Happy Halloween and welcome to Episode 4 of The Ampersand’s Rare Company podcast! This time, I’m chatting to an award-winning fiction writer, whose folkloric-horror The Shouts Beneath recently landed on Audible. Paige Cowan-Hall is truly the perfect guest for spooky season!
We discuss her journey, from winning the Women’s Prize for Fiction’s prestigious Discoveries Prize to landing her Audible commission and what life has been like since.
We also talk about The Shouts Beneath, what inspired the novel and how Paige has handled reviews (both good and bad) since the book came out. Despite the success of Paige’s brilliant novel, our conversation made me think of this list of celebrated books that were not well received at the time they were published, in particular The Handmaid’s Tale.
The book Paige mentions on the podcast is Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys.
If you’re looking for a new hobby, stick around until the end of the episode where Paige presents her argument for wild swimming and extols the health benefits of wintry walks, the great outdoors and niche sports.
A note on accessibility: If you would like to read a transcript of this episode, please access the web-based version of Substack rather than using the app and click the button just below the title.
The Discoveries Prize is currently open to unagented and unpublished women and the application window closes on 13th January 2025. You can listen to The Shouts Beneath on Audible.
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With love,
xK
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