Little Atoms

Dani Heywood-Lonsdale has paternal roots on the tiny island of Molokai, Hawaii - referred to as the Sandwich Islands throughout her debut novel The Portrait Artist - and maternal roots in the Philippines. She is a Faber Academy alumna and teaches English Literature in Oxfordshire.

Abdulrazak Gurnah is the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 2021. He is the author of ten novels: Memory of Departure, Pilgrims Way, Dottie, Paradise (shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Whitbread Award), Admiring Silence, By the Sea (longlisted for the Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Book Award), Desertion (shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize) The Last Gift, Gravel Heart, and Afterlives, which was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Fiction 2021 and longlisted for the Walter Scott Prize. He was Professor of English at the University of Kent, and was a Man Booker Prize judge in 2016. On this episode of Little Atoms he talks to Neil Denny about his latest novel Theft.

Sarah Hesketh is a writer and editor from Pendle, in East Lancashire. She is the author of the poetry collections Napoleon’s Travelling Bookshelf and The Hard Word Box, and the editor of The Emma Press Anthology of Age. She currently lives in London and works as Managing Editor for Modern Poetry in Translation. On this week’s episode of Little Atoms she talks to Neil Denny about her latest book 2016.

Stephen May is the author of seven novels including Life! Death! Prizes! which was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and The Guardian Not The Booker Prize. He has also been shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year and is a winner of the Media Wales Reader’s Prize. He has also written plays, as well as for television and film. On this episode of Little Atoms he talks to Neil Denny about his latest novel Green Ink.

Susan Barker is the author of four books. Her third novel, The Incarnations, was a New York Times Editors' Choice and Notable Book, a Kirkus Reviews' Top Ten Book of the Year, and was shortlisted for the Kirkus Prize for Fiction. On this episode of Little Atoms she talks to Neil Denny about her latest novel Old Soul. An excerpt from Old Soul won a Northern Writers' Award for Fiction in 2020, as well as funding from Arts Council England and The Society of Authors. Susan currently lives in Manchester, where she is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Rachel Bower is an award-winning poet and short story writer from Bradford. She is the author of two poetry collections and a non-fiction book on literary letters. Her poems and stories have been widely published in literary magazines, including The London Magazine, The White Review, Magma and Stand. Bower won The London Magazine Short Story Prize 2019/20 and the W&A Short Story Competition 2020. She has also been listed for the White Review Short Story Prize 2019, the RSL V.S. Pritchett Short Story Prize and the BBC Short Story Prize. On this episode of Little Atoms she talks to Neil Denny about her debut novel It Comes From The River.