Granta | The Home of New Writing

Netherley

Indigenous Defenders: Why Tribes Do Conservation Better Than Conservationists

Fred Pearce

A chapter from A Trillion Trees: How We Can Reforest Our World.

In Conversation

Tao Lin & Anna Dorn

‘Do you ever prefer speaking to written communication?’

The authors discuss nature and the psyche, confessional writing and Wikipedia.

Chase Scene

Dodie Bellamy

Dodie Bellamy remembers her partner, the poet Kevin Killian.

Two Poems

Fran Lock

‘eczematic lichens terraform his / face. elite spaces swallow you.’

The Sum of Life’s Troubles Makes a Whole Damn Dish

Nuraliah Norasid

‘I have become the muscle of the operation, folding butter and egg yolks into the flour and kneading all two kilograms of dough’.

Nuraliah Norasid on women’s work.

In Conversation

Abi Palmer & Alice Hattrick

The authors discuss the practice of writing about illness, explore the idea of crip time and critique the value of medical labels.

Three Poems

fred spoliar

‘We could live in the cities of / A very normal family like I like / writing copy for it.’

Three poems by fred spoliar.

Notes on Craft

Juliet Jacques

Juliet Jacques on writing her trans and non-binary characters into being.

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.

In Conversation

Hatty Nestor & Nathalie Olah

A discussion on the class system, the decline of criticism and driving on American highways, by the authors of Ethical Portraits: In Search of Representational Justice and Steal as much as you can.

Appamma in London

Anuk Arudpragasam

An excerpt from A Passage North, longlisted for the Booker Prize.

Ill Feelings

Alice Hattrick

‘Unravelling refers to a textile that was once complete’.

A Burning Bird

O Thiam Chin

On intimacy and national service.

Me, Rory and Aurora

Jonas Eika

A new story by Danish writer Jonas Eika, from the collection After the Sun. Translated by Sherilyn Nicolette Hellberg.

Up Late

Nick Laird

An elegy by Nick Laird for his father, Alastair Laird, who died this year of Covid-19.

Introduction

Sigrid Rausing

Editor Sigrid Rausing introduces our summer issue.

A Series of Rooms Occupied by Ghislaine Maxwell

Chris Dennis

‘What is the metaphor of the room? Of the house. Of the neighborhood.’

Chris Dennis on incarceration.

In the Aftermath

Eva Freeman

‘Green would work but blue, cobalt blue to be precise, would be better.’

Fiction set in Flatbush by Eva Freeman.

Census

Gboyega Odubanjo

‘should one count names like goats?’

A poem by Gboyega Odubanjo.

Variations

Tao Lin

‘But in variation #5 they spent ten hours together.’

An extract from Tao Lin’s novel Leave Society.

A Place I’d Go To

Kathryn Scanlan

‘They were very old and had to be carried down the hall to the examination room and lifted onto and off the scale like sacks of tender, bruisable fruit.’

A story by Kathryn Scanlan.

Soft Pink Light

Kaitlin Maxwell & Lynne Tillman

‘The stigma is to be a woman.’

Lynne Tillman introduces the photography of Kaitlin Maxwell.

Tides

Sara Freeman

‘She has always wanted this: to slip beneath the surface, to dispossess herself.’

An extract from Sara Freeman’s forthcoming novel.

How Prayer Works

Kaveh Akbar

‘My brother and I hurried through sloppy postures of praise, quiet as the light pooling around us.’

A new poem by Kaveh Akbar.

Cuba

Vanessa Onwuemezi

‘The hotel is pink all over, as the bitten inside of her mouth, as her dark father’s radiant bottom lip’.

A story by Vanessa Onwuemezi, from her collection Dark Neighbourhood.

Traces

Ruchir Joshi

‘Calcutta is an hourglass and each person is a grain of sand. Each day, we all pour through the opening.’

Photographs and memoir by Ruchir Joshi.

The Repeat Room

Jesse Ball

‘The place was so squat and pitiless, so endless, repetitive, fluorescent.’

Fiction by Jesse Ball.

Horse

Sandra Newman

‘It was a rescue horse, but a horse.’

Memoir by Sandra Newman.

A Last Chance in Whitefish

Adam O’Fallon Price

‘The dialogue, of course, is almost entirely invented, though true to the spirit and tone.’

A story by Adam O’Fallon Price.

Stills

Robbie Lawrence & Colin Herd

‘At the start of this pandemic, I had three living grandparents, and now I have one.’

Colin Herd introduces the photography of Robbie Lawrence.

Mbiu Dash

Okwiri Oduor

‘This made me big thirteen, the type to be able to drink mead on Epitaph Day if I wanted.’

A story by Okwiri Oduor.

Checkout 19

Claire-Louise Bennett

‘Month after month I ruefully drop the most perfect shade of red down the toilet and flush it away.’

An excerpt from Claire-Louise Bennett’s forthcoming novel.

Fire and Ice

Debra Gwartney

‘The rental house is where he would die.’

Debra Gwartney on the last days of Barry Lopez.

Confusion of Tongues

Fernanda Melchor

‘For a long time I avoided saying his name.’