Not Too Busy To Write
Penny Wincer is not too busy to write. Except of course, sometimes she is too busy to write as much as she would like. Join Penny as she has conversations with other writers about writing, publishing and creativity whilst juggling all the demands on them such as motherhood, caring and other paid work.
Penny Wincer is the author of two narrative non-fiction books, Tender and Home Matters and a non-fiction writing coach. She's an Australian and long-term resident of London, a mother of two teenagers, an unpaid carer and always attempting to get just a little more writing done.
- Update frequency
- every 7 days
- Average duration
- 48 minutes
- Episodes
- 105
- Years Active
- 2021 - 2025
Chloe Timms on dystopian fiction and writing about outsiders
Chloe Times is an author, podcaster and former teacher based in Kent. Her debut novel The Seawomen, a dystopian tale about a closed community and one young woman who gets a small taste of freedom, is…
Chloe Ashby on writing about art, grief and being seen
Chloe Ashby is an arts journalist and author based in London. Her debut novel Wet Paint is about a young woman struggling to move forward after the traumatic death of her best friend, who finds solac…
Ilona Bannister on writing challenging women
Ilona Bannister's second novel Little Prisons, is set in one building, from four perspectives, each one a woman experiencing a kind of imprisonment. Emotional, mental and literal. Ilona is our first …
Sophie Howarth - on writing about art and the joy being an amateur
Sophie Howarth has a varied and unique career spanning art, entrepreneurship, teaching, activism and writing. She has been Curator of Public Programs at Tate Modern, co-founded The School Of Life and…
Sian Meades-Williams on freelancing writing, making money and newsletter love
Sian Meades-Williams is the brains (and muscle) behind the hugely popular Freelance Writing Jobs newsletter and co-founder of the award winning lifestyle newsletter Tigers Are Better Looking (formerl…
Maggie Gee on Empathy, language, and the non-human in fiction.
In this episode Maggie Gee reads extracts from her stunning new novel, The Red Children (Saqi Books). Set in the near future against a backdrop of increased migration pressure, climate change and inc…
Lizzie Damilola Blackburn on romantic comedies and writing the character you couldn't find
Lizzie Damilola Blackburn's debut novel Yinka, Where is Your Huzband? tells the story of 31 yr old British-Nigerian Yinka, who is feeling the pressure to settle down. When she finds out her ex-boyfri…
Clover Stroud - Death, life and writing memoir in real time
Clover Stroud is a Sunday Times best selling author of a number of books including The Wild Other and My Wild and Sleepless Nights. Her latest book, The Red of My Blood, is the story of her sister Ne…
Doreen Cunningham on nature, climate change and motherhood
Doreen Cunningham began her a career as a climate science researcher and has spent the last 20 years as a journalist. Her memoir, Soundings: Journeys in the company of whales, is the story of her exp…
Writing the Literary Memoir with Lily Dunn
In this week's episode Ali talks to Lily Dunn, the author of Sins of my Father (W&N, 17th March) about the craft of memoir. Together they discuss how narrative techniques can be used to move the form…
Abigail Bergstrom - debut novelist and literary agent
Abigail Bergstrom is a literary agent and consultant, former editor, and now debut novelist. What A Shame is a darkly funny novel about grief, friendship and dabbling in the occult. Abigail talks abo…
Different phases of writing and juggling multiple projects
Our writing lives don't always look the same. Depending on which phase you're in, drafting, editing, submitting, publishing or promoting - our rhythms and routines change according to what phase we a…
Charmaine Wilkerson on her fiction debut Black Cake
Caribbean-American writer Charmaine Wilkerson's incredible fiction debut, Black Cake is a sweeping family tale about inheritance, memories and secrets. Charmaine discusses the layering of multiple ti…
Write It All Down - life writing with Cathy Rentzenbrink
Cathy Rentzenbrink is a Sunday Times best selling author of The Last Act of Love, A Manual for Heartache, Dear Reader and Everyone is Still Alive. Her latest book, Write It All Down, is all about wri…
End of year writing round up
It's that time of the year and Ali and Penny have a chat about where they are at with their writing projects and if they are where they hoped they would be. They talk about some big successes and fai…
Where do you get your ideas?
A bit of a tongue in cheek question this week... Where do ideas come from? Ali and Penny talk all about ideas, sniffing them out like a blood hound, scratching away at them to see if they are interes…
Different Approaches to Life Writing
Ali and Penny come together to discuss life writing this week. They have both used different approaches to life writing and they discuss why they made the choices they did and how they might do it di…
Julia Silk - Literary agent on finding and supporting authors
Julia Silk is a an agent with Charlie Campbell Literary Agents. Julia spent many years as an editor before becoming an agent who represents a wide range of fiction and non-fiction authors. We talk ab…
Huma Qureshi - on short stories and taking your fiction seriously
Huma Qureshi is a former Guardian and Observer journalist and is the author of the memoir How We Met and her latest book Things We Do Not Tell The People We Love, is a short story collection about th…
Claire Lynch - experimental memoir, perspective shifts and motherhoods
Claire Lynch is an author and academic whose first book Small: On Motherhoods is a memoir about her experience of becoming a parent and the tiny things that are really the biggest things in life. We …