I’m Black So You Don’t Have to Be

Colin Grant

'Can the black author really write out of her or his colour? In writing about black characters can they ever escape race?' Colin Grant looks at the evolution of racial politics.

Charlotte Collins | Notes on Craft

Charlotte Collins

Charlotte Collins on the craft of translation. ‘Literary translators don’t just translate the ‘meaning’ of a text; we translate the feel of it.’

Imperium

Ryszard Kapuściński, once the only foreign correspondent for the Polish Press Agency, on the concept of borders.

The Waiter’s Wife

Zadie Smith

‘Two plates smashed to the floor. She patted her stomach to indicate her unborn child and pointed to the pieces, 'Hungry?'‘

Night

Alice Munro

‘I read books as usual, nobody knew there was a thing the matter with me.’

Human Moments in World War III

Don DeLillo

‘Happiness is not a fact of this experience, at least not to the extent that one is bold enough to speak of it.’

In Conversation: Will Ashon and Greg Milner

Will Ashon & Greg Milner

‘The techniques of hip-hop are always evolving – does that make it an inherently unstable technology, and is that where much of its aesthetic excitement derives from?’

Danny Denton | Notes on Craft

Danny Denton

‘My tuppence on craft is this: as a writer, you must give your reader space to experience the world of your story (whatever form it takes)’

Laura Kasischke | First Sentence

Laura Kasischke

‘There really was a moth I found in a toolbox (not as musical or interesting as ‘strongbox’), alive, in the attic, in that box.’