Ben Okri | Interview
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Scattered All Over the Earth
Yoko Tawada
‘You don’t understand. The country where I used to live is now gone.’
and the earth drank deep
Ntsika Kota
Ntsika Kota is the winner of the 2022 Commonwealth Short Story Prize for Africa.
The Stars Are Blind
Anna Dorn
‘A few years ago, while in between jobs, I started doing astrology readings for cash.’
Anna Dorn on her astrology journey.
In Conversation
Leslie Jamison & Margo Jefferson
‘The self is the work of art. Criticism puts that self in the service of other art.’
The authors discuss the multiplicity of the self, the idea of necessity, and how to work with what you lack.
The Last Diver on Earth
Sofia Mariah Ma
Winner of the 2022 Commonwealth Writers Short Story Prize for Asia.
Podcast | Eula Biss
Eula Biss
‘What does it say about capitalism that we have money and want to spend it but we can’t find anything worth buying?’
Eula Biss on her book Having and Being Had.
Podcast | Stephanie Sy-Quia
Stephanie Sy-Qyia
‘Empires fall like milk teeth.’
Stephanie Sy-Quia on her collection Amnion.
On Marble
Rachel Cusk
‘Two things – beauty and horror – are especially lasting.’
Rachel Cusk visits a marble bearing island in Greece’s Aegean sea.
Divination
Guadalupe Nettel
‘It is easy, when we are young, to have ideals and to live according to them.’
An excerpt from Guadalupe Nettel’s Still Born.
Podcast | Tice Cin
Tice Cin
‘Careful when you turn your eyes towards someone, you allow them the chance to turn theirs on you.’
Tice Cin on her debut novel Keeping the House.
Abandonment
Ralf Webb
‘I sensed that as she listened she looked right through my skull and saw the cringing figure living there, the figure that keeps guard over all my secret strategies and disguises.’
New fiction from Ralf Webb.
A Hat for Lemer
Cecil Browne
Winner of the 2022 Commonwealth Writers Short Story Prize for Canada and Europe.
Dogs of Summer
Andrea Abreu
‘There was no one around that day, so we decided to put on our bikini tops for the first time.’
An extract from Andrea Abreu’s debut novel. Translated from the Spanish by Julia Sanches.
Three Poems
Victoria Adukwei Bulley
‘create a national holiday in your namelessness, in my head.’
Poems from the author’s debut collection Quiet.
Bridge Over the Yallahs River
Diana McCaulay
Winner of the 2022 Commonwealth Writers Short Story Prize for the Caribbean region.
Scream Queen
Julia Armfield
‘She is well-behaved, as icons go, she toes the party line.’
Short fiction by the author of Our Wives Under the Sea.
Welcome to the New World
Jessi Jezewska Stevens
New fiction from Jessi Jezewska Stevens. ‘Debt is the molten bedrock upon which all else shifts.’
The Nightwatch
Mary Rokonadravu
Winner of the 2022 Commonwealth Writers Short Story Prize for the Pacific region.
Two Poems
Collin Callahan
‘He twists biblical spliffs. / Curtains warble in the television light.’ Two poems by Collin Callahan.
We Had to Remove This Post
Hanna Bervoets
‘A video of someone flinging their cat out the window is only allowed if cruelty is not a motive’. An excerpt from the new novel by Hanna Bervoets.
In Conversation
Mary Jean Chan & Andrew McMillan
The authors of Flèche and physical discuss the state of queer poetry in Britain, how to make poetry alive and what an anthology can mean.
Kafka’s Drawings
Franz Kafka & Andreas Kilcher
Previously unpublished drawings by Franz Kafka, author of The Trial and The Castle.
Two Poems
Beth Bachmann
‘Under the skin, our skeletons / are braided with tendons – roses on an openwork arch’ Two poems by Beth Bachmann
Three Poems
Christopher Soto
‘Instantaneous / Pleasure takes too // Long’
Poetry from Christopher Soto’s collection Diaries of a Terrorist.
Acts of Service
Lillian Fishman
‘I had hundreds of nudes stored in my phone, but I’d never sent them to anyone.’
An excerpt from Lillian Fishman’s new novel.
On Sizewell C
William Atkins
‘Where do we go, as a country, for power?’
William Atkins on the proposed nuclear power station in Suffolk.
Beyond Conversion Therapy
Kevin Childs
‘When I was growing up in his house, religion was his crutch, a justification for his behaviour.’
Kevin Childs on growing up queer in a Catholic household.
Joy and Insecurity in Port-au-Prince
Jason Allen-Paisant
‘The body is the first measurement of time: to reclaim time is to reclaim the body.’
Jason Allen-Paisant in Haiti.
My Mother Photographs Me in a Bath of Dead Squid
Lars Horn
‘She is not a conventionally “good” mother. But then, put like that, it sounds like a slow death sentence anyhow.’
Lars Horn on modeling for their artist mother.
Blue-Eyed Muggers
Alejandro Zambra
‘At every protest, when it was time to yell at the cops, I remembered my father and felt a turbulent emotion.’
Memoir by Alejandro Zambra on his father and his son.
Diary of a Journey to Senegal
Ishion Hutchinson
‘Sea night music: what is the music?’
Ishion Hutchinson in Senegal.
