Two Poems
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On Literary Celebrity
Caryl Phillips
Caryl Phillips on being chosen as a Best of Young British Novelists in 1993 and the nascent culture of literary celebrity.
On Judging Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists
A.L. Kennedy
A.L. Kennedy on being chosen for, and judging Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists.
On the Anxieties of Translation
Ned Beauman
Ned Beauman on his translation into Assamese, and where being named one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists took him.
The Weeds
Katy Simpson Smith
‘The stone is cold; touching a leaf is like touching skin.’
A botanist’s assistant longs for her lover in this extract from The Weeds.
Listlessness
Christy Edwall
‘The listless mind is one which defers rather than tries to bring about closure. There is always one more tab to open.’
Christy Edwall on listlessness in twenty-first century fiction.
Acid Permanent
Suzie Bovenzi
‘I miss his body, the blank shine of it. I miss the clean blue bib.’
A story by Suzie Bovenzi.
Close to Home
Michael Magee
‘I thought about how I had tricked everyone into thinking I was hard, that I could handle myself, without ever having to throw a punch.’
An extract from Close to Home by Michael Magee.
Podcast | Ayanna Lloyd Banwo
Ayanna Lloyd Banwo
‘Places don’t always remember what they are.’
Ayanna Lloyd Banwo talks about her novel When We Were Birds.
Beyond Deep Throat | Part II
Saskia Vogel
‘Whatever porn is or is not, like dance it is rooted in the body.’
Saskia Vogel on the relationship between dance and pornography.
Sartorial Misdirection
Rosie Findlay
‘In clothes, I met strangeness with strangeness. They dressed me with a kind of distanced power.’
Rosie Findlay on fashion and religion.
Animals After Dark
Avigayl Sharp
‘I was not a strong mayor. I was an email. I was a little bit high.’
A short story by Avigayl Sharp.
In Conversation
Sabrina Orah Mark & Martin Riker
‘I don’t know if you’ve ever held a fairy tale in your hand, but it has this amazing pliability.’
Sabrina Orah Mark and Martin Riker on fairy tales, form and the imaginary realm.
Podcast | Mary Gaitskill
Mary Gaitskill
‘Fiction, even if it’s completely made up, does say something about how you experience reality.’
Mary Gaitskill talks about her book The Devil’s Treasure.
Of Cattle and Men
Ana Paula Maia
‘No one goes unpunished. They’re men of cattle and blood.’
An extract from Of Cattle and Men by Ana Paula Maia, translated by Zoë Perry.
Lucky Punk
Anouchka Grose
‘As evidenced by the Met show, everyone wants to be a bit punk.’
Anouchka Grose on the birth and death and rebirth of punk.
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Christodoulos Makris
‘like us or not don’t be afraid toss us a follow it counts’
Poetry by Christodoulos Makris.
In Conversation
Tom Bullough & Ben Rawlence
‘People may not want realism but it’s still our job to try and supply it in compelling and truthful ways.’
Tom Bullough and Ben Rawlence on writing into the climate crisis.
One Image
Timothy Phillips
‘I was in Sarandë as part of a journey across the entire length of the old Iron Curtain, from Norway to Azerbaijan.’
Timothy Phillips on the legacy of the Iron Curtain in Albania.
Notes on Craft
Dee Peyok
‘I wanted to learn everything there was to know about the singer and his words.’
Dee Peyok on craft and the Cambodian musician: Sinn Sisamouth.
Particulate Matter
Amitava Kumar
‘India, as we know it, is changing. What will it become?’
Memoir by Amitava Kumar.
Beyond Deep Throat | Part I
Saskia Vogel
‘The eye wants to see its fill, the I wants to see how it feels.’
Saskia Vogel on the foundational stories of pornography.
Super-Infinite
Katherine Rundell
‘His poetry sliced through the gender binary and left it gasping on the floor.’
Katherine Rundell on John Donne.
The Gospel According to the New World
Maryse Condé
‘Our Father had perhaps two sons and sent her the younger one.’
An excerpt from The Gospel According to the New World, by Maryse Condé, translated from the French by Richard Philcox.
Husband Number Five
Emily Adrian
‘I’ve been cruel to my mother all my life. Relentlessly hitting on her new boyfriend was barely remarkable.’
Fiction by Emily Adrian.
Loopholes
Tice Cin
‘If you’re raised without these codes, if you’re not from ends, you won’t find the routes and you won’t find us.’
Tice Cin on class, housing estates and hood surrealism.
Oxblood
Tom Benn
‘Some nights he hurt her which made her glad; she never let him know because the pain was brief and rare and felt like penance.’
An extract from Oxblood by Tom Benn.
Two Poems
Eva Salzman
‘I might as well have not said or done what I said I said or did.’
Poetry by Eva Salzman.
Nothing Special
Nicole Flattery
‘There was very little I could do in life except get dressed, smoke the correct cigarettes.’
An extract from Nothing Special by Nicole Flattery.
On Washing Up and Hoverflies
Beatrice Searle
‘It may be the satisfaction of full hands that brings forth the full feeling essential for words.’
Beatrice Searle on stonemasonry.
Blue Hunger
Viola Di Grado
‘All I wanted was to look at Xu and be looked at by Xu. Be touched by Xu. Be commanded by Xu.’
An extract from Blue Hunger by Viola Di Grado, translated by Jamie Richards.
On Beyoncé
Okechukwu Nzelu
‘Renaissance gives back, by reminding Black queer people what it’s like to be in our most sacred spaces.’
Okechukwu Nzelu on Beyoncé.
Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies
Maddie Mortimer
‘This one – it’s a bit of a beast, he said.’
An extract from Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies by Maddie Mortimer. Shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award 2022.
