Explore Essays and memoir
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Exile
Elif Shafak
‘The first time I heard the word exile – sürgün – in Turkish, I was a child. It struck me how closely it rhymed with another word: hüzün – melancholy.’
On Tastelessness
Adam O’Fallon Price
‘Write through your first ending is advice I give, again and again.’
Jianan Qian | First Sentence
Jianan Qian
‘For every witness, history unfolded at some other time, and in some other place.’ Jianan Qian on the first sentence of her story, ‘To the Dogs’.
The Emperor of Ice Cream
Rebecca Tamás
‘Death is terrifying and impossibly big, but life is even bigger – vulgar, relentless, ruthless.’
Lemons in Winter
Mika Taylor
‘I wonder why I am always the last to let go. I wonder if there is any amount that will ever be enough.’
Going Home
Raja Shehadeh
Read an excerpt from Raja Shehadeh’s Going Home, a reflection on ageing, failure, the occupation, and the changing face of Ramallah.
Night on Fire
Darcey Steinke
‘I know what’s going to happen and I know that it’s going to be bizarre.’
Distributed Denial of Service
Merritt Tierce
‘Once you learn to seal the shell, to make it watertight, you can let anything roil around in there.’
How I Write My Books
Anne Serre
Anne Serre on how she writes. Translated from the French by Mark Hutchinson.
