Shows
Rippling Pages: Interviews with WritersAsk the Host! Liam on Dream Guests, New Books, and Talking to AnimalsWelcome to the first edition of Rippling Pages: Ask the Host!
Over the years, I’ve been asking the questions, but it’s about time I answered some too.
So, that’s what I’ve done: I’ve picked out some questions from the Rippling Pages inbox, and answered them!
In this episode, I answer:
- Where am I from?
- Why did I start the podcast?
- Who would I like to interview?
- What books have I enjoyed recently?
- Would I rather speak every language o...2025-05-0415 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersElaine Garvey on 2002, Wadrobe Departments, and Women Walking"She finds herself in London working in a theatre having to touch people!"
Elaine Garvey, to discuss her novel, THE WARDROBE DEPARTMENT, published by Canongate Books. It’s 2002. Mairéad Sweeney has moved from rural Ireland to work in London’s West End. While the prestige of working in theatre doesn’t exactly wear off, the long hours and spoiled actors make Mairéad’s transition from Ireland more difficult than it should be. Things get even more difficult when Mairéad has to return home for her grandmother’s funeral. It’s here she begins to reconc...2025-04-1732 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersBonus Content - Benjamin Markovits on Subtexts, Michael Jordan, and family favourites!“It’s my mum’s favourite book that I wrote!”
Benjamin Markovits is here to talk about his new and twelfth novel, THE REST OF OUR LIVES, published by Faber and Faber. Tom Layward has made a pact with himself. After his daughter moves out of college, he’s moving out too. His wife had an affair, and he feels like he owes himself a road trip across America. He takes in the sights, sounds and basketball games of the American heartland and beyond. But he’s deferring some health issues and it seems like it’s only a matter o...2025-04-0309 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersBenjamin Markovits on Basketball, Family, and Illness‘The people I like to write about are what I would describe as moderately successful failures.’
Benjamin Markovits is here to talk about his new and twelfth novel, THE REST OF OUR LIVES, published by Faber and Faber.
Tom Layward has made a pact with himself. After his daughter moves out of college, he’s moving out too. His wife had an affair, and he feels like he owes himself a road trip across America. He takes in the sights, sounds and basketball games of the American heartland and beyond. But he’s deferri...2025-03-2033 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersBonus Content with Marni Appleton - Taylor Swift, and Getting Up Early"Taylor Swift is somebody who has managed to keep reinventing herself to stay relevant."
Welcome to Rippling Points, more content and more insights and inspiration into the craft of literature:
Marni Appleton is here to talk about her short story collection, I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY, published by Indigo Press. We discuss:
- How Taylor Swift's ability to reinvent herself and stay relevant differs to that of the characters
- Ideas of productivity and how they shouldn't reflect your value in the world
The modern world Marni presents to...2025-03-0607 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersMarni Appleton on Spotlights, Mirrors and the Art of the Title"It builds to women and girls choosing to hide their mouths because of the effect of this trend...things just morph and take on different meanings as they're shared in different contexts"
Marni Appleton is here to talk about her collection of short stories, I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY, published by The Indigo Press.
The modern world Marni presents to us in her stories is one that feels incredibly liberating, but then hinged by archaic attitudes from the past all at the same time. Women go viral on social media for seemingly innocent reasons; open and...2025-02-2032 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersRippling Points - Bonus Content with Vincenzo Latronico - Berlin, Italian novels, and on being translated into English"Being published in English is a big milestone..."
Vincenzo Latronico is here to talk about his first novel translated into English - PERFECTION, published by Fitzcarraldo editions and translated from the Italian by Sophie Hughes.
Welcome to Rippling Points, more content insights and inspiration into the craft of literature:
- How and why he set his novel in Berlin, or why locations don't become so important for the novel
- The global market of translation and the pleasure of being translated into English
Vincenzo is one of the most...2025-02-0608 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersVincenzo Latronico on Perfection, Authenticity, and Things“Love is a dangerous topic.”
