For this episode, we speak to the wonderful Kirsty Logan. Kirsty is completely devoted to books: she is the award-winning author of several novels, including The Gloaming and The Gracekeepers, and short story collections including A Portable Shelter and The Rental Heart & Other Fairytales. She recently wrote the Audible Original The Sound at the End, an Arctic ghost story. She’s also a book reviewer, editor and mentor.

Kirsty’s new novel, Now She is Witch, is published on 12 January. It is a medieval witch revenge story unlike any other. Kirsty is joined by Senior Communications & Marketing Manager Steph McKenna to discuss the book as well as aspects of craft, including character, theme, structure, research, routine and inspiration. They also talk about how to build complex characters within fairy tales, the difference between historical fiction and Medievalism and how witch stories reflect our feelings of being under threat in our world.

Kirsty also starts our conversation with a reading — a poem she wrote during a writing residency.

Kirsty Logan is a professional daydreamer. Her first story collection, The Rental Heart & Other Fairytales, won the Scott Prize, the Polari First Book Prize, and the Saboteur Award. Her first novel, The Gracekeepers, won a Lambda Literary Award and was selected for the Radio 2 Book Club and the Waterstones Book Club.  A Portable Shelter won the Gavin Wallace Fellowship and was published as a limited edition illustrated hardback which sold out on pre-order. Things We Say in the Dark, a collection of feminist horror stories, was optioned for TV. Her short fiction and poetry has been translated into Japanese, Spanish, Italian and Chinese, adapted for stage, recorded for radio and podcasts, exhibited in galleries, and distributed from a vintage Wurlitzer cigarette machine. Kirsty has performed her work at festivals and events all over the world, including Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Malaysia, Spain, and all over the UK. As well as writing fiction, Kirsty also reviews books and works as a writing mentor. She is currently working on short musical, a short story collection and a very long novel. She lives in Glasgow with her family. Image (c) Simone Falk