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Hosted by Unknown Host · 🇺🇸 US · EN · 25 episodes
Established thought leaders with verified media credentials.
A literary-inclined release from the publishers of Indirect Books. Subscribe for conversations with authors, editorial talks, critical deep dives, and other book-type discussions. Updated at certain times.
Unknown Host hosts Free and Direct, a arts show with 25 episodes published.
This episode features the excellent Rachel León joining the show to discuss her debut novel, How We See The Gray . Rachel wrote for L’Esprit back in Issue Zero , and we’re super excited to celebrate her book. We talk abo
In this episode we talk about Rachel Cusk's The Bradshaw Variations, from 2009, looking at how Cusk’s narration and its interest in philosophical depth power the book. We talk about how her use of free indirect style—one
In this episode of Cordelivres Club, we are joined by Rebecca Ruth Gould, a UK-Based Translator and Writer, to discuss her relationship with translation, global perspectives, and immersion across borders. Rebecca is a sp
Jessica Swoboda joins the show to talk about her essay, “Rachel Cusk’s Attention Ecology,” adapted from her PhD dissertation and published in Contemporary Literature. We talk about the Outline trilogy and Jessica’s schol
This episode is our first Past Contributor Conversation (we’re still workshopping the name…), featuring Lincoln Hirn! Lincoln has one story out with us already—Until You Return in Issue Five—and one forthcoming in Issue
![Merely A Gifted Eccentric: Dalloway Intertextualities [Part Two] episode artwork](https://media.rss.com/free-and-direct/ep_cover_20260113_120155_a872e29059fd9991b849549b444db210.jpg)
Happy New Year! This episode is the second half of our conversation on Mrs Dalloway intertextualities, looking at Michael Cunningham's The Hours and Robert Lippincott's Mr. Dalloway. We dove right back into composition,
![Dreaming Animal Dreams: Dalloway Intertextualities [Part One] episode artwork](https://media.rss.com/free-and-direct/ep_cover_20251218_091239_e4fe0103e9e380e436b9a48187cd85ef.jpg)
This episode is the first half of our conversation on the intertextualities of Mrs Dalloway, looking at Michael Cunningham's The Hours and Robert Lippincott's Mr. Dalloway. We introduced the books, spending a little time
Katharine Smyth joins the show to talk about her memoir, All The Lives We Ever Lived, her Woolfian inheritance, her family, and much more. She takes us through how Woolf inspired the emotional symbolism of her memoir and
Suddenly Elizabeth stepped forward and most competently boarded the omnibus, in front of everybody. This episode is the first in our series on Mrs Dalloway, for the 100th anniversary of its publication. In this episode,
This episode features the excellent Rachel León joining the show to discuss Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day. Rachel wrote for L’Esprit way back in Issue Zero, and has all sorts of cool stuff going on. We get into
Our first memoir in the Cordlivres Club! On this episode, we’re talking Rachel Cusk’s The Last Supper, from 2009, about a summer spent in Italy with her family. It’s all about art, language, meaning, truth, tennis—you kn
![Bore This Funeral Affair: James Joyce's Ulysses [Part Two] episode artwork](https://media.rss.com/free-and-direct/ep_cover_20250914_070955_89664c5effd0780072539086cbeb0ec4.jpg)
What better way to tackle the most titanic of twentieth century novels—both within and beyond the text itself—than to bring in a very special guest? Indirect Books’ debut author, and noted literary maverick, Michael Nath
![The Inner Organs of Beasts and Fowls: James Joyce's Ulysses [Part One] episode artwork](https://media.rss.com/free-and-direct/ep_cover_20250914_070932_5206f89eca7604825b72734c76974aa7.jpg)
What better way to tackle the most titanic of twentieth century novels—both within and beyond the text itself—than to bring in a very special guest? Indirect Books’ debut author, and noted literary maverick, Michael Nath
Our latest guest episode in the Cordelives Club doubles as our first author talk! The marvellous H. S. Cross joins us to talk about her new novel, Amanda. Heather and I talk about her belief in point-of-view, the MFA-les
![If The Past Comes In It Will Wring Her Neck: Eimear McBride's Strange Hotel [Part Two] episode artwork](https://media.rss.com/free-and-direct/ep_cover_20250914_070920_4f7e650a0baf2be14520156959cd54df.jpg)
This episode focuses on the second half of Eimear McBride's 2020 novel Strange Hotel, talking about the way her prose creates a parallel relationship between the reader’s repose to the text and the character’s response t
![Youth's Glorious Absence of Context: Eimear McBride's Strange Hotel [Part One] episode artwork](https://media.rss.com/free-and-direct/ep_cover_20250914_070958_8446f4bdfbf6529cf7dbc309f0800843.jpg)
This episode focuses on the first half of Eimear McBride's excellent novel Strange Hotel, diving into its unique narrative structure, narrational techniques (including our old friend the present tense), immersive languag
The brilliant L’Esprit interns, Aerin and Anika, join the show to discuss their experiences working on the journal, their views on the state of literature, and a couple of short stories they wanted to check out. I hope y
Our first guest episode in the Cordelives Club! My friend Brian—poet, professor, lover of Paris—joins to talk about James Baldwin’s brilliant short story “Sonny’s Blues", and tunes in an absolute tour de force. Brian tak
This episode focuses on Muriel Spark's 1970 novel The Driver's Seat, diving into Spark’s author's technique of "getting in and out" of scenes and the way she mediates the reader-protagonist relationship. The third person
Welcome to the first episode of Les Cordelivres Club, conversations in revolutionary criticism from Indirect Books. This episode focuses on Virginia Woolf’s short story “In The Orchard,” and the foundational mode of anal
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Free and Direct is hosted by Unknown Host. The show is categorised under Arts (books) and has published 25 episodes.
Free and Direct has published 25 episodes.
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