M John Harrison: 'How do you know who’s alive and who’s the ghost?'

M John Harrison: 'How do you know who’s alive and who’s the ghost?'

Author: Fictionable September 29, 2023 Duration: 30:10

Over the next few weeks, we'll be hearing from Irena Karpa, Seán Padraic Birnie, Shauna Mackay and Catriona Bolt. But we launch this autumn podcast series with M John Harrison and his haunting short story, I Can't Tell.


Harrison tells us how he constructs his stories from fragments of real life, filed in notebooks and then reassembled into uncanny structures on the page. At one stage, this process was "consciously not very fictiony" he says, but by the time you’ve spent ten years exploring the boundary between fiction and nonfiction, "it's stopped being conscious any more, and it's just a thing that you do".


Fiction should be "read like nonfiction", he continues. "It's not there for you to put on like clothes and re-enact."


The past looms large over both I Can't Tell and his recent anti-memoir, Wish I Was Here, but according to Harrison writing has always been a struggle with things that have gone before. That and his "very, very unrelatable" characters, who are uniformly tricky to get on with – tricky, that is, apart from the cats.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.


Fictionable is a space for those drawn to the compact power of short stories and the vivid narratives of graphic fiction. Each episode delves into the craft and culture surrounding these forms, featuring conversations with the writers and artists themselves. We explore the techniques behind compelling brevity, the unique challenges of visual storytelling, and the diverse literary scenes influencing work today. The discussion often extends to broader book chat, examining how these shorter pieces fit into the wider landscape of reading and creativity. It’s a podcast built for curious readers who find entire worlds in a few pages or panels, offering a behind-the-scenes look at the stories published in the Fictionable collection. You’ll hear about inspiration, process, and the personal connections that fuel these works, all sourced from a global community of creators. The aim is to deepen appreciation for the art form while celebrating the voices shaping it. This isn’t just analysis; it’s an invitation into the ongoing conversation between author, artist, and audience. Join us for a thoughtful and engaging exploration of narrative in its most concentrated and visually dynamic forms.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 59

Fictionable
Podcast Episodes
Jack Klausner: 'I write more on the darker end of the spectrum' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 14:43
Already this summer we've heard from Samantha Harvey, Patrick Cash, Carolina Bruck and her translator Ellen Jones. This time we're getting under the surface of Jack Klausner's short story The Coalface.Klausner tells us h…
Patrick Cash: 'The coming out story has been told so many times' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 15:36
Last time Samantha Harvey let the cat out of the bag, diving straight into the heart of her story Bona Fide Nihon-kitsch. This time Patrick Cash is a little less spoiler heavy as he talks about and reads from his story T…
Samantha Harvey: 'This is what fiction can do' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 34:26
The weather may be up the spout but it's still summer, so it's time for another batch of Fictionable podcasts. We'll be hearing from Susan Muaddi Darraj, Carolina Bruck, Patrick Cash and Jack Klausner in this summer seas…
Jakub Żulczyk: 'We're all two inches tall' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 19:51
In this Spring series of podcasts we've heard from Jenny Erpenbeck, Grahame Williams, Lauren Caroline Smith and Rose Rahtz. We bring it to a close with Jakub Żulczyk and his story Many Years of Hardships, translated by J…
Rose Rahtz: 'What if you did have magical powers in a toddler?' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 24:27
This spring we've already heard from Jenny Erpenbeck, Grahame Williams and Lauren Caroline Smith. This time we welcome Rose Rahtz and her short story Where Hast Thou Been, Sister?Rahtz tells us how the story started as a…
Grahame Williams: 'Random acts of violence could happen at any time' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 19:26
Last time we heard from Jenny Erpenbeck, who told us that before her latest novel Kairos she'd "never written a love story". This time we welcome Grahame Williams and his short story Making It Happen.Like the industriali…
Jenny Erpenbeck: 'What you write down can be made to hide something' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 25:18
Spring has finally sprung and with it another series of Fictionable podcasts. Over the next few weeks we'll be hearing from Jakub Żulczyk, Grahame Williams, Lauren Caroline Smith and Rose Rahtz. But we launch into Spring…