There are constants in the media landscape, the images that, even half-seen, alert us to another excitingly dire occurrence.
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Gordon Burn was born in Newcastle in 1948. He is the author of the novels Alma Cogan (winner of the 1992 Whitbread First Novel Prize), Fullalove and The North of England Home Service. He is also the author of the works of non-fiction, Somebody’s Husband, Somebody’s Son (winner of a US Edgar Allan Poe award), Pocket Money and Happy Like Murderers. He wrote the text for Damien Hirst’s book, I want to spend the rest of my life everywhere, with everyone, one to one, always, forever, now (1997), before their collaboration On the Way to Work (2001). In 1991 he was named Columnist of the Year in the Magazine Publishing Awards for his sports column in Esquire. He died on July 17, 2009.
More about the author →Tom Pilston is a photographer who collaborated with Gordon Burn on their piece 'The Trial', which appeared in Granta 53.
More about the author →‘The line between reality and its representation has become rivetingly porous.’
‘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.
‘I came to feel that I was hiding here in the physical world, like a child who hides in a computer game to escape a more consequential reality.’
Tao Lin on his spiritual awakening, via psychedelics and the literature of near-death experiences.
‘I think I stayed with the text for as long as I needed to give meaning to my grief, crying not in Johanna’s absence but with her.’
Sigrid Rausing on transcribing, translating and editing Johanna Ekström’s final notebooks.
‘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.
‘A baked mermaid, prepared, a la Julia Child, with her tail obtruding from her open mouth, and her little fried fingers presented on a mother-of-pearl comb. How would that strike you?’
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