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Jenni Fagan | My Writing Playlist
Jenni Fagan
Best of Young British Novelist Jenni Fagan selects five songs that she loves to write to.
Helen Oyeyemi | My Writing Playlist
Helen Oyeyemi
Helen Oyeyemi on what she listens to while writing and editing.
Playing the Odds
David Szalay
‘What, I wonder now, must the texture of my life have been like then, that winning those sort of sums failed to leave even the slightest mark on my memory?’
Rooms That Have Had Their Part
Joanna Kavenna
‘Rooms jaundiced by bad lighting, so you wondered, what is ague, and could we have it? Rooms that hummed, a hum you couldn’t quite identify, or that seemed in the end to come from your own head.’
Rachel Seiffert on Naomi Alderman
Rachel Seiffert
‘So, to summarise: witty, bold, and delicate too. Oh yes, and supremely able to turn a story.’
Taiye Selasi | My Writing Playlist
Taiye Selasi
Taiye Selasi, one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists, shares a playlist of songs to write to.
Zadie Smith on ‘Just Right’
Zadie Smith
‘There should be a special term for abandoned stories, and another for the strange limbo in which their occupants live.’
Introduction: Best of Young British Novelists 4
John Freeman
‘We live in unreaderly times, but our belief is that these novelists will be exceptions to the general rule of irrelevance faced by writers today.’
Xiaolu Guo | My Writing Playlist
Xiaolu Guo
‘The challenge of flowing in one continuous outpouring of language in a novel is my killer.’
Tahmima Anam | My Writing Playlist
Tahmima Anam
Tahmima Anam shares a playlist of songs to write to.
Mrs de Pelet
Evie Wyld
‘I see her with her hands cupped in front of her shouting ‘The “O”, ladies, The Vaginal O’ as we read Shakespeare.’