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The Cultural Frontline: Breaking the boundaries of fiction

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Breaking the boundaries of fiction

21/05/2022 GMT

BBC World Service - The Cultural Frontline, Breaking the boundaries of fiction

Writers in popular genres like crime, horror and fantasy overcoming literary snobbery

International Booker-nominated horror writer Bora Chung, crime novelists Deon Meyer and Awais Khan and New Zealand fantasy novelist Elizabeth Knox

How novelists working across popular genres like crime, horror and fantasy are overcoming literary snobbery to get their work the credit it deserves and broaden the definition of what makes truly great writing. 

South Korean horror writer Bora Chung, shortlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize, tells us what it means to see her work, a type of fiction often dismissed in her country as commercial and not ‘pure literature,’ nominated for the prestigious award.

Crime novelists from two very different countries, Deon Meyer in South Africa and Awais Khan in Pakistan, discuss with Tina Daheley why theirs is a misunderstood genre, one with the capacity to offer a social critique, and even change society for the better, all in the process of telling a great story. 

Critically acclaimed New Zealand fantasy novelist Elizabeth Knox shares the magic of imagining fantastical new worlds, and how writing and reading fantasy can help us come to terms with traumatic experiences.

Producer: Simon Richardson

(Photo: Bora Chung)

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