Rafik Schami was born in Syria in 1946 but fled to Germany in 1971, where he has been living in exile for the past 40 years. While in Germany he co-founded the literary groups Südwind and PoLiKunst to help popularize immigrant literature; he writes only in German, and his most recent novel, The Dark Side of Love, is translated by Anthea Bell. Schami has won numerous international awards and has been translated into 23 languages. He and Barbara Schwepke of Haus Publishing have recently founded Swallow Editions, an imprint dedicated to bringing Arabic literature to the West. [read full interview]
Alex Niven is a London-based writer and a recent addition to the editorial team at Zero Books. Zero was founded by Tariq Goddard, Mark Fisher and Matteo Mandarini at the tail end of the noughties; among its early titles were Owen Hatherley's Militant Modernism, Mark Fisher's Capitalist Realism and Nina Power's One Dimensional Woman. Alex's own book, Folk Opposition, was published by Zero in 2011. We talked to him about books, music, sport, and a politics ‘beyond Dalston’. [read full interview]
Sheila Heti is the interviews editor at The Believer. She has also written two novels, a book of short stories, and a book of 'conversational philosophy' called The Chairs are Where the People Go, based on conversations with her friend Misha Glouberman. Her novel How Should a Person Be? was published in Canada in 2010, but came out in the UK early this year. She talked to Tom Cutterham about her book, about the art and practice of the interview, and about the meaning of conversation. [read full interview]
Shlomo Sand shot to prominence and controversy with his 2008 book The Invention of the Jewish People. His follow-up, The Invention of the Land of Israel, examines a nationalist mythology of land which forms a crucial part of the Zionist story of, and justification for, the Jewish State. In this interview Shlomo talks to Lewis Turner about his journey re-discovering his country’s history, his hopes for Israel’s future and the role of historians in social change. [read full interview]
