George Saunders: ‘These trenches we’re in are so deep’
The Booker-winning author on what Russian short stories can teach us, late-life realisations and why he doesn’t like social media
Raven Leilani: ‘I try to replicate a version of sex on the page where the reader feels like a voyeur’
Leilani’s buzzy debut novel Luster follows a young black artist drawn into an open marriage. The author talks about losing her faith, writing sex – and a year of family tragedy
For Those I Love: Ireland’s potent new poet of grief
Recalling the delivery of the Streets and the music of James Blake, David Balfe’s project is a cathartic document in the wake his best friend’s death
Patti Smith: ‘As a writer, you can be a pacifist or a murderer’
As she prepares to ring in 2021 with a performance on screens at Piccadilly Circus, the punk poet explains why she’s optimistic amid the ‘debris’ of Trump’s years in office
Dylan Dog: the hit London-set Italian horror comic unknown in the UK
The Italian detective’s horror comic book adventures have sold 60m copies worldwide. So why is he not well-known in his fictional home?
Kiley Reid: ‘The premise that literary fiction has to be a drag is so silly’
The novelist’s hit debut, a witty spin on race, feminism and sex based on her time as a nanny in New York, has even won fans among her former employers…
Fearne Cotton: ‘I have found clarity’
She was the face of popular culture, but then Fearne Cotton reached crisis point. Now she has found her voice again...
‘I’m more optimistic’: poet laureate Simon Armitage tells of Britain’s great ordeal
The writer has blended music, dance and words into a film tracing the pandemic
Sunday with Lemn Sissay: ‘It’s a day to do nothing and do nothing well’
The author enjoys a bit of breathing space, a Zoom chat and a late-night podcast
Holocaust survivor Anita Lasker-Wallfisch: ‘No memorial can come anywhere near what happened’
The cellist believes that plans for a UK Holocaust memorial are ‘counter-productive’. What matters most, she argues, is education
Philippa Perry: ‘Most parents are not evil – they’re lovely people with the wrong tools’
The psychotherapist talks to Hadley Freeman about her childhood, parenting in a pandemic, and life with her partner, artist Grayson Perry
Will Dean: ‘The whole book came to me between midnight and 6am’
The Tuva Moodyson author on his tense new thriller The Last Thing to Burn and why he has abandoned the UK for life in the Swedish woods
Adam Kay: ‘We should talk to kids about sex and alcohol. Everything goes wrong when people close up’
The comedian, whose diaries of his years as a junior doctor became a bestseller, talks about the ‘astonishing’ efforts of the NHS in 2020, and his new guide to the body for children
‘There are plenty of schlongs in art’ – Maggi Hambling defends her nude sculpture of Mary Wollstonecraft
Her tribute to the feminist icon caused outrage at last month’s unveiling, but the artist has no regrets. She hits back at her critics – and explains why this women’s rights pioneer had to be naked
Edna O’Brien on turning 90: ‘I can’t pretend that I haven’t made mistakes’
Ireland’s greatest living writer is as ambitious as ever. She talks about working in Nigeria, coping with critics – and one final novel