David Shields on Reality Hunger, plus advice for writers | Books

In this week’s podcast we discuss Reality Hunger, David Shields’s controversial manifesto for a new literature based on fact rather than fiction. He tells us how theft can be more creative than invention, why collage is the artform of today, and why the lyric essay has more to offer the modern age than that old-fangled form, “the novelly novel”…

We also debate the issues raised by last week’s much-talked-about feature, Ten Rules for Writers, with novelist and creative writing teacher Toby Litt. Will Self, Anne Enright, Sarah Waters, Elmore Leonard and Richard Ford are among the authors whose “rules” we interrogate.

We learn what David Hare thinks of literary fiction. Plus we get a glimpse into what the process of filming Nick Hornby’s novel High Fidelity taught director Stephen Frears about the structure of novels.

Reading list

Reality Hunger, by David Shields (Hamish Hamilton)
10 Rules of Writing, by Elmore Leonard (Weidenfeld)
Becoming a Writer, by Dorothea Brande (Pan)
Journey to the Moon, by Toby Litt (Penguin)
I Play the Drums in a Band Called Okay by Toby Litt (Penguin)