Search Content

American monologist and writer Spalding Gray discusses his writing process. British biographer Diana Souhami talks about her biography of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas.

American biographer Kenneth Silverman discusses his new book on the life of literary critic and renowned author of the American Gothic horror genre, Edgar Allen Poe. Pt. 2: Crime fiction writers Sara Paretsky and Liza Cody discuss writing women-led detective and mystery stories.

This week, Eleanor Wachtel interviews talks with the English novelist, historian, and critic, Marina Warner about her new book, From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales and their Tellers. Plus. two stories - "Tongue Meat" and "The Six Swans" - read by Barbara Budd

This week on Writers and Company, host Eleanor Wachtel speaks with British author Tessa Hadley. She's had almost as many short stories published in the New Yorker in the last ten years as her hero, Alice Munro. Her first novel, Accidents in the Home, was described by England's Guardian newspaper as fantastically subtle, absorbing and delightful. Now Tessa Hadley has written a novel called The London Train.

READINGS and INTERVIEW: British novelist Julian Barnes talks about his novel Talking it Over and reads from the book at Harbourfront's Toronto Festival of Authors. INTERVIEW: Mary Dearboorn discusses her biography or writer Henry Miller, The Happiest Man Alive: A Biography of Henry Miller.

Eleanor Wachtel talks to the award-winning American (and Canadian) writer, Bharati Mukherjee about her new novel Desirable Daughters. Highly autobiographical, it's about three sisters - wealthy, beautiful, Bengali, educated Brahmins from Calcutta.

A tale of two novelists: one of Canada's most beloved writers, Carol Shields, takes on the life of one of the most popular female novelists of all time in her new biography, Jane Austen (2001, Viking)

Host Eleanor Wachtel talks with a leading authority on folklore and children's literature, Maria Tatar. Her new book, The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales, explores the cultural complexity and historical origins of our all-time favourites.

This week, Eleanor Wachtel speaks with the sensational young prize-winner, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The author of Half of a Yellow Sun has a new book of stories called The Thing Around Your Neck.

Irish writer Sally Rooney talks to Eleanor Wachtel about her two novels, Conversations with Friends (2017), and Normal People (2018). They talk about how she engages with the social conventions of her time and how her characters navigate coming-of-age in an Ireland reeling from the decline of the Irish economy during the 1990s-2000s - the "Celtic Tiger" years.

Claire Keegan's beautifully wrought fiction is remarkable for its subtlety and emotional depth. Her new novel, Small Things Like These, has won high praise and was on many best-of-the-year lists in Britain. Set during a time of economic hardship and the authority of the Catholic Church in 1980s Ireland, Small Things Like These is a moving story of complicity and human decency. *Note: The audio for this episode was recorded during the Covid-19 lockdown and contains occasional low-level…

This week on Writers and Company, host Eleanor Wachtel talks to Jeanette Winterson, author of Why Be Happy When You Could be Normal? Winterson reveals the true story behind her hit first novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit. Now, Jeanette Winterson turns again to her own life in a remarkably candid account of growing up with the woman she calls Mrs. Winterson, her adoptive mother. Her new book reveals the darker side of that childhood - while still being amazingly funny.

Part I: Independent Hollywood filmmaker Henry Jaglom discusses his latest feature, Eating, and his idiosycratic career; Part II: British feminist playwright Sarah Daniels discusses her socially-relevant dramas, and performs monologues from "Masterpieces" and "Beside Herself" (collected in Methuen edition).

Writers and Company, host Eleanor Wachtel talks with the Bangladeshi physician, writer and poet Tasalimā Nāsarina. She has been under continuous attack from the religious leaders of her country and throughout the world for her widespread efforts in defence of women's rights; she has lived in exile since 1994. Her novel Shame brought her international acclaim as a new feminist voice. Her latest book, a memoir, is called Meyebela: My Bengali Girlhood - A Memoir of Growing up Female in a Muslim…

Voices from a New Europe: Writers in Western Europe at the End of 1992, Series Part 9 - "The New Spain." Eleanor Wachtel discusses changes in Spain since the death of Franco with Spanish authors Javier Marías and Rosa Montero.