How exciting to be back talking to Heidi James to celebrate the publication of her latest novel, The Sound Mirror, published by Bluemoose Books and out this month, August 2020. Of course, we’ve moved with the times and met on Zoom, but it was a delight to get back to talking literature, language, history, marginalised voices, silence, hauntology, abuse and more and more. What a wonderful conversation and how lovely to be able to share it with you. If you get intrigued by this chat, you can read my review of The Sound Mirror here and buy the book here. You can also read on for more information on Heidi and her previous work, as well as our original video recorded back in 2015.
In addition to The Sound Mirror, Heidi James has written three other novels: The Sunday Times Crime Novel of the Month, So The Doves, Wounding both published by Bluemoose Books and Carbon published by Blatt. Her novella The Mesmerist’s Daughter (published by Neon Press 2015) won the Saboteur Award for Best Novella 2015. She was a finalist for the Cinnamon Poetry Collection Prize. Her essays, poetry and short stories have appeared in various publications and anthologies including Dazed and Confused, Next Level, Flux, Brand, Mslexia, Another Magazine, Undercurrent, 3:AM London, New York, Paris, Dreams That Money Can Buy, Neon, Pulp.net etc. She has an MA in Creative Writing and a PhD in English Literature.
I interviewed Heidi at the Victoria and Albert Museum in July 2015 and found the words on the wall delightful – see if you can make them out.