In today's episode I talk to Ashton Politanoff about his 2026 novel, Dad Had a Bad Day. 

Ashton Politanoff is a frequent contributor to NOON, edited by Diane Williams. His writing has also appeared or is forthcoming in McSweeney’s, Southwest Review, Conjunctions, New York Tyrant, Egress, and elsewhere. He is a former division I tennis player and his childhood coach was Robert Lansdorp, who is credited with coaching Pete Sampras, Tracy Austin, and Maria Sharapova. His novel Dad Had a Bad Day is forthcoming Spring/Summer 2026 from Astra House (US) and Daunt Books (UK). Politanoff’s first novel, You’ll Like It Here, was published by Dalkey Archive in 2022. He is an English Professor at Cypress College.

Book recs:

 * Damon Galgut, The Promise
 * Tana French, The Searcher

Follow the show on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/booksupclose]and subscribe to the Substack [https://booksupclose.substack.com/] for transcripts and more links. Please leave feedback here [https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=ur7mk6rEMUevXdc1sJfq2-MtVOsMawJDpBA3aJ944dVUMkI4OTA3N0dBMUE2SDVJWlpaOE8zNlo4NC4u].

Produced, hosted, and edited by Chris Lloyd [https://www.instagram.com/chrisllloyd9].

Ep. 35. Ashton Politanoff, Dad Had a Bad Day 

In today's episode I talk to Carys Davies about her novel Clear [https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/clear-carys-davies/7591882?ean=9781803510422&next=t]. 

Carys Davies is the author of three novels and two collections of short stories. Her debut novel West was shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize, runner-up for the Society of Authors' McKitterick Prize, and winner of the Wales Book of the Year for Fiction. Her second novel The Mission House was The Sunday Times 2020 Novel Of The Year. Her latest novel Clear won the 2025 Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize, the 2025 Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger, and the 2025 Wales Book of the Year, and has been nominated for many others, including the Walter Scott Prize, Scotland’s National Book Award, the Prix Femina, the Prix Médicis, and the Europese Literatuurprijs.

Her short story collection The Redemption of Galen Pike won the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award and the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize. She is also the recipient of the Royal Society of Literature's V.S. Pritchett Prize, the Society of Authors' Olive Cook Short Story Award and a Cullman Fellowship at the New York Public Library. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a 2025/26 Fellow at Columbia University’s Institute for Ideas and Imagination in Paris. Born in Wales, she grew up there and in the Midlands, lived and worked for twelve years in New York and Chicago, and now lives in Edinburgh.

Episode notes:

 * Elizabeth McCracken, A Long Game

Book recs:

 * Sylvia Townsend Warner, Mr Fortune's Maggot
 * Jessica Francis Kane, Fonseca 

Follow the show on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/booksupclose]and subscribe to the Substack [https://booksupclose.substack.com/] for transcripts and more links. Please leave feedback here [https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=ur7mk6rEMUevXdc1sJfq2-MtVOsMawJDpBA3aJ944dVUMkI4OTA3N0dBMUE2SDVJWlpaOE8zNlo4NC4u]. 

Produced, hosted, and edited by Chris Lloyd [https://www.instagram.com/chrisllloyd9].

Ep. 34. Carys Davies, Clear 

In today's episode I walk to Oluwaseun Olayiwola about his poem 'Strange Beach' (the first one) from the book of the same name [https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/strange-beach-oluwaseun-olayiwola/7741269?ean=9781804271551&next=t].

Oluwaseun (Seun) Olayiwola is a poet, critic, choreographer and performer based in London. His creative and critical work has been published in The Poetry Review, PN Review, The Telegraph, the TLS and elsewhere. His choreographic work has been presented at the V&A, The Place, The Central School of Ballet, and Studio Voltaire. He’s been commissioned by RSL, Ledbury Poetry Festival, Southwark Council, and Studio 3 Arts. Seun has an MFA in Choreography from the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, where he was a Fulbright Scholar in 2018-2019. His debut collection was published by Fitzcarraldo Editions (UK) and Soft Skull Press (US). Since publication, Strange Beach has won an Eric Gregory Award and was Poetry Book Society Winter 2025 Special Commendation. Seun is an inaugural member of the Rose Choreographic School at Sadlers Wells East. He is a lecturer in dance in the Kingston School of Art and Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Episode notes: 

