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London Review Bookshop Podcast
Emily Wilson, Edith Hall, Juliet Stevenson & Tobias Menzies: The Iliad
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Emily Wilson’s translation of the Odyssey, published in 2017, the first into English by a woman, was hailed as a ‘revelation’ by the New York Times and a ‘cultural landmark’ by the Guardian. With her translation of the Iliad, ten years in the making, she has given us a complete Homer for a new generation.
Emily Wilson, professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania, is a regular contributor to the LRB and the host of one of our Close Readings series of podcasts, Among the Ancients. Wilson was joined in conversation by Edith Hall, professor at Durham University and the author of many acclaimed books on Ancient Greek culture and its influence on modernity. The event was chaired by Wilson’s Close Readings co-host, Thomas Jones, and passages from Wilson’s Iliad were read by acclaimed actors Juliet Stevenson and Tobias Menzies.
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Michael Longley & Declan Ryan: Ash Keys
01:06:55|Published to coincide with the poet’s 85th birthday, Ash Keys (Jonathan Cape) presents a new selection of Longley’s finest works. Born in Belfast in 1939, his verse inhabits the landscapes Ireland’s west, at the same time occupying a space within a distinctly European tradition, ranging freely across the continent's histories, tragedies and triumphs. ’One of the most perfect poets alive,’ writes Sebastian Barry. ‘There is something in his work both ancient and modern. I read him as I might check the sky for stars.’Michael Longley was joined for this reading and discussion by fellow poet Declan Ryan, whose most recent collection Crisis Actor is published by Faber.Get the book: https://lrb.me/ashkeyspodFind more events at the Bookshop: https://lrb.m/eventspodRalf Webb & Philippa Snow: Strange Relations
51:56|Strange Relations (Sceptre) explores the crisis in mid-century masculinity through the lives and works of four bisexual writers who fought to express and embody alternate possibilities. The nonfiction debut of Forward Prize-shortlisted poet Ralf Webb, it considers the ways in which Tennessee Williams, Carson McCullers, John Cheever and James Baldwin, resisted damaging contemporary expectations around gender and sexuality. Will Tosh has described it as ‘wise, humane, hopeful and exquisitely written’. Webb was in conversation with Philippa Snow, author of Which As You Know Means Violence: On Self-Injury as Art and Entertainment (Repeater) and, most recently, Trophy Lives: On the Celebrity as an Art Object (MACK).Juliet Jacques & Orit Gat: The Woman in the Portrait
56:16|Juliet Jacques is one of the most electrifying short fiction writers working in the UK today; The Woman in the Portrait (Cipher) collects her published and unpublished fiction, work which Agata Pyzik has described as a ‘large canvas on which the pattern for a utopian socialist queer life might be inscribed’.Jacques was joined in conversation by the writer and art critic Orit Gat.Get the book: https://lrb.me/jacquesportaitpodFind more events at the Bookshop: https://lrb.me/eventspodJason Allen-Paisant & Colin Grant on Aimé Césaire
59:36|Aimé Césaire’s masterpiece of exile and homecoming, Return to my Native Land – beautifully translated by John Berger – is now a Penguin Classic. To celebrate, Jason Allen-Paisant (who has written the introduction for the new edition) and Colin Grant discuss the poem. Allen-Paisant’s most recent poetry collection, Self-Portrait as Othello (Carcanet), won both the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Forward Prize for Best First Collection; Colin Grant is director of WritersMosaic, a division of the Royal Literary Fund, his most recent book is a memoir, I’m Black So You Don’t Have to Be (Jonathan Cape).Hannah Regel & Emily LaBarge: The Last Sane Woman
57:42|In her first novel The Last Sane Woman (Verso) poet Hannah Regel investigates the pains and pleasures of artistic practice carried out against the odds. While researching in a small archive dedicated to women’s art young graduate Nicola Long happens upon one half of a correspondence, conducted half a century before, written by a recently graduated ceramicist to a friend. As Nicola reads on she becomes obsessed with the parallels between her own life and that of the woman she encounters in the letters.Regel was joined in conversation by LRB contributor and art critic Emily LaBarge.Find more events at the Bookshop: https://lrb.me/eventspodGet the book: https://www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/stock/the-last-sane-woman-hannah-regelWill Burns & Ella Frears
54:51|Poets Ella Frears and Will Burns were at the shop to read from and talk about their new collections. Ella’s Goodlord, from Rough Trade Books, takes the form of a long, lyrical email to an estate agent, interrogating our obsession with ‘property’ with Frears’ characteristic humour and sharpness, while Will’s Natural Burial Ground (Corsair) is the second collection from a writer Max Porter has described as ‘a soulful English poet of the kind we don’t make enough of’.Constance Debré & Alice Blackhurst: Playboy
01:09:31|In her latest semi-autobiographical novel Playboy (Tuskar Rock, translated by Holly James), leading French writer Constance Debré describes how a woman, at the age of 43, abandons her apartment, her marriage and her successful legal career to lead a new life as an out lesbian and a writer. In a series of short, sharp vignettes the narrator describes a series of meetings with lovers, with her father and with her son and ex-husband, exploding heteronormative assumptions about what it means to be queer in a straight world. Debré was joined in conversation about her work by writer and critic Alice Blackhurst.Get Playboy: https://lrb.me/debrepodFind more events at the Bookshop: https://lrb.me/eventspodLeah Cowan & Lola Olufemi: Why Would Feminists Trust the Police?
01:04:04|Throughout its history feminism has had a troubled relationship with policing, torn between seeking its protection and attacking its ingrained sexist bias. In Why Would Feminists Trust the Police? (Verso) Leah Cowan cuts a trenchant path through the debate, reminding us of the vibrant and creative alternatives envisioned by those who have long known the truth: the police aren't feminist, and the law does not keep women safe. She discusses the issue with feminist writer and scholar Lola Olufemi.Lauren Elkin & Octavia Bright: Scaffolding
53:50|In her debut novel Scaffolding (Chatto) Lauren Elkin – ‘The Susan Sontag of her generation’, according to Deborah Levy – presents two couples occupying the same Paris apartment, five decades apart. Lauren Elkin’s previous works include Art Monsters, a landmark study of women artists, Flâneuse and a translation of Simone de Beauvoir’s The Inseparables. She was joined in conversation by writer and broadcaster Octavia Bright.Find more events at the Bookshop: https://lrb.me/eventspodGet the book: https://lrb.me/scaffoldingpod