short story cycle

In her conversation with Hedwig Schwall, Sheila Armstrong discusses and reads from her first novel Falling Animals (2023). Sheila talks about the neoliberalism at the core of her novel; about how we went from small scale, traditional industries to much bigger, largely hidden industries we have little understanding of; about how she uses small, but striking details from real life to create whole worlds; about the importance of forgiveness and how guilt and shame are central to her novel; about fiction being an attempt to bridge the gap between people and try and understand how others feel; about the potential of liminal spaces and leaving threads we do not get answers for; and about how finding the right sentence feels like a door is gently closing.  

In her conversation with Alessandra Boller, Mary Morrissy discusses the elasticity of short story fiction; her recent turn to flash fiction; the differences between her ‘exploded novel’ Prosperity Drive (2016) and her upcoming short story cycle 20/20 Vision; her new speculative historical novel on Nora Barnacle, whom she describes as a prisoner of Joyce’s fiction; and she ponders whether writing means plundering other people’s lives. Mary Morrissy also reads the story ‘Girls in Trouble’ from her unpublished collection 20/20 Vision and an extract from her new novel Penelope Unbound.