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Matthew Bannister meets novelist Armistead Maupin, the writer best known for his Tales of the City series of novels set in San Francisco.

Exiled Iraqi writer Hassan Blasim talks about the four years he spent as an illegal migrant before finding asylum in Finland. His short story collection is called The Iraqi Christ.

Tore Renberg is one of the most popular writers in his native Norway. He is a big fan of British pop from the 1980s and tells Jo Fidgen how he uses music to create characters in his writing. His latest novel is called See You Tomorrow.

Julia Franck shares the trauma and unhappiness of a childhood spent first in communist East Germany and then in the West. Her book is called Back To Back.

Kathy Reichs is an American author and forensic scientist who has written a series of successful crime novels inspired by her work.

Witi Ihimaera is a prominent Maori writer who draws on the myths of his native New Zealand. He made his name with his book The Whale Rider about a Maori girl who wants to become a chief of her tribe. It was turned into an award-winning film.

Orhan Pamuk is a Nobel prize-winning Turkish novelist who has re-created the unusual museum that features in his novel The Museum of Innocence.

Akhil Sharma was ten years old when his brother was left brain-damaged by an accident in a swimming pool. Akhil describes the profound effect it had on his own life in his autobiographical novel Family Life.

Chen Xiwo is a controversial figure in his native China whose stories deal with dark subjects like voyeurism, murder and incest. His refusal to compromise meant that his books were banned for 20 years in his own country and now his collection of short stories The Book of Sins has been translated into English for the first time.

Picture: From left to right: Armistead Maupin; Tore Renberg; Kathy Reichs.
Picture credits: Armistead Maupin: Mark Mainz/Getty Images; Tore Renberg: Tommy Ellingsen; Kathy Reichs: Ben Mark Holzberg

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