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The Stripping of Threads
Jamal Mahjoub
‘I hold no illusions about us being reunited. All of this has gone on for far too long.’
Jamal Mahjoub on family obligation and estrangement.
These Stolen Twins
Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow
‘In our household there was no distinction of feeling between those who were biologically related and those who were simply instructed to regard each other as such.’
Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow on growing up with foster siblings.
Captions
Andrew Miller
‘I note that my brother – he’ll deny it but he was always the moody one – has apparently refused to take Granny’s hand.’
Andrew Miller reflects on three family photographs.
The Pain Cave
Lauren Groff
‘I would rather have died of hypothermia than let my siblings win.’
Lauren Groff on competitiveness.
Ray & Her Sisters
Sara Baume
‘Ray is the only sister to win a scholarship to boarding school.’
Sara Baume tells the story of her grandmother’s life.
My Eye
Suzanne Brøgger
‘You were Father’s and I was Mother’s.’
Memoir by Suzanne Brøgger, translated from the Danish by Caroline Waight.
Speaking Brother
Will Harris
‘I don’t have a brother; I’m an only child. But a few years ago I started writing poems in which a brother appears.’
Will Harris on why he created a brother.
The Erl-King
Emma Cline
‘He was our younger sister’s baby – her and her husband’s baby, I guess. They were young parents and excessively chill.’
Memoir by Emma Cline.
Living Rooms
Sam Johnson-Schlee
‘Before chintziness there was chintz, a fabric produced in India and imported to Europe by colonial traders.’
Sam Johnson-Schlee on what chintz means.
Notes on Craft
K Patrick
‘I don’t know anything except my own body. When writing poetry, that’s the only place I can start from.’
K Patrick on writing the queer body.
Tuna
Katherine Rundell
‘“Dolphin safe” labels on our tins are reckoned among marine scientists to mean next to nothing.’
Katherine Rundell on tuna and extinction speculation.
