Granta | The Home of New Writing

Explore Interviews

Patrick deWitt | Interview

Patrick deWitt & Ted Hodgkinson

‘Names are always hard to come by for me, which can be maddening, because it’s an ever-looming question mark when I’m trying to bring a character into focus. And oftentimes it’s the name that solidifies someone in my mind.’

Léonie Hampton | Interview

Léonie Hampton & Yuka Igarashi

‘I see a dichotomy at play where I am trying to be truthful, but it’s hard to be direct.’

Salman Rushdie | Interview

Salman Rushdie & Blake Morrison

Blake Morrison interviews Salman Rushdie in 1990, one year after he was placed under fatwa.

Mark Crick | Interview

Mark Crick

Mark Crick on the DIY tips of the world’s greatest novelists, how to inhabit another writer’s voice and why there is nothing more erotic than painting.

Owen Freeman | Interview

Owen Freeman & Daniela Silva

‘As illustrators, our first and last service is to bring the readers’ eyes to the author’s work.’

Howard Goldblatt | Interview

Howard Goldblatt & Sophia Efthimiatou

‘Humour, jokes, puns – those are indeed untranslatable.’

Motoyuki Shibata | Interview

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.’

Dinaw Mengestu | Interview

Dinaw Mengestu

Dinaw Mengestu talks about how he came to write ‘Big Money’, his contribution to Granta 108, his forthcoming novel, his relationship with his hometown, Chicago, and his inspiration as a writer.

Mo Yan | Interview

Mo Yan & John Freeman

‘My life is more current, more contemporary and the cutting throat cruelty of our contemporary times limits the romance that I once felt.’

Andrew O’Hagan | Interview

Andrew O’Hagan & Patrick Ryan

‘A lot of journalism was in danger of becoming ‘celebrity writing’, in the sense that the writer and his conscience could become the story.’

Jonathan Raban | Interview

Jonathan Raban & Helen Gordon

‘The term ‘man of letters’ now seems hopelessly archaic, but I’d like to think there’s still life left in the notion of the writer who’s just a writer.’

Jonathan Safran Foer | Interview

Jonathan Safran Foer & Ollie Brock

‘This is the sort of book I wanted to read, wanted to have, regretted not having.’

Hari Kunzru | Interview

Hari Kunzru & Ted Hodgkinson

‘It was interesting to me how readily UFOs can be mapped onto a spiritualism, Madame Blavatsky and so on.’

Marcelo Ferroni | Interview

Marcelo Ferroni

‘This is an exciting moment for Brazilian literature. We may see a batch of new, vibrant novels, really soon.’