Welcome to Lit Up, a sanctuary for people crazy about books, stories and the literary life. Here, you will hear from the world's most provocative thinkers and writers about the power of stories, the importance of literature in 2018, and why they're compelled to create the work they do. 

Meg Mason’s most recent book You Be Mother is all about wishing to jump into different family and leave all the complications of your own behind. Of course, families, of all things, are never exactly what they seem and Mason’s lovable protagonist Abi finds this out the hard way.

Master story-teller Neil Gaiman has been captivated by the Norse Myths since he was a child - their tricky and tragic plots have informed his own work over and over again. On the pod we talk about why he felt it was time to retell these tales in his most recent book Norse Mythology.

We are relaunching Lit Up with arguably the UK’s most formidable and funny feminist. I was lucky enough to visit Caitlin at her house in London to talk about her most recent book How to Be Famous.

You most likely know Karl Ove from his six-volume sensation, My Struggle. His new book, Autumn, is an autobiographical quartet based on the four seasons. Addressed to his unborn daughter, Autumn is like an encyclopedia of everyday things, which Knausgaard suggests are rather extraordinary on closer inspection.

This week I talk to debut author Zinzi Clemmons about her book “What We Lose: A Novel.” This novel signals the launch of an important new voice who we’ll be turning to to make sense of our world for years to come.

Actress and writer Anna Kendrick talked to me all about her memoir Scrappy Little Nobody, at Barnes & Noble in NYC to celebrate her paperback release. We talk about Anna’s childhood, dealing with anxiety, and how she decided that sticking up for herself was more important than being “nice.”