New Writing on Granta.com

‘One in seven British species is now threatened with extinction. Many more, from the grey wolf to the blue stag beetle, are already long gone.’

In Conversation|The Online Edition

In Conversation

Ruth Padel & Ilya Kaminsky

‘Lines collect for years, but once in a while these lines meet up, and wink at other lines, go tangoing and make out, and a baby gets born – which is to say a stanza or if I am lucky the whole poem.’

Garden Time: The Palm Forest of W.S. Merwin

Robert Becker

‘This place, where the temperature drops noticeably as you walk into it from the road, survived William Stanley Merwin as equal parts oasis, stage set and work of art.’

Ways of Knowing

Lauren Wallach

‘Maybe I was born with this face the way moths are born with the ability to blend in with bark, to survive.’

In Conversation|The Online Edition

In Conversation

Sophie Collins & Will Harris

‘I’ve been dreaming wildly in lockdown. Have you?’

The Wolf at the Door

Cal Flyn

‘Wolves brook no bureaucracy. They do not believe in borders. It has been years since we have come face to face with apex predators in our own country.’

Shifting Baselines

Callum Roberts

‘Younger generations accept as normal a world that seems tainted and degraded to older people.’

Granta 153: Second Nature

Never has there been a greater need for writers who can communicate about the environment in such clear, immediate and powerful ways, who can envisage the past as well as the future.

The contributors to this issue all have a deep understanding of how nature works. Some are scientists; others, environmental journalists exploring the latest thinking about ecosystems and how to repair them; or poets, novelists and activists examining our responses to the current crisis.

The knowledge is already out there. We just have to listen.