New Writing on Granta.com
Essays & Memoir|Issue 168
Gold Fever in the Coup Belt: The Mines of Mauritania
James Pogue
‘The whole arc of the failed promise of development became legible in the traces of the gold rush.’
James Pogue reports from the gold mines of Mauritania.
Essays & Memoir|The Online Edition
Chicken Crazy
Thom Sliwowski
‘Patterns in my love life, things I read, my dreams and distant memories together wove plush carpets of significance.’
An essay by Thom Sliwowski on chicken, abstinence and polyamory.
Podcasts|Issue 167
Podcast | Rachel Kushner
Rachel Kushner
‘My instinct often is to swerve, to try to commit to some kind of reversal on received logics and see how far I can go with it.’
Rachel Kushner on the mystery of prehistory and the true depth of a cave.
In Conversation|The Online Edition
In Conversation
Helen Garner & Izabella Scott
‘I think what draws me in is the spectacle of the law trying to deal with something that nothing can deal with – just the wildness of people.’
Izabella Scott in conversation with Helen Garner.
Fiction|The Online Edition
Sidney
Brad Phillips
‘People say it’s healthy for couples to fight, it means there’s still passion. I’ve always assumed that was bullshit, but now I’m not sure.’
Fiction by Brad Phillips.
Granta 168: Significant Other
A Woman I Once Knew
Rosalind Fox Solomon & Lynne Tillman
‘These are not gentle, passive female bodies. They are strong women who strike poses that show aggression.’
Lynne Tillman introduces Rosalind Fox Solomon’s self-portraits.
The Messiah of Cadoxton
Susan Pedersen
‘The script of script production rather followed the script of sex: it was intimate, exciting, boundary-crossing, and left the participants changed.’
Susan Pedersen on paranormal love in the Balfour family.
A Journey to Ayodhya
Snigdha Poonam
‘Ask anyone in Ayodhya, and they will say the city’s Hindu–Muslim harmony can withstand any test.’
Snigdha Poonam on the construction of a Hindu temple on the ruins of a mosque in Utter Pradesh.
Private View
Sophie Collins
‘Being recognised as part of a couple thrilled me; I felt legitimised. John had a life, a full life.’
Fiction by Sophie Collins.
Lovers’ Quarrel
Tamara Nassar
‘Certainly we are not too old for that day / as dense as age on your bedroom floor.’
Poetry by Tamara Nassar.
Kairos
Jenny Erpenbeck, translated by Michael Hofmann
Winner of the International Booker Prize 2024
Berlin. 11 July 1986. They meet by chance on a bus. She is a young student, he is older and married. Theirs is an intense and sudden attraction, fuelled by a shared passion for music and art, and heightened by the secrecy they must maintain.
From a prize-winning German writer, this is the intimate and devastating story of the path of two lovers through the ruins of a relationship, set against the backdrop of a seismic period in European history.
From the Archive
Impertinent Daughters
Doris Lessing
‘She loved examinations, came first in class, adored mathematics, and was expected for a time to become a professional pianist.’
Doris Lessing on class structures and her Victorian mother.
The Up Escalator
Bret Easton Ellis
‘I'm standing on the balcony of Martin's apartment in Westwood, holding a drink in one hand and a cigarette in the other, and Martin comes towards me, rushes at me, and with both hands pushes me off the balcony'.
Fiction by Bret Easton Ellis.
Highlights From Granta Books
Recommended Reading
Universal Mother
Momtaza Mehri
‘I turn to O’Connor’s music when I get tired of lying to myself. Her songs are allegorical free-falls. Spiritual chiaroscuros, even.’
Momtaza Mehri on Sinéad O’Connor.
A Good First Marriage is Luck
Sheila Heti & Phyllis Rose
‘Life is so difficult. It may take more than one creature to sustain one life.’
Sheila Heti in conversation with Phyllis Rose.
Ecstatic Joy and Its Variants
Peter Gizzi
‘surely this is about water jetting from a spring, / a languid rafting with no particular destination’
Poetry by Peter Gizzi.
Missing Out
Leila Aboulela
‘She had held the day up with pegs; not only her day but his too.’
Fiction by Leila Aboulela.
News, Prizes and Events
When I Sing, Mountains Dance and Chilean Poet Shortlisted for Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize
When I Sing, Mountains Dance by Irene Sola (trans. Mara Faye Lethem) and Chilean Poet by Alejandro Zambra (trans. Megan McDowell) are both shortlisted for the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize.
Our Share of Night Shortlisted for The Kitschies
Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez (trans. Megan McDowell) is shortlisted for The Kitschies Red Tentacle award, awarded to speculative, sci-fi and fantasy novels.
I’m A Fan Wins a British Book Award
I'm A Fan by Sheena Patel wins the Book of the Year: Discover Award at the British Book Awards.