 * Jorie Graham, 'Le Manteau De Pascal'
 * Negative Capability (Keats)
 * Claudia Rankine, Citizen
 * Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Spill
 * Christina Sharpe, In the Wake
 * Victoria Adukwei Bulley, 'The Ultra-Black Fish' [https://zencastr.com/z/A4HYRgcs]
 * Louise Glück
 * Robin Coste Lewis, Voyage of the Sable Venus
 * Maggie Nelson, Bluets 
 * Adam Phillips, The Life You Want 

Book recs:

 * Claudia Rankine, Triage [https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/triage-truth-art-and-fiction-claudia-rankine/3484f5f530eb993c?ean=9780241828564&next=t]
 * Christina Sharpe, Ordinary Notes [https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/ordinary-notes-christina-sharpe/7448029?ean=9781914198144&next=t]
 * Carmen Maria Machado, In the Dream House [https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/in-the-dream-house-a-memoir-carmen-maria-machado/364838?ean=9781788162258&next=t]
 * Leo Bersani and Adam Phillips, Intimacies [https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/intimacies-leo-bersani/2765997?ean=9780226043456&next=t] 

Follow the show on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/booksupclose]and subscribe to the Substack [https://booksupclose.substack.com/] for transcripts and more links. Please leave feedback here [https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=ur7mk6rEMUevXdc1sJfq2-MtVOsMawJDpBA3aJ944dVUMkI4OTA3N0dBMUE2SDVJWlpaOE8zNlo4NC4u]. Follow Seun on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/itsamule/?hl=en].

Produced, hosted, and edited by Chris Lloyd [https://www.instagram.com/chrisllloyd9].

Ep. 33. Oluwaseun Olayiwola, 'Strange Beach'

In today's episode I talk to Kai Spellmeier about his new novel Boy Friends [https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/boy-friends-kai-spellmeier/7982020?ean=9781526693549&next=t] (Bloomsbury 2026).

Kai Spellmeier is a German author currently living in England. He has published several books in Germany, including YA novels and non-fiction, and he has been blogging about books on Instagram for many years. Boy Friends is his English language debut.

Book Recs:

 * Nina LaCour, Everything Leads to You
 * Cameron Sullivan, The Red Winter
 * Douglas Stewart, John of John 

Follow the show on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/booksupclose]and subscribe to the Substack [https://booksupclose.substack.com/] for transcripts and more links. Please leave feedback here [https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=ur7mk6rEMUevXdc1sJfq2-MtVOsMawJDpBA3aJ944dVUMkI4OTA3N0dBMUE2SDVJWlpaOE8zNlo4NC4u]. Get more from Kai at his Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/kaispellmeier/?hl=en-gb]. 

Produced, hosted, and edited by Chris Lloyd [https://www.instagram.com/chrisllloyd9].

Ep. 32. Kai Spellmeier, Boy Friends 

In this episode I talk to Madeleine Dunnigan about her novel Jean [https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/jean-madeleine-dunnigan/b88216b3b0a83992?ean=9781917092722&next=t] (2026) from Daunt.

Madeleine Dunnigan is a writer and screenwriter from London. She was a Jill Davis Fellow on the MFA at New York University. While there she was awarded a Global Research Initiative Fellowship in Paris. Her first novel, Jean, was published by Daunt Books (UK) and W.W. Norton (US) in 2026 and will be translated into Spanish, German and Italian.

Episode Notes:

 * Seán Hewitt, Open, Heaven (listen to my ep with him [https://zencastr.com/z/vhMtUJvj]); Philippe Besson, Lie With Me; Justin Torres, We the Animals

Book Recs:

 * John McGahern, That They May Face the Rising Sun
 * Louise Kennedy, Trespasses
 * Madeleine Thien, Do Not Say We Have Nothing
 * Susanna Moore, In the Cut
 * Virginia Woolf, The Years
 * Octavia Butler's short stories and manifesto
 * Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
 * Yoko Ogawa, Hotel Iris

Follow the show on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/booksupclose]and subscribe to the Substack [https://booksupclose.substack.com/] for transcripts and more links. Please leave feedback here [https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=ur7mk6rEMUevXdc1sJfq2-MtVOsMawJDpBA3aJ944dVUMkI4OTA3N0dBMUE2SDVJWlpaOE8zNlo4NC4u]. Get more from Madeleine on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/madeleine.dunnigan/] and at her website madeleinedunnigan.com. 

Produced, hosted, and edited by Chris Lloyd [https://www.instagram.com/chrisllloyd9].

Ep. 31. Madeleine Dunnigan, Jean 

In this episode I talk to Fatima Bhutto about her book The Hour of the Wolf [https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-hour-of-the-wolf-fatima-bhutto/9822d4c2aef1fdc2?ean=9781917092319&next=t](2026) from Daunt Books.

