Granta | The Home of New Writing

Cosmos

In Conversation

Eva Baltasar & Irene Solà

‘The tide carries my books from my head to a place that is no longer mine.’

The authors discuss friendship, the sea and finishing their novels.

Blue Room, Fake Blue Veins

Peter Scalpello

‘[left home rented a room / spinning with mould] it almost turned me / straight.’ A new poem by Peter Scalpello.

Interview

Colm Tóibín & William Atkins

‘I think he saw the German spirit as one in which suffering or an appreciation of suffering was essential.’

Small Girl Landlady

Adachioma Ezeano

‘Trouble was awake – we didn’t need anyone to tell us.’

New fiction by Adachioma Ezeano.

Interview

Stephen Gill

Photographer Stephen Gill, whose photo-book Please Notify the Sun came out in 2021, speaks to Granta.

Beautiful Short Loser

Ocean Vuong

‘For as long as I can remember my body was a small town nightmare.’

A new poem by Ocean Vuong.

Personal Growth

Marina Benjamin

‘Refusal is the last recourse of the powerless.’

Marina Benjamin on her years of not eating, and not growing.

Thomas

Eloghosa Osunde

‘It’s a story that happens to you once and then lives with you forever.’

An excerpt from Vagabonds! by Eloghosa Osunde.

You Must, You Will

Ben Hinshaw

‘Once the Frosties had been eaten, she had no choice but to run.’

Fiction by Ben Hinshaw.

Lecture on Loneliness

Claire Schwartz

‘Only history makes her lonely, only after makes her first.’

A poem by Claire Schwartz.

Notes on Craft

Nataliya Deleva

‘I didn’t want to write Arrival from a place of exile or outcast.’ Nataliya Deleva on writing in her adoptive language.

The Wonders

Elena Medel

‘You need money even to protest.’

Junket

Lauren Groff

New short fiction by Lauren Groff.

Two Poems

Emily Berry

‘I do not see / the slow wheels in my blood turning, but / I ride them’

Two poems by Emily Berry.

The Yearner

Rachel Long

‘I stacked three pillows, made sure / my head was heavy with bills, wine’.

A poem by Rachel Long.

The Trip to Rose Cottage

Cal Flyn

‘People washed up here, and remained.’

Cal Flyn visits the abandoned island of Swona.

In a Letter

Kate Zambreno

‘How is it possible we lived in that same house? Although every house in that neighborhood looked more or less alike.’ A story by Kate Zambreno.

Literary Exhibitionism

Nataliya Meshchaninova

‘In my diary I was always sassy, proud, and forbidding.’

E-Friends

Emily Adrian

‘I had also, a week earlier, been fired for trying to sleep with my boss’s husband. I got the idea from a book, or maybe every book.’

New fiction by Emily Adrian.

Acts of Desperation

Megan Nolan

‘I wish I could step inside this memory and steady myself, put a cool reassuring hand on my own and convince myself to wait.’

An excerpt from Megan Nolan’s Acts of Desperation, shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writers Award.

Introduction

Sigrid Rausing

‘I don’t think we have quite processed yet what those months of isolation did to us – a time of fear and daily death tolls and also of unprecedented curtailment of our freedom of movement. But there were consolations.’

Editor Sigrid Rausing introduces the issue.

The Hour of the Wolf

Fatima Bhutto

‘Though I have had dogs all my life, Coco is my first real companion.’

Fatima Bhutto on grief.

Pure Colour

Sheila Heti

‘She had never seen that colour before. It was the colour of a father dying.’

An excerpt from Sheila Heti’s forthcoming novel.

Letter by Letter

Claire Schwartz

‘The Archivist carries his mind / into each house.’

In the Heart of the Hall of Mirrors

Chris Dennis

‘If the heart has a great hall then it must also have a dungeon.’

Memoir by Chris Dennis.

Overture

Janice Galloway

‘To catch an octopus needs stillness.’

Fiction by Janice Galloway.

Waiting Room

Will Rees

‘A patient must heave their entire body into their mouth.’

Will Rees in search of a diagnosis.

Prom Notes

Rachel Long

‘Till uni do us part.’

Leavers

Lewis Khan

A photoessay by Lewis Khan.

The Physician

Nathan Harris

‘The boy is long dead, of course. Buried outside of town in a pile with the rest of the bodies.’

Historical fiction by Nathan Harris.

The Emperor Concerto

Julie Hecht

‘Upbringing is important, and I’ve never gotten over mine.’

Fiction by Julie Hecht.

what if mary auntie called me on my birthday

Akwaeke Emezi

‘i buy my own selling / spiels, i mean them all, i am so bored’

An Olive Grove in Ends

Moses McKenzie

‘The infamous Hughes family – known to police and hospital staff across the city.’

Fiction set in Bristol by Moses McKenzie.

Our Stratford

The Herak Family & Damian Le Bas

‘The Roma understand that a home doesn’t need axles and wheels to be “Gypsy”, and we look for other signs.’

Damian Le Bas introduces photographs taken by the Herak family.

The Picnic Pavilion

Debbie Urbanski

‘They are wearing dresses. I am not wearing a dress. Another difference is they’re dead and I am not dead.’

Debbie Urbanski on the BRCA1 gene.