Jem Calder | Notes on Craft
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Stalin, Lenin, Robespierre
Brandon Taylor
‘He tried to think about what sort of person he wanted to be in this world and how he might bring that about.’
Fiction by Brandon Taylor.
Proper Country
Ralf Webb
‘It was by necessity, not choice.’
Ralf Webb on returning to the West Country.
Lifetimes of the Soviet Union
Yuri Slezkine
‘Bolshevism, like most millenarian movements, proved a one-generation phenomenon.’
Yuri Slezkine on Soviet history and the generational arc of revolution.
The Attaché’s Wife
Karan Mahajan
“I’m from here. I grew up here. In fact, that’s why the government invited me back for this work.”
Short fiction by Karan Mahajan.
Isabel
Lillian Fishman
‘Diana saw that Lucy’s appeal was in the nostalgia of her looks: Hers was a teen beauty, at home nowhere more than in a miniskirt.’
Fiction by Lillian Fishman.
The Full Package
Zoe Dubno
‘I wasn’t against fashion; I wasn’t one of those people who need to make it into a whole statement about their intellect.’
Fiction by Zoe Dubno.
Shooting Stars in Your Black Hair
Joanna Biggs & Jack Latham
‘To be in a hair salon is to be bubble-wrapped against the world – or at least that’s the fantasy.’
Joanna Biggs on salons, intimacy and the photography of Jack Latham.
Ricks & Hern
Nico Walker
‘Naturally, no partnership is perfect. Certain pieces will be at odds – you’ll have that.’
Fiction by Nico Walker.
Niamey Nights
Rahmane Idrissa
‘The first time I heard of generations, they were likened to the loops of a ribbon.’
Rahmane Idrissa on photography and music in the Sahel.
The Life, Old Age and Death of a Woman of the People
Didier Eribon
‘How little one knows, really, about one’s parents.’
Memoir by Didier Eribon translated by Michael Lucey.
David Attenborough
K Patrick
‘Motherhood is this chapter, / we all love a mother, / disastrous as it is.’
Poetry by K Patrick.
The Trouble with Old Men
Samuel Moyn
‘The choicest parts of the world’s richest cities, according to demographers, are dense with aged residents.’
Samuel Moyn on gerontocracy.
Calais to Dover
Jana Prikryl
‘If you need a renewable resource / then look in the direction of the sea. / It’s deep as feelings you didn’t know you had.’
Poetry by Jana Prikryl.
Five O’Clock Somewhere
Gary Indiana
‘It’s when things fail to return to normal, that finally you get it: this is normal.’
Gary Indiana on growing older.
And That’s How I Became a Woman
Vigdis Hjorth
‘Finn Lykke opened the door wearing jeans and a freshly-ironed, white shirt, he had made an effort.’
Fiction by Vigdis Hjorth, translated by Charlotte Barslund.
And Of The Son
Rachel Connolly
‘There’s something in her face. Adoration? I mean, she’s drunk. But she clearly has a thing for me.’
Fiction by Rachel Connolly.
Gettysburg
Jessi Jezewska Stevens
‘One did not have high hopes for Gettysburg. Nor for Pennsylvania in general. Having grown up in Indiana, Diana felt she’d earned her condescension.’
Fiction by Jessi Jezewska Stevens.
Cult
Marcus Ong Kah Ho
‘The parties always had a good mix of men and women, although more often than not there were more good-looking women than men.’
Fiction by Marcus Ong Kah Ho.
From Zanzibar to Marbach
Abdulrazak Gurnah
‘The tragedies inflicted on the people of East Africa as a result of European rivalries are belittled and forgotten.’
Abdulrazak Gurnah on German East Africa.
What the Germans Left Behind
Anna Parker
‘My Czech family’s house stands on a geopolitical rift: it occupies a place the political storms sweep through, uprooting everything that is settled.’
An essay by Anna Parker.
Solo Poly
Sophie Frances Kemp
‘When you are a female this is what happens: if you are not selected to be a mate by age twenty-seven, you are asked to get on the bus.’
Fiction by Sophie Frances Kemp.
The Legion
Shaun Wilson
‘A should probably write that it hit uz like a smack in the guts, or the red mist cem down or sumet like that, but in all honesty, a can just remember feelen upset.’
New fiction by Shaun Wilson.
Internal Affairs
Andrea Brady
‘The burden in law on the pregnant person is to show that they are at risk, in need; they must ask, and hope, rather than demand.’
Memoir by Andrea Brady.
In Conversation
Lisa Robertson & Kate Briggs
‘The description becomes a psychic image, a political image of transformational potency.’
Kate Briggs and Lisa Robertson discuss becoming novelists, description as a political tool, and endings.
Not a River
Selva Almada
‘He takes the knife, cuts the barb from the body, sends it back to the depths of the river.’
An extract from Not a River by Selva Almada, translated by Annie McDermott.
Losing Irina
Aria Aber
‘I did sometimes fantasize about her Ur-wound, the traumatic memory image from which her asceticism sprung.’
Fiction from Aria Aber.
Don’t Wake Me Up Too Soon
Daniel Kehlmann
‘Satire only comes into its own against the powerful; against the powerless it is cheap mockery from above.’
Daniel Kehlmann on writing, translated from the German by Ross Benjamin
In the Unlikely Event of a Loss of Cabin Pressure
Juan S. Guse
‘News of the second contact sent the whole camp into turmoil. After long weeks spent searching in vain, a new vitality returned.’
Fiction from Juan S. Guse, translated by Gwen Clayton.
Evaporation in the Boundary Zone
Ilija Matusko
‘From a dish washer to an author who writes about washing dishes.’
Memoir by Ilija Matusko, translated by Jen Calleja.
