Brit Bennett: ‘Trump colonised our brains for years. Suddenly he’s just gone? It feels surreal’
The author of the Women’s prize-shortlisted The Vanishing Half talks about race, the dangers of nostalgia and writing only what pleases her
Salman Rushdie: ‘I am stupidly optimistic – it got me through those bad years’
Despite the obstacles thrown his way, the novelist remains indestructible. He talks about strong women, ‘moral censorship’ and the ‘great wound’ of his life
Édouard Louis: ‘Truth is a revenge because we live in a world of lies’
The author, who became a literary sensation at the age of 21 with The End of Eddy, is appearing in a show exploring acting in theatre and in everyday life
Vincent D’Onofrio: ‘I really did get mugged by a monkey’
The esteemed actor discusses his move into the world of poetry and his distrust of ‘devious’ primates
Barry Windsor-Smith is back: ‘Monsters has been a slow and difficult experience’
After 35 years of work, the feted comic creator has published Monsters, a drama featuring Nazi science and psychic powers. He talks about Marvel and how his drawing style has evolved
‘We had a therapist on set’ – William Jackson Harper on The Underground Railroad
The Good Place star plays a free man helping slaves to escape in Barry Jenkins’ epic series. The actor talks about the trauma of re-enacting such violent times – and the need to face up to history
Michael Lewis: ‘We were incentivised to have a bad pandemic response’
In his new book, the author of The Big Short has turned his attention to Covid and the people who could have prevented it sweeping the US – had they been allowed to
Barry Jenkins: ‘Maybe America has never been great’
The Moonlight director on how adapting Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad for TV compelled him to fully confront the history of slavery, as well as his own damaged childhood
Adam Buxton: ‘We’re in the sad sandwich of life, but it has a surprising zing of pickle’
The comedian and broadcaster on writing a heartfelt memoir, copycat podcasters and dreaming of getting gnarly old guy roles
Curtis Sittenfeld: ‘People misunderstood the sex scenes in Rodham’
The bestselling author on reimagining Hillary Clinton’s life, what novelists have learned from Covid and the mood in her home town, Minneapolis, since the murder of George Floyd
Geoff Dyer: ‘I am what you might describe as chippy’
The writer, 62, tells James McMahon about his working-class Cheltenham roots, college career and dole-queue days in a Brixton squat where he first began to read
‘Jaws at 35,000 feet’: the flight attendant whose debut thriller sold for seven figures
TJ Newman dreamt up her terror-in-the-skies novel Falling while guarding the cockpit as the pilots took a toilet break. She reveals how she kept going through furlough and 41 rejections
Jhumpa Lahiri: ‘I’ve always existed in a kind of linguistic exile’
A decade ago, the Pulitzer-winning author threw herself into mastering Italian. She talks about her love for Rome, translating Italy’s ‘finest living writer’ and rewriting her own work in English
Julia Donaldson: ‘I worry some children will be unable to sing’
The bestselling author of the Gruffalo is concerned about the limits coronavirus has placed on the lives of her young fans
‘I’m fine with being called an activist’: Angie Thomas on her The Hate U Give prequel
Angie Thomas talks about exploring violence and black fatherhood in her latest young adult novel – and why she’s hoping it won’t be banned