Neil Smith

How I Wrote This

Nov 21 2023 • 40 mins

Neil Smith describes how, when he first began writing, there was one thing he was sure of: he didn’t want to write auto-fiction. But his childhood was the kind that haunted him and eventually, he had to turn tragedy into art.

Neil is a novelist, translator, and short story writer whose 2007 award-winning debut collection, Bang Crunchwas re-released in July of this year and has been translated into several languages, most recently Russian. In 2015, he published his first novel, Boo, about a boy in the afterlife and the following year was nominated for the Governor General’s Award for his translation of Geneviève Pettersen’s novel La déesse des mouches à feu into The Goddess of Fireflies.

In this candid and highly personal conversation, Neil talks about his latest novel, Jones, the heartbreaking tale about a troubling childhood that he describes as 75% true.

Trigger warning: sexual abuse / suicide


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You Might Like

The Moth
The Moth
The Moth
Spooked
Spooked
KQED and Snap Studios
Snap Judgment
Snap Judgment
Snap Judgment and PRX
99% Invisible
99% Invisible
Roman Mars
Myths and Legends
Myths and Legends
Jason Weiser, Carissa Weiser, Nextpod
Selected Shorts
Selected Shorts
Symphony Space
The Great Detectives of Old Time Radio
The Great Detectives of Old Time Radio
Adam Graham Radio Detective Podcasts
Fantasy Fangirls
Fantasy Fangirls
Fantasy Fangirls | QCODE
The Book Review
The Book Review
The New York Times
The Sporkful
The Sporkful
Dan Pashman
Gastropod
Gastropod
Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley