Explore Essays and memoir
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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.’
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.’
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.
Notes from Uzbekistan
Chinelo Okparanta
‘The cultural presentations of the students – that juxtaposition of old and new world, of tradition and modernity.’
Helen Oyeyemi | My Writing Playlist
Helen Oyeyemi
Helen Oyeyemi on what she listens to while writing and editing.
Miroslav Penkov | First Sentence
Miroslav Penkov
‘It was an old woman’s racism that inspired the first line of ‘Blood Money’.’
After Silk Road
Mike Power
‘The Dark Web is a shadow internet, an unindexed, unseen and lawless corner of cyberspace.’
Ross Raisin | On Tour
Ross Raisin
‘I was up at 5.30 this morning, to screaming, and it’s afternoon now and I’m covered in hummus and struggling to muster the energy to remove it from myself.’
João’s War
Julia Rochester
‘He repeatedly said, “I should have been a priest.“ He was right. People sought his benediction.’