Rippling Pages: Interviews with Writers

Available Episodes

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Uttama Kirit Patel on Letters, Motherhood, and Mother-in-Laws
“I found myself writing an apology letter…and I didn’t know what I was apologising for.” In Uttama Kirit Patel’s novel, The Shape of an Apostrophe (Serpent’s Tail), Lina is pregnant, and she’s finding that this seemingly salubrious society is not congenial and accommodating to the difficult challenges of an unplanned pregnancy. Uttama, born to Gujarati parents who then since found their way to the United Arab Emirates via Kampala, Surat, Pondicherry and Colchester. Her short fiction was nominated for the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for emerging writers. Remember, if you buy from Rippling Pages Bookshop on bookshop.org.uk are all sourced from indie bookshops! https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/ripplingpagespod Support the Rippling Pages on a new Patreon https://patreon.com/RipplingPagesPod?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink Interested in hosting your own podcast? Follow this link and find out how: https://www.podbean.com/ripplingpages Reference Points Helen Phillips - The Need Rippling Points .30 - Uttama's life living around the world. 2.47 - An unexpected pregnancy 3.45 - Limited reproductive rights and setting the novel in Dubai 5.47 - writing a novel about someone who doesn't want children 6.30 - Uttama writing an apology letter to herself 7.59 - On desire 11.17 - Lina's relationship with her parents 12.57 - Does Lina have a support network? 14.03 - Lina's husband and her mother-in-law 16.44 - Is Lina's mother-in-law a feminist? 22.27 - Uttama's interest in sea-life. 24.10 - Lina's feeling of loss 26.41 - Lines, traces and artistry of Lina in the novel. 32.45 - Uttama's writing journey
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Ask the Bookshop- Bonus! On Leeds, Community and Safe Spaces
“When I set out to plan the business, I wrote ten words - the world I always kept coming to was community.” The Rippling Pages is all about curating the best writers to inspire you and your writing - today, we’re speaking to another curator. Eden Barnes is the owner of Next Chapter Books, an indie women-focussed bookshop in Leeds, and I had a quick chat with her in store. There’s lots going on this week in Leeds. Leeds Lit Fest is starting, and it’s Indie Bookshop Week. Here someone who is at the centre of it. Eden tells us: The personal journey to opening a bookshop in Leeds Why she focusses women’s writing Balancing commercial and personal interests Creating a safe space and sense of community for readers What she’s got planned for next week and the rest of the year. Remember, if you buy from Rippling Pages Bookshop on bookshop.org.uk are all sourced from indie bookshops! https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/ripplingpagespod Support the Rippling Pages on a new Patreon https://patreon.com/RipplingPagesPod?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink Check out Next Chapter Books website: https://www.nextchapterleeds.co.uk/ Tickets for Leeds Lit Fest Events: https://www.leedslitfest.co.uk/ Interested in hosting your own podcast? Follow this link and find out how: https://www.podbean.com/ripplingpages
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Roisin Dunnett on Time Travel, Protest, and Littering
"It is also difficult to imbue the people and the movements of the past with the complexities we offer ourselves." If you were to meet a time traveller from the future, what would you ask them? This is the question Roisin Dunnett asks in her novel, A LINE YOU HAVE TRACED (Magpie Books/Oneworld Publications). Spanning over three centuries, three women are connected by forces they, at first, don’t understand. From post-WWI Britain, to East End London’s modern queer scene, to a portentous dystopian future, Roisin’s novel is coded with messages between the past, present and future. It's published by Magpie Books, an imprint of Oneworld. You can buy A LINE YOU HAVE TRACED from the Rippling Pages bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/ripplingpagespod Support the Rippling Pages on a new Patreon https://patreon.com/RipplingPagesPod?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink Interested in hosting your own podcast? Follow this link and find out how: https://www.podbean.com/ripplingpages Rippling Points 2.01 - the past, present and future. 3.55 - is there a past event that influenced this novel? 6.45 - Narratives of women 10.16 - which character did Roisin write first? 11.33 - Why do characters feel out of time 13.02 - Visions and dreams in Roisin's novel 19.24 - what would we do if we could actually see the future? 24.30 - The marshes in Roisin's novel. 29.24 - Does your dad pick up litter? 30.59 - Roisin's writing journey Reference Points Charles Dickens
