Four Poems
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Brother
Vanessa Onwuemezi
‘Brother, to be your sister is to confront the possibility of having been other than I am.’
Vanessa Onwuemezi on the meaning of sisterhood.
Miniature Twins
Omer Friedlander
‘We were so small, palm-sized, that our parents went to a doll shop in Jerusalem to find clothes that would fit us.’
Omer Friedlander writes about his twin.
Wales 2013–2022
Sebastián Bruno & Sophie Mackintosh
‘Sebastián Bruno’s careful documentation of the communities of South Wales, is made up of images stark in their beauty.’
Sophie Mackintosh introduces photography by Sebastián Bruno.
Siblings
Karolina Ramqvist
‘I asked her why she hadn’t told me I had a sister before, and she said she’d thought it was for my father to tell, since she was his child.’
Karolina Ramqvist on finding her estranged siblings, translated from the Swedish by Saskia Vogel.
A Little Closer
Angelique Stevens
‘We were twelve and thirteen and smoking cigarettes in our basement with friends – Mom and Dad at work, Hall & Oates on forty-five.’
Angelique Stevens recalls the year her sister went missing.
The Making of the Babies
Lee Lai
‘I can’t believe it’s been two years since we’ve been able to get together and we’re still just arguing about which of us incurs more shit from the aunties.’
A graphic short story by Lee Lai.
Betwixt and Betwin
Taiye Selasi
‘There has to be sameness if you are twins. If there isn’t it has to be invented.’
Taiye Selasi on trying to escape from twinhood.
Rain
Colin Barrett
‘As Scully and Charlie Vaughan passed under the trees in the town square, the afternoon seemed to switch on and off around them.’
Fiction by Colin Barrett.
The Tiddler
Charlie Gilmour
‘It was a competition, though I hadn’t realised that yet.’
Charlie Gilmour on bullying.
The Stripping of Threads
Jamal Mahjoub
‘I hold no illusions about us being reunited. All of this has gone on for far too long.’
Jamal Mahjoub on family obligation and estrangement.
George
K Patrick
‘Like the way George / Michael filled his jeans. Mothers like a man who can / fill his jeans.’
A poem by K Patrick.
Looking at My Brother
Julian Slagman & Alice Hattrick
‘Slagman’s photographs counteract the medical narrative as well as the medical gaze.’
Alice Hattrick introduces photography by Julian Slagman.
These Stolen Twins
Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow
‘In our household there was no distinction of feeling between those who were biologically related and those who were simply instructed to regard each other as such.’
Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow on growing up with foster siblings.
Captions
Andrew Miller
‘I note that my brother – he’ll deny it but he was always the moody one – has apparently refused to take Granny’s hand.’
Andrew Miller reflects on three family photographs.
The Pain Cave
Lauren Groff
‘I would rather have died of hypothermia than let my siblings win.’
Lauren Groff on competitiveness.
Ray & Her Sisters
Sara Baume
‘Ray is the only sister to win a scholarship to boarding school.’
Sara Baume tells the story of her grandmother’s life.
My Eye
Suzanne Brøgger
‘You were Father’s and I was Mother’s.’
Memoir by Suzanne Brøgger, translated from the Danish by Caroline Waight.
Speaking Brother
Will Harris
‘I don’t have a brother; I’m an only child. But a few years ago I started writing poems in which a brother appears.’
Will Harris on why he created a brother.
Brother Poem
Will Harris
‘Our snapped-off shadows / made a simple shape / one within the other like / a folded napkin’
Poetry by Will Harris.
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.
