The Swimmer
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Crossing Borders
Carys Davies
Carys Davies on how the settlement of the American West can help us understand Donald Trump’s nativism.
Hilditch & Key
Carl Shuker
A Syrian refugee visits London’s oldest houses of fashion. ‘The contemplation of the perfection of a craft, worn by a man who knew its worth, and his own.’
Introduction
Sigrid Rausing
‘Writing about other people doesn’t have to be an exercise of power or a theft of identity.’
Between Great Fires
William Atkins
‘This is the perennial anxiety – that at any moment, day or night, you might be snatched and shackled and tried and sent back.’
The Remains of the Day
Emily Berry
‘I am lying in the foetal position on a beach in the east of England.’
Vinyl Road Trip
David Flusfeder
After an unexpected email, David Flusfeder heads to Detroit to discover his father’s history and the world of vinyl manufacturing.
Lindsey Hilsum | Is Travel Writing Dead?
Lindsey Hilsum
‘We need a new genre of travel writing, gleaned from the stories refugees and migrants.’
Samanth Subramanian | Is Travel Writing Dead?
Samanth Subramanian
‘The first time I ever visited a place I’d read about in a travel book was when my family took a holiday in Hong Kong in 1993.’
Another Great Leap
Justin Jin & A Yi
‘A man will only return to his birthplace in the countryside when he is dead. This is our reality.’
Well Done, No. 3777!
Xiaolu Guo
‘I grew up in the semi-tropical south, dotted by wet paddy fields, but I always wanted to go to the north.’
On the Road
Janine di Giovanni
‘But I still get homesick, that vast and deep pit in the stomach, every time I go away.’
Ian Jack | Is Travel Writing Dead?
Ian Jack
‘Travel writing of most kinds, not just the humorous, has the history of colonialism perched on its shoulder.’
Alexis Wright | Is Travel Writing Dead?
Alexis Wright
‘In my imagination I have been to many villages and cities in the world.’
Colin Thubron | Is Travel Writing Dead?
Colin Thubron
‘The death of travel – and of the travel book – has been predicted for almost a century.’
Robert Macfarlane | Is Travel Writing Dead?
Robert Macfarlane
‘The best writers rose to the challenge by seeking not originality of destination, but originality of form.’
Re-Entry
Andrew McConnell & Adam Marek
‘I wanted to see a human’s expression after returning from space.’
Chekhov’s Ladies
Edna O’Brien
‘Malachi is brushing her hair, long, dark brown and with russet glints. She likes it, as he can tell from her smile in the mirror.’
A short story by Edna O’Brien.
Old School
Xan Rice
‘Apartheid had marked him, as it has marked all of us, in different ways. It made me hyper-aware of colour.’
Pico Iyer | Is Travel Writing Dead?
Pico Iyer
‘The writer on place has to go further inward, into the realm of silence and nuance and personal enquiry.’
Mohsin Hamid | Is Travel Writing Dead?
Mohsin Hamid
‘I have come to believe that we are all migrants, that the experience of migration unites all human beings.’
Rana Dasgupta | Is Travel Writing Dead?
Rana Dasgupta
‘This is a literature of checkpoints and fences, and the improvised gaps through which desperate people pass.’
Higher Ground
Carl De Keyzer
‘These photographs capture that fatal boredom in the face of this slow-motion catastrophe.’
Hoa Nguyen | Is Travel Writing Dead?
Hoa Nguyen
‘I didn’t have the language for why I could not be a tourist in the same way as my white counterparts.’
Eliza Griswold | Is Travel Writing Dead?
Eliza Griswold
‘Even in its subtler forms, the act of looking is an act of self-regard.’
Tara Bergin | Is Travel Writing Dead?
Tara Bergin
‘If you laugh and tell me I am only speaking metaphorically, I will reply: what other way do you expect me to speak?’
Naugahyde
Gordon Lish
A story of ageing infidelity: ‘He would seek to remember and she would seek to remember – each succeeding a little differently from the other.’
Two Poems
Gary Barwin
‘it’s philosophy / coming from everyone at once // like a ballgown worn by the sky’
Portrayal: A Double Portrait
Edward Doegar
‘You can’t control your face / The Empire has over-reached / Expressions // Have become flags’
Gwendoline Riley | Five Things Right Now
Gwendoline Riley
Gwendoline Riley on Caspar David Friedrich, sketching and Chekhov.
