by Shakespeare and Company
<p>Discover your next favourite book, or take a deep dive into the mind of an author you love, with The Shakespeare and Company Interview podcast.</p><br><p>Long-form interviews with internationally acclaimed authors, recorded from our bookshop in the heart of Paris. Hosted by S&Co Literary Director, Adam Biles.</p><br><p>Discover all our upcoming events <a href="https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/events" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">here</a>.</p><br><p>If you enjoy these conversations, you can order The Shakespeare and Company Book of Interviews <a href=" https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/product/7955486/the-shakespeare-and-company-book-of-interviews" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">here</a>.</p><br><p>Past guests include: Ottessa Moshfegh, Ian McEwan, Ali Smith, Har Kunzru, Rachel Kushner, Katie Kitamura, Elif Shafak, Claire-Louiose Bennett, Leïla Simoni, Ian Dunt, David Runciman, Richard Powers, Eimear McBride, Armando Iannucci, Lauren Grodd, Lauren Elkin, Recebcca Solnit, John Berger, Hollie McNish, Michael Pedersen, Rob Doyle, Philippe Sands, George Saunders, Edouard Louis, Rachel Cusk, Preti Taneja, Alejandro Zambra, DBC Pierre, Meg Mason, Sandra Newman, David Simon, Joshua Cohen, Geoff Dyer, David Wallce-Wells, Emul Saint-John Mandel, Mohsin Hamid, Tess Gunty, A.M. Homes, John Higgs, Miriam Toews, Kamila Shamsie, Annie Ernaux, William Boyd, David Keenan, Jonathan Coe, Coco Mellors, Tom Mustill, Jeanette Winterson, Sarah Churchwell, Katy Hessel, Don Paterson, Elizabeth McCracken, Meena Kandasamy, Aleksandar Hemon, Catherine Lacey, Xiaolu Guo, M. John Harrison, Dolly Adderton, Hernan Diaz, Kathryn Scanlan, Ben Lerner, Isabel Waidner, Nick Laird, Adam Thirlwell, Mark O'Connell, Marie Darrieussecq, Jo Ann Beard, C Pam Zhang, Naomi Klein...and many, many more.</p><br><p><br></p> <a target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href="https://open.acast.com/public/patreon/fanSubscribe/7618834">Get bonus content on Patreon</a><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>
Language
🇺🇲
Publishing Since
6/1/2020
Email Addresses
1 available
Phone Numbers
0 available
April 16, 2025
<p>In this episode, Adam Biles is joined in the bookshop’s writing studio by Anna Whitwham, author of Soft Tissue Damage, a raw and electrifying memoir of grief, boxing, and womanhood. Following her mother’s death, Whitwham trained and fought competitively as a boxer—an act of both healing and reckoning. She discusses how physical pain can become a language for emotional anguish, how class and family history shaped her connection to the sport, and how boxing offered a surprising community of tenderness and care. A conversation about loss, rage, strength, and the power of being witnessed.</p><br><p>Buy Soft Tissue Damage: https://roughtradebooks.com/collections/books/products/soft-tissue-damage-anna-whitwham</p><br><p>*</p><br><p>Anna Whitwham was born in 1981 in London, where she still lives. She studied Drama and English at the University of California, Los Angeles, Queens University Belfast and at Royal Holloway, London where she teaches a course called ‘Writing Men: The Burden of Masculinity’.</p><p>She is the author of Boxer Handsome (Chatto&Windus). Her latest book, Soft Tissue Damage is published by Rough Trade Books.</p><br><p>Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. His latest novel, Beasts of England, a sequel to Animal Farm, is available now. Buy a signed copy here: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/beasts-of-england</p><br><p>Listen to Alex Freiman’s latest EP, In The Beginning: https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3w</p> <a target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href="https://open.acast.com/public/patreon/fanSubscribe/7618834">Get bonus content on Patreon</a><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>
April 10, 2025
<p>In this episode recorded live at Shakespeare and Company, celebrated Danish author Solvej Balle returns to the bookshop she once called home to discuss her monumental literary project On the Calculation of Volume. The novel’s protagonist, Tara Selter, finds herself reliving November 18th—again and again—opening up a profound meditation on time, memory, isolation, and human existence. Balle reflects on the decades-long journey of crafting this work, the philosophical underpinnings of time loops, and the quiet radicalism of writing it from a female perspective. Touching on everything from Ulysses to Groundhog Day, to quantum physics, she shares how her character emerged through a process of deep listening and experimentation. Tara's attempts to replicate seasons and find meaning through repetition prompt larger questions about how we process time, our relationships, and the rituals that structure our lives. Balle reveals how a “stupid idea” turned into a seven-volume epic currently shortlisted for the International Booker Prize—and how writing it has transformed her own understanding of life, aging, and narrative possibility.