Naomi Wood and THIS IS WHY WE CANT HAVE NICE THINGS

“Some people have been, oh these women are so grotesque. I don’t think they are! They’re quite relatable.”

 

Naomi Wood joins me to discuss THIS IS WHY WE CANT HAVE NICE THINGS (Published by Orion)

It’s a collection that features the BBC Short Story Prize winner, Comorbidities. We talk about different kinds of intimacy in the stories, and how or why Naomi often writes about mothers in the . Naomi also talks about the craft and how she clashed registers to dazzling effect.

Naomi Wood is the bestselling author of The Godless Boys, Mrs. Hemingway and The Hiding Game. As a novelist, her books have won a Jerwood Award, the British Library Hay Festival Prize, and been shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize, the Dylan Thomas Prize, and the Historical Writers Golden Crown. Mrs. Hemingway was a Richard and Judy Bookclub pick in 2014 and a Chanel Bookclub pick in 2023.

 

for details about Naomi’s short fiction course, visit www.naomiwood.com

Rippling Points

1.45- comorbidities and winning the bbc short story prize award 

5.34 - pie charts’

8.17 - on writing about mothers

10.29 - transgressive actions in characters

12.07 - complicated or bad? 

15.48 - what’s a register clash?

18.54 - are they healing?

23,20 - influence of the pandemic and previous novels 

27.30 - what do we do with old me?

29.04 - what’s next for Naomi?

 

Reference Points

Rachel Cusk

Yan Ge

Ernest Hemingway 

 

Elizabeth Morris’ Crib Notes: https://cribnotesbookclub.substack.com