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Explore Essays and memoir

A Wolf in the Forest Wants

Sarah Moss

‘I biked to the hospital anyway, because it didn’t occur to me to think of an alternative form of transport.’

Sarah Moss on her admission to hospital.

Another Patagonia

Louis Rogers

‘From the sloth skin onwards, In Patagonia is built around scraps and surfaces.’

Louis Rogers on travelling in Bruce Chatwin’s footsteps.

Mothercare

Lynne Tillman

Lynne Tillman on mother love and obligation.

Epicrisis

Kirill Kobrin

Kirill Kobrin on living through war and the conflict in Ukraine. Translated from the Russian by Veronika Zitta.

Haunting Myself

Seán Hewitt

‘Lying is something I had become good at with practice.’

An excerpt from All Down Darkness Wide.

Notes on Craft

Missouri Williams

‘After a series of seizures in my temporal lobe, I started to forget words and say sentences backwards.’

Missouri Williams on the drive to circle back.

The Stars Are Blind

Anna Dorn

‘A few years ago, while in between jobs, I started doing astrology readings for cash.’

Anna Dorn on her astrology journey.

On Marble

Rachel Cusk

‘Two things – beauty and horror – are especially lasting.’

Rachel Cusk visits a marble bearing island in Greece’s Aegean sea.

On Sizewell C

William Atkins

‘Where do we go, as a country, for power?’

William Atkins on the proposed nuclear power station in Suffolk.

Beyond Conversion Therapy

Kevin Childs

‘When I was growing up in his house, religion was his crutch, a justification for his behaviour.’

Kevin Childs on growing up queer in a Catholic household.

Joy and Insecurity in Port-au-Prince

Jason Allen-Paisant

‘The body is the first measurement of time: to reclaim time is to reclaim the body.’

Jason Allen-Paisant in Haiti.

My Mother Photographs Me in a Bath of Dead Squid

Lars Horn

‘She is not a conventionally “good” mother. But then, put like that, it sounds like a slow death sentence anyhow.’

Lars Horn on modeling for their artist mother.

Blue-Eyed Muggers

Alejandro Zambra

‘At every protest, when it was time to yell at the cops, I remembered my father and felt a turbulent emotion.’

Memoir by Alejandro Zambra on his father and his son.

Diary of a Journey to Senegal

Ishion Hutchinson

‘Sea night music: what is the music?’

Ishion Hutchinson in Senegal.