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Cormac James | Notes on Craft

Cormac James

‘My most recent writing lesson came from Elizabeth Strout, a few months ago. Pay attention, is all she taught me, and it was plenty.’

When Poets Write Novels

Caoilinn Hughes

Caoilinn Hughes on the ten best novels written by poets.

Louise Bourgeois as I Knew Her

Jean Frémon

‘The portrait is built up of tiny strokes, one added upon another, like dashes of pencil.’ Translated from the French by Cole Swensen.

The Last Shopkeepers of London

David Flusfeder

‘It became a kind of mission to find contemporaries of theirs that weren’t closing down, establishments that have continued to flourish, or at least endure.’

The Leech Barometer

Rebecca Giggs

‘To be consumed by leeches is to be vital, to be animate, though it is also to be reminded you are something else’s prey, and therefore porous and mortal.’

The one/many problem

Daisy Hildyard

‘Other creatures literally stop me breathing. There are so many of them, and only one of me.’ Daisy Hildyard writes about her research into the animal kingdom.

Kestrel

Cynan Jones

‘A kestrel is not domestic. The one time I tried affection the bird put his beak through my lip.’

Climb the Mountains

Apricot Irving

'Harm that comes through the hands of those we love must be wrestled with; it does not simply disappear.'

Cumbrian Fell Pony

Sarah Hall

Sarah Hall writes about the Cumbrian fell pony for Granta 142: Animalia.

American Maniac

Rafael Frumkin

‘I would peel wrappers off sandwiches, remove noodles from their boxes, fry up meat before any authorities had the chance to track me and my bounty down.’

Broken Animals

Britta Jaschinski

‘These bored, frustrated and hungry animals appear as reluctant figures in some unsolvable puzzle, or as victims of a grand experiment whose original purpose is lost in time.’

Slaughterhouse

Arnon Grunberg

‘I wonder whether there’s a real moral difference between killing an animal and killing a human being.’ Translated from the Dutch by Sam Garrett.

Winterkill

Cal Flyn

‘Wildlife foundations find themselves calling for the deaths of tens of thousands of wild animals.’

Swifts

Adam Foulds

‘Swifts come closer than any other creature to living in the sky and having air and ceaseless movement as their home.’