Granta | The Home of New Writing

Explore Essays and memoir

On Jesus’ Son

Eli Goldstone

‘Jesus’ Son is a song, a glorious clear hymn, full of the notes of bad decisions, of rotten fucking luck, of causing real and lasting damage to yourself and to the people around you.’

All That Was Familiar

Abubakar Adam Ibrahim

The story of two women fleeing Boko Haram in north-east Nigeria.

Between Them

Richard Ford

‘It was my child’s outlook to think most things were right. And yet if life’s eternal drama is of events seeking a more perfect state, their life and mine was not that.’

Vinyl Road Trip

David Flusfeder

After an unexpected email, David Flusfeder heads to Detroit to discover his father’s history and the world of vinyl manufacturing.

Lindsey Hilsum | Is Travel Writing Dead?

Lindsey Hilsum

‘We need a new genre of travel writing, gleaned from the stories refugees and migrants.’

Well Done, No. 3777!

Xiaolu Guo

‘I grew up in the semi-tropical south, dotted by wet paddy fields, but I always wanted to go to the north.’

On the Road

Janine di Giovanni

‘But I still get homesick, that vast and deep pit in the stomach, every time I go away.’

Ian Jack | Is Travel Writing Dead?

Ian Jack

‘Travel writing of most kinds, not just the humorous, has the history of colonialism perched on its shoulder.’

Pico Iyer | Is Travel Writing Dead?

Pico Iyer

‘The writer on place has to go further inward, into the realm of silence and nuance and personal enquiry.’

Mohsin Hamid | Is Travel Writing Dead?

Mohsin Hamid

‘I have come to believe that we are all migrants, that the experience of migration unites all human beings.’

Eliza Griswold | Is Travel Writing Dead?

Eliza Griswold

‘Even in its subtler forms, the act of looking is an act of self-regard.’

Spiders from Jerusalem

Wioletta Greg

‘When the Holy Family was fleeing from Jerusalem, spiders wove such a thick web around the road that the swords of Herod’s soldiers couldn’t pierce it.’