Explore Essays and memoir
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A.L. Kennedy | First Sentence
A.L. Kennedy
‘I have never seen anyone eat figs in the street and feel I am unsurprised.’
Yiyun Li | First Sentence
Yiyun Li
‘But for her, and perhaps for many, the solidity of an invented life is not trustworthy.’
Ange Mlinko | First Sentence
Ange Mlinko
‘I rediscovered the efficacy of meter (or the ‘contrast between fixity and flux’) when I was stuck in a shark tunnel with my kids and was afraid I was coming down with a panic attack.’
Chupa Globo (Globo Sucks)
Sophie Lewis
‘Carnival by stealth: ticketless, leaderless and limitless, a surge of feeling independent of schools, parties, king or queen; a true subversion of the status quo.’
Tao Lin | On Tour
Tao Lin
‘The editor of the Oregonian’s books section (Powell’s employees later confirmed to me that it was him, but they could be wrong) attended, I think, and asked in what sounded to me like an accusatory, non-curious voice if I was on drugs.’
Notes from Uzbekistan
Chinelo Okparanta
‘The cultural presentations of the students – that juxtaposition of old and new world, of tradition and modernity.’
The Perfect Last Days of Mr Sengupta
Siddartha Mukherjee
‘The point of lucid death,’ he said, ‘is to retain the consciousness of dying, while blunting the agony of it.’
A Walk to Kobe
Haruki Murakami
‘What I’m talking about is a different sea, and different mountains.’ Haruki Murakami walks to his hometown after the Great Hanshin earthquake of 1995.
Remembering Iain M Banks
Stuart Kelly
Stuart Kelly remembers Iain Banks, and assesses the influence he's had on this generation of writers.
Helen Oyeyemi | My Writing Playlist
Helen Oyeyemi
Helen Oyeyemi on what she listens to while writing and editing.