Courtney Act’s coming of age: ‘To reflect back on it … I just sat there sobbing’

Shane Jenek’s memoir chronicles his childhood and career ascent on Sydney’s gay golden mile

Clementine Ford pivots to love: ‘For how long can you be the provocative feminist voice?’

After a decade embroiled in public controversies, one of Australia’s most high-profile feminists is exposing a softer side with her new book, How We Love

Mark Gatiss: ‘I’m currently very, very ashamed of being English’

The former League of Gentlemen star on his love of low-budget British spinechillers, his loathing of Brexit and a slew of projects opening this winter

Jack Dee: ‘The trashier end of self-help fascinates me’

The comedian and author on his new book spoofing psychotherapy, his recipe for a long-lasting marriage and why it’s important to self-criticise

Ai Weiwei: ‘It is so positive to be poor as a child. You understand how vulnerable our humanity can be’

From living in a dugout in Little Siberia to his friendship with Allen Ginsberg in New York, artist and activist Ai Weiwei reveals what drives his restless creativity

‘We have to fight for what is right’: Patti Smith on gender, Sally Rooney and Cop26

In the run-up to the climate conference, the rock’n’roll poet reflects – with a little help from her daughter – on a life spent breaking barriers, hanging out with Dylan and learning to Instagram

James Ivory: ‘I keep being asked, was it difficult, your life? My life, if anything, was too easy’

At 93, the Merchant Ivory director – and oldest ever Oscar winner – reflects on enduring love, delighting in his sexuality and defying film-making expectations

Sarah Moss: ‘The rhetoric during lockdown was terrifying’

The British author on isolation, community and writing a novel set during the coronavirus pandemic

Alan Garner: ‘You don’t want to have a brilliant idea for a novel at the age of 87’

As the much-loved fantasy writer publishes yet another 'final’ novel – about a healer who can cure everything but jealousy – he talks about being made a pariah by Oxford and almost dying three times

Jocelyn Nicole Johnson: ‘My book is me nudging forward from very real fears’

The American debut novelist on the lessons she learned from teaching art, her mixed feelings about Virginia and her experience of white supremacists

Claire Keegan: ‘I think something needs to be as long as it needs to be’

The acclaimed Irish writer on writing short works, the Magdalene Laundries and her new hobby, horse training

‘Our music charts are still kind of segregated’: critic Kelefa Sanneh on pop, fandom and race

The New Yorker writer’s book Major Labels examines why we tag music with a genre, be it for commerce or community. He explains why people still argue over great songs – and why they can thrive on cultural appropriation

Liz Pichon: ‘I always thought the Tom Gates series would come to an end really quickly’

The author and illustrator on dyslexia, doodling and finding new things to write about

Joan Collins: ‘I’m absolutely a feminist but I’ll let somebody carry my bags’

The original vamp on 70 years of showbiz life, having Boris Johnson as a boss and why partying is a dying art

Elizabeth Strout: ‘I’ve thought about death every day since I was 10’

As her latest book, Oh William!, is published, the novelist discusses childhood, loneliness – and perseverance