Granta

In 2022 Anthony Anaxagorou and editor Josie Mitchell talked about heritage, national identity and poetry that cannot keep still. Anthony is the author of several volumes of poetry, non-fiction and a collection of short stories. His latest book, Heritage Aesthetics , draws on family migratory histories between Cyprus and the UK to interrogate patriarchy, xenophobia and national divides. Purchase a...

In 2022 Ayanna Lloyd Banwo spoke to editor Josie Mitchell about a fear of forgetting, Lapeyrouse Cemetery and our cultural traditions around death. Ayanna Lloyd Banwo is a writer from Trinidad and Tobago currently living in London. Her debut novel When We Were Birds was named one of the Observer ’s Best Debuts of 2022 and one of the Economist ’s Best Books of 2022. Read an excerpt from When We Wer...

In 2022 Mary Gaitskill talked to editor Josie Mitchell about her fascination with the idea of hell, returning to past creative work and writing characters with different experiences from her own. Mary Gaitskill is the author of Bad Behavior ; Two Girls , Fat and Thin ; Because They Wanted To ; Veronica ; Don’t Cry ; The Mare ; Somebody with a Little Hammer ; and This is Pleasure . Her new book, Th...

In 2021 Eula Biss talked to editor Josie Mitchell on the distortions of capital, bartering with Pokémon cards and the conditions necessary for creativity. Eula Biss is the author of four books, including On Immunity and Notes from No Man’s Land . Her most recent book, Having and Being Had , looks at our beliefs about class and owning property. Read an excerpt from Having and Being Had on granta.co...

Last year Stephanie Sy-Quia spoke to online editor Josie Mitchell about modern cathedrals, telling her grandmothers’ stories and the impulse to categorise. Stephanie Sy-Quia’s debut poetry collection Amnion was selected as a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. Her writing has appeared in the FT Weekend , the TLS , the Economist , the Spectator and TANK magazine, and has twice been shortlisted for...

Last year Tice Cin spoke to Josie Mitchell about poetry, brutalist architecture and returning home. Tice Cin is an interdisciplinary artist from north London. Her debut novel Keeping the House has been longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize. A DJ and music producer, she also hosts Homing Tunes, a show on Threads Radio. Get a copy of Keeping the House .  Read ‘Census’ , a poem by Gboyega Odubanjo, o...

In 2021 Anuk Arudpragasam spoke to Josie Mitchell about the influence of Thomas Bernhard, writing in the wake of war and his relationship to the English language. Arudpragasam was born in Colombo and currently lives between Sri Lanka and India. His debut novel, The Story of a Brief Marriage , won the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, and was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize. His second b...

Back in the early summer of 2020, the writer Kathryn Scanlan joined Josie Mitchell to talk about her story collection, The Dominant Animal . They discussed her precarious worlds, the drama of the sentence and working with the writer and editor Diane Williams.   ‘Fable’, a story taken from The Dominant Animal , is available to read here . 

Joanna Kavenna joins Josie Mitchell to discuss Zed – a sci-fi dystopia exploring our fears about the psychological cost of surveillance capitalism.  Early in 2020, newly under lockdown, they discussed the psychic threat posed by today’s tech companies, the blurring of citizen and consumer, and the early optimism of cyberspace.  You can read an excerpt from the novel on our website for free, and su...

Caleb Klaces joins Josie Mitchell to talk about about his debut novel, Fatherhood – his poet’s account of becoming a father. Back at the beginning of the UK lockdown, they discussed parenting your kids at home, and talked about the expectations placed on fathers and the sense of community on offer to them. You can find  poetry and short fiction by Caleb on our website.

Sophie Mackintosh speaks to editor Josie Mitchell about her new novel, Blue Ticket . They talk about what it means to be pregnancy-adjacent, the bloodthirsty aspects of motherhood, and letting the body have what it wants.  You can find more fiction by Sophie Mackintosh on Granta.com, including ‘The Last Rite of My Body’ and ‘The Weak Spot’ .

Ottessa Moshfegh joined Josie Mitchell to talk about about her novel, Death in Her Name . They discuss the ‘perfect storm’ trapping us inside with our Zoom-ready devices, the propaganda in the air, and the psychological effects of isolation on the elderly narrator of her novel. You can read an excerpt from Death In Her Name here . As well as more fiction from Ottessa on our website and in print .

