It’s a very special episode this week award-winning US author and screenwriter Attica Locke joins us to deliver the annual Noirwich Lecture, in which she explores the ways that crime writing can challenge the distribution of power and authority at a structural and individual level, addressing how power, property and privilege intersect.

Attica’s most recent novel, Heaven, My Home, is an expertly-crafted thriller mystery, but also a sharp examination of ‘Trump-era’ America and issues of race, power, prejudice and white supremacy which still exist today. Her recent work as a television writer and producer includes When They See Us (Netflix); a portrayal of the 1990 wrongful conviction of five teenage boys from Harlem for a brutal attack in Central Park; and Little Fires Everywhere (Amazon Prime).

Meanwhile, Steph and Simon talk about free resources to help you keep writing through the latest Covid-19 lockdown rules and regs, what they’re currently reading and the upcoming ‘World Building’ resource pack!

Noirwich is a co-production from the National Centre for Writing and the University of East Anglia. Find out more here: http://noirwich.co.uk/

   
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Hosted by Simon Jones and Steph McKenna.

You can also watch the live Q&A that followed Attica’s lecture on our YouTube channel:

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Lewis Buxton on poetry in lockdown: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/article/poetry-in-lockdown-with-lewis-buxton/

Jenny Offill and Joe Dunthorne about catastrophising: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/article/jenny-offill-talks-to-joe-dunthorne/

Mark Stay on finding your new normal: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/article/finding-your-new-normal/

Ben Johncock’s free productivity course: https://courses.nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/p/supercharge-your-productivity

End music by Bennet Maples.

Intro music from YouTube audio library.

Portrait by Jenny Walters.