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Rippling Pages Live with Katharina Volckmer Part 2 - On Clowns, Mothers and Part Time Jobs
“They got fired for that!” Katharina Volckmer is here to discuss her second novel, Calls May Be Recorded for Training and Monitoring Purposes (Indigo Press) and it was live at the Hyde Park Book Club! Thank you to the Hyde Park Book Club for hosting us and Next Chapter Books for supporting the event. This is the second part of our conversation. Katharina’s first novel, THE APPOINTMENT, was translated into over fifteen languages, it was adapted for the stage starring Camille Cottin and was nominated for several prizes. Katharina is in ribald mode in this funny, outlandish, and yet, very melancholic novel about a man called Jimmie who works in a call centre. Jimmie helps holiday makers. He placates their fears about sharks in the waters of Mykonos, Greece, among many other strange and wonderful challenges. He also manages a complicated relationship with his mother and has a traumatic memory of an electric carving knife that threatens to burst to the surface. The Irish writer, Colm Tóibín, said the book is ‘filled with brilliant dialogue, unexpected turns, some very dirty talk with sudden bursts of hilarity, and then fierce sadness.’ A special treat here - Leeds based poet Kirsty Went gave a reading for, some of her work to open the event. We’ve re-recorded for the purposes of the podcast. You can buy CALLS MAY BE RECORDED FOR TRAINING AND MONITORING PURPOSES from the Rippling Pages bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/ripplingpagespod Interested in hosting your own podcast? Follow this link and find out how: https://www.podbean.com/ripplingpages Where to find Next Chapter Books: https://www.nextchapterleeds.co.uk/ Rippling Points 1.35 - writing about mothers and fathers 5.03 - clowns 9.45 - on jokes and fantasies 11.23 - Kirsty Went reading 14.19 - questions from the audience - where does the relentless comic vulgarity come from? 20.10 - question from the audience - does this book fit into the wonderfully weird fiction category? Can we have more daring takes in fiction? 23.35- question from the audience - did Katharina know the book would end in this subversive way? Reference points Thomas Bernhard
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Rippling Pages Live with Katharina Volckmer - Part 1 - on Call Centres, Intimacy and Toilet Humour
Katharina Volckmer is here to discuss her second novel, Calls May Be Recorded for Training and Monitoring Purposes (Indigo Press) and it was live at the Hyde Park Book Club! Thank you to the Hyde Park Book Club for hosting us and Next Chapter Books for supporting the event. Katharina’s first novel, THE APPOINTMENT, was translated into over fifteen languages, it was adapted for the stage starring Camille Cottin and was nominated for several prizes. Katharina is in ribald mode in this funny, outlandish, and yet, very melancholic novel about a man called Jimmie who works in a call centre. Jimmie helps holiday makers. He placates their fears about sharks in the waters of Mykonos, Greece, among many other strange and wonderful challenges. He also manages a complicated relationship with his mother and has a traumatic memory of an electric carving knife that threatens to burst to the surface. The Irish writer, Colm Tóibín, said the book is ‘filled with brilliant dialogue, unexpected turns, some very dirty talk with sudden bursts of hilarity, and then fierce sadness.’ You can buy CALLS MAY BE RECORDED FOR TRAINING AND MONITORING PURPOSES from the Rippling Pages bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/ripplingpagespod Buying from this link supports the podcast (I receive a 10% commission) and indie bookshops! Interested in hosting your own podcast? Follow this link and find out how: https://www.podbean.com/ripplingpages Where to find Next Chapter Books: https://www.nextchapterleeds.co.uk/ Rippling Points 05.07 - Katharina's tour of Leeds. 05.49 - What's Katharina's novel about? 08.11 - Jimmie's need for the toilet in the opening scenes! 10.28 - A reading from the novel. 14.07 - Life in a call centre. 16.42 - Experience of moving abroad 19.03 - Why people overshare 20.33 - Differences between this novel and Katharina's previous novel 24.14 - Intimacy and speaking to strangers 26.14 - The other side of anonymity 28.25 - Kafka Reference Points Franz Kafka The Appointment - Katharina Volckmer
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29:57