The Shakespeare and Company Interview
Arts:Books
In early February, we hosted a riotous, tender, enchanting and uplifting evening of poetry and prose with the irrepressible Hollie McNish and Michael Pedersen. After their readings they sat down with Adam Biles for a chat about friendship, a theme that unites their work.
Buy Hollie McNish’s Lobster here: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/lobster
Buy Michael Pedersen’s Boy Friends here: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/boy-friends-2
*
Hollie McNish is a poet, author and lover based between Glasgow and Cambridge. She won the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry for her poetic parenting memoir – Nobody Told Me – of which The Scotsman stated ‘the world needs this book’. She has published four further lovely collections of poetry –Papers, Cherry Pie, Plum, and Slug, which was a Sunday Times bestseller, and was published in French by Le Castor Astral under the title Je souhaite seulement que tu fasses quelque chose de toi. Her new book, Lobster and other things I'm learning to love, is out now and according to her dad is 'her best work yet'. She loves writing.
Michael Pedersen is a prize-winning Scottish poet and author, and the Writer in Residence at The University of Edinburgh. His prose debut, Boy Friends, was published by Faber & Faber in 2022 to rave reviews and was a Sunday Times Critics Choice. He’s unfurled three collections of poetry, the most recent being The Cat Prince & Other Poems—which won the Books Are My Bag Readers Award for Best Poetry 2023. Pedersen has been shortlisted for the Forward Prizes for Poetry and The Saltire National Book Awards, and won a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship. His work has attracted praise from the likes of: Stephen Fry, Irvine Welsh, Kae Tempest, Jackie Kay, Sara Pascoe, Nicola Sturgeon & many more.
Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. His latest novel, Beasts of England, a sequel of sorts to Animal Farm, is available now. Buy a signed copy here: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/beasts-of-england
Listen to Alex Freiman’s latest EP, In The Beginning: https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3w
Get bonus content on PatreonHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
🗺️On Sarajevo, Multiple Worlds and History at the Fringes, with Aleksandar Hemon🗺️
❤️🔥Valentine’s Special: Meena Kandasamy on The Book of Desire❤️🔥
On Parents, Grief and the difference between Fiction and Memoir, with Elizabeth McCracken
🎸Music, Sugar and other Obsessions, with Don Paterson🎸
📚Books of the Year📚
👩🎨Katy Hessel on The Story of Art Without Men👩🎨
📘BLOOMCAST | HOLIDAY SPECIAL📘
🔥Sarah Churchwell on Gone with the Wind, January 6th, and the Lies America Tells🔥
🔔Hunchback of Notre-Dame Special! 🔔
🐋How to Speak to Whales (and other animals…) with Tom Mustill🐋
💋On Love, Loss and Life in New York, with Coco Mellors💋
On Writing the Queer, Indigenous Experience with Billy-Ray Belcourt
🍫Jonathan Coe on Bournville🍫
🍄Psychedelic Storytelling, DIY Magick, and the New Masculinity, with David Keenan🍄
🥊 Miriam Toews on Sweary Matriarchs, the Absurdity of Life, and the Human Imperative to Experience Joy🥊
🎤 Sunday Poetry: Mark Polizzotti reads his new translations of Arthur Rimbaud🎤
🎈William Boyd, The Romantic🎈
🏅BONUS: Annie Ernaux, Nobel Prize in Literature🏅
🐴💰On Friendship and Redemption in the time of the Gold Rush, with Paddy Crewe💰🐴
👭🏽On Friendship, Politics and when the Two Collide, with Kamila Shamsie👭🏽
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Lit Society: Books and Drama
Ex Libris
Write The Book: Conversations on Craft
Grimms’ Fairy Tales
Anne of Green Gables
Fresh Air
Myths and Legends