Fatima Bhutto is the author of the novels The Runaways and the Women’s Prize for Fiction-longlisted The Shadow of the Crescent Moon, and the non-fiction New Kings of the World and Songs of Blood and Sword, which deals with her father’s murder and the Bhutto family’s history in Pakistani politics. Bhutto’s journalism and essays have appeared in the New Statesman, New York Times and Guardian, and elsewhere.

Episode Notes:

 * Carmen Maria Machado, In the Dream House; Annie Ernaux, Simple Passion; Jill Ciment, Half a Life and Consent; Melissa Febos, 'In Defense of Navel Gazing'; Julie Myerson, The Lost Child.

Book Recs:

 * Tareq Baconi, Fire in Every Direction and Hamas Contained
 * Helen Garner, This House of Grief
 * Mary Gaitskill, Veronica
 * Hiba Abu Nada, 'I Grant You Refuge' [https://proteanmag.com/2023/11/03/i-grant-you-refuge/]

Follow the show on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/booksupclose]and subscribe to the Substack [https://booksupclose.substack.com/] for transcripts and more links. Please leave feedback here [https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=ur7mk6rEMUevXdc1sJfq2-MtVOsMawJDpBA3aJ944dVUMkI4OTA3N0dBMUE2SDVJWlpaOE8zNlo4NC4u]. Follow Fatima on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/fbhutto/?hl=en] too.

Produced, hosted, and edited by Chris Lloyd [https://www.instagram.com/chrisllloyd9].

Ep. 30. Fatima Bhutto, The Hour of the Wolf 

In this episode I talk to Robert Douglas-Fairhurst about his nonfiction book Look Closer: How to Get More Out of Reading [https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/look-closer-how-to-get-more-out-of-the-books-you-love-robert-douglas-fairhurst/7824593?ean=9781911717317&next=t] (2025).

Robert Douglas-Fairhurst was born in 1968 and lives in Oxford, where he is a Professor of English Literature and a Fellow of Magdalen College. His most recent books are Look Closer: How to Get More Out of Reading (2025) and Metamorphosis: a Life in Pieces (2023). Previous books include The Turning Point: A Year that Changed Dickens and the World (2021) The Story of Alice: Lewis Carroll and the Secret History of Wonderland (2015) and Becoming Dickens: The Invention of a Novelist (2011). His other publications include Victorian Afterlives (2002), and editions of A Christmas Carol, Great Expectations, London Labour and the London Poor, The Water-Babies, and The Collected Peter Pan for Oxford World’s Classics, and A Tale of Two Cities for Norton. He is a regular reviewer and features writer for publications including the Times, Spectator, and Literary Review. He has worked as a historical consultant on BBC adaptations of Jane Eyre (2006), Emma (2009), and Great Expectations (2011), the 20-part BBC1/Red Planet series Dickensian (2015-16) and the Netflix feature films Enola Holmes (2019) and Enola Holmes 2 (2022). In 2015 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Follow the show on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/booksupclose] and subscribe to the Substack [https://booksupclose.substack.com/] for transcripts and more links. Please leave feedback here [https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=ur7mk6rEMUevXdc1sJfq2-MtVOsMawJDpBA3aJ944dVUMkI4OTA3N0dBMUE2SDVJWlpaOE8zNlo4NC4u].

Produced, hosted, and edited by Chris Lloyd [https://www.instagram.com/chrisllloyd9].

Ep. 29. Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, Look Closer: How to Get More Out of Reading

In this episode I talk to Seth Insua about his novel Human, Animal [https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/human-animal-seth-insua/7756277?ean=9780857308894&next=t] (2025)

Seth Insua is an Anglo-Spanish writer and artist. He was born in Kent in 1989. He graduated from the University of Oxford with a First in English Language and Literature. His debut novel, Human, Animal, was published by VERVE Books in 2025 and Letras de Plata in Spanish the following year. It was selected for the BBC Radio 2 Book Club with Sara Cox, and shortlisted for both the inaugural New Adult Book Prize and the Book of the Year: Discover by the British Book Awards. He lives with his husband, David, between Newcastle upon Tyne and Madrid.

