Episode 1

Charmaine Wilkerson on her fiction debut Black Cake

Published on: 2nd February, 2022

Caribbean-American writer Charmaine Wilkerson's incredible fiction debut, Black Cake is a sweeping family tale about inheritance, memories and secrets. Charmaine discusses the layering of multiple timelines, much like the layering of a cake or the layering of conversation. She also talks about channeling the characters, allowing herself to follow them and see where they take her and having a quarter of the book written in various files before she was certain it was a story.

Black Cake is out in the UK on 3rd February 2022 and in the US on 1st February

Links

Black Cake - Charmaine Wilkerson

Another Life - Jodie Chapman

Beautiful Country - Qian Julie Wang

Olga Dies Dreaming - Xochitl Gonzalez

The Final Revival of Opal and Neve - Dawnie Walton

Who They Was - Gabriel Krauze

Next Episode All Episodes Previous Episode

Listen for free

Show artwork for Not Too Busy To Write

About the Podcast

Not Too Busy To Write
Writing amongst life's many other demands
Penny Wincer is not too busy to write. Except of course, sometimes she is too busy to write as much as she would like. Join Penny as she has conversations with other writers about writing, publishing and creativity whilst juggling all the demands on them such as motherhood, caring and other paid work.

Penny Wincer is the author of Tender (Hodder, June 2020), a mother of two, a non-fiction writing coach and an Australian and long-term resident of London. She’s currently writing her second narrative non-fiction book, Home Matters (July 2024) and working on her first novel.

About your host

Profile picture for Penny Wincer

Penny Wincer

Penny Wincer is the author of Tender: The Imperfect Art of Caring (Hodder, June 2020) and is a single parent to two kids, one of whom is disabled. She is also a non-fiction book coach and an Australian and long-term resident of London. She’s currently writing her second non-fiction book and working her first novel.