Laurie Steed discusses his craft and process for writing his short story collection Greater City Shadows. He discusses the formation of his characters and how he chooses point of view (or it chooses him!) Laurie emphasises the need for writers to take risks with their characters, and explores how both dialogue and subtext can be used to develop character. 

Laurie is a master of specificity, writes beautiful, evocative description and loves a good edit so we talk about all that and more.

You’ll find links to buy both paperback and ebook versions of Greater City Shadows by Laurie Steed here.

Follow the Greater City Shadows playlist here on Spotify.

Four Seasons in Rome by Anthony Doerr

Memory Wall by Anthony Doerr

ABOUT LAURIE STEED

Laurie Steed is a writer living and working in the Whadjuk region on the traditional lands of the Noongar people. His fiction has been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and published in anthologies including Best Australian Stories and Award-Winning Australian Writing. He is the recipient of writing fellowships from The University of Iowa, The Baltic Writing Residency and The Elizabeth Kostova Foundation, and he is a member of the cohort for the 2022 Minderoo Foundation Artist Fund. His debut novel, You Belong Here, was published in 2018 and shortlisted for the 2018 Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards. His second book, Better Than Me: A Story of Early Fatherhood, will be published in 2023 by Fremantle Press, and his third book, Greater City Shadows, won the 2021 Henry Handel Richardson Flagship Fellowship for Short Story Writing from Varuna – The National Writers’ House.

Website: https://www.lauriesteed.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauriesteedauthor

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/laurie.steed.92

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauriesteedauthor/

To enter this month’s competition, head to Writers Book Club Instagram or Facebook and look for the giveaway post.

Buy Greater City Shadows by Laurie Steed here. 

Buy The Watchful Wife by Suzanne Leal here.

This podcast is recorded on the beautiful, unceded lands of the Garigal people of the Eora nation.

Full show notes available at writersbookclubpodcast.com