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Our new look Collected podcast starts this January

Collected: The Podcast relaunches this Sunday 19 January. Watch our promotional trailer above.

With regular news updates for contemporary writers from all genres, as well as interviews, insights and tips from writers actively working within today’s literary landscape, Collected: The Podcast will also continue to make use of the Royal Literary Fund’s extensive and invaluable archive of audio recordings, which have been created and recorded over the past ten years.

Ahead of the first episode, we caught up with producer Ann Morgan to find out what listeners can expect from the relaunched podcast.

Ann Morgan

Collected producer, Ann Morgan

As Collected‘s producer you’re often talking to others about their own experiences, but tell us about your own background.

As producer, I’ve had the privilege of planning, recording and editing every episode of the Collected podcast and, like everyone else featured in the podcast, I’m also a published writer.

I currently have a non-fiction book and two novels to my name, and my fourth book, Relearning to Read: Adventures in Not-Knowing, comes out later this year. I also have a background in journalism.

I got involved with the previous iteration of the RLF’s podcast after I finished my RLF Fellowship at the University of Kent in 2019, and gradually took on more of the editing and producing side. This gave me a good knowledge of the RLF’s archive of recordings, which include hundreds of writers talking about their creative process and journeys. So when the RLF asked if I’d like to put together a new podcast format bringing special guests into conversation with that rich bank of material, I jumped at the chance.

What can we expect from the newly relaunched Collected podcast?

What makes Collected special is the RLF’s library of archive recordings and how guests respond to them. Because this is writers talking among themselves, you get a more rounded, franker picture of the highs and lows of the writing life than we sometimes see elsewhere. This often makes guests open up in new ways, and share stories or perspectives they may not have explored before.

So, for example, we have Women’s Prize founder Kate Mosse talking about the role activism plays in her writing, and bestselling The Versions of Us author Laura Barnett lifting the lid on some of the challenges of her experiences being published in the US. It’s a privileged and surprising glimpse behind the veil, and I think it captures the warmth and solidarity that is one of the special things about the community the RLF has built around supporting writers over the centuries.

Can you tell us more about Collected: The Podcast‘s team of presenters?

We are lucky to have a brilliant team of regular presenters. They are crime writer and musician Doug Johnstone; playwright and former BBC producer Juliet Gilkes Romero; critic, literature festival director and non-fiction author Caroline Sanderson; poet, children’s writer and non-fiction author Julia Copus; nature writer and novelist Jonathan Tulloch; and non-fiction writer and broadcaster Sonia Faleiro. This varied and talented team bring a huge breadth of knowledge, insight and experience to the conversations, and they also reflect the wide range of voices and writing styles championed by the RLF.

What guests do you have coming up on the podcast?

In addition to bestsellers and award-winners such as Kate Mosse, Paula Hawkins, Jonathan Edwards and Deepa Anappara, we also have conversations with RLF Fellows currently working with students and readers around the UK. These include music journalist and memoirist Sylvia Patterson, fantasy author Holly Race, playwright Ishy Din and poet Alex Wong. The wide range of guests means we get wonderfully varied insights into the creative process and what it means to live as a writer these days.

Have you noticed any recurring themes, challenges or topics through your conversations with writers?

Keeping going. That is something up that comes up repeatedly. Whether you’re a household name or a creator of extremely niche works (or both!), all writers experience periods of difficulty and frustration. We generally only hear about the successes, so it’s heartening to listen in on so many different, brilliant writers sharing their experiences of and strategies for surviving the tough times.

What’s been the highlight of recording the podcast so far, and what are you most looking forward to in the coming weeks?

I’m proud that we’ve created a space where such a wide range of talented people feel comfortable to open up and talk about creativity. There’s a moment when a conversation really hits its stride and you forget the microphones, and it becomes two human beings sharing what really matters to them. That seems to happen a lot in the Collected studio, and it’s really magic when it does. It feels especially important when it is two writers talking peer-to-peer which you don’t hear much of on, say, the radio where journalists do the interviewing. So, I’m really looking forward to the first episodes going live and hearing what listeners make of them. That will be very exciting.

You can subscribe and listen to Collected: The Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes will be released every two weeks, beginning on Sunday 19 January 2025. 


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