Granta | The Home of New Writing

These Stolen Twins

Welcome to the New World

Jessi Jezewska Stevens

New fiction from Jessi Jezewska Stevens. ‘Debt is the molten bedrock upon which all else shifts.’

The Nightwatch

Mary Rokonadravu

Winner of the 2022 Commonwealth Writers Short Story Prize for the Pacific region.

Two Poems

Collin Callahan

‘He twists biblical spliffs. / Curtains warble in the television light.’ Two poems by Collin Callahan.

We Had to Remove This Post

Hanna Bervoets

‘A video of someone flinging their cat out the window is only allowed if cruelty is not a motive’. An excerpt from the new novel by Hanna Bervoets.

In Conversation

Mary Jean Chan & Andrew McMillan

The authors of Flèche and physical discuss the state of queer poetry in Britain, how to make poetry alive and what an anthology can mean.

Kafka’s Drawings

Franz Kafka & Andreas Kilcher

Previously unpublished drawings by Franz Kafka, author of The Trial and The Castle.

Two Poems

Beth Bachmann

‘Under the skin, our skeletons / are braided with tendons – roses on an openwork arch’ Two poems by Beth Bachmann

Three Poems

Christopher Soto

‘Instantaneous / Pleasure takes too // Long’

Poetry from Christopher Soto’s collection Diaries of a Terrorist.

Acts of Service

Lillian Fishman

‘I had hundreds of nudes stored in my phone, but I’d never sent them to anyone.’

An excerpt from Lillian Fishman’s new novel.

On Sizewell C

William Atkins

‘Where do we go, as a country, for power?’

William Atkins on the proposed nuclear power station in Suffolk.

Beyond Conversion Therapy

Kevin Childs

‘When I was growing up in his house, religion was his crutch, a justification for his behaviour.’

Kevin Childs on growing up queer in a Catholic household.

Joy and Insecurity in Port-au-Prince

Jason Allen-Paisant

‘The body is the first measurement of time: to reclaim time is to reclaim the body.’

Jason Allen-Paisant in Haiti.

Port-au-Prince by Night

Phalonne Pierre Louis

A photoessay by Phalonne Pierre Louis.

My Mother Photographs Me in a Bath of Dead Squid

Lars Horn

‘She is not a conventionally “good” mother. But then, put like that, it sounds like a slow death sentence anyhow.’

Lars Horn on modeling for their artist mother.

Blue-Eyed Muggers

Alejandro Zambra

‘At every protest, when it was time to yell at the cops, I remembered my father and felt a turbulent emotion.’

Memoir by Alejandro Zambra on his father and his son.

Diary of a Journey to Senegal

Ishion Hutchinson

‘Sea night music: what is the music?’

Ishion Hutchinson in Senegal.

Ghosts

Adam Foulds

‘It was unmistakable, he said; it was absolutely him.’

Fiction by Adam Foulds.

The Right to Intimacy

Raphaela Rosella & Nicole R. Fleetwood

‘Rosella and her co-creators curate an archive of pain, of endurance, of love and belonging, of alienation and disconnection.’

Nicole R. Fleetwood introduces the photography of Raphaela Rosella.

National Dress

Rebecca Sollom

‘That smile the President has – it was just the same then as it is now.’

Fiction by Rebecca Sollom.

Hölzung

Muhammad Salah & Esther Kinsky

‘But what is an unencumbered gaze? And where does it begin to see?’

Esther Kinsky introduces a photoessay by Muhammad Salah.

An English Opening

Maxim Osipov

‘In a bad position, any move is worthless.’

New fiction by Maxim Osipov, translated from the Russian by Alex Fleming.

The Kingdom of Sand

Andrew Holleran

‘In a small town, one thinks that Time is not even passing.’

An excerpt from Holleran’s novel The Kingdom of Sand.

Being-in-the-World

Geoff Dyer

‘Even experienced users get scared because it’s so far out.’

Geoff Dyer on ageing and understanding the self.

Notes on Craft

Amy Bloom

‘Revision for me is relief. It is reassurance.’

Amy Bloom on the pleasures of revising.

The Lapwing Act

Patrick Galbraith

‘We claimed the places that were theirs and they were forced to take refuge on what we left behind.’

An excerpt from In Search of One Last Song.

In Conversation

Jo Hamya & Okechukwu Nzelu

The authors discuss music, the internet’s gamified reading culture and reading your reviews.

The Rub

William Hawkins

‘We were about halfway through our steaks and baked potatoes when she asked me if I was on PrEP.’

Fiction by William Hawkins, winner of the 2022 Disquiet Fiction Prize.

A World Run by Mothers

Saba Sams

‘In all the years I spent dreaming of motherhood, not once did I dream of men. If anything, I expected that romance would be my downfall.’

Saba Sams on the women who raised her, and becoming a mother at 22.

Notes on Craft

Celia Paul

‘A painting is like a letter: they both live in the constant present.’

Celia Paul on writing Letters to Gwen John.

The Forgotten War

Leila Guerriero

Leila Guerriero investigates the collusion that left so many graves unmarked decades after the Falklands War.

The Fire

Tom de Freston

A fire breaks out in Tom de Freston’s painting studio.

Staying In

Lieke Marsman

‘I’m a cucumber, a cucumber, a cucumber, I would whisper aloud to my eight-year-old self.’

An excerpt from Lieke Marsman’s new novel.

Two Poems

Akwaeke Emezi

‘joseph uncle is ghost-quiet / the kind of man you can’t scream at’

Two poems by the author of Dear Senthuran.

Notes on Craft

Preti Taneja

‘Traditional hand-craft becomes literary practice; becomes critical theory.’

Preti Taneja on intertextuality.

How It Works

David Hayden

‘Dinner plates empty in front of me, and the present softens and melts’.

New fiction from David Hayden.

Two Nameless Women

Cristina Rivera Garza

‘She turned to look at me, and, knowing I was being looked at, I smiled at her.’

Two unnamed women in a story by Cristina Rivera Garza.