Little Atoms

James Shapiro, who teaches English at Columbia University in New York, is author of several books, including 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare (winner of the BBC4 Samuel Johnson Prize in 2006 and the Baillie Gifford 'Winner of Winners' in 2023), as well as Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?  On this episode of Little Atoms he talks to Neil Denny about The Playbook: A Story of Theatre, Democracy and the Making of a Culture War. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Clare Beams is the author of the novel The Illness Lesson, which was shortlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize,and the story collection We Show What We Have Learned, which won the Bard Fiction Prize and was a Kirkus Best Debut of 2016. She was a finalist for the 2023 Joyce Carol Oates Prize. On this episode of Little Atoms she talks to Neil Denny about her latest novel The Garden. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ralf Webb is the author of Rotten Days in Late Summer, which was shortlisted for the Forward Prize. His poems, essays, and short fiction have appeared in Fantastic Man, Granta, the Guardian and the London Review of Books. He tutors in creative writing at Goldsmiths, University of London. On this episode of Little Atoms he talks to Neil Denny abouth his first nonfiction book Strange Relations: Masculinity, Sexuality and Art in Mid-Century America. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hanna Pylväinen is the author of the novel We Sinners, which received a Whiting Award and a Balcones Fiction Prize. To research The End of Drum-Time, her second novel, which she talks to Neil Denny about on this episode of Little Atoms, she spent six months with Sámi reindeer herders in Finland.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Adam Higginbotham is a British writer whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Wired, GQ and Smithsonian. He is the author of Midnight In Chernobyl, and in today's episode of Little Atoms, he talks to Neil Denny about his latest book Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rebecca Watson is an Assistant Arts Editor at the Financial Times and one of the Observer's ten best debut novelists of 2021. She has been published in the TLS, Granta and the Guardian. In 2018, she was shortlisted for The White Review Short Story Prize, and in 2021, she was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize and the Desmond Elliott Prize. She is the author of the novel Little Scratch, and on this episode of Little Atoms she talks to Neil Denny about her latest novel I Will Crash. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Alan Murrin is an Irish writer based in Berlin. His short story, "The Wake," won the 2021 Bournemouth Writing Prize and was shortlisted for short story of the year at the Irish Book Awards. His debut novel The Coast Road which he discussed with Neil Denny in this episode of Little Atoms was shortlisted for the PFD Queer Fiction prize. Murrin is also the recipient of an Irish Arts Council Agility Award and an Arts Council Literature Bursary. He is a graduate of the prose fiction masters at the University of East Anglia, and writes for the Irish Times and the Times Literary Supplement, as well as Art Review and e-flux. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Yael van der Wouden is a writer and teacher. She currently lectures in creative writing and comparative literature in the Netherlands. Her essay on Dutch identity and Jewishness, "On (Not) Reading Anne Frank", has received a notable mention in The Best American Essays 2018. On this episode of Little Atoms she talks to Neil Denny about her debut novel The Safekeep. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jon Savage is the author of England's Dreaming: Sex Pistols and Punk Rock and Teenage: The Creation of Youth, 1875-1945. On this episode of Little Atoms he talks to Neil Denny about his latest book The Secret Public: How LGBTQ Performers Shaped Popular Culture (1955–1979). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 was longlisted for the Deborah Rogers Award 2018, and won the White Review Short Story Prize 2018 and a Pushcart Prize in 2020. 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, was shortlisted for the Foyles Fiction Book of the Year Award 2022 and won the Polari Prize 2023. On today's show she talks to Neil Denny about her latest novel Private Rites. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.