant Molly speaks with author Naomi Wood about writing subversive women.Naomi Wood is the award-winning author of three novels, including the bestselling Mrs. Hemingway. Her stories...
In this episode of The Writing Life, writer and translator Daniel Hahn speaks with three former virtual residents Nur-El-Hudaa Jaffar, Sim Wai-chew and Tse Hao Guang about the quirks of virtual residencies, and how their expectations compared to real...
In this episode of The Writing Life podcast, NCW Senior Communications and Marketing Manager Steph speaks with author Heather Parry about writing the grotesque body.Heather Parry was born in Rotherham and lives in Glasgow. She has won the Bridge Awa...
In this episode of The Writing Life, NCW Emerging Translator Mentorships Programme Manager Annie speaks with author Polly Atkin about writing with a chronic illness.Polly Atkin is a multi-award-winning writer, essayist and poet. She is the author of...
In this episode of The Writing Life, NCW Programme Officer Ellie speaks with author and NCW mentor Chip Colquhoun about oral storytelling and writing for younger audiences.An NCW Associate Artist, Chip is a storyteller and children’s author. He’s tr...
In this episode of The Writing Life podcast, NCW Programme Officer Ellie speaks with American author Margot Douaihy about the development of the noir genre in crime writing.Margot Douaihy is the author of several noir titles including the mystery no...
In this episode of The Writing Life podcast, Head of Programmes and Creative Engagement Holly speaks with novelist Hannah Vincent about point of view and different types of narration.Hannah Vincent is a novelist, short story writer and playwright. H...
In this episode of The Writing Life, NCW CEO Peggy Hughes speaks to four dazzling voices in contemporary poetry.On Wednesday 22 November, Jay Bernard, Anthony Vahni Capildeo, Gail McConnell and Joelle Taylor gathered to celebrate the launch of excit...
In this episode we’re bringing you a conversation with debut novelist and creative writing teacher Priscilla Morris. Priscilla’s first novel Black Butterflies is the author’s personal response to the war that devastated her mother’s hometown of Sarajevo, Bosnia, in the former Yugoslavia, from 1992-1996.
Priscilla spoke to NCW Communications Assistant Molly-Rose Medhurst about her approach to researching and writing sensitively about the Siege and the atrocities of war, drawing from memory and from the recollections of family and friends. She also talks about her desire to centre the importance of community in the book and her narrative approach to time.
Priscilla and Molly’s conversation contains references to sexual assault, death, violence and the horrors of war linked to the Siege of Sarajevo. Please take care when listening.
In this episode of The Writing Life, we are joined by author, screenwriter and lecturer Tom Benn to discuss his latest novel, Oxblood. Set in 1980s South Manchester, Benn's blazing novel of female solidarity and the legacy of male violence centres on three generations of women at the heart of an underworld family. It won the 2022 Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year Award and was longlisted for the Gold Dagger 2023 and Gordon Burn Prize 2022.
Tom chats to NCW CEO Chris Gribble about the genesis of Oxblood and why it took six years for him to write. He talks about choosing to write a crime novel in a ‘different way’ from a female perspective; and his aim to re-sensitise the reader through dark or violent stories. He and Chris also discuss how publishers may react to a book like Oxblood, which sits within the crime genre but also interweaves elements of other genres.
For the introduction, Steph is joined by NCW Development Manager Dan Scales to talk about a new fundraising campaign launched this month for Escalator, our long-running talent development programme for underrepresented writers. You can support the campaign here: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/support-us/donate/escalator-campaign/
Applications for Escalator 2023-24 close at 10am BST on Tuesday 19 September 2023. Find out more and apply here: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/get-involved/writers/escalator/
In this episode of The Writing Life, NCW Programme Officer Vicki Maitland speaks with writer, editor and workshop leader Katy Massey about the process of writing real people in memoir.
