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Explore Essays and memoir

Generation Gap

Allen Bratton

‘We meet at various points in the great swathes of the past that neither of us were alive to witness.’

Allen Bratton on a daytrip to a castle with his older boyfriend.

The Life, Old Age and Death of a Woman of the People

Didier Eribon

‘How little one knows, really, about one’s parents.’

Memoir by Didier Eribon translated by Michael Lucey.

Internal Affairs

Andrea Brady

‘The burden in law on the pregnant person is to show that they are at risk, in need; they must ask, and hope, rather than demand.’

Memoir by Andrea Brady.

Auto Mind

Adrian Daub

‘Today, Germany knows it’s supposed to talk about cars.’

Adrian Daub on car-washing the past.

A World of Networks and Vines

Marie Darrieussecq

‘No one is alone in their bed anymore.’

An excerpt from Sleepless by Marie Darrieussecq, translated by Penny Hueston.

My Time Machine

Arthur Asseraf

‘How do we imagine the past of those we love?’

Arthur Asseraf on family and fractured memories.

Reports from the Front: Winter 2023

Peter Englund

‘I repeat: the landscape of war is an acoustic landscape.’

Peter Englund on the war in Ukraine, translated from the Swedish by Sigrid Rausing.

Cairo Song

Wiam El-Tamami

‘I see this everywhere. The creativity, resourcefulness and incredible talent for improvisation in Egypt.’

Wiam El-Tamami on returning to Cairo.

Journal Excerpts 1997–1999

Lydia Davis

‘gormandizing, gluttonous, lickerish, guttling’

Excerpts from Lydia Davis’s diary.

Once a Dancer

Diana Evans

‘What happens to a dancer when they stop dancing?’

Diana Evans on dancing and writing.

Things That Dream

Brian Dillon

‘Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” might well be the greatest record to feature the Linn drum sound.’

Brian Dillon on the legacy of drum machines.

Notes on Craft

Natasha Calder

‘What strikes me most, though, is how writers and climbers share an appetite for failure.’

Natasha Calder on bouldering.

Jealous Laughter

Joanna Biggs

‘She could not make me see my best qualities, but she could sit with me.’

Joanna Biggs on literary friendships between women.

The Cloud Factory

Graeme Armstrong

‘There’s this paradoxical nostalgia where even though yi suffered, yi miss it.’

Memoir by Graeme Armstrong.