Han Kang visited the Granta offices to discuss her book Human Acts.
Han Kang, winner of the 2016 Man Booker International Prize, came in to the Granta offices to help design the paperback cover for Human Acts. While she was here she spoke with her editor Max Porter about how book covers reflect cultures, and why she decided to write about the massacre of Gwangju. ‘It’s because of my unending question about being human.’
‘We meet at various points in the great swathes of the past that neither of us were alive to witness.’
Allen Bratton on a daytrip to a castle with his older boyfriend.
‘Listening to three white poets, whom I suspect are academics, talk about the state of poetry.’
Oluwaseun Olayiwola eavesdrops on an older generation.
‘I’d been dubious about his company at first.’
Sarah Moss on watching Shakespeare with her twelve-year-old son.
‘She didn’t trust us because, to her, tenants were like children.’
Kate Zambreno on negotiating with her older landlady.
‘A moment now swallowed in embarrassment, I asked a question only a young person might ask an older one.’
Lynne Tillman on trying to understand what makes a generation.
‘I was told that she was a girl, with a face as white as a crescent-moon rice cake.’ New writing from Han Kang, translated from the Korean by Deborah Smith.
‘I’m drawn to the irrational because it has the potential to radicalise our senses.’
The authors discuss ghosts, transgenerational mourning and communal cooking.
‘The blood that flowed down the drain was a deep dark red, but it appeared clean, even refreshing.’
A new story by Kang Young-sook, translated from the Korean by Janet Hong.
‘In that instant my sisters were two animals about to work some shit out.’
Fiction by Camila Fabbri, translated by Jennifer Croft.
