Richard Price - the Owner of the Sea

"Song is very powerful...it's not a truth teller, it's a state-changer."

Richard Price joins today's show to discuss his collection of 'Three Inuit Stories Retold.' Published by Carcanet, the book was a Scotsman Book of the Year in 2021, and Richard joined me to discuss the challenges of retelling these tales.

You can buy the book here: https://www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/indexer?product=9781800171176

Rippling Points

• Don't read it on Wikipedia: shedding light on expectations of roles
• Travelling by song: the powerful nature of song.

Reference Points

• Ron King, artist
• Small World by Richard Price (2012: Carcanet)
• Quentin Tarantino

Erica Mou and Clarissa Botsford on THIRSTY SEA

"The first thing that came to me? A woman, alone with the sea, and in charge of her own destiny?"

Welcome back to the Rippling Pages and Series Three: Beneath the Surface. 

We have Erica Mou and Clarissa Botsford here to discuss Thirsty Sea. Erica is a successful musician with six albums to her name. Her novel is translated by Clarissa and published by exciting new press, Héloïse Press, who are championing world-wide female talent.

You can buy the book here:

https://www.heloisepress.com/book/thirsty-sea

Rippling Points

• Sea change? How Erica sings and writes about the sea
• Translating as a reader: How Clarissa read the book 'like a reader.'

Reference Points

Erica's podcast, Punti di Fuga

 'Contro le Onde' by Erica Mou

Emilio Fraia and Zoë Perry on Sevastopol

"It's nice to see my imagination dressed with my words...It's very interesting to see a universe in other words."

What a pleasure have both Emilio Fraia and Zoë Perry to discuss with me the writing and translating of Emilio's novel Sevastopol (Lolli Editions - buy here)

Ripping Points:

• A common tone: how the creation of a certain atmosphere leads to individual variations
•  How Sevastopol was translated into English

Reference Points

Péter Esterházy
Graham Greene
William Kennedy
Leo Tolstoy
Raymond Williams

Previous interview with Emilio and Zoë in Partisan Hotel

Charlie Baylis and Santa Lucía

'You can't just have a greatest hits collection, there has to be a flow of ideas.'

Charlie Baylis, poet, critic, and editor joined me to talk about his latest collection, Santa Lucía, published by Invisible Hand Press - available here

Rippling Points:

• Day and Night: structuring around the rhythms of the day
• The conscious art of repeating

Reference Points

Poets
John Ashbery
Sean Bonney
SJ Fowler
Selima Hill
Luke Kennard
Aaron Kent
Andrew McMillan
Chelsey Minnis
Frank O'Hara
Sophie Robinson
Matthew Welton

Charlie's interview with Andrew McMillan

Charlie's previous collections
Hilda Doolittle's Carl Jung t-shirt (erbacce press, 2018)
Swimming (Red Ceilings Press, 2019)

Novels
Albert Camus - The Stranger (1942)

Jo Scott-Coe on MASS

"It seemed to be a flashpoint moment, it was saying more than we thought it was saying."

Jo Scott-Coe joins me to talk about Charles Whitman, the man known as the 'Texas Tower Sniper'. In this discussion which touches on some challenging subjects, Jo discusses her book and the journey behind the writing of the book MASS: A Sniper, a Father, and a Priest (published by Pelekinesis Press)

Please be advised we recorded this conversation earlier this year and discuss issues of a sensitive nature

Rippling Points:

'Senseless Acts': the troubling terminology of describing acts as 'senseless'
Not an isolated incident: building up the picture and story of the crime.

Reference Points

Films

American Sniper (2014: directed by Clint Eastwood)
Spotlight (2015: directed by Tom McCarthy

Articles

More was found about Priest Leduc here following the publication of Jo's book:

https://www.pe.com/2019/02/16/priest-named-on-molestation-list-was-texas-snipers-scoutmaster-friend-and-confidant/

Jessie Greengrass on the High House

'All the way through the book, it should feel like there's going to be some kind of ending which will enable a potential future'

What a pleasure to welcome Jessie Greengrass to talk about the High House! (Buy here). We talk about the climate crisis and writing about the end times.

Rippling Points:

• Is this the end for me, you, all of us? What's it like writing about characters and limited horizons?
• The history of flooding: researching local and national history for lessons about the past and the future.

Reference Points:

Books

• Sight, Jessie's first novel
• An Account of the Decline of the Great Auk, According to One Who Saw It, Jessie's collection of short stories
• Moby Dick by Herman Melville
• Alice Oswald.
• Liable to Flood (1974) - J.R Ravensdale

We also discussed the Eyemouth Fishing Disaster, and the 1953 North Sea Flood which Jessie researched for the novel.