</p><br><p>Buy On the Calculation of Volume: <a href="https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/on-the-calculation-of-volume-i" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/on-the-calculation-of-volume-i</a></p><br><p>*</p><br><p>Solvej Balle was born in 1962, made her debut in 1986 with Lyrefugl, and</p><p>went on to write the highly-acclaimed According to the Law: Four Accounts of Mankind (praised by Publishers Weekly for its blend of “sly humor, bleak vision, and terrified sense of the absurd with a tacit intuition that the world has a meaning not yet fathomed”). She’s also published a book on art theory, a political memoir, and two books of short prose. On the Calculation of Volume expands the possibilities of the novel and heralds the arrival of a major literary artist.</p><br><p>Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. His latest novel, Beasts of England, a to Animal Farm, is available now. Buy a signed copy here: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/beasts-of-england</p><br><p>Listen to Alex Freiman’s latest EP, In The Beginning: https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3w</p> <a target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href="https://open.acast.com/public/patreon/fanSubscribe/7618834">Get bonus content on Patreon</a><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>
March 27, 2025
<p>Nobel Prize-winning author Abdulrazak Gurnah sits down with Adam Biles in store to discuss his new novel, Theft. Their conversation delves into the intricate interplay between personal history and the enduring legacy of colonialism, examines the complex dynamics of family and servitude, and discusses the challenge of transcending inherited narratives. </p><br><p>Buy Theft: <a href="https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/theft-2" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/theft-2</a></p><br><p>*</p><br><p>Abdulrazak Gurnah is the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 2021. He is the author of ten novels: Memory of Departure, Pilgrims Way, Dottie, Paradise (shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Whitbread Award), Admiring Silence, By the Sea (longlisted for the Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Book Award), Desertion (shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize) The Last Gift, Gravel Heart, and Afterlives, which was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Fiction 2021 and longlisted for the Walter Scott Prize. He was Professor of English at the University of Kent, and was a Man Booker Prize judge in 2016. He lives in Canterbury.</p><br><p>Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. His latest novel, Beasts of England, a to Animal Farm, is available now. Buy a signed copy here: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/beasts-of-england</p><br><p>Listen to Alex Freiman’s latest EP, In The Beginning: <a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3w" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3w</a></p><br><p>Author portrait Hugo Clair Torregrosa (c) Shakespeare and Company Paris</p> <a target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href="https://open.acast.com/public/patreon/fanSubscribe/7618834">Get bonus content on Patreon</a><br /><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>
London Review Bookshop
BBC Radio 4
The TLS
The London Review of Books
London Review of Books
The Paris Review
David Naimon, Tin House Books
CBC
WNYC Studios and The New Yorker
Backlisted
WNYC Studios and The New Yorker
BBC Radio 4
The Spectator
The New York Times
City Arts & Lectures
Pod Engine is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or officially connected with any of the podcasts displayed on this platform. We operate independently as a podcast discovery and analytics service.
All podcast artwork, thumbnails, and content displayed on this page are the property of their respective owners and are protected by applicable copyright laws. This includes, but is not limited to, podcast cover art, episode artwork, show descriptions, episode titles, transcripts, audio snippets, and any other content originating from the podcast creators or their licensors.
We display this content under fair use principles and/or implied license for the purpose of podcast discovery, information, and commentary. We make no claim of ownership over any podcast content, artwork, or related materials shown on this platform. All trademarks, service marks, and trade names are the property of their respective owners.
While we strive to ensure all content usage is properly authorized, if you are a rights holder and believe your content is being used inappropriately or without proper authorization, please contact us immediately at [email protected] for prompt review and appropriate action, which may include content removal or proper attribution.
By accessing and using this platform, you acknowledge and agree to respect all applicable copyright laws and intellectual property rights of content owners. Any unauthorized reproduction, distribution, or commercial use of the content displayed on this platform is strictly prohibited.