Garth Greenwell: ‘Sex is an extraordinary subject for a writer’

The US author on writing about intimacy, the place for pretentiousness in art and surviving lockdown

Isabel Hardman: ‘One of my most exciting botanical finds was in a Glasgow car park’

The journalist and author on how nature can boost mental health treatment, even on lockdown

Dystopia with hot chocolate: Tales from the Loop’s author on his low-key sci-fi

Artist-writer Simon Stålenhag, whose work has inspired a new Amazon Prime serial, explains why he keeps it understated

Max Porter: ‘Writing allows me to worry about stuff better’

The Grief Is the Thing With Feathers author talks about how myth, environmentalism and anxiety inspired his second novel

Anne Tyler: ‘Up close you’ll always see things to be optimistic about’

Renowned for her extraordinary insights into ordinary lives, the award-winning novelist discusses family sagas and why she thinks she was a better writer when she was younger

Ice caves, orcas and eating blubber: how Michelle Paver returned to the stone age

A decade after finishing the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness, the author is continuing her bestselling series – and explains how she found it again

Jacqueline Wilson: ‘I’ve never really been in any kind of closet’

The children’s author talks about her latest, perhaps bravest, novel in which she tackles gay love for the first time – and shines a light on her own private life

‘It’s an exhausting story’: Jonathan Karl on his up-close view of Trump

ABC’s chief White House correspondent on his new book Front Row at the Trump Show, fake news, coronavirus and why the Trump presidency is a matter of life and death

‘Anti-Asian racism has come roaring back with Covid-19’: Cathy Park Hong on being Asian American

The Minor Feelings author talks about stereotypes in the wake of the coronavirus and being inspired by Richard Pryor

Novelist Terry McMillan on love, death and ‘dirty secrets’

The bestselling author’s new novel focuses on coming of age at 68 – and McMillan says she’s ‘just getting started’

Moshpit mayhem: the northern club where punks rampaged to Hellbastard

The Station was a legendary hotspot where cider-fuelled punks would pogo to Rancid, Death Zone and more. Chris Killip reveals how he photographed the pummelling chaos

Damian Barr: ‘Give voice to those with unwritten stories’

The author of Maggie and Me on researching his first novel set in South Africa, and the book he can’t bear to finish reading

Craig Brown: ‘It’s difficult to spoof boring people’

The longstanding Private Eye satirist on getting under Alan Sugar’s skin, why Iain Duncan Smith can’t be parodied, and his new book about the Beatles

Underground skyscrapers and off-grid bunkers: inside the world of preppers

From the mega-rich to ‘prepsteaders’, Bradley Garrett has spent the last four years with people preparing for the end of the world. What can they teach us about our current crisis?

Mark Manson: We do awful things in relationships because we’re scared or hurt

The ex-dating coach and tough-love guru who wrote The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck is showing his tender side