As long as I write books in Japanese, I am a Japanese novelist, like it or not. I cannot escape from it. - Haruki Murakami talking exclusively to Transmission, January 2007.

Transmission #07 contains a revealing interview with Haruki Murakami. One of contemporary fiction’s most fascinating figures, Murakami gives an insight into such seminal works as The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, Kafka on the Shore and Norwegian Wood with characteristic humour and self-depreciation.

Elsewhere in this issue, British novelist Jon McGregor – whose first two novels were both long-listed for the Booker Prize – talks to Transmission about the highs and lows of life in the media spotlight. The intensely private writer speaks of his struggle to produce a credible novel after the smash-hit success of his first, describing how he ‘hated having people know I was writing another book. It had been a private activity before… people kept asking me about techniques I wasn’t conscious of using.’

Issue #07 of the magazine also includes writing advice from novelist Ian McGuire – who makes the argument that novelists need to slow down and pay attention to their craft – plus a behind-the scenes look at the Royal Exchange Theatre’s new national playwriting competition. And there’s the usual selection of new short fiction from both published and up-and-coming writers.