Vincenzo Latronico is here to talk about his first novel translated into English - PERFECTION, published by Fitzcarraldo editions and translated from the Italian by Sophie Hughes.
Vincenzo is one of the most distinguished novelists writing in Italian today. He has also translated many books into Italian, by authors such as George Orwell, Oscar Wilde, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Hanif Kureishi.
In PERFECTION, there’s something missing from Anna and Tom’s life, and they can’t quite put their finger on what it is that is missing. It drives...2025-01-2332 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersRippling Points - Bonus Content with Pola Oloixarac - Archives, Horoscopes, and Twisted Desire“They had one objective - to get rid of certain men”
Welcome to the first edition of Rippling Points - bonus content from last month’s episode!
A little bit more insight and a little bit more inspiration into the craft of writing!
Here, you can hear Pola talking about her delve into the archives to learn more about Argentina in 1970s.
You’ll then hear Pola talking about her next project, Bad Hombre - which features real life accounts collected from Pola of women who were wanting t...2025-01-0809 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersPola Oloixarac and Unreliability, Energies, and Dopamine“I think it’s much more interesting to explore women through their powers.”
Pola Oloixarac, one of the most exciting voices in world literature today, is here to talk about her two novels that have been translated into English. Most recently SAVAGE THEORIES and then MONA (translated by Roy Kesey). Both are published by Serpent’s Tail. She was named by Granta as one of the Best Young Spanish novelists as well as this and has written for a wide range of publications and an Eccles Centre Fellow
SAVAGE THEORIES is a metaphysical, intertext...2024-12-1237 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersIris Mwanza - Zambia, Human Rights, and Elections"I think it's a story few people have told before. And it's really about, what does a defender of human rights look like?"
Iris Mwanza is here to talk about her novel, THE LION'S DEN (Canongate Books). Iris's novel is about a human rights lawyer, Grace Zulu, whose client Willbess ‘Bessy’ Mulenga, has been arrested for offences ‘against nature. It launches Grace, and Iris, into the underbelly of the legal system.
Iris is deputy director of the Gender Equality Division of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, she leads strategy and investment for the Women in Leaders...2024-11-2134 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersFriða Ísberg and THE MARK“The book is me trying to have a conversation with my father and reach a middle ground.”
Friða Ísberg is here to talk about THE MARK (Faber and Faber) translated by Larissa Kyzer. The book centres on a referendum in Iceland about whether mandatory tests should be imposed on its citizens. Friða talks about writing over the divide, arguments with her father, and Icelandic literary culture and how they have all shaped the book.
Rippling Points
02:05 - what is the mark?
04:12 - where are the divides?
06:30...2024-10-2433 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersNaomi Wood and THIS IS WHY WE CANT HAVE NICE THINGS“Some people have been, oh these women are so grotesque. I don’t think they are! They’re quite relatable.”
Naomi Wood joins me to discuss THIS IS WHY WE CANT HAVE NICE THINGS (Published by Orion)
It’s a collection that features the BBC Short Story Prize winner, Comorbidities. We talk about different kinds of intimacy in the stories, and how or why Naomi often writes about mothers in the . Naomi also talks about the craft and how she clashed registers to dazzling effect.
Naomi Wood is the bestselling author of T...2024-09-1932 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersSam Sax and YR DEAD"I think their experience in the bookstore is trying to think literary inheritance and spiritual and intellectual experience."
Sam sax is here to discuss YR DEAD, their debut novel about Ezra, a queer, non-binary 27-year-old of Jewish heritage, whose life we see in fragments and flashbacks when they self-immolate outside trump tower.
We talk about qualities of wandering, the multiplicities of Jewish identities, and what second hand bookstores can tell us about legacies and life.
Sam's PIG was named one of the best books of 2023 by New York Magazine and Electric Lit. They're...2024-08-2233 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersJennifer Lucy Allan and CLAY: A HUMAN HISTORY"I'd done a lot of clay-making...you can spend a lifetime and only get good at one technique!"
