Sarah M Broom: ‘There’s no easy way to write about your family’

The award-winning author on her New Orleans memoir, the ties of neighbourhood, and how Hurricane Katrina changed her life

Daisy Johnson: ‘It’s not an easy time to be looking at yourself or other people’

Ahead of her latest, unnerving novel Sisters, the youngest ever author shortlisted for the Booker discusses her fascination with horror, family and growing up on Harry Potter

Two friends, both up for the Booker prize: ‘We are exploring what it means to feel alien’

Brandon Taylor and C Pam Zhang, whose debuts are longlisted for this year’s Booker, talk about their close friendship, learning to write and dealing with grief

Bolu Babalola: ‘It was mortifying meeting Michael B Jordan after my tweet about him went viral’

The writer and ‘romcomoisseur’ on her debut short story collection, romcom chemistry, and her clinch with Michael B Jordan

DBC Pierre: ‘You can be shut down from life because of one mistake’

The hellraiser turned Booker prize winner on the infantilising nature of the internet, his favourite reading choices and why second chances are so important

Carl Bergstrom: ‘People are using data to bullshit’

The evolutionary biologist on data manipulation, fake news, and the importance of using science as a lie detector

Robin Stevens: ‘We assume writing for adults is the pinnacle, but what book changed your life?’

As her bestselling Murder Most Unladylike series comes to an end, the children’s author talks about cosy crime, gay characters and watching her schoolgirl detectives grow up

Sex, lies and text messages: the photographer snapping New Yorkers’ private thoughts

Drug deals, hook-ups, break-ups and secret code – Jeff Mermelstein’s snatched photographs of New Yorkers’ texts reveal that the city still has its wild side

Booker nominee Avni Doshi: ‘Women feared my ambivalence towards motherhood’

Her venomous debut novel about a fraught mother/daughter relationship shocked India – and now it’s challenging Hilary Mantel

Adrian Tomine: ‘Cartoons seemed like the surest path to being a hermit’

It’s safe to say the US cartoonist is ambivalent about his own success. His latest book charts the everyday humiliations of his trade in hilarious detail

Gabriel Bergmoser: ‘There is a brand of country Australian masculinity that is particularly threatening’

The 28-year-old’s gripping horror debut The Hunted has already landed a film deal. He talks about writing Amish erotica and his theory about small Australian towns

Brandon Sanderson: ‘After a dozen rejected novels, you think maybe this isn’t for you’

The fantasy author has an army of devoted fans and a record-making Kickstarter - but before the bestsellers, he spent a decade being told to be ‘more like George RR Martin’

Eliza Clark: ‘I’m from Newcastle and working class. To publishers, I’m diverse’

The author of Boy Parts is keen to stress that she is not underprivileged – and nor is she anything like her sadistic young antiheroine

Mary-Kay Wilmers: ‘At Faber, TS Eliot was referred to as the GLP – Greatest Living Poet’

The editor of the London Review of Books on its enduring appeal, the late Jenny Diski, and why she’s not ready to hand over the reins in her 80s

Lily Cole: ‘We need to be more forgiving’

Supermodel, Cambridge graduate, activist – Lily Cole has many strings to her bow. Now she’s written a book that tackles our most urgent challenge