Monica Ali: ‘My children say I’m the worst storyteller ever’
As the Brick Lane author returns with her first novel in a decade, she talks about her ‘catastrophic’ loss of self-confidence, the value of comedy, and critics in the family
Gary Shteyngart: ‘We’re entering a time of permanent crisis’
The US satirist on why he had to find a UK publisher for his latest novel, his son’s Korean lessons, and the appeal of Zadie Smith’s White Teeth
Silicon Holler: Ro Khanna says big tech can help heal the US heartland
As part of his drive to use tech to close social divides, the California Democrat has written a book, Dignity in the Digital Age
Tony Lyons, the US publisher who picks up books ‘cancelled’ by other presses
The man behind Skyhorse books, which has published recent works by Woody Allen, Blake Bailey and Norman Mailer, explains why he keeps taking on controversial books
Michael Schur: ‘It’s a daily gut punch that people are anti-mask’
The creator of philosophical sitcom The Good Place knows a thing or two about moral quandaries, and now he’s written a book all about them. But the pandemic is stretching his worldview to its limits
Rebecca Watson: ‘This novel was never an act of catharsis’
The Goldsmiths prize-shortlisted author of little scratch on being mistaken for the book’s protagonist, conveying the ‘immediate present-tense experience’, and why her next novel is even more ambitious
‘The clap for the NHS meant nothing’: novelist turned doctor Roopa Farooki on her frontline experience of Covid
When the writer retrained in medicine, she never imagined she’d be working through a pandemic. She describes how she has coped with the everyday tragedy by putting her experience into words
‘I yelled with joy’: how Caleb Azumah Nelson went from Apple store employee to Costa First Novel award winner
The London writer on the success of his first book, Open Water, the limitations of masculinity and why his writing shouldn’t be compared to Sally Rooney’s
John Simpson: ‘Like most men, I’m amazingly good at forgiving myself’
The BBC stalwart on breaking down over the plight of an Afghan family, his new current affairs show – and failing to be enthused by Emily in Paris
‘I read the book out to the girls. It was really tough’: Andrea Elliott on writing about New York’s homeless children
The Pulitzer-winning New York Times journalist talks about her new book, Invisible Child, which records the experiences of a young girl growing up homeless in Brooklyn
Isabel Allende: ‘I still have the same rage’
The renowned author on the unfinished task of replacing the patriarchy, swapping 24,000 letters with her mother, and why she gives all her books away
Carl Bernstein: ‘Our democracy, before Trump, had ceased to be working well’
The acclaimed journalist talks about life before Watergate, as portrayed in his new book Chasing History, and life after Trump
‘He was a handful’ – Hunter S Thompson’s PA and photographer relives her wild job
She cooked his weird dinners, dealt with his volcanic rants, and read his prose back to him from dark till dawn. As Chloe Sells’ photographs of the gonzo writer’s chaotic Colorado cabin are published, she remembers an invigorating, inspirational figure
Patricia Lockwood: ‘I think Brits like my criticism more than Americans do’
The US novelist on writing about her niece’s death, her ‘meaningful’ crystal egg and her fantasy life as a standup comic
Hanya Yanagihara: ‘I have the right to write about whatever I want’
The author of A Little Life on exploring the unfamiliar voice, her third novel To Paradise, and how she got her unflinching eye