Bruise, Heal, Repeat: Anna Whitwham on On Boxing, Loss, and the Female Body

The Shakespeare and Company Interview

Content provided by Shakespeare and Company. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Shakespeare and Company or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://staging.podcastplayer.com/legal.

11d ago 45:45

MP3•Episode home

In this episode, Adam Biles is joined in the bookshop’s writing studio by Anna Whitwham, author of Soft Tissue Damage, a raw and electrifying memoir of grief, boxing, and womanhood. Following her mother’s death, Whitwham trained and fought competitively as a boxer—an act of both healing and reckoning. She discusses how physical pain can become a language for emotional anguish, how class and family history shaped her connection to the sport, and how boxing offered a surprising community of tenderness and care. A conversation about loss, rage, strength, and the power of being witnessed.

Buy Soft Tissue Damage: https://roughtradebooks.com/collections/books/products/soft-tissue-damage-anna-whitwham

Anna Whitwham was born in 1981 in London, where she still lives. She studied Drama and English at the University of California, Los Angeles, Queens University Belfast and at Royal Holloway, London where she teaches a course called ‘Writing Men: The Burden of Masculinity’.

She is the author of Boxer Handsome (Chatto&Windus). Her latest book, Soft Tissue Damage is published by Rough Trade Books.

Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. His latest novel, Beasts of England, a sequel to Animal Farm, is available now. Buy a signed copy here: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/beasts-of-england

Listen to Alex Freiman’s latest EP, In The Beginning: https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3w

Get bonus content on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

207 episodes

#Books #Arts #Shakespeare And Company #Interviews #Long Form #Literature #Fiction #Non-fiction #Paris