Edmund White on lust, love and literature: ‘I’d had sex with 3,000 men. A peer asked: “Why so few?”’

The American author’s fifth memoir is all about sex - with alfresco frolics in London and encounters in a bullring among the tamer anecdotes. At 85, he explains why he thought the book would never be published

‘Stuff happens and it sucks’: Brooke Shields on abuse, ageing and telling her own story

Brooke Shields, sexualised child star at just 11, is no stranger to tabloid controversy. Now 59, perhaps now she can tell us how she ended up so… normal?

Caryl Phillips: ‘It was Britain that made me a writer’

The New York-based Kittitian-British author on why he set his new novel in the immigrant community of 1960s Notting Hill, the pitfalls of celebrity, and how he never misses a Leeds United match

Keon West: ‘You can’t tell that racism is or isn’t happening because you know a Black person who earns a lot of money’

The author and academic on mistaking feelings for facts, the importance of education and why Kemi Badenoch will do nothing to help ethnic minorities

‘I knew I was overexercising and not eating enough’: novelist Emma Healey on the dark side of self-control

Her bestselling debut Elizabeth Is Missing was inspired by her grandmother’s dementia. Now the novelist has drawn from her own experiences for a thriller about the power dynamic between personal trainer and client

‘She couldn’t walk, she couldn’t talk’: music therapy helped Joni Mitchell recover from a stroke – could it ward off depression and dementia too?

When his friend, the legendary songwriter, had a catastrophic stroke, neuroscientist Daniel Levitin put together a programme of music therapy. Now he’s recommending it for a whole range of conditions

‘There’s a majesty to grief’: TS Eliot poetry prize winner Peter Gizzi

The American writer won the prestigious prize for Fierce Elegy, a collection informed by the deaths of his family members. He explains why poetry is like friendship – and why he loves small words

‘It’s about being bold and gutsy’: Senator Ron Wyden on change in the age of Trump

The Oregon Democrat has written a book, a call for ‘chutzpah’ from those seeking political progress

‘It will be jolly nice’: illustrator Helen Oxenbury, 86, on preparing for her first solo show – and a new book with Michael Rosen

Acclaimed for her work on children’s books, the artist is teaming up again with her collaborator on Bear Hunt

Richard Price: ‘I don’t like to write, I just don’t – it’s too much anxiety’

The US novelist and co-writer of The Wire on why his new book isn’t about cops and robbers, his 80s drug addiction and the authors who have inspired him

Orhan Pamuk: ‘I have some fame, so I can say things others cannot’

The Turkish writer, 72, talks about his father’s artistic support and being a feminist in the Middle East, his love of Istanbul and fear of government repression

Americans are taught FDR was the hero of the Great Depression. For one historian, that’s erasure

In a new book, Dana Frank tells stories of the people who ‘made history happen’ through organizing and mutual aid

Disability advocate Alice Wong on resistance in the new year: ‘Life is a dumpster fire, but I’m not alone’

The activist, who received a 2024 MacArthur ‘genius’ grant, reflects on a moment that changed her life – and why she finds hope in sci-fi

‘Just by existing, he’s extended this war’: Timothy Snyder on Trump, Russia and Ukraine

Historian and bestselling author of On Tyranny worries over Trump’s return to power – and the influence of Elon Musk

Sunday with John Cooper Clarke: ‘My wife does a chicken with 60 cloves of garlic’

The poet talks about newspapers and television, coffee and strawberries, and how Monday’s gloomy presence hangs over every Sunday