Carmen Maria Machado discusses her new memoir, In the Dream House , with Josie Mitchell. They discuss memory as architecture, formal experimentation, and making space for queer narrative.  Carmen is the author of Her Body and Other Parties . You can read more of her work, including the new story ‘ The Lost Performance of the High Priestess of the Temple of Horror ’, from our Winter 2020 issue, her...

Josie Mitchell talks to Momtaza Mehri about her pamphlet, Doing the Most with the Least , out with Goldsmiths Shorts. They discuss the value of self-interrogation, the significance of the Black Arts Movement and the limits to checking your privilege.  You can read Momtaza’s poetry and essays on our website: https://granta.com/contributor/momtaza-mehri/ And her recent essay in the Guardian, ‘Anti-r...

Jenny Offill, author of Dept. of Speculation , talks to editor Josie Mitchell about her new novel, Weather . They discuss pre-apocalypse warnings, the doomers among us and the draws of prepper culture in a world gone mad. You can read an interview between Jenny and Mark O’Connell, author of Notes from an Apocalypse , on our website: https://granta.com/in-conversation-oconnell-offill/  

Sandra Newman is the author of the novels The Only Good Thing Anyone Has Ever Done , Cake , The Country of Ice Cream Star and four non-fiction books including the memoir Changeling. Her most recent novel The Heavens is published by Granta Books. She spoke to Lucy Diver about friendship, love, hope and how to write like an Elizabethan.

Maureen N. McLane reads from her book My Poets. My Poets begins its first chapter ‘proem, in the form of a Q&A’, which is what you hear at the beginning of the recording. The second part of the recording is from ‘My Elizabeth Bishop / My Gertrude Stein’, the fourth chapter in the book,

Kamila Shamsie is the author of seven novels and one book of non-fiction. Among many other accolades, Kamila is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and in 2013 was named a Granta Best of Young British Novelist. She joined us in the Granta offices for an interview about her new novel Home Fire, published by Bloomsbury. Home Fire was longlisted for the 2017 Man Booker Prize.

In this episode of the Granta podcast, Max Porter, author of Grief is the Thing with Feathers reads ‘False Blood’ by Will Self. Diagnosed with a rare blood condition, Self attends weekly ‘venesections’ (the modern-day equivalent of bloodletting) which inspire morbid thoughts on addiction and disease. The story can be found in full on our website: https://granta.com/false-blood/ Will Self is the au...

In this episode of the Granta podcast, Margo Jefferson, author of Negroland, reads Kathleen Collins’s short story, ‘The Uncle’, taken from the collection Whatever Happened to Interracial Love? Kathleen Collins was a pioneer African-American playwright, film-maker, civil rights activist and educator. You can read more work by Kathleen Collins on our website: granta.com/whatever-happened-to-interrac...

In this episode of the Granta podcast, Josie Mitchell speaks with Andrea Stuart about her essay ‘Travels in Pornland’. They discuss the value of feminist porn, the importance of counter narratives and the challenges faced by feminist pornographers. The essay was first published in August 2016. You can read the essay in full on our website: https://granta.com/travels-in-pornland/

Luke Neima talks to George Saunders about his first novel, Lincoln in the Bardo . They discuss the pressures on Abraham Lincoln during the civil war, the art of creating distinctive historical voices, verbal improv and writing the afterlife.

In this edition of the Granta podcast, editor Luke Neima talks to Diane Williams, the author of eight books of fiction and founder and editor of the distinguished literary annual NOON. Diane reads from her latest book, Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine, and discusses her approaches to writing and editing, the gatekeepers of literary publication and stitching.

Rosalind Porter reads Carmen Maria Machado’s ‘The Husband Stitch’. The story was first published in 2015, and went on to be nominated for the Nebula and Shirley Jackson Award. Carmen Maria Machado’s debut short story collection, Her Body and Other Parties , is out with Graywolf Press.

In this edition of the Granta Podcast, editor Ka Bradley speaks with Madeleine Thien about her book, Do Not Say We Have Nothing, which has recently been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. They talk about translating the sensation of music for a reader, the importance of writing about women of colour, and the Chinese conceptual framework of time.