granta
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The dark side of criticism
“At eleven, I felt that I might actually play anything on this violin,” writes Catherine Tice, the daughter of two musicians. Her essay in Granta, “A Brief History of Musical Failure,” raises the question of what it means to have…
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The Stories Behind First Sentences
Granta is three posts into a new series in which authors unpack opening sentences they have written. Héctor Abad’s opening sentence is “The first thing I felt when I returned from the jungle was a paralysis of willpower.” His explanation is…
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Teju Cole on Lagos
When I’m in the US, I argue with those who think Lagos is too dangerous a place to visit….I’m less defensive about Lagos when I’m actually there. After a few days back home, I begin to accumulate irritations and fears…The…
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Making VIDA Count
We reached out to several of the worst offenders to ask where they thought they had gone wrong…but got very little in the way of responses. So we decided, instead, to reach out to the editors of the publications that…
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Emotionally Grammatical
Yuka Igarashi of Granta wrote an introspective piece on the trappings and fussiness of copyediting. The presence of the unedited, the wrongfully edited, and the misspelled can be infuriating to an editor. Igarashi discusses her fight against the urge to…
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“Radio Story”
The Commonwealth Short Story Prize has announced its five regional winners. Granta will publish each of the winning pieces online this week. Today, they share the winning piece from India, “Radio Story” by Anushka Jasraj, along with an accompanying author…
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Risky Moves
Granta interviews Tania James whose collection Aerogrammes and Other Stories is out this month. James discusses writing from a child’s perspective, scriptology, and the short form. “Certainly novels can and should take risks but maybe I feel more freedom in…
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Transcendent Passes
Aleksandar Hemon writes about finding a way to play soccer after moving to the States, the characters on his team, and most importantly, this: “…The moment of transcendence that might be familiar to those who practise sports with other people;…
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To the Lighthouse Again
Helen Dunmore wrote the beautiful new introduction to Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, published online by Granta, in conjunction with their latest, feminism-themed issue, The F-Word. The beginning of summer and the new intro are both reasons to revisit this…
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The Rumpus Interview with Maile Meloy
“Short stories are hard because you have to start over every time, but they’re what I did first. I like living in a novel, as a writer and as a reader, but sometimes you can’t see your way out.”
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Notable New York, This Week 5/10 – 5/16
This week in New York, Granta’s Sex Party, The Moth Mainstage presents Saints and Sinners, SLEIGH BELLS perform, Emily Gould celebrates her new memoir with a party, Sebastian Junger discusses his latest work, Chip Kidd, The Thing Quarterly presents issue…