Granta | The Home of New Writing

Diary of a Journey to Senegal

Two Poems

Niina Pollari

‘Compassion’ and ‘Urine Season’, two poems by Niina Pollari.

Donut County

Kate Lister Campbell

‘The fertility process is more like gambling than investment.’

Two women meet in an IVF clinic in this short story by Kate Lister Campbell.

Prologue

Eugene Lim

‘What was she ushering in and what was a grand program for which she was simply helpless agent?’

An excerpt from Search History by Eugene Lim.

Notes from an Island

Tove Jansson & Tuulikki Pieitilä

‘When we woke up, the whole ocean was full of broken ice.’

An excerpt from Notes from an Island, with artwork by Tuulikki Pietilä and memoir by Tove Jansson, translated by Thomas Teal.

Jonathan Cooper, in memoriam

Sigrid Rausing

Remembering Jonathan Cooper, OBE.

Naomi

Sarah Hall

‘When I was eight, my mother died and Naomi arrived.’

An excerpt from Burntcoat by Sarah Hall.

A Page Pounded Clean

Kathryn Scanlan

‘There was no shriek, no gore, but the tail – it looked electrically charged.’

A story by Kathryn Scanlan.

A Stiff Flame from the Neck

Kathryn Scanlan

‘I gripped her and struck the wheel on her neck, but I couldn’t get it to spark.’

A story by Kathryn Scanlan.

In Conversation

Sarah Shin & Grace M. Cho

‘I’m drawn to the irrational because it has the potential to radicalise our senses.’

The authors discuss ghosts, transgenerational mourning and communal cooking.

Two Poems

Edmund Hardy

‘Feeling Real’ and ‘I Miss Myself / Shared Oranges’ by poet and filmmaker Edmund Hardy.

Two Poems

Radna Fabias

‘we welcome the applicant.’ Two poems by Radna Fabias translated by David Colmer.

Jean Betrays Memory

David Hayden

‘Beauty was a state of being blamed’

New fiction by David Hayden.

The Overspill

Elaine L. Wang

Elaine L. Wang remembers friendship, flag-raising ceremonies and class elections at elementary school in Beijing.

Oldladyvoice

Elisa Victoria

‘I hope I never have to miss a playdate for catechism.’

An excerpt from Oldladyvoice, translated from the Spanish by Charlotte Whittle.

Larger than an Orange

Lucy Burns

An excerpt from Larger than an Orange, a book by Lucy Burns about abortion.

Notes on Craft

Lauren Elkin

On journal keepers, from Sei Shōnagon to Susan Sontag.

Talismans of Blood and Memory

Philip Kurian

On the worldwide campaign to return sacred objects to the ancestral communities from which they were taken.

Just the Plague

Ludmila Ulitskaya

‘It seems to be more than he can cope with.’

An excerpt from Ulitskaya’s newly translated novel Just the Plague.

An Adult Taste

Kang Young-sook

‘The blood that flowed down the drain was a deep dark red, but it appeared clean, even refreshing.’

A new story by Kang Young-sook, translated from the Korean by Janet Hong.

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.