Explore Essays and memoir
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Salman Rushdie on Sunjeev Sahota
Salman Rushdie
‘You open a book by a writer you’ve never heard of and a new voice leaps off the page and makes you listen.’
David Searcy | First Sentence
David Searcy
‘When I was a kid, my family doctor, right through high school, was this wonderful, funny guy with a little Boston Blackie moustache who looked a lot like Burgess Meredith.’
Rachel Seiffert on Naomi Alderman
Rachel Seiffert
‘So, to summarise: witty, bold, and delicate too. Oh yes, and supremely able to turn a story.’
Taiye Selasi | My Writing Playlist
Taiye Selasi
Taiye Selasi, one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists, shares a playlist of songs to write to.
Zadie Smith on ‘Just Right’
Zadie Smith
‘There should be a special term for abandoned stories, and another for the strange limbo in which their occupants live.’
From the Past Comes the Storms
Andrés Felipe Solano
‘During the hottest months, the thermometer settles in at 100 degrees like a nonagenarian in a rocker – no one can make it move.’
How to be Gay and Indian
Manil Suri
‘This was supposed to be my great in-your-face coming-out campaign, which I’d fretted over for months beforehand. Had India suddenly lost its conservativeness, turned enlightened, even hip?’
Playing the Odds
David Szalay
‘What, I wonder now, must the texture of my life have been like then, that winning those sort of sums failed to leave even the slightest mark on my memory?’
A Brief History of a Musical Failure
Catherine Tice
‘At the end of the piece, there was silence, followed by a sudden thunder of feet and bows on the stands. A thrilling noise.’
Teachers
Sandy Tolan
‘They came from Europe, Palestine and America, drawn by the story of Ramzi and Al Kamandjâti, by the young traveller’s spirit of adventure, and by the desire to use their musical talents for work that could make a difference in the world.’
In Cyberspace: a love letter
Joanna Walsh
‘I’m at a cafe table. It doesn’t matter which country. I’ve been travelling for a long time. By train. Nine, ten different countries in thirty days, a couple of nights in each, maybe three at most.’
