Writers & Company

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Federico Veiroj mixes deadpan comedy with existential drama in his prize-winning movies

The Uruguayan filmmaker spoke to Eleanor Wachtel during TIFF 2019, shortly after the world premiere of his new movie, The Moneychanger.

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Filmmaker Celine Sciamma on looking, longing and falling in love in Portrait of a Lady on Fire

A powerful love story between women, the French director's new film was a hit at TIFF 2019. Sciamma spoke to Eleanor Wachtel at the festival.

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Leanne Shapton on what objects tell us about the lives of others

The artist and author talks to Eleanor Wachtel about her evocative new work, Guestbook: Ghost Stories, and how the stuff of everyday life inspires her uniquely creative vision.

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Why George Orwell's 1984 still matters, 70 years since publication

Eleanor Wachtel speaks to Dorian Lynskey about the dystopian classic and its lasting impact on society. Lynskey is the author of The Ministry of Truth: A Biography of George Orwell's 1984.

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Kei Miller maps the intersections of race, class and privilege in Jamaica

The award-winning poet and novelist spoke to Eleanor Wachtel in 2017 about his novel Augustown, and his collection The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion.

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Anuradha Roy's elegant, provocative fiction explores power in modern India

The Indian novelist talks to Eleanor Wachtel about her award-winning book, Sleeping on Jupiter, in this conversation from 2017.

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Remembering Toni Morrison: the iconic author reflects on family, race and coping with personal tragedy

The Nobel Prize-winning American author is being celebrated around the world following her death on August 5th, age 88. She spoke to Eleanor Wachtel in 2012.

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The striking works of Anish Kapoor challenge our ideas about art and reality

The influential sculptor is known for iconic works of art in cities around the world, such as Cloud Gate (aka 'the bean') in Chicago's Millennium Park. He talked to Eleanor Wachtel in 2015.

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Min Jin Lee on the untold story of Koreans in Japan

The acclaimed novelist talked to Eleanor Wachtel in 2017 about her second book, Pachinko, and about growing up Korean in Queens, New York.

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Adam Hochschild on learning from dark moments in history

The author of King Leopold's Ghost talked to Eleanor Wachtel in 2017 about his powerful book, Spain in Our Hearts, which explores the story of American volunteers in the Spanish Civil War.

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​Fredrik Sjöberg on the art and joy of collecting hoverflies

The Swedish naturalist and bestselling author of The Fly Trap and The Art of Flight spoke to Eleanor Wachtel in 2016 about how he found his unusual calling.

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From Shakespeare to The Lion King, Julie Taymor brings magic and drama to classic stories

The theatre director and filmmaker talked to Eleanor Wachtel in 2014 about the phenomenal success of her musical, The Lion King; adapting Shakespeare's plays to the screen; and her film linking the lyrics of hit Beatles songs, Across the Universe.

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Viet Thanh Nguyen on redefining what it means to be a refugee

The Vietnamese-American author spoke to Eleanor Wachtel in 2016, shortly after winning the Pulitzer Prize for his ambitious, disturbing and darkly comic novel, The Sympathizer.

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John le Carré on his legacy as a spy-turned-novelist

In this interview from 2017, the former British intelligence officer and master of the political thriller talks to Eleanor Wachtel about A Legacy of Spies, his latest novel to feature the iconic character, George Smiley.

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Aleksandar Hemon on how his parents fled the Siege of Sarajevo and started a new life in Canada

The Bosnian-American writer talked to Eleanor Wachtel about his two new works, My Parents and This Does Not Belong to You, which explore his parents' memories of displacement, his own identity and the very nature of storytelling itself.

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Award-winning poet Raymond Antrobus on hearing, seeing and grieving through verse

The British-Jamaican poet spoke to Eleanor Wachtel about his prize-winning new collection, The Perseverance, which explores his complicated relationship with his late father and his experience growing up deaf.

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Michelle de Kretser probes the human heart with insight and wit in The Life to Come

In her new novel, the prize-winning Australian author uses satire to explore race, class and migration, and the art of writing itself. De Kretser talks to Eleanor Wachtel about hope and betrayal in her fiction, and about growing up in Sri Lanka in the 1960s.

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100 years after the Treaty of Versailles, Niall Ferguson and Margaret MacMillan on the lasting impact of WWI

Speaking to Eleanor Wachtel in 2003, the two historians look back on the First World War and its far-reaching aftermath.

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From The Shipping News to Brokeback Mountain, Annie Proulx on the importance of place in her fiction

The award-winning American author talks to Eleanor Wachtel onstage in Montreal about her Canadian connections, and how the natural world informs her writing - and her life.

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Doris Lessing on how her childhood in Zimbabwe shaped her visionary fiction

To mark the centenary of her birth, Writers & Company revisits Eleanor's 2003 conversation with the late Nobel Prize in Literature winner, one of the most influential writers of the 20th century.

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Imani Perry on the remarkable life and legacy of Lorraine Hansberry, author of A Raisin in the Sun

In Looking for Lorraine, Imani Perry explores Hansberry's significant impact as both a writer and civil rights activist. Perry spoke to Eleanor while in Toronto for TIFF's Books on Film series.

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Whit Stillman on Jane Austen's diabolical, amoral and utterly charming Lady Susan

The writer and director talked to Eleanor Wachtel about making Love & Friendship, the first film adaptation of Austen's lesser-known novella, Lady Susan. Stillman joined Eleanor in Toronto while in town for TIFF's Books on Film series.

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Widely-acclaimed Irish novelist Sally Rooney offers a sharp and witty take on love, sex, class and politics

The 28-year-old writer talks to Eleanor Wachtel about her two novels, how she engages with the social conventions of her time and how her characters navigate coming-of-age in an Ireland itself reeling from the decline of the Celtic Tiger.

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Looking back at the extraordinary Simone de Beauvoir on the 70th anniversary of The Second Sex

Four of Beauvoir's friends and admirers joined Eleanor Wachtel in 2008 to discuss the lasting legacy of the visionary French writer and feminist.

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How the true story of the 'American Taliban' led to John Wray's new novel, Godsend

In his fifth novel, the award-winning writer explores identity, rebellion and radicalism through the eyes of a teenage woman. Wray talks to Eleanor Wachtel about the 'pure and dangerous' age of adolescence.

Download How the true story of the 'American Taliban' led to John Wray's new novel, Godsend
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William Atkins on the beauty, myths and harsh realities of desert life

The British author spoke to Eleanor Wachtel about the literary allure and mystique of the world's driest, hottest places - as well as the troubling impact of migration, nuclear testing and environmental disaster.

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