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Confessions of a Middle-Aged Ecstasy Eater

Anonymous

‘A mind is a terrible thing to waste, and there is much being wasted when one deliberately chooses not to explore the ecstasy of its deeper horizons.’

Memoirs of an Anonymous Phone Sex Worker

Anonymous

‘Even though Madame Katherine became dangerous given a few ice cubes and I now knew 101 ways to delight using rubber bands, the novelty of my job didn’t take long to wear off.’

The Public and Private Performance of the Deaf Body

Raymond Antrobus

‘There was always cynicism about Ray being a deaf novelty act.’

Raymond Antrobus on performance, Deafness and Johnnie Ray.

War Letters

António Lobo Antunes

‘I’m doing my best to survive all this, but sometimes I feel so homesick that words simply empty of meaning.’

South of Nowhere

Antonio Lobo Antunes

‘If you and I were anteaters, instead of a man and a woman talking to each other in this corner of the bar, perhaps I would then be able to accustom myself to your silence.’

Chinua Achebe’s Legacy

Ike Anya

‘Who will speak out for us now? Who will ask the hard questions of us and the world that he did?’

People Don’t Get Depressed in Nigeria

Ike Anya

‘He has come to us against the wishes of his family and the village and I feel that I owe him something.’

The University of Nigeria

Ike Anya

‘There is a sense of carnival mingled with outrage, especially for us since this is our first demonstration.’

Ike Anya on universities, financial cuts and student protest.

The Only Way Out Is Through

Hana Pera Aoake

‘Hiding in kumara pits on the side of volcanoes, I was born with an egg inside me ready to be baked.’

A Poet in Cuba

Reinaldo Arenas

‘Perfect totalitarian systems have always been in the vanguard: they modify not only the past and the future, but they also abolish the present.’

The Tension of Transience

Chloe Aridjis

‘How unusual that April night had been, yet how normal it had seemed at the time’

Chloe Aridjis | Portrait of My Father

Chloe Aridjis

‘My father has always said that he was born twice.’

Into the Cosmos

Chloe Aridjis

‘In those fervently atheist times, it wasn’t God or his angelic messengers who would come forth from the sky, but the cosmonaut.’

Kopfkino

Chloe Aridjis

‘Yet the little white disks with a dent down the middle are no panacea; whenever I take one of these thought guillotines I feel trapped in a grey zone’.