She had already imagined it all, so much so that when she finally did see him, she felt unable to speak.
By the next time she saw him she had discovered, without much effort and without his knowing, his last name, then his entire work history, previous places of residence, former wife’s occupation and location, children’s names. She had seen photos of friends of them all. She had learned about his …
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‘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.
‘At the desk they said they encouraged guests not to walk, but she was determined’
‘The anglophone world, we have to infer, has run out of words for its own feelings.’
Daisy Hildyard on the wisdom of scarecrows.
‘We decided then to tell each other exactly how a typical fuck played out in our marriages. We couldn’t believe we’d never done this before.’
Fiction by Miranda July.
‘To be in a hair salon is to be bubble-wrapped against the world – or at least that’s the fantasy.’
Joanna Biggs on salons, intimacy and the photography of Jack Latham.
