Granta | The Home of New Writing

Ogadinma

Connecting Worlds, Inventing Worlds

José Eduardo Agualusa & Daniel Hahn

José Eduardo Agualusa and Daniel Hahn on translating and being translated. ‘As a humble, invisible translator, I let him get the last word.’

Black Car

Will Boast

‘It got into you. How many scrapes had he seen? How many wrecks?’ New fiction from Will Boast.

Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones

Edoardo Albert

Edoardo Albert, author of Warrior, writes about five archaeological findings that brought the past to life.

The Cheffe

Marie NDiaye

‘She was proud, but there was no vanity in her pride.’

On Tastelessness

Adam O’Fallon Price

‘Write through your first ending is advice I give, again and again.’

Rebecca Solnit:
An Online Reader

Ivan Kirwan-Taylor

The seven must-read Rebecca Solnit essays.

Lauren Aimee Curtis | Notes on Craft

Lauren Aimee Curtis

‘I think that if we knew, really understood, the reasons why certain stories take hold of us, we would have no need for fiction at all.’ Lauren Aimee Curtis shares her notes on the craft of writing.

In the Cut

Susanna Moore

An excerpt from In the Cut, by Susanna Moore

Four Poems

Crispin Best

‘i feel good like a person / holding flowers on a train / feels dumb’

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

Peter Stamm & Michael Hofmann

Peter Stamm on the oldest barber in Switzerland, and Michael Hofmann on translating Peter Stamm.

How to Take a Literary Selfie

Sylvie Weil

Sylvie Weil on what it means to take a literary selfie. Translated from the French by Ros Schwartz.

Jianan Qian | First Sentence

Jianan Qian

‘For every witness, history unfolded at some other time, and in some other place.’ Jianan Qian on the first sentence of her story, ‘To the Dogs’.

Real Men

Mohamed Mbougar Sarr

Anna Leader’s translation of ‘Real Men’ by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr is the winner of the 2019 Harvill Secker Young Translators’ Prize.

Sophie Lewis | Notes on Craft

Sophie Lewis

Sophie Lewis on the craft of translation.

The Bees

Dorothea Lasky

‘What is the swarm of bees that enters a poem when language is created?’

Lois and Varga

Lisa Taddeo

‘Shells, like the kind on the sand of the beach, that’s all they are. That’s all any of us are. All these colored shells, each one trying to be picked up before the rest.’ New fiction by Lisa Taddeo.

Little Nothings: Nabokov’s Road Notes

Elsa Court

Elsa Court on why Vladimir Nabokov immersed himself in the all-American world of roadside service stations.

Tale of Human Adventure

Diane Williams

‘The whole experience of writing this was enjoyable, as is the entire seriousness with which I take myself.’ New fiction by Diane Williams

Grief in Moderation

Diane Williams

‘The tiny daisies were scored by the shadows of the slats of the venetian blinds and the stripes were shivering.’ Diane Williams.

Julia Armfield | First Sentence

Julia Armfield

‘A first line is a threat, I think.’ Julia Armfield on the first sentence of her story ‘Longshore Drift’.

The Billionaire Comes To Supper

Hanif Kureishi

A new short story from Hanif Kureishi.

Love After Abuse

Lucia Osborne-Crowley

Lucia Osborne-Crowley on the complexity of navigating sexuality while recovering from sexual abuse.

we are seen by the world / what must be seen

Nisha Ramayya

‘oh dirty feet blood-clotter / oh grease monkey clod-hopper / oh cloud-devourer spit’

Facsimiles

Linda Mannheim

‘There is nothing where the Towers should be but smoke. There are no buildings.’

Three Poems

Chus Pato

‘you alone sit down at that table / facing the houses you tried to inhabit’
Translated from the Galician by Erín Moure.

Careless

Hiroko Oyamada

‘As I lay on the mattress, the white toe pads of the gecko floated up before me, against the vastness of the blue-black night. Rather than a presence, it seemed to me more like a trace, a barely discernible odour that flooded in on the air.’

Simon

Daniel J. O’Malley

‘When we pulled up at the house, Simon was there waiting, on the porch.’ New fiction by Daniel J. O’Malley

To the Dogs

Jianan Qian

A short story by Jianan Qian on stray dogs, desperation and re-education in rural China during the Cultural Revolution.

The Fallen

Carlos Manuel Álvarez

Read an excerpt from The Fallen by Carlos Manuel Álvarez, translated from the Spanish by Frank Wynne and available now from Fitzcarraldo Books.

The Emperor of Ice Cream

Rebecca Tamás

‘Death is terrifying and impossibly big, but life is even bigger – vulgar, relentless, ruthless.’

The Water Tower and the Turtle

Kikuko Tsumura

‘It was safe to say I didn’t really know anybody in this town at all.’ New fiction translated from the Japanese by Polly Barton.

Mail-Order Marriage
for Shy Brides

Molly Gutman

‘The husband, when we are introduced, will already be the husband.’

Lemons in Winter

Mika Taylor

‘I wonder why I am always the last to let go. I wonder if there is any amount that will ever be enough.’

Real Life

Josephine Rowe

New short fiction by Josephine Rowe.

Nina Leger | Notes on Craft

Nina Leger

‘To say nothing about her was the only way to allow her to be everything.’

Hammer

Adrian Van Young

‘I shift my weight right, where the hammer hangs down. Then left, then right, then left again.’