This month we are joined by Lucie Elven, short-story writer and author of the Weak Spot, the debut novel published earlier this year by Prototype in the UK. Lucie has written for publications including the London Review of Books, Granta and NOON.   Our chat took us on an Alpine tour through topics including: how notes demand to be put into short stories or novels, developing a long-term relationship with an editor, the function of ambiguity in fiction, and plenty more. The Weak Spot is available through Prototype: https://prototypepublishing.co.uk/product/the-weak-spot/ Lucie is on Twitter: @lucieelven And Instagram: @lucieelven Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloom Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan We have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethods Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/ We have loosely teamed up with the Institute of English Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. Now that some form of normality has (possibly temporarily) returned to the U.K., why not check out their Literature in Lockdown page? : https://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/about-us/ies-virtual-community/literature-lockdown 

Unsound Methods

44: Lucie Elven

As we roll into autumn, we're joined by Rebecca Watson, novelist and arts writer. Rebecca's debut novel, Little Scratch, grew from a short story that was shortlisted for the White Review short story prize and the novel itself was shortlisted for this year's Desmond Elliott Prize.  Among all the other talking our chat took us through: expanding a short story into a novel. Investigating how writing can replicate the immediacy of thought. Playing with fiction and reality, and much more. You can find out more about Rebecca and her writing at her website here: https://www.rebeccawatson.co.uk/ Rebecca is on Twitter: @rebeccawhatsun And Instagram: @rebeccawhatsun Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloom Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan We have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethods Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/ We are teaming up with the Institute of English Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. Now that some form of normality is cautiously being introduced in the U.K., why not check out their Literature in Lockdown page? : https://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/about-us/ies-virtual-community/literature-lockdown 

43: Rebecca Watson

For our August '21 episode we're joined by Natasha Brown, the author of Assembly, which is published by Hamish Hamilton in the UK and will be released in the U.S. on 14th September 2021 by Little, Brown. Our discussion with Natasha includes workshopping at different stages, making speech real on the page, liberal use of index cards, and being in the enviable position of having a novel translated into other languages while it was still being edited. You can find out more about Natasha and her writing at her website here: https://npbrown.com/ Natasha is also on Instagram: @wordsbynatasha Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloom Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan We have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethods Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/ We are teaming up with the Institute of English Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. Now that some form of normality is cautiously being introduced in the U.K., why not check out their Literature in Lockdown page? : https://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/about-us/ies-virtual-community/literature-lockdown 

42: Natasha Brown

In this month's episode we're joined by the novelist Sophie Mackintosh, who is the author of 'the Water Cure' (2018) and 'Blue Ticket' (2020). Topics covered with Sophie include (alongside much more): the shift to writing full time, the importance of music and having a bespoke playlist for each book, and writing a synopsis at the very beginning to help visualise the shape of a project. You can find out more about Sophie at her website here: https://www.sophiemackintosh.co.uk/ Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloom Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan We have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethods Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/ We are teaming up with the Institute of English Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. With (almost certainly reckless) unlocking on the horizon, why not check out their Literature in Lockdown page? : https://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/about-us/ies-virtual-community/literature-lockdown 

41: Sophie Mackintosh

“If Adorno was alive today, he’d be writing about football. I don’t think he’d like it… but he’d be writing about it. And Gramsci for sure”In this, our 40th episode, we've got a special Euro 2020 edition of Unsound Methods, where we speak to writer and academic David Goldblatt. David is the author of non-fiction works which cover sport, particularly football, through a fascinating lens of history, sociology and politics. His books include the Ball is Round (2006), the Game of our Lives (2014) and, most recently, the Age of Football (2020).Our discussion takes us on a path through football and the Frankfurt school, the Colonization of the Life-world, the roots of Anthony Powell’s antipathy to sport, the growth of interest in football from Britain’s literary culture, and sport as an entry point to Bretton Woods, the IMF and Globalisation. The Age of Football is published by Picador - you can find out more here.You can find more about David Goldblatt at his website here: https://davidstephengoldblatt.com/David is also on Twitter: @DavidsgoldblattFind us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloomJaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchanWe have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethodsThanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/We are teaming up with the Institute of English Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. With the current uncertainty in the world, why not check out their Literature in Lockdown page? : https://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/about-us/ies-virtual-community/literature-lockdown 

