Aleksi Pöyry & Francisco Vilhena

‘What is often particular to Finnish Weird is that it portrays a realistic, palpable setting which gradually starts to acquire elements of fantasy.’

Hiromi Kawakami, Anne Meadows & Asa Yoneda

‘Looking back, I never was aware of feeling that close to death, but actually if you think about it, just living every day there is a very small but definitely existing chance of death, whatever you're doing, wherever you are.’

Kyoko Nakajima & David Peace

‘When we talk about history, the dangers of embellishment, fabrication and wilful distortion are ever-present’

Nawzat Shamdin & Larry Siems

‘I remain what I have always been, a human being first, and then an Iraqi. And then I am a writer.’

Motoyuki Shibata & Fran Bigman

‘I always think the borderline between reality and non-reality, or fantasy, is much thinner in Japanese fiction than in American or British fiction.’

Adrian Tomine & Francisco Vilhena

Fiona Benson & Rachael Allen

‘I’ve always wanted to write from the gut, to write instinctively rather than cerebrally.’

Etgar Keret & Sophie Lewis

‘Usually my wife makes fun of me.’

Diane Cook & Sam Lipsyte

‘The bewilderment was productive, and relit a good fire under my instinct, which I didn’t have to conflate with certainty.’

Dorothea Lasky & Adam Fitzgerald

‘I want to get to that place of cold neutrality where almost anything could work in poetry.’

Catherine Lacey & Louise Scothern

‘It's uncomfortable, at times, to be alive, so I see no reason why a voice in fiction shouldn't be also.’

David Gates & Bernard Cooper

David Gates and Bernard Cooper talk about their contributions to Granta 126: do you remember, untricky writing and purgatory mates.

Colin McAdam & Norman Rush

‘Who should write memoirs? I have the not-entirely-serious and absurdly restrictive idea that only morally extraordinary people could write them honestly without much shame’

Katherine Faw Morris & Yuka Igarashi

‘I wanted her to be a pit bull.’