With A Spell of Good Things longlisted for the Booker Prize 2023, Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ talks about how impulse strikes when she’s observing others, and the literary traditions that have nourished her as a writer

With Old God’s Time longlisted for the Booker Prize 2023, we spoke to Sebastian Barry about the importance of dreaming, and why Irish writers do what they do

With Study for Obedience shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2023, we spoke to Sarah Bernstein about the cruelty of the countryside and why her writing begins with sounds rather than stories

With If I Survive You shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2023, we spoke to Jonathan Escoffery about standalone stories, and exploring the fraught relationships between fathers and sons

With How to Build a Boat longlisted for the Booker Prize 2023, we spoke to Elaine Feeney about why Ireland is a nation of storytellers and how her main character was inspired by her son

With This Other Eden shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2023, we spoke to Paul Harding about the real island that inspired the book, and why his method of writing is like musical improvisation

With Pearl longlisted for the Booker Prize 2023, we spoke to Siân Hughes about her lifelong obsession, and how the book is rooted in her home village

With All the Little Bird-Hearts longlisted for the Booker Prize 2023, we spoke to Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow about why she set her book in the 1980s, and writing whenever there’s an opportunity to do so

We spoke to Paul Lynch, winner of the Booker Prize 2023, about writing the ‘wrong’ book and creating a realistic dystopia

With In Ascension longlisted for the Booker Prize 2023, we spoke to Martin MacInnes about the interconnectedness of life – and why arts and sciences belong together 

With Western Lane shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2023, we spoke to Chetna Maroo about sport, sisters and unspoken language

With The Bee Sting shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2023, we spoke to Paul Murray about getting the details of Ireland’s Midlands right, and why he wanted to write about climate change

With The House of Doors longlisted for the Booker Prize 2023, we spoke to Tan Twan Eng about beginning with the book’s final sentence – and why it’s harder to write fiction about real people