Jennifer Lucy Allan joins me to talk about her second book, CLAY: A HUMAN HISTORY (White Rabbit Books). After Jennifer's exploration and writing about sound in The Foghorn's Lament (White Rabbit Books), Jennifer has, quite literally, turned her hand to a more physical and enduring substance in clay. From Japanese Tea Ceremonies, to humans making their own image, to life on Mars, clay is seemingly everywhere. Jennifer is also a presenter on BBC Radio 3's Late Junction.
2024-07-2334 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersBruce Omar Yates and The Muslim Cowboy"This book is begging to be written...It has this a frontier-ness to it..."
Bruce Omar Yates is here to discuss his upcoming novel published by Dead Ink Books, THE MUSLIM COWBOY .
In a contemporary and entertaining novel set in aftermath of the Iraq war, a man who is obsessed with old Western movies dresses in double denim and roams a lawless landscape in search of his own Western story.
Rippling Points
1.32 - Bruce's family and how these fed into ideas about a 'muslim cowboy'
4.30 - Nameless and speechless: playing wi...2024-06-2032 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersClaire Carroll and The Unreliable Nature Writer"The smotheringly neutral voice"
Claire Carroll is here to talk about her new and debut collection of short stories THE UNRELIABLE NATURE WRITER. A truly candid insight into the workings of craft and being a writer from one of the most exciting and upcoming fiction writers today.
THE UNRELIABLE NATURE WRITER is published by Scratch Books - more here
Rippling Points
2.00 - Claire's dreams and reading.
4.55 - The different personal and impersonal voices in Claire's work
10:37 - Being a writer and knowing or not knowing answers2024-05-2431 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersMarchelle Farrell and By the River"The garden is a co-author"
Marchelle Farrell is here to talk about her essay in a new anthology from Daunt Books, BY THE RIVER: ESSAYS FROM THE WATER'S EDGE. I've wanted to talk to Marchelle since the publication of UPROOTING: FROM THE CARIBBEAN TO THE COUNTRYSIDE - Canongate Books), so it was great to have her here when she's part of an anthology featuring the likes of Caleb Azumah Nelson and Tessa Hadley.
Marchelle, a consultant psychiatrist as well as a writer, often blends personal history with reflections on how colonial history has shaped the...2024-04-2432 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersMarianne Brooker and Intervals"I wanted to be talking choice in a way that was routed in a social context, and that was true to the particularity and intimacy that I shared with my mum at the end of her life."
Marianne Brooker is here to talk about her Women's Prize for Non-Fiction shortlisted essay, INTERVALS, published by Fitzcarraldo Editions.
Marianne talks about her life and living with her mother who was diagnosed with primary progressive multiple sclerosis. The book is a blend of memoir, philosophy, literary criticism, and politics.
It's a tough but incredibly beautiful read. 2024-03-1333 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersDawn Garisch and Breaking Milk"That whole question of the invisible life...that there's something going on we cannot see that determines our health and the future of the planet."
Dawn Garisch, one of South Africa's most pre-eminent writers, joins the Rippling Pages to talk about Breaking Milk, published in the UK by Heloise Press. Shortlisted for the prestigious Sunday Times South Africa/CNA Literary Awards '21, it finally lands on our shores.
Dawn is also a doctor and a CEO of the Life Righting Collective, a non-profit organisation aiming to provide creative practice as a low-cost resource for humane...2024-02-2132 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersRachel Mann and Eleanor Among the Saints"Wounds, whilst they open us to the world...they can be points of infection."
Welcome to 2024 and a new episode of the Rippling Pages. Rachel Mann is a poet, scholar, novelist and Anglican priest. She is Rachel Mann is here to talk about her new collection, Eleanor Among the Saints (Carcanet), which takes inspiration from the life of Eleanor 'John' Rykener. A trans woman, seamstress, embroider, and sex worker who lived in medieval England.
