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The Last Place We Were Happy

TaraShea Nesbit

‘Our daughter had been born one month early, unbreathing. My husband and I drove to the last place we were happy.’

Memoir by TaraShea Nesbit.

Through the Smoke, Through the Veil, Through the Wind

Roger Reeves

‘In the middle of disaster, we made the unimaginable – joy.’

Roger Reeves on loss, memory and the legacy of slavery.

In Conversation

Constance Debré & Chris Kraus

‘It was a bit like Saint Augustine and his conversion.’

Constance Debré and Chris Kraus on queer identity, casual sex and the politics of refusal.

Owlish

Dorothy Tse

‘Here one minute, gone the next.’An extract from Owlish by Dorothy Tse, translated by Natascha Bruce.

Notes on Craft

Aidan Cottrell-Boyce

‘The whole episode is a miracle and much of the miracle is in the muscles of Carmela’s face.’

Aidan Cottrell-Boyce on craft, nuance and The Sopranos.

Two Poems

Tim Liardet

‘Head up, / head down, it strolled ever so slowly out of the frame / with the suggestion of a limp. Extinct as an umbrella.’

Poetry by Tim Liardet.

I Won’t Let You Go

Hiromi Kawakami

‘I have no idea why I felt so drawn to the mermaid, but the pull was irresistible.’

Fiction by Hiromi Kawakami, translated by Allison Markin Powell.

Dazzling

Chịkọdịlị Emelụmadụ

‘I saw it all. Nobody here gives children ear, so I saw everything just by being quiet and doing like I dinor see.’

An extract from Dazzling by Chịkọdịlị Emelụmadụ.

What You Need From the Night

Laurent Petitmangin

‘Fus was twenty-five, he wasn’t a kid. What was he doing hanging out with fascists?’

An excerpt from What You Need From the Night. Translated from the French by Shaun Whiteside.

The Flesh Strip

Adrian Van Young

‘No person or doll had anatomy like that. It was, she reasoned, some mistake, a dud in the assembly line, but something about it felt special, auspicious.’

A story by Adrian Van Young.

Hungry Ghosts

Kevin Jared Hosein

‘This was no longer a fight, Krishna realised. This was a point of no return.’

An excerpt from Hungry Ghosts by Kevin Jared Hosein.

In Conversation

Pico Iyer & Caryl Phillips

‘The immigrant’s dream – that he or she can make a better life for the children – becomes a kind of tragedy when it comes true.’

Pico Iyer and Caryl Phillips discuss migration, V. S. Naipaul and the meaning of home.

Tantrum

Lucie Elven

‘When I looked back, I felt a jolt – some forgotten, tearful part of me becoming magnified. Why would you stay with a person wielding a broom or an axe?’

New fiction from Lucie Elven.

Moving Nowhere Here

Kimberly Campanello

‘I am afraid to say we are all / progressing or regressing / down a more or less screwy road / found on a very old map / until / we are going Nowhere.’

A poem by Kimberly Campanello.