My Favourite Literary Podcasts

Backlisted

Backlisted is a podcast that’s been going on since 2016, in the podcast hosts Andy Miller (author of “The Year of Reading Dangerously”) and John Mitchinson publisher at Unbound, invite guests onto their platform and attempt to “breath new life into old books.” At the beginning of every episode the hosts will ask each other what they’ve been reading that week, the choices are usually suitably obscure and yet I always finding me adding their choices to my ever increasing TBR pile. They then introduce their guest and ask them about the first time they read the book that’s about to be discussed at great length. The book discussed each episode is usually chosen by the guest and is always from the backlist (backlist titles are older books, so generally books that have been on sale for over a year are considered Backlisted, however the books discussed on Backlisted are usually much older than that, and occasionally even out of publication.) You don’t have to have read the books discussed to listen to the podcast, it’s great listening even if you haven’t and I’ve found that listening to this podcast has made me more of an adventurous reader. Expect tenuous links, obscure references and unabashed celebration for the life and work of Anita Brookner.

What Page Are You On?

I really love this podcast, it’s hosted by fat, feminist “good friends and business partners”, Alice Slater and Bethany Rutter. I particularly love when the hosts get into book world gossip and drama and enjoy the relaxed conversational tone of the show, it really is like having a bookish chat with a friend. The podcast doesn’t really have a particular theme and there are episodes on all types of things, from reading the classics to tips on writing and book club style discussions. They also have great interviews with authors such Oyinkan Braithwaite who wrote, “My Sister The Serial Killer” and Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen of “Oh My God, What a Complete Aisling” fame (I loved both these novels and really enjoyed the interviews.) Bethany and Alice often use their platform to celebrate writers who exist outside of the traditional canon which I love. They’ve done episodes on books in translation such as episode 25 titled “Japanese Retail” which is about two books that stories centre around Japanese shop employees, “The Nakano Thrift Shop” by Hiromi Kawakami and “Convenience Store Woman” by Sayaka Murata. They’ve even done an episode on the queer nordic novels, “Paradise Rot” by Jenny Hval which is translated from Norwegian to English and “Crimson” by Niviaq Korneliussen which was translated from the original Greenlandic language to Danish and then the Danish translation was used to make the English. More recently Bethany and Alice were the ones who put me onto “Detransition Baby” by Torrey Peters. Whilst a podcast like Backlisted is great for discovering forgotten treasures, I love the What Page Pod because it’s mostly front list and Bethany and Alice do a great job at keeping up with all the new releases so we don’t have to.

Poetry Off the Shelf

Of course I had to include at least one poetry podcast in this list and this one is my absolute favourite, “Poetry Off the Shelf” is produced by the Poetry Society, Helen de Groot has hosted the podcast since 2019 when she took over from Curtis Fox who had been with the show since its genesis in 2017 (both hosts are fabulous.) Helen is a masterful interviewer and there is something enigmatic and dreamy about the listening experience that suits the subject matter perfectly. Something I really enjoy about this podcast is the focus on contemporary poetry and that the themes of the episodes vary depending on the guest. Some episodes have truly inspired me to think about things differently, for example in the episode with the poet Jo Ladin she talks with Helen about language and religion, specifically in relation to Jo’s experience as a transgender Jewish woman and how you can read the story of Jonah and the Whale as a trans parable. Jo also talked about religious texts and how yes they’re supposedly the word of G-d BUT they are written by humans and are therefore bound within our limited language, however Jo believes that’s why the meaning of religious texts can change over time because each human life illuminates a new meaning and each of those meanings are intended by G-d. These are the kind of interesting and beautiful thoughts and perspectives you’ll find on the, “Poetry Off the Shelf” pod.;

Modern Love Podcast

Does the Modern Love podcast really count as a literary podcast? Whatever, it’s my blog, I make the rules and this is one of my absolute favourites. The Modern Love Column has been a much loved part of the New York Times since 2004, people submit short essays around the theme of Love and the essays span across the spectrum of Modern Love. So there’s essays about romantic love, lost love, parental love, platonic love, unrequited love and everything in between. This current season is hosted by Modern Love editors Daniel Jones and Miya Lee and is being produced by The Times but the original Modern Love podcast that debuted in 2016 was hosted by Daniel and  Meghna Chakrabarti (I MISS YOU MEGHNA) and produced by WBUR Boston. Previously the podcast invited famous actors to perform their choice of Modern Love essay that had been published by the column over the past 18 years, so you can hear essays being read from the likes of Saoirse Ronan, Issa Rae, Zawe Ashton, Alicia Keys etc They would also invite the authors of the essays to expand on whats happened since the publication of their piece. In the 2021 season it’s a bit different, as well as replacing Meghna, they’ve also decided instead of having celebs read the weekly essay, they’d have voice actors come in and read the essays instead and have the essays exclusively chosen by the hosts. I must admit with the new format, the show has lost some of it’s charm, I think the thing I miss most is the original music that you can hear in older episodes. That being said I would still recommend the Modern Love podcast, however I would probably suggest maybe starting with the pre 2021 episodes. This podcast is simply made but surprisingly sentimental and speaks to such a universal human experience, listening whilst cooking dinner, I have more than once found myself unexpectedly weeping into my mash potatoes.

AudioBook Club

I only recently started listening to this podcast and so far I am loving it, I’ve started getting into audiobooks and this show is great because they’re a bookclub who come together once a month to discuss an audiobook. The focus is put on audio books that celebrate Black, Asian, Queer and Female narratives. It’s a monthly podcasting event and you can even email them and apply to be on a future episode as a member of the bookclub which is a great touch. I loved listening to the episode they did on “Queenie” by Candice Carty-Williams, particularly because this was a book I read but hadn’t listened to, so the first half of the podcast was a general discussion about the story which was great to hear other peoples perspectives and the second half was a Q&A with Shvorne Marks who voiced the audiobook, it was really interesting hearing about the process she went through to find a voice for all the characters. I also really enjoyed the episode were they discussed “Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows” by Balli Kaur Jaswal, I thought the discussion was particularly good because it featured women’s voices from such a wide range of age groups and backgrounds who each brought their own unique perspective. Furthermore, I am forever in debt to this podcast for introducing me to the Audible audio drama “Hell Cats” written by Carina Rodney and directed by Kate Saxon. This is one of the best things I’ve listened to, the story of female pirates Anne Bonney and Mary Read and I doubt I would have even discovered it had it not been featured on an episode of show.

Marlon and Jake Read Dead People

Hosted by Marlon James (the first Jamaican author to win the Man Booker prize with his 2015 novel A Brief History of Seven Killings) and his editor Jake Morrissey, who come together and talk about books they loved and books they hated, the only rule is the authors have to be dead. Now on series two, the conversation usually revolves around a theme, so I’ve listened to episodes on

I think this podcast has a candour to it that some of the others are sometimes lacking, I think many Bookish podcasts worry about offending authors so sometimes I find the conversations we hear around certain books are not