The Writer and the Critic

Episode 57: Get in Trouble | What is Not Yours is Not Yours

This month on The Writer and the Critic your hosts, Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond, plunge straight into discussing two short story collections, Get in Trouble by Kelly Link [1:30] and What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi [40:10].

 Listeners might like to check out the following links mentioned during the podcast:

• Get in Trouble reviewed by David Ulin in the Los Angeles Times
• What is Not Yours is Not Yours reviewed by Nina Allan in Strange Horizons
• What is Not Yours is Not Yours reviewed by Kate Clanchy in the Guardian

If you've skipped ahead to avoid spoilers, please come back at 1:33:30 for final remarks. Up for discussion on the next episode - which will be the first episode of 2017! - are two more  short story collections:

• Bødy by Asa Nonami
• Ghost Summer: Stories by Tananarive Due

Read ahead and join in the spoilerific fun!

Episode 56: Experimental Film | Aickman's Heirs

This month on The Writer and the Critic your hosts, Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond, have decided to look at two books honoured in the recent Shirley Jackson Awards. After some brief words about the Awards themselves, the discussion moves stealthily on to the books themselves: the winner of the Novel category, Experimental Film by Gemma Files [8:45] and the winner of the Edited Anthology category, Aickman's Heirs edited by Simon Strantzas [49:25].



Listeners might like to check out the following links mentioned during the podcast:

• Nina Allen's review of Experimental Film at Strange Horizons
• "The Strange Horrors of Robert Aickman" by Matthew Cheney at Electric Lit
  

If you've skipped ahead to avoid spoilers, please come back at 1:33:40 for final remarks. Up for discussion on the next episode are two collections of short stories:

• Get in Trouble by Kelly Link
• What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi

Read ahead and join in the spoilerific fun!

Episode 55: Savage Season | The Pillow Friend

On this episode of The Writer and the Critic your hosts, Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond, start things off with a discussion about cultural appropriation, bouncing off a now infamous keynote speech given by Lionel Shriver at the Brisbane Writers Festival. Pertinent links are as follows:

• Full transcript of Lionel Shriver's speech in The Guardian
• Response to Shriver speech by Yassmin Abdel-Magied in The Guardian
• Repsonse by festival volunteer Yen-Rong
• Nike Sulway on Shriver, straw men and writing about others
• Jim Hines on Shriver and cultural appropriation
• Joe Aston in the Financial Review with an article that could be more accurately titled "How To Be A Dick: A Performance Piece".

The actual theme for the podcast this month was First Read/Re-Read. Kirstyn and Ian have each selected a book they read and loved a long, long time ago but which the other had never read before. Up for reminiscing and dissection are Savage Season by Joe R. Lansdale [33:40], chosen by Ian, and The Pillow Friend by Lisa Tuttle [1:04:00] which was Kirstyn's pick.



If you've skipped ahead to avoid spoilers, please come back at 1:37:50 for final remarks. Up for discussion next month are two recent Shirley Jackson Award winners:

• Aickman's Heirs edited by Simon Strantzas (Winner: Edited Anthology)
• Experimental Film by Gemma Files (Winner: Novel)

Read ahead and join in the spoilerific fun!

Episode 54: Quicksand House | A Head Full of Ghosts

It's Patron's Choice this month on The Writer and the Critic where your hosts, Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond, spend the episode discussing two books as voted on by their lovely supporters on Patreon. But first, they quickly go through the list of other nominated titles that were pipped at the post:

• The Dead Lake by Hamid Ismailov    
• Borderline by Mishell Baker         
• Defying Doomsday edited by Tsana Dolichva and Holly Kench    
• Heat and Light by Ellen Van Neervan    
• Arms Race by Nic Low        
• Planetfall by Emma Newman         
• The Testimony by James Smythe    
• Glory O'Brien's History of the Future by A. S. King        
• Affinity by Sarah Waters

The discussion then moves on to the two books that garnered the most votes: Quicksand House by Carlton Mellick III [5:50] and A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay [45:00]. This review of Quicksand House was mentioned in passing.



If you've skipped ahead to avoid spoilers, please come back at 1:27:30 for some brief final remarks. Next month, the theme will be First Read/Re-Read, where Kirstyn and Ian each select a book they have read and loved a long, long time ago but which the other has never read before. The two novels up for discussion will be:

• Savage Season by Joe R. Lansdale - chosen by Ian
  
• The Pillow Friend by Lisa Tuttle - chosen by Kirstyn

Read ahead and join in the spoilerific fun!

Episode 53: All the Light We Cannot See | The Girl on the Train

On this episode of The Writer and the Critic your hosts, Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond, spend a few minutes talking about the New York Times Bestseller lists before jumping straight into the discussion of two novels which have been on the lists in some form for, oh, about a squillion weeks: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr [11:45] and The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins [46:45].



Here are the links for various items mentioned during this episode:

• On Blindness and the Portrayal of Marie-Laure in All the Light We Cannot See by Sheri Wells-Jensen  (The Toast)
• "There Was Darkness" by Martin Livings from Living With the Dead
• NYT Book Review podcast featuring Megan Abbott

If you've skipped ahead to avoid spoilers, please come back at 1:32:00 for final remarks, including which books will be discussed next episode.

Next month is the inaugural Patron's Choice episode, wherein Kirstyn and Ian read two books nominated and voted on by some of their lovely supporters on Patreon. Ian won't let Kirstyn put the titles in the shownotes, because he wants them to be a surprise for listener's of this month's episode. Seriously, blame Ian. Then go to 1:32:00 to find out what they'll be discussing.

Read ahead and join in the spoilerific fun!