Advertise on podcast: First Graft Podcast

Send us Fan Mail Stu Hennigan and Heidi James discuss Stu's brilliant first novel, Keshed, published by Ortac Press in 2025. This podcast is an edited recording of the live event.  Stu Hennigan is a writer, poet, editor and musician from the North of England. His book about Austerity and the pandemic, Ghost Signs (Bluemoose, 2022) was shortlisted for Best Non-Fiction at the Books Are My Bag Awards and Best Political Book by a Non-Parliamentarian at the Parliamentary Book Awards in 2022/23. His short fiction, essays, poetry, criticism and articles have been published widely in print and online including by Prospect, 3:AM, Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal, Broken Sleep Books, White Rabbit, Lune, Visual Verse, Lunate and Expat. His next book, Disappear Here, a social and cultural history of United States from the late sixties to the present day, analysed and interpreted via the thousands of pop-culture references in the novels of Bret Easton Ellis, will be published in 2027 by Ortac Press. He also plays guitar in the rock band Kamień. Keshed is his first novel. Heidi James is the author of critically acclaimed novels Wounding, So the Doves (a Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month) and The Sound Mirror. She won The Saboteur Award for her novella, The Mesmerist’s Daughter and was a finalist in The Cinnamon Poetry Collection Prize.  Her short stories, poetry and essays have been published various anthologies and magazines including, among others, We’ll Never Have Paris, Somesuch, Dazed and Confused and Galley Beggar Press. She hosts a podcast, First Graft, where she discusses the writing process with other writers. She has a PhD and lectures in English Literature and Creative Writing. https://www.ortacpress.com