Granta | The Home of New Writing

Explore Essays and memoir

The Solution is Within

Évelyne Trouillot

‘How are we living? Every morning we wake up and wonder what happened last night.’

Évelyne Trouillot on the crisis in Haiti.

A Boat Ride to the Confluence of the Two Niles

Isma’il Kushkush

‘April 2022 marked my first visit to my ancestral homeland in seven years.’

Memoir by Isma’il Kushkush.

A World of Networks and Vines

Marie Darrieussecq

‘No one is alone in their bed anymore.’

An excerpt from Sleepless by Marie Darrieussecq, translated by Penny Hueston.

Memory of Light

Prabda Yoon

‘Until a few years ago, to even mention the monarchy with a questioning undertone was taboo.’

Prabda Yoon on democracy in Thailand.

My Time Machine

Arthur Asseraf

‘How do we imagine the past of those we love?’

Arthur Asseraf on family and fractured memories.

Introduction

Sigrid Rausing

‘I came to the magazine in 2005 and took over the editorship in 2013.’

Sigrid Rausing introduces her last issue.

Reports from the Front: Winter 2023

Peter Englund

‘I repeat: the landscape of war is an acoustic landscape.’

Peter Englund on the war in Ukraine, translated from the Swedish by Sigrid Rausing.

Cairo Song

Wiam El-Tamami

‘I see this everywhere. The creativity, resourcefulness and incredible talent for improvisation in Egypt.’

Wiam El-Tamami on returning to Cairo.

Plainsong

Suzie Howell & A. K. Blakemore

‘Postures of graceful receptivity, or surrender. How do we tell the difference?’

A.K. Blakemore introduces Suzie Howell’s photographs.

The Index of Porosity

Adam Mars-Jones

‘Is there in fact a jostling for dominance between the art forms, some barely suppressed competitiveness?’

Adam Mars-Jones on music and ceremony.

One Day It Will all Make Sense

Tabitha Lasley

‘It occurs to me then that he has not invited me for dinner, but my alter ego from the page.’

Tabitha Lasley on writing and dating.

A Report on Music in Ukraine

Ed Vulliamy

‘Nights at the opera in Ukraine – where everything, including every kind of music, has changed.’

Ed Vulliamy on music in Ukraine.

Journal Excerpts 1997–1999

Lydia Davis

‘gormandizing, gluttonous, lickerish, guttling’

Excerpts from Lydia Davis’s diary.

Once a Dancer

Diana Evans

‘What happens to a dancer when they stop dancing?’

Diana Evans on dancing and writing.