I spoke on the NCW The Writing Life podcast last week as we launch the first digital Book Club. For May and June 2020 we’ll be reading and discussing Sara Baume’s second novel, A Line Made by Walking. Listen to the podcast, and find out how to get your hands on a copy of the book and join the discussion here.
Author Archives: vessel
NCW The Writing Life podcast: the responsibility of the writer with Kendel Hippolyte
Back in October I had the pleasure of speaking to poet Kendel Hippolyte during his UK tour for the release of his latest collection, Wordplanting. We spoke about writing across different forms and the responsibilities that writers have towards their art and their reader. Click here to hear more.
Adventures in Reading #3: The Library of Aimless Yet Meaningful Pursuits to the writing of containment
My latest tinyletter is now available to read here. This time I take in bad ontology jokes (sorry), children’s secret codes, a fantastic essay by Khairani Barokka that I can’t stop reading, and how the communicative potential for writing and reading feels more important than ever in these days of isolation and distancing. You can subscribe and/or read it here.
NCW The Writing Life podcast: exploring themes through characters with Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀
A while ago I was lucky enough to have the chance to sit down with Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ and talk to her about her award-winning debut novel Stay With Me, particularly looking at how she uses character to allow her to explore bigger themes of women’s lives, chronic illness, and family life in turbulent times. Our conversation is now available on the NCW The Writing Life podcast, and you can listen here.
Adventures in Reading: 111.0 to the Library of Aimless Yet Meaningful Pursuits
The second of my Adventures in Reading is available now. This one takes in the possibility of different library cataloguing systems from the Dewey Decimal Classification to S. R. Ranganathan’s Laws of Library Science, through to “The Library of Aimless Yes Meaningful Pursuits”, a speculative essay by the OOMK Collective in their book The Library Was. There’s also a fair bit about why I just love libraries so much. Read it here.
NCW The Writing Life podcast: from teacher to writer with Ashley Hickson-Lovence
In the autumn I had the pleasure of talking to poet and novelist Ashley Hickson-Lovence for the National Centre for Writing’s The Writing Life podcast. We talked about writing around the day job, committing to one’s writing practice through further study, and the joys of indie publishing. Listen to the end for Ashley’s top tips for fellow writers; his method of having a few stated aims for each project really resonated with me because you’re then writing by design, and it informs the writing on a technical level, too – it all comes back to the effect you want to create in the reader. Listen here.
NCW The Writing Life podcast: taking yourself seriously with Cat Woodward
I really enjoyed the chance to interview Cat Woodward for NCW’s The Writing Life podcast a few months ago, and the episode has gone live today. Cat was in Norwich to read at UEA Live just before the launch of her latest collection Blood. Flower. Joy! (Knives Forks & Spoons, 2019) so we caught up about treating your writing as a defined project, the editing process, and how Cat articulates her concerns and interests as a writer in everything she does. Listen now.
Adventures in Reading: invisibility to 111.0
The first of my new Tinyletter newsletter essays about all things books, libraries and reading has gone out today.
If you haven’t yet subscribed, you can view the archive and sign up here to receive a monthly essay from me. I hope you’ll join me on my adventures in reading.
Two poems: Modern Queer Poets I
I’m delighted to have two poems in the first Modern Queer Poets anthology by Pilot Press, edited by Richard Porter. The poems are “the reading” (a take on my recurrent themes in my manuscript, holon) and “I’m a riddle and you’re working me out”, which is older. I’m so glad it has finally found a home, and alongside some of my favourite poets writing today (Eileen Myles! CA Conrad!) to boot.
The anthology is currently available half price in a flash sale via Richard’s website.
Three poems in the White Review
I have poems on the White Review website this month, including one with my writing partner Cat Woodward. Find them here.
Read more about my collaboration with Cat here and here.
Flo Reynolds 