How can we find light in the dark? Oceanographer, marine biologist and author of Below the Edge of Darkness , Edie Widder’s life has been as fascinating as the animals she studies, and she speaks with irresistible wonderment about watching them communicate with bioluminescence in the depths of the sea. Join her conversation with Lucy Scholes on squirting squids, being the only woman on the ship and overcoming sexism in science with the example of her extraordinary mother. Hosted on Acast. See ac...
Aug 20, 2021•42 min•Season 4Ep. 2
Is writing a muscle? Kamila Shamsie, prize winning novelist, fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Granta Best of Young British author, talks to Lucy Scholes about her great-aunt, Attia Hosain, whose books are newly reissued with her introductions on the Virago Modern Classics list, and how she once took her aside to say, ‘Never stop writing’. In their conversation, they traverse the psychological journey of refugees, remember how reading Woolf for the first time felt like coming up for ...
Aug 06, 2021•48 min•Season 4Ep. 1
Can solitude be a source of inspiration? In this bonus episode, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Marilynne Robinson talks to Lucy Scholes about her latest novel, Jack and its place in the Gilead quartet. Exploring the idea of solitude, Marilynne speaks with characteristic insight about living with her characters as she writes and the absence they leave behind. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jun 14, 2021•50 min•Season 3Ep. 10
Who is your feminism for? Austin Channing Brown was named by parents who deliberately wanted people to presume their daughter was a white man when applying for jobs. Now a speaker and writer working for Racial Justice in the US and the author of I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness , she explains how her hopefulness is not rooted in white people but in the work. With candour, insight and a lot of laughter, she tells Lucy why her recent bestseller’s royalty check only reinf...
May 21, 2021•50 min•Season 3Ep. 8
What can we learn from African women’s movements? If you knew about the women who fought a freedom war in 1914 Nigeria, would it alter your view of feminist history? Chibundu Onuzo, award-winning author and performer, talks to Lucy Scholes about her new novel Sankofa . Join a conversation of riotous laughs and deep thinking as Chibundu tells Lucy about the economics of cheating, Ugandan Mwenkanokano and why the Nigerian Elena Ferrante is her favourite book. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy...
May 07, 2021•43 min•Season 3Ep. 8
Would you become a surrogate mother? Publishing her first novel over the age of fifty, Susan Spindler writes brilliantly about post-menopausal life in her thriller Surrogate . Join her and Lucy Scholes as they discuss why older women are forced to emulate fertility or risk being called a ‘hag’ and to hear them talk about mothers in recent literature – from joyful physical intimacy to inherited trauma and the curious cases of women addicted to pregnancy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for...
Apr 23, 2021•43 min•Season 3Ep. 7
How can you create your own world when this one doesn’t serve you? Join as we radically restructure myths, stories and genres – from the American West to fairy tales and nineties pop icons. C. Pam Zhang is author of How Much of These Hills is Gold , longlisted for the Man Booker and Rathbones Folio Prizes and one of Barack Obama’s books of the year. She talks to Lucy Scholes about defiantly imagining herself into erased histories of Asian Americans, sexy feminists and how eavesdropping inspires ...
Apr 08, 2021•33 min•Season 3Ep. 6
Join Lucy Scholes as she has a frank, funny and fascinating talk with Amanda Coe, author of three novels, and BAFTA award winning scriptwriter of Black Narcissus – for which she also wrote the introduction to the new Virago Modern Classics edition. Amanda talks about adapting novels for screen (like fancying someone on the first date) and explores the feminist texts that changed her life, from the profundity of The Golden Notebook (like making you wear a sanitary pad for 600 pages) to the levity...
Mar 26, 2021•53 min•Season 3Ep. 5
How can reading rewire your brain? After a childhood spent calling Henry James her ‘dude’ and Evelyn Waugh her ‘friend’ R. O. Kwon, author of The Incendiaries , talks to Lucy Scholes about how determinedly reading more people of colour and queer voices helps reconfigure her internal world to match her external world – where straight is not the default. Join her conversation with Lucy Scholes as they break down the myth of the selfish male artist and figure out how to talk about her latest book K...
