In this episode of The Writing Life, prize-winning poet and writer Michael Pedersen shares his experience writing between genres, and how pushing the boundaries of literary categories can enhance your writing.

Michael Pedersen is a prize-winning poet and author of the memoir Boy Friends, which was a Sunday Times Critics Choice and shortlisted for the Saltire Scottish National Book Awards. He was awarded a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship and is the current Writer in Residence at the University of Edinburgh, and Edinburgh’s Makar (Poet Laureate). Muckle Flugga is his debut novel.

He sits down with NCW Chief Executive Peggy Hughes to discuss Muckle Flugga, a lyrical, windswept novel of a lighthouse keeper and his son, whose lives are turned upside down by a stranger’s arrival. Together, they discuss the beauty of fusing elements from different genres in one work of writing, his decision to heighten the fantastical elements of a real-world setting in his fiction, and the importance of being excited about what you are writing.

In this episode of The Writing Life, prize-winning writer Julia Armfield shares insights on world building in horror fiction, and writing catastrophic and intense circumstances.

Julia Armfield's work has been published in Granta, The White Review and Best British Short Stories 2019 and 2021. In 2019, she was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year award. She is the author of salt slow, a collection of short stories, which was longlisted for the Polari Prize 2020 and the Edge Hill Prize 2020. Her debut novel, Our Wives Under The Sea, won the Polari Prize 2023 and was shortlisted for the Foyles Fiction Book of the Year Award 2022. She lives and works in London.

She sits down with NCW’s Steph McKenna to discuss her second novel Private Rites, a stunning, unsettling novel following three sisters navigating queer love and faith at the end of the world. Together, they discuss her use of imagery in her fiction, the influence of horror cinema on her writing, and how she maintains a blanketing sense of dread throughout her novels.

In this episode of The Writing Life, writers Eleanor Anstruther and Simon K Jones discuss the world of Substack, and how they use the platform to publish and share their work.

Eleanor Anstruther is the author of A Perfect Explanation, and A Memoir In 65 Postcards & The Recovery Diaries. Her new novel, In Judgement of Others, is out now. You can find her on Substack at The Literary Obsessive.

Long time listeners of The Writing Life will remember Simon K Jones, as he used to host and produce the podcast when he worked with us at NCW. He writes science fiction and fantasy, much of it released in serialised form online. You can find him on Substack at Write More with Simon K Jones.

They sit down to discuss Eleanor’s latest witty satirical novel In Judgement of Others, which she released both in serialised form online and in paperback. They also take a deep dive into the benefits of Substack as a means to connect with a community of writers, and how the platform can be used to share work, live stream, and build a readership.