In Conversation | Olivia Laing & M. John Harrison | Granta

In Conversation

Olivia Laing & M. John Harrison

‘Our imaginations are in service to the wrong ends.’

Olivia Laing and M. John Harrison on the commodification of the imagination.

Olivia Laing

Olivia Laing is a writer and critic. They’re the author of seven books, including The Lonely City, Funny Weather and Everybody. Their latest book, The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise, was a Sunday Times number one bestseller. They have also co-edited A Garden Manifesto with the artist Richard Porter of Pilot Press.

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M. John Harrison

M. John Harrison is the author of eleven novels (including In Viriconium, The Course of the Heart and Light), as well as four previous short story collections, two graphic novels, and collaborations with Jane Johnson, writing as Gabriel King. He won the Boardman Tasker Award for Climbers (1989), the James Tiptree Jr Award for Light (2002) and the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Nova Swing (2007). He reviews fiction for The Guardian and the Times Literary Supplement, and lives in Shropshire.

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