Explore Essays and memoir
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Notes on Craft
Colin Grant
‘Always I tell myself: yes, you transmit but do they, the readers, receive?’
Colin Grant on distilling truth in memoir.
Jealous Laughter
Joanna Biggs
‘She could not make me see my best qualities, but she could sit with me.’
Joanna Biggs on literary friendships between women.
Introduction
Sigrid Rausing
‘What does the list tell us about the next generation or the state of the nation?’
The editor introduces the issue.
The Cloud Factory
Graeme Armstrong
‘There’s this paradoxical nostalgia where even though yi suffered, yi miss it.’
Memoir by Graeme Armstrong.
The University of Nigeria
Ike Anya
‘There is a sense of carnival mingled with outrage, especially for us since this is our first demonstration.’
Ike Anya on universities, financial cuts and student protest.
On Writing ‘Blind Bitter Happiness’
Adam Mars-Jones
‘When I was put on Granta’s first Best of Young British Novelists list in 1983, no novel of mine had been published.’
On Literary Celebrity
Caryl Phillips
Caryl Phillips on being chosen as a Best of Young British Novelists in 1993 and the nascent culture of literary celebrity.
On Judging Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists
A.L. Kennedy
A.L. Kennedy on being chosen for, and judging Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists.
On the Anxieties of Translation
Ned Beauman
Ned Beauman on his translation into Assamese, and where being named one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists took him.
Listlessness
Christy Edwall
‘The listless mind is one which defers rather than tries to bring about closure. There is always one more tab to open.’
Christy Edwall on listlessness in twenty-first century fiction.
Beyond Deep Throat | Part II
Saskia Vogel
‘Whatever porn is or is not, like dance it is rooted in the body.’
Saskia Vogel on the relationship between dance and pornography.
Sartorial Misdirection
Rosie Findlay
‘In clothes, I met strangeness with strangeness. They dressed me with a kind of distanced power.’
Rosie Findlay on fashion and religion.
