Mic drop for 'Literary Friction' podcast after 10 years

The hosts of “Literary Friction” have announced the podcast’s end after a decade-long run as it has proved unsustainable along with their other commitments.

Hosts Carrie Plitt, a literary agent at Felicity Bryan Associates, and Octavia Bright, a broadcaster and writer of the recently published memoir This Ragged Grace (Canongate), announced that the last episode will be an extended edition of the annual "Year in Review" Episode, broadcast on 18th December, though Plitt and Bright said they are hoping to deliver a few final live events in the new year. 

Plitt said: “I’ve had an amazing 10 years working on "Literary Friction" with Octavia, who has been the most supportive and enlivening friend and colleague. I’ll miss it enormously. We’ve had fascinating conversations with many different authors and been supported by an incredible base of listeners. We’re also so grateful to the many people who helped make it happen, including everyone at NTS (an online radio station based in Dalston, London) and the Greek Podcast Project. But unfortunately it has become unsustainable alongside our other jobs and so now feels like the right time to bring it to a close.”  

Bright said: “’Literary Friction’ has been a decade-long labour of love, and I’m incredibly lucky to have such an enriching working partnership with Carrie, a dear co-host and even dearer friend. We’ve learned so much from the authors we’ve interviewed and from our amazing listeners all around the world, but even with the generous support of our patrons over the last couple of years, without really robust funding it’s become impossible to carry on."

She added: "Thank you to everyone who listened, came on the show, worked on production, wrote to us, sent us books, and said hello in the street, it’s been a total pleasure and I’m really going to miss it.” 

"Literary Friction" began on NTS. Plitt and Bright originally spun it off from an arts review show, and the first episode of “Literary Friction”, about poetry, was broadcast on NTS in November 2013. It also became a podcast in 2015, and later grew to include themed mini episodes as well as the full episodes featuring authors and recommendations. The focus has been in-depth author interviews and what its hosts described as "creating an unpretentious but thoughtful and fun space to talk about books and ideas".  

Over the last decade, they said it has "grown a devoted global fan base". The podcast has also hosted Zadie Smith, Deborah Levy, Sally Rooney, Reni Eddo-Lodge, Ruth Ozeki, Ben Lerner, Maggie Nelson, Shon Faye, Mary Gaitskill, Ocean Vuong, Ottessa Moshfegh and Max Porter. The show was shortlisted for Best Culture Podcast at the 2018 British Podcast Awards and has been featured across the media including in Vogue, Sunday Times and the New York Times.  

The full archive of episodes will remain available on all podcast apps.