More info about the book here
This is Rachel's second collection after Kingdom of Love (also Carcanet - a...2024-01-2532 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersJo Scott-Coe on the Life and Death of Kathy Leissner Whitman"Kathy had a documentary impulse that is teaching us now."
Jo Scott-Coe returns to the Rippling Pages to talk about her latest book, UNHEARD WITNESS: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF KATHY LEISSNER WHITMAN (University of Texas Press)
Jo is a previous guest of the podcast, joining us in Series 2 to discuss MASS (Pelekinesis), an account of Charles Whitman, the Texas Tower Shooter.
Listen to that episode here: https://ripplingpages.podbean.com/e/jo-scott-coe-on-mass/
Now she returns to discuss a follow-up to that book, the story of Whitman's wife, Kathy Leissner Whitman.2023-12-0631 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersCharlotte Eichler and Swimming Between Islands"It's not confessional...but it's absolutely full of concrete details of things that I've observed or really happened."
Charlotte Eichler joins the Rippling Pages to discuss her new collection, SWIMMING BETWEEN ISLANDS, published by Carcanet
Tickets to Tom Branfoot launch that I'm hosting here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/boar-book-launch-tickets-733576425837
Rippling Points
Fruit bats: the mystery of the mystery, and how we write it
Unnatural world: how even poets find it difficult to connect with nature
Reference Points
Anthony Vahni Capildeo
2023-11-0331 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersBaron Wormser on Silence, Solitude and Shakespeare"There was a lot of solitude quiet and silence, and I believe poetry exists in relation to silence."
Baron Wormser, a former National Endowment for the Arts and Guggenheim Fellow, is here to talk about his eleventh collection of poetry, THE HISTORY HOTEL, and THE ROAD WASHES OUT IN SPRING , an account of a poet living life off the grid.
Tickets to Tom Branfoot launch that I'm hosting here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/boar-book-launch-tickets-733576425837
Rippling Points
The rhythm of poetry, the poetry of jobs: how the different rhythms of t...2023-10-2033 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersLeslie Smolan and the Life and Work of Rodney Smith"it took a lot of courage to keep going and channel that sadness and melancholy into pictures of such joy and exuberance "
Leslie Smolan, widow and creative partner of the photographer Rodney Smith is here to talk about a new book celebrating his life and work.
A LEAP OF FAITH, with essays from Paul Martineau, Rebecca Senf, and Graydon Carter, is also packed full of Rodney's iconic images. It's published by Getty Publications (available here )
Leslie is a founder and director of the Carbone-Smolan agency. She met Rodney in the 90s and w...2023-09-2537 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersNii Ayikwei Parkes and Azúcar"We live in a world where we increasingly want to control everything...I hope that in fictional spaces, the effort of trying to keep up becomes so much you eventually say, hey, let's go."
Nii Ayikwei Parkes is here to discuss his second novel, Azúcar, published by Peepal Tree Press.
How do we grow in...
Fictional spaces: understanding when we're not in control
Real spaces: understanding control and conditioning
Enjoyed this episode - why not send a small donation to support with the running costs! Thank you! - https://ko...2023-08-1734 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersJames Clarke and Sanderson’s Isle"I hate judging characters - you have to have respect for people's origins."
James Clarke is here to talk about his new novel, Sanderson's Isle, published by Serpent's Tail (buy here)
Enjoyed this episode - why not send a small donation to support with the running costs! Thank you! - https://ko-fi.com/liambishop
Rippling Points
Ebullient characters: stepping into the sixties and using real-life figures as reference points and inspiration
Lost and looking: writing characters that are lost and looking for someone, or maybe anyone.
R...2023-07-2029 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersBloomsday special with Helen Palmer!'I wanted to write a queer love story, Blackpool is crying out for literary renditions and I'm obsessed by Ulysses.'
Helen Palmer is here to talk about her Ulysses inspired queer love story, Pleasure Beach which is published by Prototype (more info here!)
