Jen George shares her process of translating visual art into text
Granta Magazine’s Josie Mitchell speaks to Jen George about being one of Granta’s 2017 Best of Young American Novelists.
They discuss the alienation produced by capitalism, translating visual art into text, and why everyone should have a combative relationship with contemporary American lit.
‘I think there should be a National Service of Hospitality. The best way to see the true face of humanity is to serve it a plate of chips.’
Camilla Grudova on bad-mannered customers.
‘Anyone who has ever worked night shifts will understand the vertiginous feeling that comes with staring down the day from the wrong end.’
A.K. Blakemore on working nights.
‘I was constantly reading job ads, trying to find my holy grail – a job I could stand to do, and someone foolish enough to hire me.’
Sandra Newman on learning how to play professional blackjack.
‘I loved being a receptionist. What I loved about it was playing the part of being a receptionist.’
Emily Berry on being a temporary office worker.
‘Every part of you would swell, including your eyeballs, and no matter how much water you drank, you were always dehydrated.’
Junot Díaz on working for a steel mill.
‘Small praise was like a drug for party members, though we used real drugs too, hard ones, drugs that imbued one with the facility for ruthless violence and multiple orgasms.’
‘There was a red patch, and what looked like a slightly raised piece of dead skin in the centre of my chest. Just to the right of where I assumed my heart was.’
An extract from Gabriel Smith’s novel Brat.
‘They say it takes a village to raise a child and the same can be true of killing.’
Amber Husain on meat.
‘He came to see, after a long agony, that it would be best to give it up.’
A new story by Lucy Ives.
‘I often see myself thrusting into soft clouds, hallucinating.’
Two poems from Chia-Lun Chang’s debut poetry collection Prescribee.
Letters from Basel Ghattas, an Israeli-Arab member of parliament imprisoned for smuggling cell phones to Palestinian prisoners.
