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Podcast | Mary Gaitskill

Mary Gaitskill

‘Fiction, even if it’s completely made up, does say something about how you experience reality.’

Mary Gaitskill talks about her book The Devil’s Treasure.

Of Cattle and Men

Ana Paula Maia

‘No one goes unpunished. They’re men of cattle and blood.’

An extract from Of Cattle and Men by Ana Paula Maia, translated by Zoë Perry.

Lucky Punk

Anouchka Grose

‘As evidenced by the Met show, everyone wants to be a bit punk.’

Anouchka Grose on the birth and death and rebirth of punk.

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Christodoulos Makris

‘like us or not don’t be afraid toss us a follow it counts’

Poetry by Christodoulos Makris.

In Conversation

Tom Bullough & Ben Rawlence

‘People may not want realism but it’s still our job to try and supply it in compelling and truthful ways.’

Tom Bullough and Ben Rawlence on writing into the climate crisis.

One Image

Timothy Phillips

‘I was in Sarandë as part of a journey across the entire length of the old Iron Curtain, from Norway to Azerbaijan.’

Timothy Phillips on the legacy of the Iron Curtain in Albania.

Notes on Craft

Dee Peyok

‘I wanted to learn everything there was to know about the singer and his words.’

Dee Peyok on craft and the Cambodian musician: Sinn Sisamouth.

Particulate Matter

Amitava Kumar

‘India, as we know it, is changing. What will it become?’

Memoir by Amitava Kumar.

Beyond Deep Throat | Part I

Saskia Vogel

‘The eye wants to see its fill, the I wants to see how it feels.’

Saskia Vogel on the foundational stories of pornography.

Super-Infinite

Katherine Rundell

‘His poetry sliced through the gender binary and left it gasping on the floor.’

Katherine Rundell on John Donne.

The Gospel According to the New World

Maryse Condé

‘Our Father had perhaps two sons and sent her the younger one.’

An excerpt from The Gospel According to the New World, by Maryse Condé, translated from the French by Richard Philcox.

Husband Number Five

Emily Adrian

‘I’ve been cruel to my mother all my life. Relentlessly hitting on her new boyfriend was barely remarkable.’

Fiction by Emily Adrian.

Loopholes

Tice Cin

‘If you’re raised without these codes, if you’re not from ends, you won’t find the routes and you won’t find us.’

Tice Cin on class, housing estates and hood surrealism.

Oxblood

Tom Benn

‘Some nights he hurt her which made her glad; she never let him know because the pain was brief and rare and felt like penance.’

An extract from Oxblood by Tom Benn.

Two Poems

Eva Salzman

‘I might as well have not said or done what I said I said or did.’

Poetry by Eva Salzman.

Nothing Special

Nicole Flattery

‘There was very little I could do in life except get dressed, smoke the correct cigarettes.’

An extract from Nothing Special by Nicole Flattery.

On Washing Up and Hoverflies

Beatrice Searle

‘It may be the satisfaction of full hands that brings forth the full feeling essential for words.’

Beatrice Searle on stonemasonry.

Blue Hunger

Viola Di Grado

‘All I wanted was to look at Xu and be looked at by Xu. Be touched by Xu. Be commanded by Xu.’

An extract from Blue Hunger by Viola Di Grado, translated by Jamie Richards.

On Beyoncé

Okechukwu Nzelu

‘Renaissance gives back, by reminding Black queer people what it’s like to be in our most sacred spaces.’

Okechukwu Nzelu on Beyoncé.

Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies

Maddie Mortimer

This one – it’s a bit of a beast, he said.’

An extract from Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies by Maddie Mortimer. Shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award 2022.

Eclogue of the ‘Big Garden’

John Kinsella

‘I will go elsewhere / and remember, recall where / I came from’

A poem by John Kinsella.

Introduction

Sigrid Rausing

‘Enough grief. Enough, enough.’

The editor introduces the issue.

Reproducing Paul

Des Fitzgerald

‘Having a child, I came to see, was more a kind of haunting.’

An essay by Des Fitzgerald.

For the Love of Losing

Marina Benjamin

‘Winning, it turns out, was the cracking whip that meant gamblers had to stay where they were until they lost their money all over again.’

Marina Benjamin on losing.

Hôtel Casanova

Annie Ernaux

‘I never asked myself if I loved P. But nothing could have kept me from going to make love with him at the Hôtel Casanova.’

Memoir by Annie Ernaux, translated by Alison L. Strayer.

Misfortune

André Alexis

‘How many children had accidentally – or purposely, for that matter – shot a parent? Too many to count, no doubt.’

Fiction by André Alexis.

This Is as Far as We Come

Carlos Fonseca

‘Those men and women don’t want rubber. They are after something more ethereal but fearsome: the conversion of souls.’

Fiction by Carlos Fonseca, translated by Megan McDowell.

What It Promised

Cian Oba-Smith & Gary Younge

‘As the economy declined African Americans became a larger part of a shrinking and impoverished city.’

Gary Younge introduces the photography of Cian Oba-Smith.

Many Words for Heat, Many Words for Hate

Amitava Kumar

‘In Delhi the heat is chemical, something unworldly, a dry bandage or heating pad wrapped around the body.’

Memoir by Amitava Kumar.

Ausländer

Michael Moritz

‘We were Jews and we were living in plain sight.’

Memoir by Michael Moritz.

Biography of X

Catherine Lacey

‘Grief has a warring logic; it always wants something impossible, something worse and something better.’

An extract from Biography of X by Catherine Lacey.

Ecstatic Joy and Its Variants

Peter Gizzi

‘surely this is about water jetting from a spring, / a languid rafting with no particular destination’

Poetry by Peter Gizzi.

The Public and Private Performance of the Deaf Body

Raymond Antrobus

‘There was always cynicism about Ray being a deaf novelty act.’

Raymond Antrobus on performance, Deafness and Johnnie Ray.

Long, Too Long America

Aaron Schuman & Sigrid Rausing

‘The conundrum of America: on the one hand, violence and repression; on the other, freedom and social justice.’

Sigrid Rausing introduces photography by Aaron Schuman.

The Schedule of Loss

Emily LaBarge

‘The Schedule of Loss is what can be heard, what can be tolerated, what can be borne by both teller and told.’

Memoir by Emily LaBarge.