Enjoyed today's episode? Leave a tip!: https://ko-fi.com/liambishop
Rippling Points
Corrie and the Tower: setting a novel in Blackpool.
Time please: The enduring appeal of a novel set in a day
Reference Points
James Joyce
Julia Kristeva
Coronation S...2023-06-1634 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersDuncan Wiese and TITYRUS: A PASTORAL"There is a genuine search for something - much of the time it turns out to be distraction."
Duncan Wiese joins me from Denmark to discuss his new collection of poetry based on Virgil's Eclogues, Tityrus: A Pastoral. Published by Lolli Editions (more info here!), the poems were translated by Max Minden Ribeiro (Pelle Hvenegaard’s Dear Zoe Ukhona and Finn Juhl: Life, Work, World by Christian Bundegaarand) and Sam Riviere (81 Austerities, Kim Kardashian's Marriage)
Enjoyed this episode - why not send a small donation to support with the running costs! Thank you! - https://ko-fi.c...2023-06-0631 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersSoraya Palmer and The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter and Other Essential Ghosts"I was interested in stories with stories and how the family used folklore to approach conflict"
Soraya Palmer joins me from Brooklyn to discuss her debut novel, recently released in the UK, The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter and Other Essential Ghosts, published by Serpent's Tail (more info here!).
We speak about hauntings, family narratives, and Anansi the animal trickster!
Enjoyed this episode - why not send a small donation to support with the running costs! Thank you! - https://ko-fi.com/liambishop
Rippling Points:
Tales from the...2023-05-1030 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersCatalan Literature in Translation Special!It's a Catalan Literature in Translation Special!
I'm delighted to welcome Mara Faye Lethem and Tiago Miller to discuss two recently released books from Catalonia
Irene Solà's When I Sing, Mountains Dance has has been re-released in paperback translated by Mara for Granta
Josep Maria Argemí's The Angel of Santa Sofia has been newly released and translated by Tiago for Fum d'Estampa
Enjoyed this episode - why not send a small donation to support with the running costs! Thank you! - https://ko-fi.com/liambishop
Rippling Po...2023-04-2045 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersSeraphina Madsen and Aurora"I was fascinated by the idea of what is real and what isn't real what people perceive to be real and not real"
Welcome back to Series 4 of the Rippling Pages. And Seraphina Madsen is here to talk witches, the occult and different realities!
Aurora is Seraphina's second novel and is published by Dodo Ink
Read an extract here
Enjoyed this episode - why not send a small donation to support with the running costs! Thank you! - https://ko-fi.com/liambishop
Rippling Points:
Witchhunts and witchcraft...2023-03-2429 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersCaitlin Stobie and THIN SLICES"I don't think poetry should be giving a lesson to anyone"
Caitlin Stobie is here to talk about THIN SLICES, her new collection from Verve Press (Pre-order here )
Caitlin examines culture's need for 'origin' myths, as well as asking what is a language for the pre-lingual?
We recorded this episode in the run-up to Caitlin's appearance at Ilkley Literature Festival - more of which you can find out here: https://www.ilkleyliteraturefestival.org.uk/whats-on
And find out more about the University of Leeds Poetry Centre here - https://poetry.leeds...2022-10-1733 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersCristina Bendek and Robin Myers - Salt CrystalsBoth writer and translator of SALT CRYSTALS, Cristina Bendek and Robin Myers, are here to discuss this shape-shifting and history-searching novel. A book about a woman, Victoria, who explores her own and the island she's from, San Andrés's, history.
Find out more about the book here
Rippling Points:
A momentaneous piece or peace? How can we write about the transient, the changing, in a form which preaches endurability and timelessness?
Disease as a symptom: why Cristina chose to write about diabetes
Enjoyed this episode - wh...2022-09-2942 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersNicholas Royle and White Spines:"It's a quest to try to collect all of the Picadors..."