Katy was a journalist for many years before studying for an MA and PhD in Creative Writing. Her memoir, Are We Home Yet? was published in 2020 and praised by Bernardine Evaristo as ‘a gem’. It was shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize and the Portico Prize. In addition, her work has been widely anthologised, including Common People edited by Kit de Waal, The Place for Me, and speculative collection Glimpse. Her first novel All Us Sinners, an unusual take on the crime genre, is due to be published by Sphere in January 2024.
Together, they discuss how her new self-paced course for NCW, How to Write Real People in Memoir, provides the tools you need to think of yourself as the main character in your story: from creating distinct voices in your narrative to discovering the difference between memory, truth and perspective.
In this episode of The Writing Life, NCW Chief Executive Chris Gribble caught up with Claire McGowan to discuss how she got started as a writer, her route(s) into publishing and how she’s maintained and developed a career in writing across a range of genres and over a lengthy period of time.
Claire McGowan published her first novel in 2012, and has followed it up with many others in the crime fiction genre and also in women’s fiction (writing as Eva Woods). She has had four radio plays broadcast on the BBC, and her thrillers What You Did and The Other Wife were both number-one bestsellers. She ran the UK’s first MA in crime writing for five years, and regularly teaches and talks about writing. Her first non-fiction project, the true-crime book The Vanishing Triangle, was released in 2021. She also writes scripts and has several projects in development for TV.
Together, they discuss how Claire's teaching work has developed across her writing career and how her new course for NCW distils a lot of what she’s learned about the many different ways and means of creating suspense in your writing: from character to landscape, to plot to style.
Claire's self-paced online course 'How to Create Suspense in Fiction' will launch on the NCW website on Monday 7 August.
In this episode of The Writing Life, NCW Chief Executive Chris Gribble speaks with writer Patrick Barkham about the process of writing his new book The Swimmer, and how he found ways to ‘hear’ the voice of an author whose work he knew well, but who he never met.
Patrick Barkham is an award-winning author and natural history writer for the Guardian. His books include The Butterfly Isles, Badgerlands, Islander and Wild Child. He is President of Norfolk Wildlife Trust and lives in Norfolk with his family.
His new book The Swimmer is a creative biography of the late writer, filmmaker and environmentalist Roger Deakin. The book is told primarily in the words of the subject himself, with support from a chorus of friends, family, colleagues, lovers and neighbours.
Together, they touch on the impact and legacy of Roger, as one of the forerunners of the new nature writing movement, the ethics of biography, and the hard graft of reconstructing a life from the myriad of physical and emotional traces a writer has left behind.
In this episode of The Writing Life, NCW Chief Executive Chris Gribble speaks with writer, poet and educator Raymond Antrobus in an interview which was recorded ahead of his performance at the City of Literature weekend 2023. City of Literature takes place in May each year and is a National Centre for Writing and Norfolk & Norwich Festival partnership, programmed by National Centre for Writing.
Raymond was born in London, Hackney to an English mother and Jamaican father. He is the author of Shapes & Disfigurements (Burning Eye, 2012), To Sweeten Bitter (Out-Spoken Press, 2017), The Perseverance (Penned In The Margins / Tin House, 2018) and All The Names Given (Picador / Tin House, 2021). In 2019 he became the first ever poet to be awarded the Rathbone Folio Prize for best work of literature in any genre.
Raymond chats to Chris about his development and life as a poet and educator: from finding a community in the London spoken word scene to winning the Folio Prize for The Perseverance through to his most recent collection All The Names Given. He discusses the challenges and joys of working in the poetry ‘business’ as well as the poetry community.
In this episode of The Writing Life, National Centre for Writing’s Head of Programmes & Creative Engagement Holly Ainley caught up with Victoria Mackenzie after her event in Norwich to discuss her debut novel For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain, the joys and pitfalls of researching historical periods, and how you communicate this to contemporary readers.
