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The Sculptural Rightness of Her Limbs: Rachel Cusk's The Bradshaw Variations

In this episode we talk about Rachel Cusk's The Bradshaw Variations, from 2009, looking at how Cusk’s narration and its interest in philosophical depth power the book. We talk about how her use of free indirect style—one more attuned to an “observational mirroring” rather than the messier, more associative syntactic refraction of, say, Woolf—enables her to cover an entire year in the lives of several perspective characters while still getting us close to them. We read out a few passages and talk about the ways that art—what it is and why it matters—gets into this novel. I would definitely encourage everyone to check it out; it’s a great first Cusk book if you’ve never read her. Some really incredible lines and passages all over this one. Hope you enjoy this one, and in the meantime—stay critical. Merci !

Sensitized To Linguistic Difference: Rebecca Ruth Gould on Translation and STRANGERS

In this episode of Cordelivres Club, we are joined by Rebecca Ruth Gould, a UK-Based Translator and Writer, to discuss her relationship with translation, global perspectives, and immersion across borders. Rebecca is a special guest of ours because she was our first translated submission, where her translated novel extract from Night of Terror is featured in Issue Two of L’Esprit Literary Review. She has won awards with her full book translation, and has a short story collection called Strangers that came out at the end of 2025. In this week’s podcast, we talk about the impact of translation in her personal and creative life, and how the world of her characters involves a multilingual approach. Through upholding emotion through language changes and abandoning the idea of perfectionism, Rebecca explores how moving away from mastery allows for freedom to feel the impact of a story. I hope you enjoy this conversation, and in the meantime—stay critical. Merci !

Jessica Swoboda and Attention Ecology in "Outline"

Jessica Swoboda joins the show to talk about her essay, “Rachel Cusk’s Attention Ecology,” adapted from her PhD dissertation and published in Contemporary Literature. We talk about the Outline trilogy and Jessica’s scholarship, and the fascinating work she does into the intersections of narrative theory and interpersonal relationships—the ecologies of attention, and the ways in which they serve as a lens to viewing how a novel might impact, or inform, the world around us. Listen in as Dan and Jessica discuss the novels, PhD life, and drop some very cool book recommendations (Cusk and non-Cusk alike) throughout the show. In the meantime, check out the continuation of our Dalloway centenary series next week and, as always, stay critical!

The Past As A Place We Can Find: A Conversation with Lincoln Hirn

This episode is our first Past Contributor Conversation (we’re still workshopping the name…), featuring Lincoln Hirn! Lincoln has one story out with us already—Until You Return [https://lespritliteraryreview.org/2024/11/01/until-you-return/] in Issue Five—and one forthcoming in Issue Seven, as a Finalist in the 2026 Clarissa Dalloway Prize, Carry Me Along. Subscribe now [%%checkout_url%%] We talk about both pieces, as well as Lincoln’s ongoing pursuit of his PhD in American History and how both his academic work in slave narratives and his reading of writers such as Melville, Faulkner, and Morrison have influenced his creative style. As Lincoln puts it on the show, his goal is to “write in a way that is somewhat oceanic,” which is great—and can be seen in both his pieces at L’Esprit. We close off this wonderful conversation with Lincoln reading from the opening of his new story. I hope everyone enjoys this talk, and please do go check out Lincoln’s work on his website [https://www.lincolnhirn.com/] and elsewhere—it’s formidable!

Merely A Gifted Eccentric: Dalloway Intertextualities [Part Two]

Happy New Year! This episode is the second half of our conversation on Mrs Dalloway intertextualities, looking at Michael Cunningham's The Hours and Robert Lippincott's Mr. Dalloway. We dove right back into composition, looking at how both novels look to make their readerly impact through plot-based narrative developments rather than through narration itself, which differs from Woolf's approach in MRSD. We also covered the books’ status as queer literature, their meta-textual elements, and a look at how POV functions in each. In this second part, we focused a lot on the various ways in which Lippincott and Cunningham “win”—by which we simply mean how they seek to execute the plans and goals of their work and, ultimately, achieve an emotional resonance. Check out the Substack post [https://1882literary.substack.com/p/merely-a-gifted-eccentric-dalloway?r=63xgy5] with complete show notes, and in the meantime—stay critical. Merci !