New Writing on Granta.com
Poetry|The Online Edition
Two Poems
Lee Young-ju
Translated by Jae Kim
‘All I do is write in my sickbed diary. It’s been a while since I’ve done anything else.’ Two poems by Lee Young-ju translated by Jae Kim.
Poetry|The Online Edition
Three Poems
Fiona Benson
‘Under different circumstances I’d be humming a better tune / Something to make me feel like a blooming rose on a decaying bushs.’ Three poems by Eric Amling.
Fiction|Issue 157
On Mistaking Whales
Bathsheba Demuth
‘The people who lived here lived in the heads of whales.’ A historian from New England goes to the Bering Strait.
Fiction|Issue 157
16 Sheets from LOG
Roni Horn
Artwork from Roni Horn’s long-term project on Iceland.
In Conversation|Issue 157
A Wider Patch of Sky
Javier Zamora & Francisco Cantú
‘We’re so much more than those things. Citizen or undocumented. Border Patrol or immigrant.’ Letters between Javier Zamora and Francisco Cantú.
A Stiff Flame from the Neck
Kathryn Scanlan
‘I gripped her and struck the wheel on her neck, but I couldn’t get it to spark.’
A story by Kathryn Scanlan.
A Page Pounded Clean
Kathryn Scanlan
‘There was no shriek, no gore, but the tail – it looked electrically charged.’
A story by Kathryn Scanlan.
Granta 157: Should We Have Stayed at Home? New Travel Writing
In 1984, Granta published its first issue devoted to travel writing. Nearly forty years after that genre-defining volume, a new generation of writers from around the globe offers a new vision of what travel writing can be.
From Antarctica and the deserts of the US-Mexico border, to a Siberian whale-killing station and the alleyways of Taipei, these dispatches describe a world in perpetual motion (even when it is ‘locked-down’). To travel, we are reminded, is to embrace the experience of being a stranger – to acknowledge that one person’s frontier is another’s home.
Granta 157 is guest-edited by award-winning travel writer William Atkins.
Sleeping Beauty
Laura Demers
‘It’s normal not to be offered anything to eat or drink when you are a princess.’
Highlights From Granta Books
Recommended Reading
Mr Brown, Mrs White and Ms Black
Kei Miller
‘Yes, Ms Black. Mrs White and Mr Brown have arrived.’
An new essay by poet Kei Miller, from his forthcoming collection.
The Coming Bad Days
Sarah Bernstein
‘I began to appreciate being amongst things that were mine only. I cleaned with a puritanical zeal.’
An excerpt from Sarah Bernstein’s debut novel, The Coming Bad Days.
Second Place
Rachel Cusk
‘I stepped around as joyfully as a faun in a forest on the first day of creation.’
An excerpt from Rachel Cusk’s new novel.
When Denmark Criminalised Kindness
Lisbeth Zornig Andersen
‘We now know that it is a criminal offence to help refugees in distress.’
Arts House
Pebbles
Max Porter
A new story by Max Porter – part of our series in partnership with The Arts House, Singapore.
Pourquoi avec son Père?
Jeet Thayil
‘To read Baudelaire, he said, is to gather up the world and bring it inside.’
Jeet Thayil on remembering Baudelaire in Paris and Cochin.
Some Trouble
Sharlene Teo
Sharlene Teo on getting in trouble – part of a new series, in partnership with The Arts House, Singapore.
News, Prizes and Events
National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Honorees Published by Granta
Caleb Azumah Nelson, Nathan Harris, Lee Lai and Claire Luchette are all contributors to Granta and are all honorees of the 2021 National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35.
5×15 and Granta 157: Should We Have Stayed at Home? New Travel Writing
Online on Monday 29 November, 5x15 hosts Granta contributors Jason Allen-Paisant, Bathsheba Demuth, Taran N. Khan and Ben Mauk as they describe four extraordinary journeys, and reflect on the meaning of travel in 2021. Chaired by guest editor William Atkins.
A Passage North Shortlisted for The Booker Prize 2021
A Passage North, Anuk Arudpragasam's second novel, is shortlisted for The Booker Prize 2021.
