Featuring: Evie’s life and books; writing every novel very differently; where The Bass Rock came from; religion and paganism; when in doubt; paying attention to negative reviews; getting nothing done at writers’ retreats; what Australia meant to Evie as a child; the role of character and landscape; writing confronting scenes and the high body count; the exhaustion for women in constantly being vigilant; ghosts and hauntings; the links between religion and misogyny; Evie’s first reader and editor; the writers who helped teach Evie to write; the Victorian idea of a companion; behind the scenes of Review, Evie’s bookshop in Peckham; and book recommendations. In Australia find Evie's books at all good bookshops such as Readings: https://www.readings.com.au In the UK find Evie's books and browse many other delights at Review in Peckham http://www.reviewbookshop.co.uk
Since Evie Wyld was first published, her writing has been celebrated for its fine observations, and way of pinning down emotional nuance. Her first novel, After the Fire, A Still Small Voice, won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and a Betty Trask Award and Evie was listed as one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists. Her second novel, All the Birds Singing, won the Miles Franklin Award, the Encore Award, the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize, and was longlisted for the Stella Prize. Then with her third novel The Bass Rock she won the Stella Prize. It weaves together the lives of three women across different periods of time and explores male violence, in different guises. But Evie doesn’t just explore male violence, she gets in deep, and leaves you reeling from the cumulative impact of this age-old misogyny. It’s one of the most unsettling and artfully written novels of recent times. Evie’s also written a graphic novel with illustrator Joe Sumner called Everything Is Teeth, and she co-runs Review, an indie bookshop in Peckham London.