Namwali Serpell: ‘I find uncertainty compelling in literature’
The award-winning Zambia-born writer on her reading habits, being emboldened by Toni Morrison, and her belief that books aren’t about self-improvement, but engagement
Cosey Fanni Tutti: ‘I was lucky I got thrown out of home. I see it as a gift’
The Throbbing Gristle co-founder and performance artist is seen as an elder stateswoman of the avant garde. She talks about legacy, and the liberation of revisiting her darkest experiences for a new memoir
Poet Nikita Gill: ‘I worry about people getting tattoos of my work. What if I made a typo?’
Her touching verses about heartbreak, fat-shaming and body hair have made her Britain’s most-followed poet on social media – and now she’s heading for TV
Florence Given: ‘People don’t want you to break the mould… I needed to’
The feminist writer and podcaster on rejecting shame and embracing messiness, and why her generation is more progressive – Love Island notwithstanding
Werner Herzog: ‘I was never, contrary to rumours, a hazard-seeking, crazy stuntman’
The German director, famed for making films about people at the fringes of society, has written a novel about another one: a Japanese soldier who carried on fighting the second world war for 29 years after it ended
David Hare: ‘There is an awful lot of pious theatre at the moment’
The playwright on branching out into poetry, contemporaries he admires and his need to challenge audiences’ beliefs
Nick Drnaso: ‘Something about comics attracts people who have anxiety’
The literary cartoonist talks about taking graphic novels mainstream, his feelings of imposter syndrome, and processing his darkest childhood memories in his latest book
Robert Drewe on finding Australia’s child phenomenon: ‘I thought, “Why hasn’t anyone heard of him?”’
While writing his new novel, the acclaimed author suffered unimaginable grief. But he found ‘strange comfort’ in imagining the life of a long-lost boy wonder
Alan Cumming: ‘You’d be shocked by the messages Miriam Margolyes and I leave each other!’
As he brings his one-man show about ‘rockstar’ poet Robert Burns to the Edinburgh festival, the star talks about desire, debauchery and dancing in his 50s
‘A job for an angry loner’: Frankie Boyle and Denise Mina on writing crime fiction
Veteran author Denise Mina and newbie Frankie Boyle discuss what makes a great crime novel, celebrity authors and their affection for comics
Mohsin Hamid: ‘When the political pollen gets high, I’m going to sneeze’
The writer’s new novel is about white Americans suddenly becoming dark-skinned. He talks about resisting categorisation, moral responsibility and why imagining dystopias is dangerous
Linton Kwesi Johnson: ‘I certainly did not see myself as an angry young black poet’
The poet and activist’s life in verse has chronicled black British history. He talks about remaining hopeful, integrity, and taking 20 years to find his voice
Sloane Crosley: ‘I don’t think America deserved a birthday party this year’
The US essayist and novelist on giving dating a literary treatment, spoofing wellness culture and what she learned about romance from watching Seinfeld
Anton Du Beke: ‘I’d clear the floor if I danced at a disco’
The dancer, 56, on channelling his creativity, doing his best, never replying to emails and being mistaken for Rob Brydon
‘I can’t do superheroes, but I can do gods’: Neil Gaiman on comics, diversity and casting Death
Graphic novel The Sandman made its author into an icon. He talks about his big break in comics, the genre’s long struggle for respectability and the lavish Netflix adaptation that’s bringing his gothic hero to life