40: David Goldblatt

In this episode we speak with DBC Pierre, author of Vernon God Little (for which he won the Booker Prize in 2003), Ludmila's Broken English (2006), Lights Out in Wonderland (2010), Breakfast with the Borgias (2014) and most recently, Meanwhile in Dopamine City which was published in 2020.Pierre joined us fresh off a bout of working on a non-fiction work and we discussed how this writing differed from fiction, how constantly reworking sections is a gift that provides intimacy with the text rather than drudgery, the perils of using two columns per page in a novel, using lockdown as a chrysalis for the next chapter and much more besides.Meanwhile in Dopamine City is published by Faber - you can find out more here.You can find more about DBC Pierre, including his writing and some of the finest book-related merch we've seen in a long while, at his website: http://www.dbcpierre.com/Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloomJaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchanWe have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethodsThanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/We are teaming up with the Institute of English Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. With the current uncertainty in the world, why not check out their Literature in Lockdown page? : https://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/about-us/ies-virtual-community/literature-lockdown 

39: DBC Pierre

In this month's episode, we speak to Jon McGregor, whose latest novel Lean, Fall, Stand is published by Fourth Estate on 29th April.Jon joined us in the midst of full fat lockdown to discuss how he constructs his novels, his writing residency in Antarctica and the research with people who suffer from aphasia and their carers that informed Lean, Fall, Stand.Jon's novels include: If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things (2002), So Many Ways to Begin (2006), Even the Dogs (2010) and Reservoir 13 (2017). Jon has won the IMPAC Dublin Literature Prize, the Betty Trask and Somerset Maugham awards, been longlisted for the Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize.Photo credit: Jo Wheeler Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloomJaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchanWe have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethodsThanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/We are teaming up with the Institute of English Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. With the current uncertainty in the world, why not check out their Literature in Lockdown page? : https://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/about-us/ies-virtual-community/literature-lockdown 

38: Jon McGregor

In episode 37 we're joined by Douglas Robertson to celebrate the publication of his brand new translation of Thomas Bernhard's Die Billigesser (the Cheap Eaters) and to discuss our favourite Austrian monologuing misanthrope.Douglas is a writer and translator based in Keystone, Florida. He studied British and American Literature at the New College of Florida and Johns Hopkins University. He has translated works from German into English by authors including E. T. A. Hoffmann, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Christian Morgenstern, Novalis, and Ludwig Tieck, and he has studied Thomas Bernhard’s work for over ten years.Thomas Bernhard was one of the most important and unique writers of the twentieth century. Born in 1931, Bernhard published numerous novels and autobiographical writings, as well as short stories, plays, and poetry, including The Loser and Extinction. After years of chronic lung illness, Bernhard died in Austria in 1989.Douglas would like to give a shout out to his friend flowerville, a native German speaker who proofread the entire rough draft of the translation and was particularly helpful in offering pointers on register; particularly the level of formality or informality of specific expressions in the original German.The Cheap Eaters by Thomas Bernhard, translated by Douglas Robertson, is published by Spurl Editions, and is available here: https://spurleditions.com/cheap-eaters Douglas has a blog, The Philosophical Worldview Artist (http://shirtysleeves.blogspot.com).And he's also on Twitter: @shirtysleeves Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloomJaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchanWe have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethodsThanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/We are teaming up with the Institute of English Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. With the current uncertainty in the world, why not check out their Literature in Lockdown page? : https://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/about-us/ies-virtual-community/literature-lockdownImage of Thomas Bernhard: By Monozigote - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=85846453 

