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Unsound Methods

Unsound Methods

Written by: Unsound Methods
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A literary fiction podcast hosted by authors Jaimie Batchan and Lochlan Bloom.

We talk to fellow writers of literary fiction about process, what makes fiction 'real' and the motivation to sit down in front of an empty page and make things up...

 Art Philosophy Social Sciences
Episodes
  • 66: Sarah Bernstein

    66: Sarah Bernstein
    Dec 11 2024
    In this episode we caught up with Canadian writer Sarah Bernstein (featuring occasional contributions from her then newborn child). Sarah is the author of the novels 'the Coming Bad Days' (2021) and 'Study for Obedience' (2023) and the poetry collection 'Now Comes the Lightening' (2015).

    Recorded back at the beginning of 2024, our chat covers, amongst other things, the relative importance of voice over story in Sarah’s writing, the overlap between academic writing and fiction, including references in fictional work, taking notes while reading (and the stress this can add to reading a book you’ve been looking forward to), reading the audiobook version of something you’ve written...

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    We are on Bluesky: @unsoundmethodspod.bsky.social - @jaimiebatchan.bsky.social

    Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan

    Or at jaimiebatchan.com and lochlanbloom.com

    We have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethods

    Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/

    We are (technically) on Twitter (but not really anymore): @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloom
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    47 mins
  • 65: Ron Butlin

    65: Ron Butlin
    Nov 6 2024
    This month we are speaking with international prize-winning novelist and former Edinburgh Makar / Poet Laureate (2008-2014), Ron Butlin.

    In 2009 he was made the first-ever Honorary Writing Fellow (together with Ian Rankin) at Edinburgh University. Much of his work — novels, short stories and poetry — has been widely broadcast and translated. In addition to his plays for BBC radio and theatre, he has written seven opera libretti, three of them for Scottish Opera. He also writes for children.

    Ron has given countless readings worldwide — from a one-roomed Shetland primary school to an Arab tent in the desert (most wonderfully accompanied by a Bahraini oudplayer), from the Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh to the House of Lords in London, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and to a waterfront festival in Sydney.

    Personal Bio:
    I was brought up in a small Borders village, quit school at sixteen and hitchhiked down to London. A brief period of life on the streets, (see my recent novel So Many Lives and All of Them Are Yours, 2023) came to an end when I secured the positions of valet-footman (see Billionaires’ Banquet, 2017), then barnacle scraper on Thames barges, labourer, barman, computer operator and city messenger. Becoming an associate member of a short-lived pop group started me writing song lyrics. My longest-ever job, as a model for art students, allowed me to sit (usually more or less naked) and do nothing for hours, leaving my imagination completely free. My earliest published poems date from this period.

    Later, while living in Paris, in the hills above Barcelona and a commune in the Australian outback (see Belonging, 2006), I began writing fiction. My first novel, The Sound of My Voice won the Prix Mille Pages 2004 and Prix Lucioles 2005 (both for Best Foreign Novel).

    For the last thirty years, my marriage to the writer and poet Regi Claire has brought stability to my life — and about time too! We live in Edinburgh (the setting for GhostMoon, nominated for the International Impac Dublin Literary Award 2016). I love the music and magic of words and am as excited now to begin writing every morning as when I first started. I also teach a course in Music Appreciation at the University of Edinburgh.

    Currently I am working on The Diary I Didn't Keep. This novel-in-progress is being serialised in fortnightly instalments on Substack as I write it. This new and rather alarming venture certainly keeps me on my toes. The novel is loosely autobiographical and the first instalment was released only recently, on 12 October. Here it is:

    The Diary I Didn't Keep

    ronbutlin.substack.com

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    Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloom

    Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan

    Or at jaimiebatchan.com and lochlanbloom.com

    We have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethods

    Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/
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    51 mins
  • 64: Amina Cain

    64: Amina Cain
    Jun 26 2024
    This month's episode features our chat with novelist and short story writer Amina Cain, the author of the novel Indelicacy, a New York Times Editors’ Choice and finalist for the Rathbones Folio Prize and the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, published in 2020 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, and two collections of short stories, Creature and I Go To Some Hollow. Her latest book, A Horse at Night: On Writing, came out in October of 2022 with Dorothy, a publishing project in the US and Daunt Books in the UK. In 2021, she was longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize. Her writing has appeared in Granta, The Paris Review Daily, BOMB, LA Times, Tate Etc. and other places.

    Amina has also co-curated literary events, such as When Does It or You Begin?, a month long festival of writing, performance, and video at Links Hall in Chicago; Both Sides and The Center, a summer festival of readings and performances enacting various levels of proximity, intimacy, and distance at the MAK Center/Schindler House in West Hollywood; and the Errata Salon, a talk/lecture series at Betalevel in LA’s Chinatown.

    Joining us towards the end of last year, Amina talked to us about writing in between teaching, using reading and looking at paintings/images to open things up, pushing through a false starts, and why she will always return to Marguerite Duras.

    You can find out more about Amina and her writing here: https://aminacain.com/
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    Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloom

    Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan

    Or at jaimiebatchan.com and lochlanbloom.com

    We have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethods

    Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/
    Show More Show Less
    50 mins
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