Nicholas Royle is here to talk about White Spines: Confessions of a Book Collector, and his journey to find Picador books. You can buy the book here
Enjoyed this episode - why not send a small donation to support with the running costs! Thank you! - https://ko-fi.com/liambishop
Rippling Points
The Second Life of Books: the second-hand bookshop as a home for new, undiscovered and forgotten writers
Got to Catch Them All: Is y...2022-08-2537 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersCaroline Clark and Own Sweet Time"All this wouldn't have happened without that experience of cancer..."
Caroline Clark is here with one of the most tender and moving books due to be released this year: Own Sweet Time.
Caroline's book is about the "hardest thing she's been through physically" and the "hardest things she's found mentally.
Find out more book here:
Enjoyed this episode - why not send a small donation to support with the running costs! Thank you! - https://ko-fi.com/liambishop
Rippling Points
In the moment: how do we...2022-07-2132 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersSarah Schofield and Safely Gathered In"As humans, we're really scared of forgetting..."
Welcome back for another episode of the Rippling Pages – I’m delighted to speaking to Sarah Schofield, author of the short story collection, SAFELY GATHERED IN (Comma Press - you can find here)
Enjoyed this episode - why not send a small donation to support with the running costs! Thank you! - https://ko-fi.com/liambishop
Rippling Points:
Safely Gathered In? Containment as a literary, psychological and physical idea
Shopping lists and short stories: when fiction crosses over with the everyday.
Refer...2022-06-1641 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersRichard Price - the Owner of the Sea"Song is very powerful...it's not a truth teller, it's a state-changer."
Richard Price joins today's show to discuss his collection of 'Three Inuit Stories Retold.' Published by Carcanet, the book was a Scotsman Book of the Year in 2021, and Richard joined me to discuss the challenges of retelling these tales.
You can buy the book here: https://www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/indexer?product=9781800171176
Enjoyed this episode - why not send a small donation to support with the running costs! Thank you! - https://ko-fi.com/liambishop
R...2022-05-2041 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersErica Mou and Clarissa Botsford on THIRSTY SEA"The first thing that came to me? A woman, alone with the sea, and in charge of her own destiny?"
Welcome back to the Rippling Pages and Series Three: Beneath the Surface.
We have Erica Mou and Clarissa Botsford here to discuss Thirsty Sea. Erica is a successful musician with six albums to her name. Her novel is translated by Clarissa and published by exciting new press, Héloïse Press, who are championing world-wide female talent.
You can buy the book here:
https://www.heloisepress.com/b...2022-04-2136 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersEmilio Fraia and Zoë Perry on Sevastopol"It's nice to see my imagination dressed with my words...It's very interesting to see a universe in other words."
What a pleasure have both Emilio Fraia and Zoë Perry to discuss with me the writing and translating of Emilio's novel Sevastopol (Lolli Editions - buy here)
Enjoyed this episode - why not send a small donation to support with the running costs! Thank you! - https://ko-fi.com/liambishop
Ripping Points:
A common tone: how the creation of a certain atmosphere leads to individual variations
How Sevastopol was translated in...2021-10-1451 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersCharlie Baylis and Santa Lucía'You can't just have a greatest hits collection, there has to be a flow of ideas.'
Charlie Baylis, poet, critic, and editor joined me to talk about his latest collection, Santa Lucía, published by Invisible Hand Press - available here
Enjoyed this episode - why not send a small donation to support with the running costs! Thank you! - https://ko-fi.com/liambishop
Rippling Points:
Day and Night: structuring around the rhythms of the day
The conscious art of repeating
Reference Points
Poets
John A...2021-10-0141 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersJo Scott-Coe on MASS"It seemed to be a flashpoint moment, it was saying more than we thought it was saying."
