Granta

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, The Devil’s Treasure, is a hybrid work of criticism, memoir and mythography.Her essay ‘Lost Cat’, first published in Granta 107, is available to read here.

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.com. 

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 the FT Bodley Head Essay Prize. You can read an excerpt from Amnion on granta.com. 

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, on granta.com.

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 book, A Passage North, was since shortlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize.Read an excerpt from A Passage North at granta.com. 

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 subscribers can also read ‘The Perfect Companion’, an AI short story that journeys further into the world of Zed. 

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.