37: Thomas Bernhard mit Douglas Robertson

Something a little different for the first pod of 2021: Lochlan and Jaimie get together (remotely) and have a couple of drinks to celebrate the launch of Jaimie's debut novel 'Siphonophore' - which is out now through Valley Press. The chat covers Jaimie's approach to writing, a bit of his history, sacrilegious suggestions of cuts to Finnegans Wake and a discussion of the fundamental weakness of analogies highlighting unnecessary cruelty to both cats and frogs. If you are interested in reading Siphonophore (and huge thanks if you are - JB), then you can find the book here: https://www.valleypressuk.com/book/154/siphonophore - by using the discount code 'SAVEMACG' listeners can get 10% off the price. The documentary that Jaimie refers to is called 'Nothing Changes: Art for Hank's Sake' (2018, dir. Matthew Kaplowitz) about the artist Hank Virgona. We have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethods Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods (https://twitter.com/UnsoundMethods) - @JaimieBatchan (https://twitter.com/JaimieBatchan) - @LochlanBloom (https://twitter.com/LochlanBloom) Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan (https://www.instagram.com/jaimie_batchan/) Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/ We have teamed up with the Institute of English Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. With the current uncertainty in the world, why not check out their Literature in Lockdown page? : https://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/about-us/ies-virtual-community/literature-lockdown

36: Jaimie Batchan - Siphonophore

In this month's episode, we caught up with John Englehardt, author of 'Bloomland' (2019, Dzanc Books). John has also written for Vol.1 Brooklyn, Sycamore Review, The Stranger, Seattle Review of Books, Conium Review, Monkeybicycle, and elsewhere. Bloomland deals with the lead-up and fall-out of a college shooting through three separate narratives, told in the second person. Spanning two decades, Bloomland interrogates the social roots of the shooting and its effect on a community struggling to use violence as a catalyst for self-reflection and change. John is on Twitter: @johnenglehardt1 (https://twitter.com/johnenglehardt1) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/john.englehardt.7 Instagram: @john.englehardt His website is: https://johnenglehardt.com/ Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods (https://twitter.com/UnsoundMethods) - @JaimieBatchan (https://twitter.com/JaimieBatchan) - @LochlanBloom (https://twitter.com/LochlanBloom) Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan (https://www.instagram.com/jaimie_batchan/) Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/ We have teamed up with the Institute of English Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. With the current uncertainty in the world, why not check out their Literature in Lockdown page? : https://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/about-us/ies-virtual-community/literature-lockdown

35: John Englehardt

In this month's episode we took a wild ride with David Keenan. David was born in Glasgow and grew up in Airdrie, in the west of Scotland, in the late-70s and early-1980s. He is the author of three novels, the cult classic This Is Memorial Device, which won the Collyer Bristow/London Magazine Award for Debut Fiction 2018 and was shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize, For The Good Times, which won the Gordon Burn Prize in 2019, and Xstabeth. We travelled far and wide in this episode, covering, amongst much else: using faith in your writing as your only compass, performing a DJ set in Tolstoy’s front garden, the beauty of a character from a previous novel turning up unexpectedly in later work and lucky cap disposal. “Research is an excuse for not inventing.” If you'd like to take a step into David's personal chill-space, the books he mentioned are: ‘Incised Effigial Slabs’ by F. A. Greenhill (1976) and ‘Monastic Architecture in France’ by Joan Evans (1964). Xstabeth is published by White Rabbit on 12th November 2020. Pre-order XSTABETH in paperback, ebook or audio before 1 November to access the exclusive digital prequel, THE TOWERS THE FIELDS THE TRANSMITTERS. Full details: bit.ly/XstabethPreOrder (https://www.whiterabbitbooks.co.uk/imprint/orion/white-rabbit/page/pre-order-xstabeth-to-read-the-exclusive-prequel-the-towers/) David is on Twitter: @reversediorama (https://twitter.com/reversediorama) Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods (https://twitter.com/UnsoundMethods) - @JaimieBatchan (https://twitter.com/JaimieBatchan) - @LochlanBloom (https://twitter.com/LochlanBloom) Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan (https://www.instagram.com/jaimie_batchan/) Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/ We are teaming up with the Institute of English Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. With the current uncertainty in the world, why not check out their Literature in Lockdown page? : https://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/about-us/ies-virtual-community/literature-lockdown