Mar 12, 2021•35 min•Season 3Ep. 4
How can you be a strong woman in a world that’s not built for you? Justine Cowan is an attorney used to fighting environmental cases against huge corporations but writing about her mother’s childhood in her first book, The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames led her to uncover a very different injustice. She joins Lucy Scholes to talk about finding mother figures in chosen families, rewriting history from new perspectives and how, as a female lawyer in the American South, she overcame barriers by taki...
Feb 26, 2021•31 min•Season 3Ep. 3
How can we write a life unexpected? Author of seventeen novels, fourteen plays, theatre-maker, co-director of Fun Palaces and Stonewall writer of the year Stella Duffy OBE is an inspiration of hard-won wisdom and appetite for learning new things. She joins Lucy Scholes for a conversation about living without children in a pro-natalist society, how existentialism and yoga inform her writing and the time she met Patricia Highsmith - as well as why Bridgerton is brilliant. Hosted on Acast. See acas...
Feb 12, 2021•42 min•Season 3Ep. 2
What do monsters do for us? Join Lucy Scholes for a powerful conversation with Riva Lehrer, artist, activist and author of Golem Girl , her beautifully illustrated memoir about living with disability. From the history of freak shows to the power – and limits - of politicisation, they confront the way monsters violate boundaries and give us permission to live differently. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jan 29, 2021•51 min•Season 3Ep. 1
In this special bonus episode of OurShelves Virago Publisher Sarah Savitt, turns the tables on our host, Lucy Scholes, for a chat about her personal highlights from season one and her most anticipated up-coming Virago publications. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Dec 23, 2020•25 min•Season 2Ep. 11
How do you balance motherhood and creativity? In this episode of OurShelves Lucy Scholes interviews Daisy Johnson, Booker Prize-shortlisted author of Fen , Everything Under and Sisters , on rewriting the haunted house, why women are expected to use personal lives in fiction, and how books on motherhood are creating a feminist conversation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Nov 27, 2020•54 min•Season 2Ep. 10
How do you overcome criticism? In this episode of OurShelves Lucy Scholes interviews Sigrid Nunez, author of The Friend and What Are You Going Through. Lucy and Sigrid discuss the music of Odetta, the comfort of creatures, and Sigrid's friendship with Elizabeth Hardwick. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Nov 16, 2020•1 hr 23 min•Season 2Ep. 9
Whose narrative do you believe? In this episode of OurShelves Lucy Scholes interviews Melatu Uche Okorie, author of This Hostel Life. Lucy and Melatu discuss Milkman by Anna Burns, Rosa Parks and the importance of challenging the narrative. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Oct 30, 2020•55 min•Season 2Ep. 8
Do you have the courage to try again? In this episode of OurShelves Lucy Scholes chats to Irenosen Okojie, author of Butterfly Fish ; Speak Gigantular , Nudibranch and contributor to the short story collection Hag , about the wonder and power of short stories, finding joy in activism and literary legend Toni Morrison. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Oct 16, 2020•54 min•Season 2Ep. 7
What is the first book you saw yourself reflected in? In this episode Lucy and Liv discuss short storytelling, bingeing I May Destroy You and creating spaces where people can hold truth to power. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Oct 01, 2020•39 min•Season 2Ep. 6
How can we reconsider failure? In this episode of OurShelves Lucy Scholes interviews Linda Grant, a multi-award-winning author whose latest novel, A Stranger City, is out now in paperback. In this episode Lucy and Linda discuss Barbara Pym, Mrs. America and the importance of recalling our failures as well as our successes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Sep 17, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Season 2Ep. 5
Does nostalgia change the way you feel about the past? In this episode of OurShelves Lucy Scholes interviews Margaret Atwood, two-time winner of the Man Booker Prize and author of more than forty works, including fiction, poetry and critical essays. From the medieval inspiration for Game of Thrones to editing out mosquitos from your memories, this episode is a goldmine of facts, guilty pleasures and a little bit on the joy of Hercule Poirot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more inform...