Victoria is a fiction writer and poet. She is the winner of the Scottish Book Trust New Writer Award and the inaugural Emerging Writer Award from Moniack Mhor. She was shortlisted for the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize, as well as being awarded prestigious writing residencies in Scotland, Finland and Australia.
This insightful discussion covers the blurry lines between fact and fiction; the moral responsibility of authors when writing about real historical figures; and what the term historical fiction actually encompasses – how it is used by the publishing industry and what it really means to authors.
In this episode of The Writing Life, NCW Programme Manager Rebecca DeWald had the pleasure of talking with Katherine Gregor and Caroline Lamarche about the process of writing and translating The Memory of the Air, a novella by Caroline which explores a universal experience of gender and sexual violence and challenges common notions of victimhood. The bookwas translated into English by Katherine and published by Héloïse Press in 2022.
Together with Rebecca, they discuss how Katherine first discovered Caroline’s book and the experience of it being rediscovered and translated in a post-#MeToo era. Caroline talks about the process of drawing on personal experiences to write this book, and about finding her voice.
Please note that this conversation contains references to domestic violence and sexual assault, so listener discretion is advised.
On this episode of The Writing Life, we are delighted to welcome Max Porter back to Norwich! Max was here in April for an event hosted by The Book Hive to celebrate the publication of his latest novel, Shy.
NCW Executive Director Peggy Hughes settled in for a cosy chat with Max upstairs in The Book Hive. Their expansive conversation covers the special power of bookshops, questions of masculinity and vulnerability portrayed through Shy’s protagonist, the musicality of Max’s language, and much more.
Max’s first novel Grief Is the Thing with Feathers won the Sunday Times/Peter, Fraser + Dunlop Young Writer of the Year, the International Dylan Thomas Prize, the Europese Literatuurprijs and the BAMB Readers’ Award and was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and the Goldsmiths Prize. His second novel, Lanny, was a Sunday Times bestseller and was longlisted for the Booker Prize. The Death of Francis Bacon was praised as a ‘miniature masterpiece’ and his new book, Shy, has been called a ‘miracle of language’.
Editing by Omni Mix
On this episode of The Writing Life, we speak to news journalist turned non-fiction writer and biographer Richard Balls about interviewing difficult subjects.
Richard is the author of three books: A Furious Devotion: The Life of Shane MacGowan; Be Stiff: The Stiff Records Story, and Sex & Drugs & Rock 'n' Roll: The Life of Ian Dury. In this conversation with Steph McKenna, he talks about using the experience and techniques acquired through a 20-year journalism career to inform the way he approaches, interviews, and writes about high-profile figures such as Shane MacGowan, whose life story is as much fiction as fact!
How do you secure an interview with a reluctant subject? What do you do when an interview isn’t going to plan? And what ethics or responsibilities are involved when writing about someone’s complex, contradictory, or unacceptable behaviour? Richard covers all this and more on the podcast.
National Centre for Writing’s Kate Griffin talks to writer, translator and editor Rabi Thapa. Kate is our Associate Head of Programmes and Rabi stayed in the Dragon Hall cottage as part of our Visible Communities programme.
Rabi is a British-born Nepali writer and translator. He is also the Editor of La.Lit, the literary magazine from Nepal, and the author of Nothing to Declare and Thamel, Dark Star of Kathmandu. From 2010 to 2011, he was the Editor of the weekly paper, Nepali Times.
Kate and Rabi discuss a number of topics including his background - spending the first six years of his life in Plymouth - his relationship to the UK and Nepal, the Katmaundu literary scene, bridge languages and the 123 languages used in Nepal.
This is episode features a panel discussion with the AKO Caine Prize 2022 shortlisted writers - celebrating the ‘vibrancy, variety and splendour of creative talent among writers of African descent’ - so says, 2022 Chair of judges, Okey Ndibe.
