Mark Doten | Five Things Right Now
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The Erl-King
Emma Cline
‘He was our younger sister’s baby – her and her husband’s baby, I guess. They were young parents and excessively chill.’
Memoir by Emma Cline.
They’re Going To Love You
Meg Howrey
‘He understands he is a container. For music, for movement.’
An excerpt from Meg Howrey’s novel, set in the world of professional ballet.
Two Poems
Lee Kathryn Hodge
‘Tell me now what it is that dies, gasping for another world in my hand.’
Two poems by Lee Kathryn Hodge.
In Conversation
Amina Cain & Patrick Cottrell
‘Without obsession, I don’t think I’d get anywhere.’
Two authors discuss atmosphere, obsession and going ‘too far’.
Middle Ground
Georgina Parfitt
‘At school, the primroses were coming out. Brighton was eleven, and every day now there was something new emerging.’
A story by Georgina Parfitt.
Living Rooms
Sam Johnson-Schlee
‘Before chintziness there was chintz, a fabric produced in India and imported to Europe by colonial traders.’
Sam Johnson-Schlee on what chintz means.
Notes on Craft
K Patrick
‘I don’t know anything except my own body. When writing poetry, that’s the only place I can start from.’
K Patrick on writing the queer body.
An Excerpt from sky doc
Joe Carrick-Varty
‘Once upon a time when suicide was a thought / folded inside a thought’
Poetry by Joe Carrick-Varty.
Through the Billboard Promised Land Without Ever Stopping
Derek Jarman & Declan Wiffen
‘Owing to lack of interest, tomorrow has been cancelled, you are now in the strawberry beds of the eternal present.’
Unpublished fiction by the late Derek Jarman.
Two Poems
Chia-Lun Chang
‘I often see myself thrusting into soft clouds, hallucinating.’
Two poems from Chia-Lun Chang’s debut poetry collection Prescribee.
Tuna
Katherine Rundell
‘“Dolphin safe” labels on our tins are reckoned among marine scientists to mean next to nothing.’
Katherine Rundell on tuna and extinction speculation.
Strega
Johanne Lykke Holm
‘I knew a woman’s life could at any point be turned into a crime scene.’
An excerpt from Strega.
In Conversation
Ira Mathur & Monique Roffey
Ira Mathur and Monique Roffey discuss memoir-writing in the Caribbean and the enduring legacy of colonial rule in Trinidad.
Two Poems
Anthony (Vahni) Capildeo
‘A faint resentment paints / the spiral staircase walls / blue all over again’
Two poems from Anthony (Vahni) Capildeo’s work-in-progress Gentle Housework of the Sacrifice.
Radius: A Story of Feminist Revolution
Yasmin El-Rifae
‘The only thing that was clear was that the square would be full, and Opantish had to be ready.’
An excerpt from Yasmin El-Rifae’s account of the Egyptian revolution and its aftermath, Radius.
Nancy’s Victory
Diane Williams
‘She saw a small swatch of pink and supposed a sunset was out there and thought, What can that knockout pink do for me?’
New fiction by Diane Williams.
Three Poems
John Freeman
‘One morning time trips a reel / and I’m confronted with / the object I will become / carpentered for eternity.’
An extract from John Freeman’sWind, Trees.
They Tell You They Love You
Niamh Donnelly
‘Sometimes, in the shower, he finds new and surprising bruises, whose origin he can’t place.’
A story by Niamh Donnelly.
On Silk
Sally Wen Mao
‘At the silk museum, / the silkworms crumpled themselves in baskets, / lazy and dazed in the spoils of mulberry.’
A poem by Sally Wen Mao.
In Conversation
Kamila Shamsie & Sunjeev Sahota
A conversation between Kamila Shamsie and Sunjeev Sahota.
Three Poems
Zaffar Kunial
‘In the blowy wet distance a yew, shivering.’
An excerpt from England’s Green by Zaffar Kunial.
The Book of Goose
Yiyun Li
‘Just follow me, she had said, you do nothing but what I tell you to.’
An extract from Yiyun Li’s new novel.
Sinkhole
Rosanna McLaughlin
‘She’d always been a heavy sweater, ever since puberty first coated her skin with downy fur, transforming the climate of her body into something dank and grotty.’
An excerpt from Rosanna McLaughlin’s Sinkhole.
Haunted Houses
Laura Maw
‘Ghost stories, then, are not always characterised by fear. Sometimes, they are stories of belief, comfort, faith.’
Laura Maw on the photography of Corinne May Botz.
Kick the Latch
Kathryn Scanlan
‘You live at the track, your life is full.’
An excerpt from Kathryn Scanlan’s new work of fiction, Kick the Latch.
The Unfolding
A.M. Homes
‘As the brightness increases, the sky flushes with pink and red hues somewhere between birth and Armageddon.’
An excerpt from A.M. Homes’ new novel.
Life Is Everywhere
Lucy Ives
‘Erin’s mother, whom Erin also loved, was a covetous person, treacherous and clever.’
An excerpt from Lucy Ives’ new novel.
In The Event
Eva Warrick
‘The sky hung bizarrely brownish and heavy below a pink teacup sun, like a portent of the outer space invasion.’
A story by Eva Warrick.
Comfy
Edward Herring
‘Who needs a bed? he said one night. He was drinking beer out of an old dirty pickle jar.’
New fiction by Edward Herring.
