Send us a textALL OF THIS UNREAL TIME Published by Rough Trade Books Hopefully, you're listening to this surrounded by mountains of chocolate. What follows is the second part of our conversation with Max. If you’ve enjoyed it, follow the link to get yourself a copy straight from the Rough Trade website. https://roughtradebooks.com/products/all-of-this-unreal-time-max-porter-foreword-by-cillian-murphyAs our discussion about All Of This Unreal Time came to an end there were inevitably other things I wanted to ask Max about. Our conversation eventually led to Palfest and the life-changing trip he took to the West Bank last year. But we started with the writing group at HMP Erlestoke and Max’s role as the writer in residence within the prison. Mentioned in this episode https://pennedup.org.uk/https://www.palfest.org/@dillonscrossproject One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This - Omar El Akkad We Need New Stories - Nesrine Malik@fieldzine www.fieldzine.comwww.patreon.com/fieldzine
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Field Ramble with Max Porter (part 1)
Send us a textALL OF THIS UNREAL TIME Published by Rough Trade Back this weekend with a double header, we turn to All of This Unreal Time by Mr Max Porter. Described in the foreword as ‘a gift, written in friendship’ it is an elusive, ever moving torrent of apology, love and gratitude. A response to the countless human and non-human lives that intersect with and impact on our own.Written during the first, weird summer months of the pandemic, the piece blossomed into a collaboration commissioned by Manchester Film festival. Directed by Aoife McArdle, it features Max’s friend and long time collaborator Cillian Murphy as Unreal Time’s ‘everyman’ as well as an incredible score by Aaron & Bryce Dessner and Jon Hopkins. Part One - available from Friday - Wasteful writing, hardcore forgiveness & confessional booths.As with all the best Rambles the conversation soon went elsewhere. Part Two - Bank Holiday Monday - prison writing groups, embroided life jackets & visiting the West bank with Palfest. ‘Strange and Beautiful.’ The Guardian Books mentioned in conversation The Gift - Lewis Hyde Essayism - Brian DillonOn Forgiveness - Richard Holloway Is A River Alive? - Robert MacfarlaneWe Need New Stories - Nesrine Malik@fieldzine www.fieldzine.comwww.patreon.com/fieldzine
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Field Ramble with Naomi Booth
Send us a textOn this episode we speak to Naomi Booth about her latest novel Raw Content. Set during a bleak Yorkshire winter, the book follows Grace, a legal editor whose job demands she reduce unspeakable acts to neatly worded clauses. The care and attention with which Grace approaches this work is only matched by her risk taking outside it. When she falls unexpectedly pregnant she attempts the same compartmentalisation, hoping to keep the new, visceral weirdness that her body is undergoing at arms length. But after the gory, psychedelic experience of birth an unravelling begins that Grace is unable to contain. Embodied by the derelict, grim moorland of West Yorkshire, Raw Content heads into the badlands of Grace’s deepest fears, where violent compulsive thoughts threaten to overwhelm and the repressed roars into view demanding with to be dealt with. ‘Booth knows that too much is asked of too few, in spaces that are too small, and in lives that have too little headroom for care and community.’Keiran Goddard @fieldzine www.fieldzine.comwww.patreon.com/fieldzine
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Field Ramble with Anna Whitwham
Send us a textOn this episode, we speak to Anna Whitwham about Soft Tissue Damage, her startling account of a healing found in controlled violence. Published by Rough Trade Books on 27.03 it charts both the loss of Anna’s mother to cancer and her subsequent choice to battle unresolved anger in the boxing ring. From early sparing sessions to the draining seconds of the final round, Anna writes both with immediacy and unflinching honesty. What emerges is an exploration of the pain we choose, the impossible opponent in grief and the strange self-possession that fighting can offer.It’s a book filled with voices from just the other side of the ropes too. Sparring partners, dance partners, a new partner - a daughter, a coach and a grandfather too. All have a role to play in Soft Tissue Damage. Each, a presence that means in some way Anna never steps into the ring alone.@fieldzine www.fieldzine.comwww.patreon.com/fieldzine
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Field Ramble with Ben Markovits
Send us a textOn this episode, Ben Markovitz talks to us about his latest novel The Rest of Our Lives. Starting in the midst of a failing relationship, the story follows Tom Layward, a man on the cusp of a life changing decision. Having lived for years in the shadow of a brief affair that his wife Amy pursued, Tom resolves to leave, following their own adult children out into the world. What follows is a road trip of wrong turns and misdirections, across a strangely dislocated and misremembered America as Tom runs both from the narrowing of midlife and his own complicity. Told in a deceptive, first hand delivery, that belies the vital nature of its concerns The Rest of Our Lives is, at its heart, a novel of forgiveness and one that ultimately sides with the enduring nature of love. 'A deft, agile, razor -sharp portrait of family and midlife crisis ..... A perfect contemporary take on the American road-trip novel.'Lucy Caldwell @fieldzine www.fieldzine.comwww.patreon.com/fieldzine
A pod for those who love the latest in fiction, non fiction and poetry. Field is a platform for new and exciting work from across the UK and beyond. If you like what you hear find out more about Field at www.fieldzine.com. You can subscribe and support Field's work via patreon at www.patreon.com/fieldzine for just £3 per month.
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