Description

 In this edition, we speak with award-winning American author A.M. Homes. Homes is known for her darkly comic short stories and novels, including perennial favorties such as This Book Will Save Your Life and May We Be Forgiven, which won the Women’s Prize for Fiction (formerly the Orange Prize), beating out short-listed contenders by Zadie Smith, Barbara Kingsolver and Hilary Mantel.

We discuss craft in May We Be Forgiven, Homes’s process and advice for writers, including:

• how to tell if you have a novel on your hands or just a short story that’s gone rogue,
• the joys and dangers of research,
• the challenges of memoir,
• why writing ‘likeable’ or even ‘relatable’ characters shouldn’t be your first (or even your second) concern,
• how humour can let you tackle dark material,
• what it means to leave room for the reader, and
• how to make time for your writing when you have a family.