The panel was hosted here at Dragon Hall by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ [pictured] in July and we were delighted to welcome:
- Joshua Chizoma from Nigeria author of Collector of Memories
- Nana-Ama Danquah from Ghana author of When a Man Loves a Woman
- Hannah Giorgis from Ethiopia author of A Double-Edged Inheritance
- Idza Luhumyo from Kenya author of Five Years Next Sunday
- and Billie McTernan from Ghana author of The Labadi Sunshine Bar
The annual AKO Caine Prize aims to bring African writing to a wider audience, popularising short fiction from authors on the continent and the diaspora. Launched in 2000, the prize is awarded to an African writer of a short story published in English.
As a live event, some of the sound quality is occasionally lower, but 99% of it is fine, so please persevere through those few moments as this conversation is well worth your time.
As part of the annual Norfolk and Norwich Festival we run a series of events called City of Literature. A central part of our programme is the Harriett Martineau Lecture which celebrates the legacy of a remarkable, world-changing woman by inviting globally-renowned radical speakers to respond to her life and work.
In 2022, we were excited to welcome bestselling novelist, memoirist and literary activist Kit de Waal - presenting the lecture in the beautiful environs of the Spiegeltent. Kit gave a thought-provoking lecture covering a range of topics, including human rights, equality, hunger and, as she calls it, ‘compassion without judgement’.
Kit is a fantastic writer and speaker, and, in the course of the lecture, talks about social mobility and what it really takes; how smartphones are essential for some of the most marginalised people in society; as well as quoting Terry Pratchett as she explains what keeps the poorest in our society poor.
This episode is that lecture - recorded at the event back in May - more relevant now than ever with inflation rampant, the cost of living impacting everyone in society, and the energy crisis hitting those with the least worst of all.
We speak to writer and teacher Okechukwu Nzelu. Why? To discuss that greatest pillar of creative writing - character.
Gill and Okechukwu discuss many aspects of character development, including those in his latest novel Here Again Now. Based in Manchecter, Okechukwu Nzelu was the recipient of a Northern Writers' Award from New Writing North in 2015. His debut novel, The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney won a Betty Trask Award. It was also shortlisted for our very own Desmond Elliott Prize among others. In 2021, it was selected for the Kingston University Big Read.
His second novel, Here Again Now was published by Dialogue Books in March 2022. He is also a Lecturer in Creative Writing at Lancaster University so he is perfectly positioned to help us understand how we can write compelling characters.
Earlier in the year, our very own Ellie Reeves spoke to local writer James Kinsley. James’s first novella, Playtime’s Over, was published by Propolis in 2021 - a love letter to his native Norwich.
James Kinsley’s new book, Greyskin, will be published by Deixis Press on 27th April. Greyskin is a stylish collection of interconnected fantasy stories, inspired by the cinematic mythology of the Old West. On its first day of pre-order, the book topped the Amazon chart for Western Science Fiction.
Ellie sat down with James following the publication of Playtime's Over. They discuss his journey from self-publishing to traditional publishing, and offers an insight into the challenges of drawing personal experiences into fiction. They also discuss genre, mental health, and the ability of writing to move beyond the writer's intentions.
Norwich-based poet and writer Shannon Clinton-Copeland speaks to our virtual residents Akshita Nanda, Crispin Rodrigues and Daryl Qilin Yam about writing and literary life in Singapore. Their residencies are supported by Singapore’s National Arts Council.
Akshita, Crispin and Daryl touch on everything from the relationship between writing and culture, to writing as a method for finding common experiences. They also discuss understanding across social, cultural and linguistic borders.
Virtual residencies for writers and translators can bring national and international voices and ideas to places like Norwich. Through commissions, online events and podcasts like this one, those voices can also reach a global audience.
You can find out more about our virtual and in-person residences on our website: nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk.
We speak to Caimh McDonnell about humour. Caimh is a comedian and writer. He’s written for TV shows such as Mock The Week and Have I Got News for You. He was also a professional stand-up comedian and has written a dozen books under the names Caimh and CK McDonnell.