Jo Scott-Coe joins me to talk about Charles Whitman, the man known as the 'Texas Tower Sniper'. In this discussion which touches on some challenging subjects, Jo discusses her book and the journey behind the writing of the book MASS: A Sniper, a Father, and a Priest (published by Pelekinesis Press)
Please be advised we recorded this conversation earlier this year and discuss issues of a sensitive nature
Rippling Points:
'Senseless Acts': the troubling...2021-09-1648 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersJessie Greengrass on the High House'All the way through the book, it should feel like there's going to be some kind of ending which will enable a potential future'
What a pleasure to welcome Jessie Greengrass to talk about the High House! (Buy here). We talk about the climate crisis and writing about the end times.
Enjoyed this episode - why not send a small donation to support with the running costs! Thank you! - https://ko-fi.com/liambishop
Rippling Points:
Is this the end for me, you, all of us? What's it...2021-09-0254 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersJeff Chon and Hashtag Good Guy with a Gun"The thing I learned last year is that the product is sometimes the problem"
Jeff Chon joins me to discuss his novel, Hashtag Good Guy with a Gun, published by the exciting Sagging Meniscus press (buy here)
Please be advised we recorded this conversation earlier this year and discuss issues of a sensitive nature with some instances of strong language
Rippling Pages:
Good guys and bad guys: a troubling distinction
What's it like writing about people we really do not like?
Reference Points
Books
...2021-08-2037 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersKhalisa Rae and Ghost in a Black Girl’s Throat'The south is a living breathing thing in this book. it's a personality.'
Really excited to have American poet, Khalisa Rae, join me for series two, episode two!
Khalisa is here to talk about Ghost in a Black Girl's Throat, published by Red Hen Press (buy here)
Enjoyed this episode - why not send a small donation to support with the running costs! Thank you! - https://ko-fi.com/liambishop
Rippling Points:
Title collection: the story of a title
Surrounded by the best: environments of poetic creativity and su...2021-08-0542 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersPolly Barton and Fifty SoundsWelcome Back! Series Two: Horizons is here with Polly Barton.
"I wanted to give people tools they could then forget about for the rest of the book."
Polly Barton is here to talk about Fifty Sounds, winner of the Fitzcarraldo Essay Prize 2019. (BUY HERE!)
Enjoyed this episode - why not send a small donation to support with the running costs! Thank you! - https://ko-fi.com/liambishop
Rippling Points:
Loving others and loving language: is there one without the other?
Wittgenstein: even he got it wrong at times
...2021-07-2141 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersJacqueline Bishop on Jamaican Women Writers"The sense we don't have to trample on each other, to amplify each other, we can heal and nurture each other."
Jacqueline Bishop is here to talk about her collection of interviews, The Gift of Music and Song: Interviews with Jamaican Women Writers
(Buy here!)
It's a perfect way to conclude the 'Finding Room' series - promoting the voices of some fantastic Jamaican women writers.
Enjoyed this episode - why not send a small donation to support with the running costs! Thank you! - https://ko-fi.com/liambishop
2021-05-1441 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersSamatar Elmi and A Portrait of Colossus"I knew from the age of 13, 14, I needed to write poetry, I just didn't fully understand why."
It's part two of our Flipped Eye 20th birthday special, and I'm joined by Samatar Elmi talking about his debut collection, Portrait of Colossus.
Thank you Katherine and Samatar for joining me. Two exciting, upcoming poets.
Buy Portrait of Colossus here.
Enjoyed this episode - why not send a small donation to support with the running costs! Thank you! - https://ko-fi.com/liambishop
Rippling Points:
The power of the poe...2021-04-3037 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersKatherine Lockton on Paper Doll - Flipped Eye Anniversary Part 1'[Poetry] is the beginning to accepting, the beginning to processing emotion.'
It's a Flipped Eye anniversary special as I'm joined buy two of their poets. First up - Katherine Lockton talking about Paper Doll.
Enjoyed this episode - why not send a small donation to support with the running costs! Thank you! - https://ko-fi.com/liambishop
Buy Paper Doll here
Rippling Points:
Like a Rubix cube: life and poetry
Notes from a childhood in Bolivia.
