Episodes

  • S04 E02 Shubnum Khan

    S04 E02 Shubnum Khan
    Sep 16 2024
    Shubnum Khan is the author of the novel ONION TEARS which has recently been rereleased in paperback. She also wrote the collection of essays HOW I ACCIDENTALLY BECAME A GLOBAL STOCK PHOTO and the internationally successful novel THE LOST LOVE OF AKBAR MANZIL.

    Shubnum joins Fiona Snyckers and Gail Schimmel to talk about how she wrote her first novel in her early twenties under the mentorship of Kobus Moolman and how a series of Twitter posts led to her collection of essays. Shubnum discusses the difficult path to an international book deal and what it has brought into her life.

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    1 hr and 1 min
  • S04 E02 Barbara Boswell

    S04 E02 Barbara Boswell
    Sep 9 2024
    Barbara Boswell is a distinguished academic and novelist whose latest work THE COMRADE'S WIFE has taken the literary world by storm. Barbara was a visiting fellow at Oxford University earlier this year where she conducted research in preparation for future life writing.

    Barbara joined Fiona Snyckers and Gail Schimmel to talk about how THE COMRADE'S WIFE may be read in conjunction with her earlier work, GRACE: A NOVEL. She discusses questions of loyalty to a former party of liberation and concludes that the freedom to criticise must remain paramount.

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    Fiona and Gail would love to hear from you! Please join the conversation here:
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    1 hr and 5 mins
  • S03 E10 Ivan Vladislavic

    S03 E10 Ivan Vladislavic
    May 20 2024
    Ivan Vladislavic is a multi-award winning author, editor, and professor of creative writing. His new memoir The Near North is available now.

    Ivan joins Fiona Snyckers and Gail Schimmel to talk about how not having grown up in Johannesburg has made him more curious about the city and how the words of other authors are the constant backdrop to his life.

    Ivan discusses the narrative choices one has to make as a memoirist and gives credit to his trusted early readers for helping his decide how to structure The Near North.

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    Fiona and Gail would love to hear from you! Please join the conversation here:
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    1 hr and 10 mins
  • S03 E09 Lynn Joffe

    S03 E09 Lynn Joffe
    May 13 2024
    Lynn Joffe is a copywriter, a novelist, a short story writer, and an author of children's books. She is the author of the critically acclaimed picaresque novel, The Gospel According to Wanda B. Lazarus, published by Modjaji Books.

    Lynn joins Fiona Snyckers and Gail Schimmel to talk about how she came to write a feminist reimagining of the antisemitic Medieval myth of the Wandering Jew.
    Describing antisemitism as a 'light sleeper', Lynn talks about how this myth was reverse engineered into scripture centuries afterwards.

    Lynn describes how losing her sister to cancer plunged her into a state of deep grief and how she is only now able to find her writing voice again.

    Fiona and Gail ask Lynn the secrets every writer should know about keeping their work at the forefront of the public's mind.

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    Fiona and Gail would love to hear from you! Please join the conversation here:
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    55 mins
  • S03 E08 Margie Orford

    S03 E08 Margie Orford
    May 6 2024
    Margie Orford is a writer, academic, activist, and award-winning journalist. She is the author of the acclaimed Clare Hart series of crime novels. Her most recent work is a much-anticipated memoir, Love And Fury.

    Margie joins Fiona Snyckers and Gail Schimmel to talk about the narrative choices one makes for memoir rather than fiction, and how second-wave feminism influenced her life at every step.

    Margie discusses how she handles sexual violence on the page and how talking about one's own life is different to talking about fictional constructs.

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    Fiona and Gail would love to hear from you! Please join the conversation here:
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    1 hr and 18 mins
  • S03 E07 Fiona Snyckers - The Hidden

    S03 E07 Fiona Snyckers - The Hidden
    Apr 29 2024
    In this special episode of The Hidden Lives of Writers, Fiona Snyckers sits down with author, reviewer, and journalist Gus Silber to talk about her new novel THE HIDDEN, which is published by Pan Macmillan.

    Gus grills Fiona about her secret past as a child writer and whether her own children find her books difficult to read, and Gus does a deep dive into the culture wars and the historical and cultural antecedents of Fiona's new book.

    Watch the full video on YouTube, or listen to the audio version on all podcasting platforms.

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    Fiona and Gail would love to hear from you! Please join the conversation:
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    41 mins
  • S03 E06 Helen Moffett

    S03 E06 Helen Moffett
    Apr 22 2024
    Helen Moffett is a writer, an editor, and an award-winning poet. Her novel 'Charlotte' was released internationally to great acclaim.
    Helen joins Fiona Snyckers and Gail Schimmel to talk about how every writer needs to be edited and why the business of editing has remained untransformed for so long.
    Helen describes her writing process for 'Charlotte', much to the envy of Fiona and Gail, and explains why writing poems is very different.

    For more details about the books, movies, series, and podcasts that are discussed on the show, sign up here for our weekly newsletter https://mailchi.mp/icon/the-hidden-lives-of-writers-newsletter-signup

    Fiona and Gail would love to hear from you! Please join the conversation:
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    1 hr and 6 mins
  • S03 E05 Diane Awerbuck

    S03 E05 Diane Awerbuck
    Apr 15 2024
    Diane Awerbuck is the award-winning author of multiple novels and short story collections. Her latest book is Inside Your Body There Are Flowers published by Karavan Press.

    Diane joins Fiona Snyckers and Gail Schimmel to talk about being published at a young age and what a young writer brings to the table.
    Diane talks about why she believes that a writer's process shouldn't always be revealed to the world. She describes how her own process has changed since becoming a parent, and how parenthood has supplied her with new inspiration.

    For more details about the books, movies, series, and podcasts that are discussed on the show, sign up for our weekly newsletter.

    Fiona and Gail would love to hear from you! Please join the conversation here:
    Email: hiddenlivesofwriters@gmail.com
    Instagram: @thehiddenlivesofwriterspod
    Twitter: @hiddenwriterpod
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    Threads: @thehiddenlivesofwriters
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    55 mins