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Best Book of 1886: The Masterpiece

Summer Brennan

‘Zola’s characters are, in every sense of the term, art monsters.’

Best Book of 1959: Mrs Bridge

Sindya Bhanoo

‘When the book was published, my own parents were children in India, then a newly independent nation.’

Best Book of 1946: The Years of Anger

Robert Chandler

Robert Chandler on why The Years of Anger by Randall Swingler is the best book of 1946.

Two Poems

Jason Allen-Paisant

‘in iron lignum vitae / wind and leaves / keep memory’

Two Poems

Amit Chaudhuri

‘It was chick peas that kept you alive.’

On Diane di Prima

Iris Cushing

‘Sex flowed into art, art flowed into livelihood, livelihood flowed into poetry, poetry flowed into friendship, friendship flowed into sex. The entirety of this life was sacred.’

Withstances

Rowan Evans

‘yours is no magic    is only wyrm sickness’

Garden Time: The Palm Forest of W.S. Merwin

Robert Becker

‘This place, where the temperature drops noticeably as you walk into it from the road, survived William Stanley Merwin as equal parts oasis, stage set and work of art.’

Projects Not Realized

Nate Duke

‘in the noon dark I miss my landing’

The Possibility of an Emperor

Patrick Barkham

‘I had always been told that the purple emperor was rare because old woods were rare.’

Cheating

Ahmet Altan

‘I get into the police car with four officers from the Anti-Terrorism Branch. They are taking me to the prison.’

Inferno

Catherine Cho

‘My son was eight days shy of his 100-day celebration when I started to see devils in his eyes.’

Catherine Cho’s Inferno is shortlisted for the 2020 Young Writer of the Year Award.

Surge

Jay Bernard

‘The black is coming in from the cold,
rolling up the beach walls, looking for light.’

Two poems by Jay Bernard, from their debut collection Surge, shortlisted for the 2020 Young Writer of the Year Award.

The Death of Distance

Samrat Choudhury

‘It might take only one soldier being shot across the Chinese–Indian border for war to begin. The howitzers, tanks, missiles and fighter jets are lined up, ready and waiting for action.’