Being funny in fiction is hard, so we wanted to ask the Manchester-based Irishman how to do it - or at least, how he does it. The cover of The Stranger Times says: What if the weird news was the real news? An apt way to describe the premise.
The book is the first in a series of novels set in Manchester in which the weird phenomena of the Fortean Times is alive and well - from mythical beasts to UFOs. We get to explore this weird world through the staff of the namessake newspaper and the result is a Pratchett-esque treatment of the supernatural thriller/mystery genre. And it is funny.
Some things are easier to teach than others. You might argue that being funny is the hardest thing of all. Nonetheless, the conversation will hopefully give you some insights into how to bring humour to your writing. The conversation covers characters, dialogue, conflict, genre and the inversion of expectation.
Find out more about Caimh at whitehairedirishman.shop
In this episode, we speak to novelist, teacher and doctor of letters, Ashley Hickson-Lovence to explore story and plot. Ashley is the author of The 392 and the prize-nominated novel Your Show (which he talks a little about in our chat). We also discuss the difference between story and plot, key plot devices and how you can ensure your story has a plot that keeps people turning pages.
Ashley is also the tutor for our Start Writing Fiction course. We also have courses on fiction, crime, memoir, historical fiction creative non-fiction and poetry. You can read more about the modules and see which course would help you in your writing.
Novelist and creative writing lecturer Ian Nettleton explains how to structure a novel - the devices and structural elements that can keep readers engaged, and how to ensure your story becomes a page-turner.
The episode covers characters’ wants and needs, conflict, obstacles, narrative tension and building a compelling story scene by scene, chapter by chapter. We also discuss quests, commitments, reversals and resolutions.
Ian has been shortlisted for a number of prestigious awards including those for his novels The Last Migration and Out of Nowhere. He is also an associate lecturer in creative writing courses at the Open University and works with the National Centre For Writing on a number of our own creative writing courses.
This is a special episode to celebrate our City of Literature programme at the Norfolk & Norwich Festival. As part of the festival, we organised, curated and hosted a series of events at the legendary spiegeltent as well as talks and our publishing fair, here at Dragon Hall.
Called Wandering Words, we commissioned five poets and five sound designers to create an interactive digital experience. This episode hosts the poems and the soundscapes.
What is translation and how is it experienced? In this episode, three translators explore their experiences of inhabiting multiple languages in a portrayal of life in translation, of translation as a part of everyday life, of translation as survival, and of people as translated beings.
Interviews with Kavita Bhanot, Yovanka Paquete Perdigão and Nariman Youssef. Made by Gitanjali Patel and Miia Laine as part of the Visible Communities residency at the National Centre for Writing.
Novelist Megan Bradbury and Sam Ruddock from Story Machine Productions discuss the role of research in writing.
Megan describes how she went to New York to research the geniuses who lived there, to bring her novel to life. She also talks about working with Professor Pete Wilde on NCW’s Translating Science project.
Megan explains how different types of research can become a regular part of your writing routine as well as helping to inspire stories and characters, while making worlds feel rich and authentic. She describes some of the more immersive and unusual methods that help her get inspired, build characters and develop the creative process.
Browse our online creative writing courses.
Khairani Barokka is an Indonesian writer and artist living in London. She is the co-editor ofStairs and Whispers: D/deaf and Disabled Poets Write Back, the author-illustrator of Indigenous Species, and author of debut poetry collection Rope. She was Modern Poetry in Translation’s Inaugural Poet-In-Residence, National Centre for Writing’s Associate Artist in 2020 and she has been a Researcher-in-Residence at UAL’s Decolonising the Arts Institute.
Rishi Dastidar's debut collection Ticker-tape is published by Nine Arches Press, and his work has been published by Financial Times, New Scientist and the BBC amongst many others.
