Karen Lord: What makes a great story?
Sci-fi writer Karen Lord on the power of great storytelling.
What makes a great story? Perhaps it鈥檚 the characters, a gripping plot, or a narrative that helps us understand the world we live in. The award winning writer Karen Lord tells us what really goes into writing fiction and she shares an extract from her recent short story 鈥楾he Plague Doctors鈥�, a dystopian tale of social inequality exposed by a future pandemic. 鈥楾he Plague Doctors鈥� was published as part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's anthology Take Us to a Better Place.
Sci-fi meets forbidden love in a novel that spans centuries and continents. That鈥檚 just one of the descriptions used to describe the critically acclaimed novel, The Old Drift. Its author Namwali Serpell talks to the Cultural Frontline about three moments in her life that shaped her as a storyteller.
Plus Amy Brady, the writerof climate fiction column Burning Worlds, on why sci-fi offers us the opportunity for both immersion and escapism.
Presented by Nawal al-Maghafi
Image: Karen Lord
Image credit: Marlon James
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Broadcasts
- Sat 18 Apr 2020 01:32GMT大象传媒 World Service except Online, Americas and the Caribbean, Australasia & UK DAB/Freeview
- Sun 19 Apr 2020 04:32GMT大象传媒 World Service except Americas and the Caribbean, East Asia & South Asia
- Sun 19 Apr 2020 08:32GMT大象传媒 World Service except East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa
- Sun 19 Apr 2020 10:32GMT大象传媒 World Service East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa only
- Sun 19 Apr 2020 17:32GMT大象传媒 World Service Australasia
- Sun 19 Apr 2020 21:06GMT大象传媒 World Service
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The Cultural Frontline
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