Fictionable

Feb 23 2025 39 ep. 24 mins 2

Fictionable Podcast artwork

Interviews, book chat and everything about the short stories and graphic fiction from all around the world appearing in Fictionable. "Storytellers, readers and creatives alike will love" – The Independent
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Copy RSS

Subscribe on Podcast Addict

Joanna Kavenna: 'We all make fictions about the future'

Feb 23 2025 27 mins

After hearing from Helga Schubert, Ben Sorgiovanni, Julian George and Rachida Lamrabet, we bring this Winter series of podcasts to a close with Joanna Kavenna and her short story Notes on the Future.Kavenna tells us how this story was born from an obsession with patterns and a robust detachment from her characters."I like to have quite questing narrators," she says, "who are desper

Rachida Lamrabet: 'Fiction gives me the opportunity to introduce another perspective'

Feb 15 2025 18 mins

In this Winter season we've already heard from Helga Schubert, Ben Sorgiovanni and Julian George. Joanna Kavenna will be rounding off the series next time, but right here and now we welcome Rachida Lamrabet and her short story Two Girls on Bicycles, translated by Johanna McCalmont.Lamrabet recalls how this story was set in motion by a chance encounter with an old friend, which brou

Julian George: 'Any word out of place, the whole thing is worthless'

Jan 30 2025 16 mins

So far we've heard from Helga Schubert and Ben Sorgiovanni in this Winter season. We'll be welcoming Joanna Kavenna and Rachida Lamrabet over the next couple of weeks, but for this feature we present Julian George and The Movie Lovers.George tells us how this short story emerged from the classic 1950s sitcom, The Honeymooners."I just thought of the character played by Audrey Meadow

Ben Sorgiovanni: 'What fiction does really well is capture the nuance of human experience'

Jan 25 2025 14 mins

This Winter series of podcasts got underway with Helga Schubert, who told us how she put together her short story On Getting Up from pieces of her past. This season we'll be hearing from Joanna Kavenna, Rachida Lamrabet and Julian George, but this time we meet Ben Sorgiovanni and his story No One Here Knows You.He tells us how this story grew out of a philosophical thought experime

Helga Schubert: 'There's got to be distance between the writer and their story'

Jan 17 2025 24 mins

As the world lurches into 2025 we launch into another series of Fictionable podcasts. We'll be hearing from Joanna Kavenna, Rachida Lamrabet, Ben Sorgiovanni and Julian George over the next few weeks, but we start with Helga Schubert and her short story On Getting Up, translated by Aaron Sayne and Lillian M Banks.Banks turns interpreter as Schubert explains how this story was awake

Esther Karin Mngodo: 'I am more myself when I write in Swahili'

Jan 11 2025 29 mins

Last year we heard from Daisy Johnson, Judith Vanistendael, Scott Jacobs and Hannah Webb. We bring our Autumn series to a close – just in time for Winter – with Esther Karin Mngodo and the translator Jay Boss Rubin, who join us to talk about First Date.Mngodo tells us how this story ate another of her short stories, Without Sun."It came from the idea of how things are within ot

Hannah Webb: 'I always seem to end up writing at the extremes'

Nov 01 2024 19 mins

We opened this Autumn season with Daisy Johnson and followed up with Judith Vanistendael and Scott Jacobs. We'll be sitting down with Esther Karin Mngodo over the next week or so, but this episode is devoted to Hannah Webb and her short story Titanic.While Jacobs told us Be Careful Who Your Friends Are was drawn from his own life, Webb insists that her story is definitely not autob

Scott Jacobs: 'I made a few things up along the way'

Oct 24 2024 18 mins

This season we've already heard from Daisy Johnson and Judith Vanistendael. Over the next few weeks we'll be sitting down with Esther Karin Mngodo and Hannah Webb, but this time we welcome Scott Jacobs and his short story Be Careful Who Your Friends Are.According to Jacobs, this curious tale was a "real-life experience"."I changed the names, to protect the innocent," he says, "incl

Judith Vanistendael: 'This first love has defined my storytelling'

Oct 18 2024 22 mins

In the first of our Autumn podcasts, Daisy Johnson told us how she was living on the edge when she was writing her collection The Hotel, and read from her short story Conference. Over the course of this season we'll be ranging all round the world to hear from Esther Karin Mngodo, Scott Jacobs and Hannah Webb, but this time Judith Vanistendael explains why The Small Story is very cl

Daisy Johnson: 'Most of the things I write do have a twist'

Oct 11 2024 24 mins

The leaves are swirling, there's a nip in the air, so it's time for a whole new bunch of Fictionable podcasts. Over the next few weeks we'll be hearing from Judith Vanistendael, Esther Karin Mngodo, Scott Jacobs and Hannah Webb, but we're launching into Autumn with Daisy Johnson and her short story Conference.Conference appears in Johnson's forthcoming collection, The Hotel, and sh