In this episode, Jesse Hawley, young scientist-turned-writer, admits he fits into the ‘mad scientist’ category.... but it wasn’t his intensive research into the eating habits of spiders and flies that drove him crazy - but the long travail of writing a novel. Compelled, obsessed, and driven by a desire to express what ‘being a human being is all about’, he breaks every code of decency by asking strangers in cafes what they think of his writing (a good hypothesis he says, but ultimately not a good method for feedback).

His critiquer is the powerful writer Joanne Fedler, an author of 13 books and a writing mentor with a legal background in trauma, domestic abuse and human rights advocacy. Would she find much to engage her in a strange young man’s work. O yes, she did. And she found much in common with Jesse. Well could she relate to the compulsive insanity to write. Ah yes, she says, writing is a madness, but there is a method to it - and she loves Jesse’s method. Join me in this episode of New Voices to learn some subtle arts about writing, and listen in to a couple of writers who are revelling in the craziness of trying to craft out life, and hope, and healing in words.

Original broadcast date: 14 December 2020