Sep 04, 2020•49 min•Season 2Ep. 4
What does friendship mean to you? In this episode of OurShelves Lucy Scholes interviews Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman, creators of the hit podcast; Call Your Girlfriend . In this episode Lucy, Ann and Aminatou talk about fighting for a radically different future, the comfort of being read to and the sex scenes in Normal People. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Aug 20, 2020•1 hr 8 min•Season 2Ep. 3
In this episode of OurShelves Lucy Scholes interviews Deborah Frances-White, stand-up comedian, creator of the hit podcast and book of the same name, The Guilty Feminist, and an official ambassador of Amnesty International. From George the Poet to Mae Martin, join us for a conversation about being open to criticism, privilege, challenging your own beliefs and finding where you belong. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Aug 07, 2020•1 hr 5 min•Season 2Ep. 2
How much courage does it take to write? In this episode of OurShelves Lucy Scholes interviews Lennie Goodings, Chair of Virago Press and author of A Bite of the Apple . We dive into stories about Maya Angelou and Rosamond Lehmann, the origins of Virago Press in the seventies, the narratives that shape our lives and the authors who continue to inspire Lennie's work and personal life. Join us for a conversation about courageous women, beautiful prose and the nature of storytelling. Books discussed...
Jul 24, 2020•43 min•Season 2Ep. 1
Join us as we celebrate LGBTQ+ History Month! This month Virago editor, Rose Tomaszewska, is joined by Eleanor Crewes, author of The Times I Knew I Was Gay. Tune in for a wonderful discussion around their favourite books by queer authors or that deal with queer themes, including Daphne du Maurier, Shirley Jackson, Sarah Waters and more... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Feb 17, 2020•22 min•Season 1Ep. 22
Ahead of our second Virago Speakeasy, we are delighted to share a live recording of our inaugural Speakeasy event at Pages Cheshire Street: On Witches . At this event Virago editor Rose Tomaszewska chatted to Shahrukh Husain, author of The Virago Book of Witches, and Imogen Hermes Gowar, author of The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock about the transgressive place of witches in literature, society, history and contemporary politics . Listen to the end for a chilling reading from The Ghost Stories of Edit...
Jan 20, 2020•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 21
In this episode of the Virago podcast editor Ailah Ahmed talks to Lennie Goodings about her book A Bite of the Apple - part memoir, part history of Virago Press and part thoughts on more than forty years of feminist publishing. Tune-in for Lennie Goodings, stay for the stories about Maya Angelou, Margaret Atwood and a life in publishing. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jan 05, 2020•31 min•Season 1Ep. 23
Get inspired for 2020 with some reading recommendations from the Virago team. A few members of the Virago team got together to discuss our reading recommendations and resolutions for the new decade! With titles like Big Friendship, The Street and How Much of These Hills is Gold, among others, our TBR stacks are growing ever taller. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Dec 16, 2019•22 min•Season 1Ep. 20
In honour of Equal Pay Day 2019, we welcome Carrie Gracie to the podcast. In this episode Carrie discusses her experience fighting for equal pay and her book, Equal, with Chair of Virago Press, Lennie Goodings. In January 2018, Gracie left her post as the BBC's China editor, following a career at the BBC that spanned more than three decades, in protest at unequal pay, publishing an open letter to BBC audiences and giving evidence before a parliamentary committee. Six months later, she won an apo...
Nov 09, 2019•29 min•Season 1Ep. 19
Take a ride atop the Number 12 bus with national treasure, Sandi Toksvig. In this episode Chair of Virago Press Lennie Goodings chats with the one and only Sandi Toksvig about her long-awaited memoir, Between the Stops: The View of My Life from the Top of the Number 12 Bus . Well known for her television and radio work as a broadcaster, writer, activist and comic on stage, screen and radio, Sandi Toksvig also writes for theatre and television: her film The Man starred Stephen Fry and Zoe Wanamak...
Oct 10, 2019•32 min•Season 2Ep. 18
In this episode Julia Bueno and Sarah Savitt discuss miscarriage, women's health and Julia's book The Brink of Being: Talking about Miscarriage . A captivating mixture of memoir, stories from the consulting room, history and science, The Brink of Being is a much-needed, comprehensive look at the common yet still taboo experience of miscarriage. 'A much needed book on this difficult and often unspoken loss, that of early pregnancy ... both illuminating and consoling.' Julia Samuel, author of Grie...
Sep 05, 2019•30 min•Season 1Ep. 17
