Explore Essays and memoir
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A Mischief of Rats
Joanna Kavenna
‘They slept curled together in a hammock, little scraps of fur, hearts beating madly.’ Joanna Kavenna on her pet rats, Kat Bjelland and Courtney Love.
The Bible As Literature, Literature As Scripture
Stuart Kelly
'Literature and literary criticism took me away from the Church as a teenager, and literature and literary criticism brought me back to it later.'
After
April Ayers Lawson
‘I again told him I wasn’t ready to have sex, and his only response was to lean in and kiss me. The hallway in which we walked seemed to be shrinking, closing in on us.’ – April Ayers Lawson on intimacy after sexual abuse.
The Trouble With Rape
April Ayers Lawson
April Ayers Lawson on rape, trauma, and the difficulty of speaking out about sexual abuse.
Abuse, Silence, and the Light That Virginia Woolf Switched On
April Ayers Lawson
When Virginia Woolf was thirteen, she was abused by her half-brother George Duckworth. No one believed her - not even her biographers. April Ayers Lawson on Woolf's abuse, and her own.
Dividing Lines
Jack Losh
Jack Losh reports from rebel-held Bria in the Central African Republic, where fighting has forced thousands into a displacement camp.
A Not-So-Pretty History of Pet Care
Daniel Magariel
‘One day after the next I would figure out what was needed, learn from my mistakes, pay attention to what worked.’
Heart Berries
Terese Marie Mailhot
‘We started the affair in a small booth at Village Inn. I didn’t sleep the night before. You were my teacher, and we discussed my fiction.’
Best Book of 2013: Tom Drury’s Pacific
John Patrick McHugh
‘There is a remarkable flow to the novel, like that aimless but essential drunken chatter after your third pint.’ John Patrick McHugh on why Tom Drury’s Pacific is the best book of 2013.
