‘Gama has defeated them all, and more, but how is he to be Champion of the World if this half of the world is in hiding?’
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‘Gama has defeated them all, and more, but how is he to be Champion of the World if this half of the world is in hiding?’
‘Gama has defeated them all, and more, but how is he to be Champion of the World if this half of the world is in hiding?’
Sign in to Granta.com.
‘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.
Tania James’s books include the story collection Aerogrammes and the novel The Tusk that Did the Damage. She has been a fellow of Ragdale, MacDowell, the Sustainable Arts Foundation and the Fulbright Program. She teaches in the MFA program at George Mason University and lives in Washington DC.
More about the author →‘Write the story that unsettles and excites you, that keeps you coming back to your desk.’
‘An intense workout is an ecstasy of punishment packaged as self-improvement.’
Mary Wellesley on exercise, ritual and Barry’s Bootcamp.
‘Some of these bigger characters, Muhammad Ali or Lennox Lewis, they can become these mythologic, mythological characters, or these godlike figures.’
Declan Ryan on contemporary boxing.
‘I wanted to write a minimalist romance, so I needed to have plenty of Love and Death. A dead human heart is both.’
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