Tender
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The Leftie Sickle
Mo Yan
‘When they were working, Old Han held the tongs, Young Han swung the sledgehammer, and Old Third worked the bellows to raise the heat.’
A short story by Mo Yan, translated by Nicky Harman.
Black Pig Hair, White Pig Hair
Yan Lianke
‘Are you here to accept punishment on the mayor’s behalf ? This is a great opportunity. People burn incense for a chance like this.’
A short story by Yan Lianke, translated by Carlos Rojas.
Doing the Work
Emily Berry
‘I loved being a receptionist. What I loved about it was playing the part of being a receptionist.’
Emily Berry on being a temporary office worker.
My Spiritual Evolution
Tao Lin
‘I came to feel that I was hiding here in the physical world, like a child who hides in a computer game to escape a more consequential reality.’
Tao Lin on his spiritual awakening, via psychedelics and the literature of near-death experiences.
Notes on Craft
Sigrid Rausing
‘I think I stayed with the text for as long as I needed to give meaning to my grief, crying not in Johanna’s absence but with her.’
Sigrid Rausing on transcribing, translating and editing Johanna Ekström’s final notebooks.
Doing the Work
Sandra Newman
‘I was constantly reading job ads, trying to find my holy grail – a job I could stand to do, and someone foolish enough to hire me.’
Sandra Newman on learning how to play professional blackjack.
Podcast | Alan Hollinghurst
Alan Hollinghurst
‘I settled in, decades ago, to the idea that I was just going to write from a gay position, without explanation or excuse.’
Alan Hollinghurst on writing from the outsider’s perspective and cataloguing queer life.
Doing the Work
A. K. Blakemore
‘Anyone who has ever worked night shifts will understand the vertiginous feeling that comes with staring down the day from the wrong end.’
A.K. Blakemore on working nights.
In Conversation
Daisy Lafarge & Amber Husain
‘Being parasitised usually comes part and parcel with being a parasite yourself.’
Daisy Lafarge and Amber Husain on parasites and institutions.
Silas Lucas
Garth Risk Hallberg
‘Thinking back to that summer of Silas Lucas, I can see my father trying to invent for me the place where the actual and the possible meet to make something new.’
Garth Risk Hallberg on the borderline business of telling stories.
Perfection
Vincenzo Latronico
‘They couldn’t put their finger on exactly what it was they craved, but they knew it was very different to what they had.’
Fiction by Vincenzo Latronico, translated by Sophie Hughes.
Doing the Work
Camilla Grudova
‘I think there should be a National Service of Hospitality. The best way to see the true face of humanity is to serve it a plate of chips.’
Camilla Grudova on bad-mannered customers.
Something Happened
Madeline Cash
‘She is thorough in a way that is off putting to people. It makes for a good secretary, not a good conversationalist.’
Fiction by Madeline Cash.
Interview
Brea Souders & Alice Zoo
‘How would I feel if I had messaged for years with someone that I later found out was an AI?’
Brea Souders speaks to Alice Zoo about chatbots, interconnection and the dialogue between photography and text in her work.
Chicken Crazy
Thom Sliwowski
‘Patterns in my love life, things I read, my dreams and distant memories together wove plush carpets of significance.’
An essay by Thom Sliwowski on chicken, abstinence and polyamory.
Podcast | Rachel Kushner
Rachel Kushner
‘My instinct often is to swerve, to try to commit to some kind of reversal on received logics and see how far I can go with it.’
Rachel Kushner on the mystery of prehistory and the true depth of a cave.
Sidney
Brad Phillips
‘People say it’s healthy for couples to fight, it means there’s still passion. I’ve always assumed that was bullshit, but now I’m not sure.’
Fiction by Brad Phillips.
In Conversation
Helen Garner & Izabella Scott
‘I think what draws me in is the spectacle of the law trying to deal with something that nothing can deal with – just the wildness of people.’
Izabella Scott in conversation with Helen Garner.
Severalls
Tom Lee
‘He was in tears but also relieved because finally there was an acknowledgement that something was wrong with him.’
Tom Lee on his father’s admission to a psychiatric hospital.
Podcast | Benjamin Kunkel
Benjamin Kunkel
‘I've done my service to eco-socialism.’
Benjamin Kunkel on the distinct promises offered by fiction and political theory – the ludic and the lucid.
Duty
Diana Evans
‘How do you love a monster when they are no longer monstrous?’
New fiction by Diana Evans.
Universal Mother
Momtaza Mehri
‘I turn to O’Connor’s music when I get tired of lying to myself. Her songs are allegorical free-falls. Spiritual chiaroscuros, even.’
Momtaza Mehri on Sinéad O’Connor.
Diane
Avigayl Sharp
‘I lied about my age and I lied about my location and I lied about being horny.’
Fiction by Avigayl Sharp.
Introduction
Thomas Meaney
‘There can be any number of significant others in a life. Some we know for a long time; others are meteoric: we may see them only once.’
The editor introduces the issue.
The Museum Guard
J.M. Coetzee
‘Do they strike people as a strange couple? He does not know, does not care.’
Fiction by J.M. Coetzee.
Private View
Sophie Collins
‘Being recognised as part of a couple thrilled me; I felt legitimised. John had a life, a full life.’
Fiction by Sophie Collins.
Embrace
Kevin Brazil
‘Love is a concept about which I have long been very sceptical. I have seen the damage that can be done, and can be justified, in the name of love.’
Fiction by Kevin Brazil.
New Kindness Hatching
Jesse Glazzard & Anthony Vahni Capildeo
‘The invisible artist who invites us to stand beside him is clearly among friends; being kind, being of a kind; witnessing with-ness.’
Jesse Glazzard photographs Camp Trans, with an introduction by Anthony Vahni Capildeo.
The Messiah of Cadoxton
Susan Pedersen
‘The script of script production rather followed the script of sex: it was intimate, exciting, boundary-crossing, and left the participants changed.’
Susan Pedersen on paranormal love in the Balfour family.
Three Mukhatabat
Najwan Darwish
‘He said to me: / Love led me / to pity my own self, / to grieve it / with a vertical grief.’
Poetry by Najwan Darwish. Translated from the Arabic by Kareem James Abu-Zeid.
A Woman I Once Knew
Rosalind Fox Solomon & Lynne Tillman
‘These are not gentle, passive female bodies. They are strong women who strike poses that show aggression.’
Lynne Tillman introduces Rosalind Fox Solomon’s self-portraits.
A Journey to Ayodhya
Snigdha Poonam
‘Ask anyone in Ayodhya, and they will say the city’s Hindu–Muslim harmony can withstand any test.’
Snigdha Poonam on the construction of a Hindu temple on the ruins of a mosque in Utter Pradesh.
Bitter North
Alexandra Tanner
‘Eight years in, Hal felt like another her, somehow.’
Fiction by Alexandra Tanner.
