Issues
← Back to all issuesGranta 142: Animalia
Winter 2018
animal (noun): ‘Any such living organism other than a human being’
human being (noun): ‘A man, woman, or child of the species Homo sapiens, distinguished from other animals by superior mental development, power of articulate speech, and upright stance’
LOLcat (noun): ‘A photograph of a cat accompanied by a humorous caption written typically in a misspelled and grammatically incorrect version of English’
Cover artwork © Slinkachu
From this Issue
|Granta 142
The Taxidermy Museum
Steven Dunn
‘Even dying is an attempt to approach life. That’s how I perceive taxidermy.’
|Granta 142
The Astronaut
Christina Wood Martinez
‘I made tea while the astronaut sat at our kitchen table and gazed out the window.’
|Granta 142
The Last Children of Tokyo
Yoko Tawada
‘Encountering a real animal – not just its name – would have set Mumei’s heart on fire.’ Translated from the Japanese by Margaret Mitsutani.
|Granta 142
Issue
Cormac James
‘I want you to close your eyes. I want you to relax, let go. I want you to let your mind see as vividly as possible the images my words conjure up. And above all, no matter what I say, I want you to trust me.’
|Granta 142
Broken Animals
Britta Jaschinski
‘These bored, frustrated and hungry animals appear as reluctant figures in some unsolvable puzzle, or as victims of a grand experiment whose original purpose is lost in time.’
|Granta 142
Rocky Raccoon
DBC Pierre
‘The mask said everything. This was a thief. A schemer and a thief.’
|Granta 142
The Rat Snipers
Ben Lasman
‘When they stand on their hind legs, arms up, wrists limp, rats can take on a beguiling sort of personhood.’
|Granta 142
The Kabul Markhor
Nell Zink
‘He felt very lonely after spending the winter holed up in his cabin eating Doritos.’
|Granta 142
A Moveable Beast
Helge Skodvin & Ned Beauman
‘Taxidermy offers animals both a second life and a second harassment by the Anthropocene.’ Ned Beauman introduces the photography of Helge Skodvin.
|Granta 142
Dog
Nadeem Aslam
‘More than once the new dog was aggressive, a stab of fire, but I did not tell the grown-ups. I feared they would take him away.’
|Granta 142
Winterkill
Cal Flyn
‘Wildlife foundations find themselves calling for the deaths of tens of thousands of wild animals.’
|Granta 142
Swifts
Adam Foulds
‘Swifts come closer than any other creature to living in the sky and having air and ceaseless movement as their home.’
|Granta 142
Animal Studies
Elliot Ross & Alexander MacLeod
‘The title of this series of photographs is Animal Studies, but I am not sure about that second word. A noun or a verb? A thing or an action? Are these studies of animals or are these animals studying?’ Alexander MacLeod introduces the photography of Elliot Ross.
|Granta 142
The Farmer’s Son
John Connell
‘I’m twenty-nine and I’ve never delivered a calf myself. But that’s all about to change’
|Granta 142
The Falconer and the Hawks
Ben Crane
‘A fine balance of precision and coiled unsparing instinct, all contained within a gossamer skein of feather, skin, muscle and bone.’
|Granta 142
Magpie
Esther Woolfson
‘His life was one of calculation and endeavour, of learning and watching, remembering and trying.’
|Granta 142
Large Black Rooster
Daniyal Mueenuddin
‘Early one morning in the month of June, someone ran over a huge black rooster on County Road W in Wisconsin hill country.’
