Podcast: Ep139: Literary Friction - The Lives of Others with Kathryn Scanlan

Podcast: Ep139: Literary Friction - The Lives of Others with Kathryn Scanlan

January 26, 2023

Author(s): Literary Friction

Podcast: Literary Friction

1 / 1Literary Friction - The Lives of Others with Kathryn Scanlan

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About

Portraits of real people abound in books. There are novels that use transcribed conversations, like Sheila Heti’s How Should A Person Be, or fiction based on historical or even living people, like Curtis Sittenfield’s Rodham. Our guest this month is the writer Kathryn Scanlan who joined us from the States to talk about her riveting new novel, Kick the Latch, which is based upon a series of conversations that Kathryn had with a woman named Sonia about her joyful and brutal life as a trainer for racehorses. Lydia Davis called Kick the Latch a “magical act of empathic ventriloquy”, and this show is about literature that engages in similar ways with the lives of others. We’ll be getting into things like the ethics of writing from another life in fiction, the art of biography, and our favourite literary portraits, plus all our usual reading recommendations.

Recommendations on the theme, The Lives of Others: Octavia: Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders Carrie: Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow

General recommendations: Octavia: Avalon by Nell Zink Kathryn: Guston in Time: Remembering Philip Guston by Ross Feld Carrie: Foster by Claire Keegan

Find a list of all recommended books at: https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/jan-2023-the-lives-of-others-with-kathryn-scanlan

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/litfriction

Email us: litfriction@gmail.com

Tweet us & find us on Instagram: @litfriction

Podcast

Literary Friction
podcast
Literary Friction

LiteraryFriction

A monthly conversation about books and ideas on NTS Radio hosted by friends Carrie Plitt, a literary agent, and Octavia Bright, a writer and academic. Each show features an author interview, book recommendations, lively discussion and a little music too, all built around a related theme - anything from the novella to race to masculinity. Listen live on NTS Radio www.nts.live