Mike talks with 2026 Windham-Campbell Prize for Fiction recipient Gwendoline Riley about Mark Van Doren’s rangy, American, and endlessly-re-readable Shakespeare. Plus, a good Top 5 list of Shakespeare’s plays!

Gwendoline Riley was born in London. She is the author of seven novels, including First Love, My Phantoms, and most recently, The Palm House.   In 2018, the Times Literary Supplement named her one of the twenty best British and Irish novelists working today. She won the 2026 Windham-Campbell Prize for Fiction.

The Windham-Campbell Prizes Podcast is a program of The Windham-Campbell Prizes, which are administered by Yale University Library’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

The Windham-Campbell Prizes Podcast is a production of Literary Hub

Hosted by Michael Kelleher

Theme music by Dani Lencioni

Produced and edited by Drew Broussard