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Explore In conversation

Paul Auster | Interview

Paul Auster

Paul Auster discusses his new novel ‘Invisible’, his writing process and the unsettling quality of narrative clarity.

Maria Venegas | Interview

Maria Venegas

Maria Venegas discusses ‘Bullet Proof Vest’, her essay from Granta 108: ‘Chicago’ about her criminal father, who ‘shot a man when he was twelve years old’.

Dinaw Mengestu | Interview

Dinaw Mengestu

Dinaw Mengestu talks about how he came to write ‘Big Money’, his contribution to Granta 108, his forthcoming novel, his relationship with his hometown, Chicago, and his inspiration as a writer.

Writing Chicago

Aleksandar Hemon & Stuart Dybek

Aleksandar Hemon and Stuart Dybek on the energy and inspiration of Chicago, its exhilirating ‘incompleteness’, and the ‘unique perspectives of seeing the city’.

Peter Carey | Interview

Peter Carey

Peter Carey on Alexis de Tocqueville, writing fiction and the inspiration for his forthcoming novel.

Introducing Chicago

John Freeman

John Freeman introduces Granta’s new issue, celebrating the city of Chicago, a cultural and artistic hub and home to some of the world’s greatest writers and thinkers.

The Sweetmaker of Kabul

Oliver Englehart

‘The Mandayee bazaar in Kabul’s old city is no tourist souk. Stop to gawp at some oddity of life here and you might be trampled under the mucky wheels of an overladen handcart.’

Louis de Bernières | Interview

Anita Sethi

‘At four o’clock in the morning, when Louis de Bernières has lines of poetry repeating in his head which won’t stop gnawing away, he writes them down.‘

Eleanor Catton | Interview

Eleanor Catton

Eleanor Catton, author of the critically acclaimed, Betty Trask-award-winning debut novel, The Rehearsal, talks to Granta.

After the Affair

Maud Newton & Alexander Chee

‘Reading it, I thought, this must be what it was like to be his lover. To wait and wait for him to eventually say something to you, while he talked about everything else.’

Ha Jin | Interview

Ha Jin & Helen Gordon

‘My reason for writing in English is twofold: to separate my existence from the state power of China and to preserve the integrity of my work.’

Jhumpa Lahiri and Mavis Gallant

Jhumpa Lahiri, Mavis Gallant & Rosalind Porter

‘Gallant is considered one of the greatest short-story writers of all time’.

John Freeman | Interview

John Freeman & Roy Robins

‘I think you know right away if a piece of writing is good. Does it move me? Does it have intensity? Is it beautiful?’

Rhyme and Reason

Katha Pollitt & Adam Gopnik

‘I write for people who like poetry. The people who don’t like poetry are on their own.’