Category: Author Interviews

Stories in Motion: How the Victorian Penny Dreadful Circulated Across Genres, Classes and Centuries

23 March 2026 Author Interviews

This is an author interview with Manon Burz-Labrande, author of Penny Dreadfuls: The Circulation Patterns of a Victorian Popular Genre Can you explain what penny dreadfuls are, for readers who might not be familiar with them? Penny dreadfuls were cheap, weekly story papers that were hugely popular in Britain during...

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On ‘Sexual Violence and Literary Art’

8 December 2025 Author Interviews

Adam Piette interviews Peter Robinson, author of Sexual Violence and Literary Art Peter Robinson is Professor of English and American Literature at the University of Reading. He has published many volumes of poetry, translations, fictional prose and literary criticism, and been awarded the Cheltenham Prize, the John Florio Prize and...

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Life as an Endless Gig: How Platforms Turn Us into Performers

24 November 2025 Author Interviews

This is an author interview with Slavko Splichal, the author of The Gig Public Q: ‘The Gig Public’ is an unusual title. Some might say it sounds more like a book about precarious work than about public life. Why insist on the word ‘gig’? A: That tension is exactly the...

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Sebastian Masuda, the Godfather of Japanese Kawaii Culture

5 November 2025 Author Interviews

This is an interview with Yuniya Kawamura, author of Sebastian Masuda  Q1: Can you explain who Sebastian Masuda is to those who are not familiar with his work? He is known as the Godfather of the Japanese kawaii (cute) culture which originated in Harajuku, one of Japan’s most famous fashionable...

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The Amendments to the Constitution, a pathway to the American experience

4 October 2025 Author Interviews

This is an interview with Blaine Kaltman, author of Perfecting the U.S. Constitution: 27 and Counting, The Amendments that Shaped America’s Future  Q. What made you decide to write a book about the Amendments to the U.S. Constitution? Dr. Kaltman: Because it is a very interesting topic that too often...

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The warlike king who died in his bed

15 September 2025 Author Interviews

This is an author interview by Dylan Motin, author of How Louis XIV Survived His Hegemonic Bid Q1. Why a book about Louis XIV and not any other king? Louis XIV’s France belonged in a rare category of states. Not only was it a great power but also what international...

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The gothic western on screen

21 July 2025 Author Interviews

This is an author interview by Keith McDonald and Wayne Johnson, authors of The Spectral West: Super-Nature and the Gothic and the Western Film   Q1. What was the importance of writing this book now? The Western has always been cyclical in terms of its popularity and the ways that...

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Engaging the citizenry

15 May 2025 Author Interviews

This is an interview with Sarah Murray and Lachlan Umbers, editors of Civic Engagement in Australian Democracy   What inspired this edited collection on Civic Engagement in Australian Democracy? Australian democracy depends fundamentally upon an active, engaged citizenry. In this respect, however, Australian democracy appears to be in decline. The...

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The silent scene of reading: four moments of aesthetic experience

27 April 2025 Author Interviews

Nathan Wainstein interviews Bryan Counter, author of Four Moments of Aesthetic Experience Nathan Wainstein: At the outset of the book, you say that it ‘will approach aesthetic experience with a focus on life’. I find this interest in immediate or actual life, as opposed to the more curated encounters that...

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About the (Latin) American scene, present and future (im-)perfect: five critical conversations

2 April 2025 Author Interviews

This is an author interview by Fernando G Herrero, author of The (Latin) American Scene, Present and Future (Im-)Perfect.    What was the assembling idea behind this work? I was in the middle of the PhD at Duke University in the late-1990s after Wake Forest University, the University of Wales,...

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