34: David Keenan

In this month's episode we speak to Gabriel Josipovici. Gabriel's first novel was published in 1968 and his writing career spans over twenty works of fiction, numerous works of criticism and non-fiction, and regular articles in the TLS. Continuing our current coronavirus set-up, Gabriel joined us remotely from Sussex and our discussion covered how his writing has developed over six decades, the perils of writing an unexpectedly backlash-provoking book on Modernism, the creative possibilities revealed by examining painters & composers and much more. The 'acceptably long' novel we briefly discussed was George Perec’s ‘Life: A User’s Manual’ The vast majority of Gabriel's work is published by Carcanet: https://www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/indexer?owner_id=368 Gabriel's website is here: http://www.gabrieljosipovici.org/ Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods (https://twitter.com/UnsoundMethods) - @JaimieBatchan (https://twitter.com/JaimieBatchan) - @LochlanBloom (https://twitter.com/LochlanBloom) Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan (https://www.instagram.com/jaimie_batchan/) Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/ We are teaming up with the Institute of English Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. With the current uncertainty in the world, why not check out their Literature in Lockdown page? : https://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/about-us/ies-virtual-community/literature-lockdown

33: Gabriel Josipovici

“What you push against is as important as what you reach towards”On this month's episode we speak to Irish-Canadian author Anakana Schofield, author of Malarky (2013), Martin John (2016) and Bina (2020).Anakana joined us from the West Coast of Canada to discuss representations of older women in fiction, the musical score of the novel and missing out on multiple Christmases to complete her work, plus much else besides.In the UK, Anakana has written for the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jan/07/what-we-gain-from-keeping-books-and-why-it-doesnt-need-to-be-joy-marie-kondohttps://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/nov/20/unsinkable-characters-anakana-schofield-top-10 Her website is here: www.anakanaschofield.com And she is on Twitter: @anakanaschofiel Instagram: @anakana.schofield Bina is published in the UK by Fleet (Little Brown), in Canada by Knopf Canada and will be published in the U.S. by New York Review of Books (out in early 2021).  There's a great video interview with Anakana courtesy of Toronto Public Library, which you can find here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxelTvXgzkIAuthor photo credit: Arabella CampbellFind us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloomJaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchanThanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/We are teaming up with the Institute of English Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. With the current uncertainty in the world, why not check out their Literature in Lockdown page? : https://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/about-us/ies-virtual-community/literature-lockdown 

32: Anakana Schofield

Something a little different this month as Lochlan and Jaimie pause to review how the COVID-19 lockdown has impacted their reading and writing, and to take a look back at the teenage reading paths that led them to experimental/innovative fiction. We'd love to hear about your lockdown reading and writing and the reading path you've taken through the fiction forest. Contact us through Twitter, or email us at: unsoundmethodspod@gmail.com (mailto:unsoundmethodspod@gmail.com) Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods (https://twitter.com/UnsoundMethods) - @JaimieBatchan (https://twitter.com/JaimieBatchan) - @LochlanBloom (https://twitter.com/LochlanBloom) Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan (https://www.instagram.com/jaimie_batchan/) Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/

31: Lockdown Reading and Writing

In episode 30, we speak to writer, translator and musician, Jen Calleja, author of the short story collection 'I'm Afraid that's All We've Got Time For' (2020, Prototype). We (remotely, respecting social distancing!) discuss bus travel as fertile ground for creativity, writing across different forms - from translation to poetry, novels and short stories, and the insight gained from working with writers whose work you are translating - and plenty more besides. *** There is a very slight technical glitch with this episode's sound, but we've fixed it as best we can - apologies if the sound isn't quite as clean as it usually is *** You can buy 'I'm Afraid that's All We've Got Time For' here: https://prototypepublishing.co.uk/product/im-afraid-thats-all-weve-got-time-for/ You can find out more about Jen's writing at her website: www.jencalleja.com (http://www.jencalleja.com/) She's on Twitter: @niewview (https://twitter.com/niewview) and Instagram: @jencalleja_ (https://www.instagram.com/jencalleja_/) Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods (https://twitter.com/UnsoundMethods) - @JaimieBatchan (https://twitter.com/JaimieBatchan) - @LochlanBloom (https://twitter.com/LochlanBloom) Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan (https://www.instagram.com/jaimie_batchan/) Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/

30: Jen Calleja

A literary fiction podcast hosted by authors Jaimie Batchan and Lochlan Bloom. We talk to fellow writers of literary fiction about process, what makes fiction 'real' and the motivation to sit down in front of an empty page and make things up...

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Unsound Methods

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