Reference Points
T.S Eliot
Follow Liam o...2021-04-1631 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersHow to Get in Touch with the Rippling Pages Podcast2021-04-0100 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersNeil Griffiths on TRAUMA: Writing About Art and Mental Health"I was wrestling with what certain states of being feel like as negatives."
Novelist and publisher, Neil Griffiths, joined me to discuss his essay, 'Madness as Such', which is featured
in Trauma: Writing About Art and Mental Health (Dodo Ink).
Neil talks candidly about his essay which reflects on his experiences of depression. Indeed, if you are affected by any
of the themes discussed in today's episode, I've reserved this episode's Rippling Points for a couple of links to charities.
The Samaritans
Mind
Reference Points:
B...2021-03-3140 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersOlja Knežević and Catherine the Great and the Small'Where there is conflict, there is always a path to literature...Freedom is an important topic for me.'
What a pleasure to talk to the Montenegrin writer, Olja Knežević about her trans-generational novel, Catherine the Great and the Small (Istros Books). The novel is translated by Paula Gordon and Ellen Elias-Bursać
Enjoyed this episode - why not send a small donation to support with the running costs! Thank you! - https://ko-fi.com/liambishop
Rippling Points:
Lessons from writing in and about a civil war
Why don't we write about gran...2021-03-1937 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersJen Calleja on Time and Goblins'I want the story the story to be as disorientating for the reader as it is for me...I'm not trying to offer an answer or a safe and complete world...'
The incredibly talented Jen Calleja joins the RP Pod to talk about her short story collection, I'm Afraid That's All We've Got Time For (Prototype Publishing), and Goblins (Rough Trade Books), a personal exploration of 'goblinery.'
Enjoyed this episode - why not send a small donation to support with the running costs! Thank you! - https://ko-fi.com/liambishop
Rip...2021-03-0541 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersKatharina Volckmer and The Appointment'It felt liberating to find that voice and put it on paper...Some restrictions can be creative.'
Hello! Katharina Volckmer talks about her debut novel, The Appointment (Fitzcarraldo Editions), a TLS 'Book of the Year 2020', and one critics have called 'a darkly funny untangling of national and sexual identity' (The Guardian).
And what a great way to kick off our 'Finding Room' series with a novel set entirely in one room...
Enjoyed this episode - why not send a small donation to support with the running costs! Thank you! - https...2021-02-1936 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersKatherine Horrex and the Growlery‘I do believe that we’re all travellers of a fashion. For the poetic process I personally need a sense of freedom in order to write, and I like to feel free.’
These are some Rippling Pages Pilot episodes published in Summer 2020
Katherine Horrex talks about her debut collection of poetry, GROWLERY (Carcanet).
Rippling Points:
How 'Growlery', a term from another era, can come to represent the space you write in.
The challenges of writing or not writing about big contemporary topics like Brexit.
Buy GROWLERY here.
Referen...2021-02-1634 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersGaia Holmes and 'RESIST' 'I did feel like I wasn't living my own life. I was in the world of Newbury and trees.'
These are some Rippling Pages Pilot episodes published in Summer 2020.
Gaia Holmes talks about her story, '198 Methods of NVDA', which features in Comma Press's Resist Anthology.
Rippling Points:
Researching the environment to create your story's environment.
'Thisness' and how some elements of the story might refuse to be resolved.
Buy RESIST: STORIES OF UPRISING from Comma Press here.
Reference Points
Books
9 Miles b...2021-02-1635 minRippling Pages: Interviews with WritersThomas Chadwick and 'Above the Fat'‘Things don’t always turn out how you intended them to, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.’
These are some Rippling Pages Pilot episodes published in Summer 2020.
Thomas Chadwick on his short story collection ABOVE THE FAT (Splice).
Rippling Points:
Using the ‘byproducts’ of our lives and writing in writing
How a concept like 'haunting' can be a less than spooky idea
Buy ABOVE THE FAT here.
Reference Points
Books
Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures by Mark Fish...2021-02-1634 min