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Listlessness

Christy Edwall

‘The listless mind is one which defers rather than tries to bring about closure. There is always one more tab to open.’

Christy Edwall on listlessness in twenty-first century fiction.

Biography of X

Catherine Lacey

‘Grief has a warring logic; it always wants something impossible, something worse and something better.’

An extract from Biography of X by Catherine Lacey.

Touch Me Like One of Your Island Girls: A Love Story

Megan Kamalei Kakimoto

Was the sunburn part of the shtick? she wondered while the video continued to play.’

A story by Megan Kamalei Kakimoto.

A Strange Kind of Western

Rebecca Rukeyser

On seasonal work in Alaska and Kelly Reichardt.

Boys, Barricades, Beaches

Jack Parlett

On the queer history of New York’s Fire Island.

Scattered All Over the Earth

Yoko Tawada

‘You don’t understand. The country where I used to live is now gone.’

Violets

Alex Hyde

‘There was the enamel pail of blood. She couldn’t think what she had done with it.’

An excerpt from Alex Hyde’s debut novel.

Earthlings

Sayaka Murata

An excerpt from Earthlings, translated from the Japanese by Ginny Tapley Takemori.

First Rites

Anna Della Subin

An excerpt from Anna Della Subin’s Accidental Gods.

Notes on Craft

Alex Hyde

‘The scrubbing of floors or rugs. People down on their knees, “tamping” the stain.’ Alex Hyde on the everyday gestures that make a life.

Slime

Susanne Wedlich

‘We are all creatures of slime, but some of us are more creative than others’.

An excerpt from the BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, Slime.