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Explore Essays and memoir

The Myth of Creative Genius

Natasha Pulley

‘There’s a mysticism that surrounds writing fiction.’

Brontez Purnell Is Everything

Michelle Tea

Novelist, zinester, dancer, go-go-boy, punk, filmmaker, actor, performer, Brontez Purnell is everything.

Amit Chaudhuri | First Sentence

Amit Chaudhuri

‘A scene in which nothing is ostensibly happening will absorb me; so will a paragraph that contains no vital piece of information.’

The Tamarind is Always Sour

Keane Shum

‘By law, the more than one million Rohingya in Myanmar are almost all excluded from Myanmar citizenship, making them the largest stateless group in the world.’

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.’

Remembering Denis Johnson

J. Ryan Stradal

When people ask me what Denis was like, I always think about how he listened far more intently than just about any writer I’d ever met.

Russia on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

Liza Alexandrova-Zorina

‘The Russian people suffer from a victim complex: they believe that nothing depends on them, and by them nothing can be changed.’

Microtravel: Home and Away

Anthony (Vahni) Capildeo

‘The place I thought I knew best had become unknown territory, by the perhaps not-so-simple process of taking a few steps.’

I Am Lying

Miranda Doyle

‘Findings show that the bigger the brain, the more frequent the deceit.’ Miranda Doyle on why we lie.

Any Idiot Can Write a Book

Nell Stevens

A production company is looking for contestants to participate in a new TV show, modelled on The Apprentice. They are seeking unpublished writers who have completed a novel.

All That Was Familiar

Abubakar Adam Ibrahim

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