Issue 57

Amit Chaudhuri

‘Her eyes, in a face puffed with sleep, opened, red and unfocused.’

Issue 59

John McGahern

Issue 56

John Banville

‘Feeling almost skittish all day. Exhausted now yet feverish also, like a child at the end of a party.’

Issue 56

Duncan McLean

‘I thought I heard the woman next door crying’

Issue 56

Philip Hensher

‘I liked his humourless intelligence, so redundant and so excessive in an MP.’

Issue 56

Hanif Kureishi

‘When the phone rings, who do you most want it to be?’

Issue 55

Jayne Anne Phillips

‘After the birth and the overnight in the hospital she didn’t go downstairs for a week.’

Issue 55

David Mamet

‘The child sat with his head in his hands, rocking back and forth.’

Issue 55

Blake Morrison

‘Skirtless, jumperless, she lies on the floor, her hair settling about her like a silky parachute.’

Issue 55

Leila Berg

‘Yesterday two boys got hold of me in the playground and banged my head against the wall over and over and said “Why did you kill Jesus?”’

Issue 55

Todd McEwen

‘Free play is when you have fun instead of playing kickball.’

Issue 55

Susan Swan

‘It was Tom’s contention that you could spot a slut by the colour of her complexion.’

Issue 55

Karen E. Bender

‘After Lena and Bob were married in the Chapel of Eternal Love, Ella told them that new husbands and wives were not allowed to share a hotel bedroom.’

Sherman Alexie

‘Anonymous cries up and down the hallways. Linoleum floors swabbed with gray water. Mop smelling like old sex.’