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Tao Lin | On Tour

Tao Lin

‘The editor of the Oregonian’s books section (Powell’s employees later confirmed to me that it was him, but they could be wrong) attended, I think, and asked in what sounded to me like an accusatory, non-curious voice if I was on drugs.’

Sonia Faleiro | Podcast

Sonia Faleiro

Sonia Faleiro on marginalized narratives, her time as a reporter and how gender influences her work.

A Letter From Wales

Cynan Jones

‘Believe me – it will be impossible for you not to wonder – when I vow I am entirely sane.’

The Bridge Over Shuto Expressway No. 1

Alex Preston

‘Hiro Ōe wakes earlier now that he has the apartment to himself.’

The Third Pole

Gavin Francis

‘I came to the Himalayas not because of a dream of mountains or of animals, but because of a map.’

What Happened to Us

Humera Afridi

‘Trouble. There’s always trouble of some kind or other bringing the city to a standstill.’

Tombouctou

Jamal Mahjoub

‘After about three days in Djenné the lizards begin to talk.’

Robert Macfarlane | Podcast

Robert Macfarlane & Rachael Allen

‘When you're dealing with a geological context, its age exceeds your knowing, exceeds your comprehension. Deep time is dizzying and vertiginous.’

Notes from Uzbekistan

Chinelo Okparanta

‘The cultural presentations of the students – that juxtaposition of old and new world, of tradition and modernity.’

Charles Simic | Interview

Charles Simic & Rachael Allen

Charles Simic is one of today's most prolific poets. He speaks with poetry editor Rachael Allen about poetic movements, simple dishes and tragicomedy.

The Captain

Rattawut Lapcharoensap

‘I was with Dora. We were in love. Things were cheap and plentiful and the money from the insurance was going to last us forever.’

The Perfect Last Days of Mr Sengupta

Siddartha Mukherjee

‘The point of lucid death,’ he said, ‘is to retain the consciousness of dying, while blunting the agony of it.’

Underland

Robert Macfarlane

‘There are many ways to die underground.’

Eternities

Charles Simic

‘Could they be the same person?’

Nuestra Señora de la Asunción

Lina Wolff

‘No one here is normal except you, and you’re not even from Spain.’

The Man at the River

Dave Eggers

‘All he wants is to be a man sitting on a riverbed.’

String Theory

Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch

‘On tenterhooks / you think how string constricts, how / it connects, how you followed it back / to Rawtenstall.’

The Hudson River School

David Searcy

‘The coyote skull is on the table.’

A Rationalist in the Jungle

Héctor Abad

‘A pale-faced, near-sighted urbanite like me is nothing less than handicapped in the heart of the jungle.’

Tour Guide

Archive of Modern Conflict & Phil Klay

‘We record the reality we’re supposed to have, and then go back later and tell ourselves that it was the reality we experienced.’

Barrenland

A Yi

‘I no longer feared that she would entrap me; my heart would not soften.’

A Walk to Kobe

Haruki Murakami

‘What I’m talking about is a different sea, and different mountains.’ Haruki Murakami walks to his hometown after the Great Hanshin earthquake of 1995.

Compass Plant

Rachael Boast

One sprig should do, in a wayfarer’s satchel, to assist in losing all bearings until...

Seestück

Steffi Klenz

Artist Steffi Klenz recaptures portraits based on photographs of travellers, explorers and seamen who were lost in open waters, and whose bodies were never recovered.

The Best Hotel

Sonia Faleiro

I The village elder had recommended the hotel. He called it the best hotel in...

Geese

Ellen Bryant Voigt

there is no cure for temperament it’s how we recognize ourselves but sometimes within it...

Blood Money

Miroslav Penkov

‘At first the Gypsies didn’t know how to answer their cellphone.’

Water Has No Enemy

Teju Cole

‘The city is a sea that can swallow you at any time, a monster that can lash out without warning, a hell of variables and uncertainties.’

Wudang Mountain

Catherine Chung

‘The danger with chasing fantasies is that the reality is often so different than the imagination.’

There’s a Small Hotel

Andrew Holleran

‘Returning to Manhattan was like seeing someone who’d once been your lover but was now with someone else.’

The Two Gardens

Lorna Gibb

‘There are two gardens in my memory. The first was hidden behind the rows of shabby council houses where I grew up.’

Ross Raisin | On Tour

Ross Raisin

‘I was up at 5.30 this morning, to screaming, and it’s afternoon now and I’m covered in hummus and struggling to muster the energy to remove it from myself.’

Dutch Harbor Nights

Jim Ruland

‘When one of the fishermen starts belting out ‘All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Out Tonight’, it feels like a prophecy come to life.’

Two Poems

John Balaban

‘Her mother planted a garden in Manhattan. / In that garden is a tree. Some look on it and feel restored. / Others, when the wind lifts its leaves, want to scream.’

Shobasakthi | Best Untranslated Writers

V. V. Ganeshananthan

‘Shobasakthi is also known as Anthony X; he is an ex-militant; he is an expatriate.’

In Cyberspace: a love letter

Joanna Walsh

‘I’m at a cafe table. It doesn’t matter which country. I’ve been travelling for a long time. By train. Nine, ten different countries in thirty days, a couple of nights in each, maybe three at most.’