Books and Authors BBC Radio 4

Octavia Bright talks to Maggie Nelson about Like Love, an anthology of essays which explore art and friendship and criticism. And a new prize for climate fiction.
Presenter: Octavia Bright
Producer: Nicola Holloway

Sarah Perry talks to Shahidha Bari about her new novel, Enlightenment

Hari Kunzru talks to Shahidha Bari about his new novel, Blue Ruin

Sunjeev Sahota talks to Alex Clark about his new novel, The Spoiled Heart

Sinéad Gleeson is a writer, broadcaster and editor of three anthologies of Irish writing. Her collection of essays, Constellations: Reflections from Life won Non Fiction Book of the Year at the 2019 Irish Book Awards, and now publishes her debut novel, Hagstone.
Hagstone is set on a remote island of the coast of Ireland, it tells the story of Nell an artist whose work takes inspiration from the landscape and folklore. When she receives an invitation to create a piece of art from the Inions, a reclusive commune of women living sustainably on the island, things begin to unravel. Sinead discusses the precarity of living as an artist, the folklore which infuses Hagstone and dedicating the book to the late activist and artist Sinead O' Connor.
The Book Makers by Adam Smyth is a celebration of five hundred and fifty years of the printed book, told through the lives of eighteen extraordinary people. The printers and binders, publishers and artists, paper-makers and library founders - who took the book in radical new directions. We hear about the binder who created Shakespeare's First Folio, a 16th century Dutch printer who created bestsellers on Fleet Street and the Cut and Paste Bible sisters who made art from the gospels.
And Kick the Latch author Kathryn Scanlan discusses her love of Moyra Davey’s Long Life: Cool White, Photographs and Essays.
Book List – Sunday 21 March
Hagstone by Sinéad Gleeson
The Long Gaze Back: An Anthology of Irish Women Writers by Sinéad Gleeson
The Glass Shore edited by Sinéad Gleeson
Constellations: Reflections from Life by Sinéad Gleeson
Kick the Latch by Kathryn Scanlan
Long Life Cool White: Photographs by Moyra Davey
The Book Makers by Adam Smyth

US author Percival Everett talks about his new novel, James - a retelling of Huckleberry Finn, told from the point of view of runaway slave, Jim.
Plus, writing openly about the challenges of motherhood, and doing so with humour. Shahidha talks to two authors who have done just that, in the short story form: Naomi Wood, winner of the BBC Short Story Award, and author of a new collection, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, and to Helen Simpson who has written stories about motherhood in books such as Motherhood, and Hey Yeah Right Get A Life over 20 years previously.
Presenter: Shahidha Bari
Producer: Emma Wallace