How does writing about your life change the way you see it? Cathy Thomas talks to Lucy Scholes about her first book, Islanders, interlocking short stories set on her childhood home, Guernsey – the  pleasure of joining the dots and how playwriting informed her structure. Discovering a shared love of Annie Ernaux’s essays, they dive deeply into whether difficult experiences – from publisher rejections to trauma – may be reframed through the power of writing.

On the nightstand: We Were Young by Niamh Campbell

On my mind: Olivia Fitzsimons' recent essay, Notes on Resilience, for The Stinging Fly

On the shelf: Annie Ernaux's A Girl's Story.

On the pedestal: playwright Caryl Churchill 

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