The Dolphin Catcher
Sort by:
Saint Jane
Elaine Showalter
‘Addams was hailed as ‘the only saint America has produced’, and a female saint to boot.’
Chicago’s Great Expositor
Wole Soyinka
‘It is not a complete man now dominating the affairs of the world from a historic mansion appropriately named the White House, although a case can be made that he comes close enough.’
Once Upon a Time the Zhou Brothers
Bei Dao
‘When I first came to America in the autumn of 1988, I met the Zhou brothers in Chicago.’
Big Money
Dinaw Mengestu
‘In a city as sprawling and as proud of its architectural grandeur as Chicago, such an emphasis on size seemed only fitting.’
The Projects
Camilo José Vergara
‘Chicago was the first large American city I visited after I came to the United States from my home country, Chile.’
Winter
Rich Cohen
‘When everyone was asleep, we put on our boots and waded out into the drifts of Glencoe – a suburban street remade into an eerie winter-scape.’
An Ofrenda for my Mother
Sandra Cisneros
‘She was a prisoner-of-war mother, banging on the bars of her cell all her life.’
Easter Island Noodles Almondine
Thom Jones
‘I grew up in a factory town, Aurora, Illinois, some forty miles west of Chicago.’
Domp-Domp
Ben Ratliff
‘There’s Bo Diddley. Big hips, pointy shoes, glasses. A gap between his teeth, and a bow tie, in 1965.’
Parrot
Peter Carey
‘You might think, who is this, and I might say, this is God, and what are you to do?’
Paul Auster | Interview
Paul Auster
Paul Auster discusses his new novel ‘Invisible’, his writing process and the unsettling quality of narrative clarity.
Are We Related?
Liz Jobey
‘Most family relationships are difficult, and sometimes they can become the most difficult human relationships of all.’
Cambodia’s Quest for Peace
Elena Lesley & Joel Rozen
Photographs accompanying Elena Lesley’s dispatch from Cambodia.
Truth and Reconciliation
Elena Lesley
‘‘Only the spirit of the earth knows where the soul has gone,’ Bou said of his lost wife, ‘or where the bodies are buried’.’
Garibaldi
Jeffrey Rotter
‘He chopped his way down North La Salle, pared the night air as he strolled along West Eugenie, peeled and julienned until at last he’d reached the dogleg at Sedgwick and Menomonee.’
Chicago’s South Side 1946–1948
Wayne Miller
‘Miller’s images collected in Chicago’s South Side reflect the enormous variety of human experiences and emotions that occurred at a unique time and place in the American landscape.’
Wrestling with Translation
Jeffrey Yang
‘As I embarked on my adventure I immediately started to feel that old hatred for simplified Chinese characters.’
Maria Venegas | Interview
Maria Venegas
Maria Venegas discusses ‘Bullet Proof Vest’, her essay from Granta 108: ‘Chicago’ about her criminal father, who ‘shot a man when he was twelve years old’.
Dinaw Mengestu | Interview
Dinaw Mengestu
Dinaw Mengestu talks about how he came to write ‘Big Money’, his contribution to Granta 108, his forthcoming novel, his relationship with his hometown, Chicago, and his inspiration as a writer.
Leaving Chi-town
Bruce Olds
‘It will sound odd, but it was as if the city was calling me back, back to a place I never had lived.’
Writing Chicago
Aleksandar Hemon & Stuart Dybek
Aleksandar Hemon and Stuart Dybek on the energy and inspiration of Chicago, its exhilirating ‘incompleteness’, and the ‘unique perspectives of seeing the city’.
Midnight on Lake Michigan
Diego Báez
‘But really, your disappearance / has never been a question of whether.’
Two-Part Inventions
Anne Winters
‘The same way Bach’s motive splays out to the right, / swoons flatly, swans it, footnotes, follows up, / talks to itself, purls, mutters, dawdles, resumes. . .’
What is Chicago
Lawrence Joseph
‘For all its buildings and skyscrapers and sprawl, Chicago is still a part of, and as open as, the prairies. The lake, ocean-like, is flat and utterly exposed.’