Okka and Rishi are poets and stable mates of independent poetry publisher Nine Arches Press. Join them for a deep dive into the unconscious process of writing poetry and what they both call 'the daze' of writing, as well as the environmental elements of Okka's writing.
Check out our upcoming creative writing online courses, designed in partnership with the University of East Anglia. On sale now
Mattho Mandersloot is a literary translator working from Korean into English and Dutch. He holds a degree in Classics from King’s College London and one in Translation from the School of Oriental and African Studies. He has won the Korea Times’ 51st Modern Korean Literature Translation Award, the World Literature Today Translation Prize and the Oxford Korean Poetry Translation Prize.
In July 2021, we welcomed Mattho to Norwich for a month-long residency with support from the Literature Translation Institute of Korea. During his residency he worked on Choi Jeongrye’s final collection of poetry, Net of Light, alongside award-winning poet and translator George Szirtes.
In this conversation between Matthow and George, they discuss the intricacies of language, the power of K-pop, the rise in popularity of Korean studies, and how Mattho's love of taekwondo led him to a career in literary translation.
Find out more about what we do: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/
Hosted by Steph McKenna.
Music by Bennet Maples.
Translator and editor Anam Zafar and poet, novelist and translator Meena Kandasamy discuss translation as activism and helping under-represented communities to tell their own stories. Anam was mentored by Meena on NCW's Emerging Translator Mentorship programme, supported by Visible Communities.
We have a discount for Writing Life listeners, courtesy of our friends at Bloomsbury! Until 1 March 2022 anyone in the UK can get 25% off the workbook as long as you buy through the Bloomsbury website. The code is AWJW25 and can be used here: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/writers-journal-workbook-9781472987365/
Find out more about what we do: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/
Hosted by Steph McKenna.
Music by Bennet Maples.
Lucy van Smit is an award-winning author, a screenwriter, and artist. She has worked internationally for NBC News, has made documentaries for Canadian TV on writers like John Le Carre and Ian McEwan and in 2018 her debut novel The Hurting won the inaugural Bath Children’s Novel Award. She's now put together A Writer's Journal Workbook, for Writers & Artists, which is jam packed with bite-sized exercises and tips for dismantling writer's block, improving observational skills, developing characters and much more. It's designed to help new writers get started, find their voice and improve their skills.
Simon talked to Lucy about her own struggles with writer's block, which she experienced after publishing her first novel, and how creating The Writer's Journal helped her as much as anyone who might read it.
We have a discount for Writing Life listeners, courtesy of our friends at Bloomsbury! Until 1 March 2022 anyone in the UK can get 25% off the workbook as long as you buy through the Bloomsbury website. The code is AWJW25 and can be used here: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/writers-journal-workbook-9781472987365/
Find out more about what we do: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/
Hosted by Simon Jones.
Music by Bennet Maples.
We have a great translation double-bill today, with a conversation between Archana Madhavan and Sawad Hussain. Sawad was a virtual translator in residence in 2021 during our Visible Communities project, and this interview was arranged as part of that residency. https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/translation/visible-communities/
Sawad Hussain is an Arabic translator with a focus on bringing narratives from the African continent to wider audiences. She has contributed to journals such as ArabLit and Asymptote, she was co-editor of the Arabic-English portion of the Oxford Arabic Dictionary and recent translations include Passage to the Plaza by Sahar Khalifeh and A Bed for the King’s Daughter by Shahla Ujayli.
Archana Madhavan is an Indian-American translator from Korean into English. She started teaching herself Korean ten years ago and has now worked on many projects including The Man Who Became A Flamingo by Oh Han Ki, contract work with Lezhin Entertainment on genre webtoons and Glory Hole by Kim Hyun (co-translated with Suhyun J. Ahn), which is coming from Seagull Books in May 2022. She has contributed to chogwa and is a staff translator for The Hanok Review.
chogwa: https://www.chogwa.com/
Find out more: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/
Hosted by Simon Jones.
Music by Bennet Maples.