Episode notes:

 * Susan Sontag, Against Interpretation
 * Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, 'Paranoid Reading and Reparative Reading...'
 * Roland Barthes, S/Z (the proairetic code)

Book recs:

 * Saleem Haddad, Floodlines [https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/floodlines-saleem-haddad/aea1107c861fc684?ean=9781787706132&next=t] (go back and listen to my interview with Saleem!)
 * Josh Silver, Fruit Fly [https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/fruit-fly-savage-and-darkly-hilarious-juno-dawson-josh-silver/797f61b84ea7c825?ean=9781836431473&next=t]

Follow the show on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/booksupclose] and subscribe to the Substack [https://booksupclose.substack.com/] for transcripts and more links. Find Seth at sethinsua.com or @sethinsua on Instagram. Please leave feedback here [https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=ur7mk6rEMUevXdc1sJfq2-MtVOsMawJDpBA3aJ944dVUMkI4OTA3N0dBMUE2SDVJWlpaOE8zNlo4NC4u].

Produced, hosted, and edited by Chris Lloyd [https://www.instagram.com/chrisllloyd9].

Ep. 28. Seth Insua, Human, Animal 

In this episode, I talk to Torrey Peters about her story 'Stag Dance' [https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/stag-dance-from-the-bestselling-author-of-detransition-baby-torrey-peters/abbd53a938fa071d?ean=9781800810815&next=t]from the collection of the same name.  

Torrey Peters’ first novel, Detransition, Baby won the PEN/ Hemingway Award 2022 and was shortlisted for the 2022 National Book Critics’ Circle John Leonard Prize for best first book. A Times Top Ten bestseller, it was longlisted for the 2021 Women’s Prize for Fiction. Her follow-up Stag Dance is a quartet of short stories that explore trans life past, present and future.

Episode notes:

 * William Empson, Seven Types of Ambiguity
 * Strunck and White, The Elements of Style

Book recs:

 * Halldor Laxness, Independent People [https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/independent-people-halldor-laxness/2392414?ean=9780099527121&next=t] (trans. J. A. Thompson)
 * Juan Gabriel Vásquez, The Sound of Things Falling [https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-sound-of-things-falling-juan-gabriel-vasquez/4337957?ean=9781408831618&next=t] (trans. Anne McLean)
 * João Guimarães Rosa, Vastlands: The Crossing (Alison Entreckin)

Follow the show on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/booksupclose] and subscribe to the Substack [https://booksupclose.substack.com/] for transcripts and more links. Find Sasha on IG @sashajdm. Please leave feedback here [https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=ur7mk6rEMUevXdc1sJfq2-MtVOsMawJDpBA3aJ944dVUMkI4OTA3N0dBMUE2SDVJWlpaOE8zNlo4NC4u].

Produced, hosted, and edited by Chris Lloyd [https://www.instagram.com/chrisllloyd9].

Ep. 27. Torrey Peters, 'Stag Dance' 

In this episode, I talk to Sasha Debevec-McKenney about her poem 'WHAT AM I AFRAID OF?' from her collection Joy is My Middle Name [https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/joy-is-my-middle-name-sasha-debevec-mckenney/7836117?ean=9781804271872&next=t].

Sasha Debevec-McKenney is the author of the poetry collection Joy Is My Middle Name (Fitzcarraldo, 2025). She received her MFA from New York University, was the 2020–2021 Jay C. and Ruth Halls Poetry Fellow at the University of Wisconsin, and a 2023-2025 Creative Writing Fellow at Emory University. Her poems have appeared in places like The New Yorker, The Yale Review, The Drift, and Granta. She was born in Hartford, Connecticut and is currently an Assistant Professor of Writing at Grand Valley State University.

Episode notes

 * Diane Seuss, frank: sonnets [https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/frank-sonnets-diane-seuss/7755539?ean=9781804271575&next=t]

Book recs:

 * Yasmin Zaher, The Coin [https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-coin-a-filthy-elegant-book-raven-leilani-yasmin-zaher/7808546?ean=9781804441893&next=t]
 * Steven Duong, At the End of the World There is a Pond [https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324086796]
 * Elisa Gonzales, Grand Tour [https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/grand-tour-elisa-gonzalez/7614816?ean=9781802067057&next=t]

Follow the show on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/booksupclose] and subscribe to the Substack [https://booksupclose.substack.com/] for transcripts and more links. Find Sasha on IG @sashajdm. Please leave feedback here [https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=ur7mk6rEMUevXdc1sJfq2-MtVOsMawJDpBA3aJ944dVUMkI4OTA3N0dBMUE2SDVJWlpaOE8zNlo4NC4u].

Produced, hosted, and edited by Chris Lloyd [https://www.instagram.com/chrisllloyd9].

Ep. 26. Sasha Debevec-McKenney, 'WHAT AM I AFRAID OF?'

Books Up Close is a show for writers, readers, and anyone who wants to know how texts get made. Listen as writer and academic Chris Lloyd performs a 'close reading' of some writing with the author themselves.

Chris Lloyd

Shows