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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.
Notes on Craft
Lee Lai
‘I’ve loved experiencing the page as a map, as something to be wandered across.’
Lee Lai on the function of page and panel in comics.
Self-Replicating Textual Worms
Lucy Mercer
‘Sometimes, it is better to not know what is behind the veil, decode the sign.’
Lucy Mercer on motherhood, emblems and obscurity.
Notes on Craft: Does this Count?
Ben Pester
‘Is the act of complicating a perfectly nice daydream a craft?’
Ben Pester on the craft of imagination.
The House on El Estero
Fernanda Melchor
‘The girl vomited with rage as Jorge recited the prayer. She struggled and squirmed, kicked and spat.’
A story by Fernanda Melchor, translated by Sophie Hughes.
On Marguerite Duras
Kate Zambreno
‘Everyone says you were beautiful when you were young.’
Kate Zambreno on Marguerite Duras.
What Feathers Know
Stephen Rutt
‘I see a gull in a car park and they can see the place where it metabolised water into feathers, food into energy, oxygen into blood.’ Stephen Rutt on what isotopes can tell us about birds.
Introduction
Sigrid Rausing
‘What precisely is the sibling relationship, and how does it shape our lives?’
The editor introduces the autumn issue.
O Brother
John Niven
‘Up on the light box on the wall are the scans of Gary’s brain, bone white standing out against smoked grey.’
John Niven remembers the last days of his brother, Gary.
Plastic Mothers
Lauren John Joseph
‘In essence she acted as though I were the kid her mother had left her to raise.’
Lauren John Joseph on the blurred contours of motherhood.
Brother
Vanessa Onwuemezi
‘Brother, to be your sister is to confront the possibility of having been other than I am.’
Vanessa Onwuemezi on the meaning of sisterhood.
