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An interview with Québécois playwright and author, Michel Tremblay
Eleanor Wachtel talks with one of the most influential writers in Québec - Michel Tremblay. Over more than 35 years, he's produced a series of plays, a cycle of novels, a trio of memoirs - as well as translations, song lyrics, and more.
An international panel on dark humour, with Howard Jacobson, A.L. Kennedy, and Erlend Loe
This week, Eleanor Wachtel brings together an international panel of writers to discuss the lighter side of dark humour in their work. With Howard Jacobson from England, A.L. Kennedy from Scotland, and from Norway, Erlend Loe.
George Saunders on his new story collection, Tenth of December
Today on Writers & Company, Eleanor Wachtel in conversation with American writer George Saunders. This MacArthur Fellowship winner - often considered a "writer's writer" - is an author who brings "a sense of humour, pathos and literary style all his own" to contemporary fiction. He's an original.
Interviews with Stuart Kelly on The Book of Lost Books, and David Crystal on As They Say in Zanzibar
This week on Writers and Company, host Eleanor Wachtel talks with Edinburgh writer Stuart Kelly about his idiosyncratic view of literature. His book The Book of Lost Books is sub-titled An incomplete history of all the great books you will never read. From Homer to Sylvia Plath, from Shakespeare to Hemingway, great writers had written - or planned to write - works that are not available to us as readers. Whether lost, unfinished or un-started, these are the texts that tantalise Kelly's…
Literary citic James Wood on his new book, How Fiction Works
This week on Writers and Company, host Eleanor Wachtel talks with literary critic and writer James Wood. Wood is one courageous critic - he's taken on Salman Rushdie, Toni Morrison and John Updike, to name a few. What trumps the controversy around his writing is his passion for fiction.
Geoff Dyer - one of Britain's wittiest and most audacious Authors - on his newest novel, Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi
This week, from London, one of the wittiest and most audacious writers, Geoff Dyer. Dyer's unique mix of autobiography, fiction, travel writing and cultural
criticism defies genre or categorization. His latest novel, Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi, has a very powerful engagement with geographic locales -first Venice during the international arts fair, the Biennale, and then Vārānasi -or what used to be called Benares-in India, the city on the Ganges where Hindus burn their dead (to…
Robert Darnton on The Case for Books: Past, Present and Future
Eleanor Wachtel speaks with prize-winning American historian of the book, Robert Darnton, about his latest work, The Case for Books: Past, Present and Future (2009, PublicAffairs).
Zadie Smith on her essay collection, Changing My Mind
Eleanor Wachtel in conversation with the dynamic, young author Zadie Smith. The author of the bestselling hits White Teeth and On Beauty, has a new book of essays about writing, about her addiction to reading, and about her family. Changing My Mind is published by Hamish Hamilton Canada.
Kevin Jackson on literary curiosities, and the work of Australian author David Foster
This week, Invisible Forms: A Guide to Literary Curiosities - from footnotes to marginalia with England's Kevin Jackson. Also, more from Australia - its myths and the male psyche, with David Foster.