Emma Smith: ‘Books do extraordinary work, but we can overstate their importance’
The Shakespeare critic and author on her new history of books and readers, and how it’s made her think about the contents of our shelves
Children’s author Simon James Green: ‘I just wanted to show LGBT+ kids that it’s not all doom and gloom’
The gay writer who was banned from visiting a London school discusses why young LGBT+ people need representation more than ever
Evelyn Araluen wins $60,000 Stella prize: ‘I was one paycheck away from complete poverty’
In the first year poetry was eligible to enter the Australian literary award, the debut poet has won for her collection Dropbear. She’s thrilled – but says prizes ‘cannot be the way we sustain the arts’
‘Life is short, so you have to get on with it’: AF Steadman on unicorns, leaving law and her record-breaking book deal
Eight years after her vision of a mythical beast, the author is about to publish the first novel in the Skandar Smith trilogy. She talks about childhood and taking a chance on a dream career
‘A PhD in my brother’: Valerie Biden Owens on the Joe she knows
In her newly published memoir, Growing Up Biden, the president’s sister pays tribute in a moving portrait of sibling love
Patrick McCabe: ‘Even today you can walk into some Irish bars and be in a different dimension’
In his hometown bar in Clones, the Butcher Boy novelist talks about the nature of memory and surreal 1960s ‘happenings’
PJ Harvey, poet: ‘Dorset is light and dark, ecstasy and melancholy’
The singer-songwriter has written an extraordinary narrative poem that glories in the landscape and dialect of her home county
Yara Rodrigues Fowler: ‘Revolution – that’s what I’m hungry for’
The young Brazilian-British writer on wanting to agitate readers with her new Brexit-era novel and how MSN Messenger has informed her writing style
Stella Rimington: ‘I fell into intelligence by chance’
The 86-year-old novelist and former head of M15 on the Blitz, claustrophobia – and a new lease of life in her marriage
Snip it up and start again: the woman who’s reworking the photography canon
Photographer Justine Kurland has sliced and collaged images from 150 renowned books by white male photographers from Brassaï to Stephen Shore. She explains why
Candice Carty-Williams: ‘It’s time to write a book just about Black people’
How do you follow a game-changing, award-winning debut? Candice Carty-Williams on Queenie, binning her second novel, and how People Person draws on life with eight siblings
Margo Jefferson on Will Smith, TikTok and identity: ‘I don’t like the sense that we are so fragile’
Ahead of her new memoir, the critic talks about her current pop culture obsessions and why she identifies with Nina Simone
Nina Stibbe: ‘In fiction, female friendships are either ridiculously saintly or psychopathic’
The bestselling author of Love, Nina on her first non-autobiographical novel, the pros and cons of living in Cornwall, and never being the adult in the room
Don Winslow: ‘I’m a cupcake. I certainly couldn’t be a leg-breaker’
The American crime writer on the inspiration for his new book about warring gangs, his sudden thirst for poetry and why reading Jane Austen wears him out
Dr Suzie Sheehy: ‘The eureka moment may come once in your career, or never’
The Australian physicist on the small victories that make lab work fulfilling, how she found forgotten female scientists to include in her first book, and why research is an investment