Nobel peace laureate Maria Ressa: ‘In 2024, democracy could fall off a cliff’

The journalist, who is facing prison in the Philippines, talks about the dark side of social media and why truth is being eroded in politics

‘It was exciting to create these beastly, huge, grotesque women’: the authors gender-swapping the Greek myths

With its heroic female leads and men who long to be fathers, Karrie Fransman and Jonathan Plackett’s new book looks at modern mores through an ancient lens

‘I came second in everything’: Martin Kemp on Spandau Ballet, George Michael and stepping out of his brother’s shadow

The bass player publishes his third book this month, reflecting on life in one of the 80s biggest bands. He talks about recovering from two brain tumours, acting and why he would like to apologise to Tony Hadley

‘A more anarchic city’: Darryl Pinckney on New York literary life in the 1970s

The novelist’s memoir evokes the ambition and thrill of writing alongside Gore Vidal, Susan Sontag, James Baldwin and his mentor Elizabeth Hardwick

Philologist Irene Vallejo: ‘Alexander the Great’s library was the first step towards the internet’

The Spanish writer on how Papyrus, her bestselling history of literature in the ancient world, changed her life at a difficult moment, and why it’s a mistake to undervalue books

‘How I became a sexual creature’ – Paul Newman reveals all in newly discovered memoir

He was Hollywood’s Mr Perfect. But in his astonishing posthumous autobiography, the star faces up to his alcohol problems, his fatherly failings – and reveals the secret of his sex appeal. We speak to his daughter about the revelations

Holly Throsby on her ‘anti-crime’ novel, inspired by the Lynette Dawson murder investigation

The musician turned novelist’s latest book came from a tiny detail in the high-profile case, and the regional Australia that she now calls home

Siddhartha Mukherjee: ‘I don’t like writing as if I don’t exist’

The Pulitzer-winning science author on combining the history of cell biology with personal stories, the influence of Salman Rushdie and why he likes to write in bed

Garth Marenghi: ‘Many writers cite me as an influence … and I will be suing them all’

After changing horror for ever with his TV series Darkplace, the dream weaver and horror novelist disappeared for two decades. Now he returns with a chilling new novel, TerrorTome, and some strong words for pretenders to his crown (back off, Richard Osman)

Jonathan Coe: ‘We’re a nation driven by emotion and not by reason’

Tackling Brexit, Boris and his mother’s death during the pandemic, Jonathan Coe’s new state-of-the-nation novel puts Britain on the couch

‘I’m changing Congress’: how Cori Bush brought her lived experience to Capitol Hill

Member of ‘the Squad’ on how her abortion experience, sexual assault and front-line fight in Ferguson, Missouri, affected her politics

‘Joy is my daily practice’: Heather Rose on overcoming tragedy and choosing to live a happy life

From dancing into other worlds in North America to losing her vocabulary in the Australian desert, the Stella prize-winning author is taking nothing for granted

Mud, murder and homemade schnapps: eco-thriller Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead roars back

As Complicité’s Simon McBurney brings Olga Tokarczuk’s feminist detective story to the stage, the pair discuss its eccentric sleuth, isolated landscape and climate alarm

Neal Ascherson at 90: ‘Journalism was easier in my time. You had more time to think’

The distinguished former Observer foreign correspondent reflects on an extraordinary life – beginning with a horrifying brush with a Luftwaffe machine gunner

Yomi Ṣode: ‘The last thing I want to be is a preacher’

The poet and performer on his debut poetry collection, drawing on Caravaggio and the concept of ‘manorism’