Granta

March 2025 ‘Ramadan starts at the beginning of March in Gaza, but it’s a different March and a different Ramadan to everyone else’s.’ Nahil Mohana on March 2025 in Gaza, translated by Katharine Halls.

You can also read an early excerpt from the book in Granta - taken from Nahil Mohana's Diaries (translated from the Arabic by Katharine Halls) granta.com/march-2025/

Pleasantries ‘Her body looked good in that sumptuous way. He was not always attracted to her anymore, but he was attracted to her in this moment, and there was something noble about this, generous – he was about t...

New story by me in Granta today about inept swingers on the Hudson Valley granta.com/pleasantries...

Pleasantries ‘Her body looked good in that sumptuous way. He was not always attracted to her anymore, but he was attracted to her in this moment, and there was something noble about this, generous – he was about t...

‘Gideon and Phoebe stuck a list of emergency contacts to the fridge, gave their sitter the usual spiel about bedtime, beseeched their kids to please, for God’s sake be good, and left to go have sex with the neighbors.’

Fiction by Erin Somers.

granta.com/pleasantries/

Two Nameless Women Translated from the Spanish by Sarah Booker.

‘She turned to look at me, and, knowing I was being looked at, I smiled at her.’

Two unnamed women in a story by Cristina Rivera Garza, translated by Sarah Booker.

granta.com/two-nameless...

Impossible Referrals ‘There is no medical training for this, no papers to help guide me.’ Mina Naguib on the hard lessons of medical care in Gaza.

‘There is no medical training for this, no papers to help guide me.’

Mina Naguib on the hard lessons of medical care in Gaza.

granta.com/impossible-r...

The New World Order ‘He has little idea of what we’re about to do to his wife.’ Harold Pinter in Granta 37: The Family

From the archive, 1991: a short play by Harold Pinter.

‘Here he is, here he is sitting here, and he hasn’t the faintest idea of what we might do to him.’

granta.com/the-new-worl...

Boys in Zinc ‘I was trying to present a history of feelings, not the history of the war itself.’ Svetlana Alexievich on the USSR and Afghanistan for Granta 34.

From the archive, 1990: Svetlana Alexievich on the USSR and Afghanistan.

‘I was trying to present a history of feelings, not the history of the war itself.’

granta.com/boys-in-zinc/

Impossible Referrals ‘There is no medical training for this, no papers to help guide me.’ Mina Naguib on the hard lessons of medical care in Gaza.

‘There is no medical training for this, no papers to help guide me.’

Mina Naguib on the hard lessons of medical care in Gaza.

granta.com/impossible-r...

Captions ‘I note that my brother – he’ll deny it but he was always the moody one – has apparently refused to take Granny’s hand.’ Andrew Miller reflects on three family photographs.

‘I note that my brother – he’ll deny it but he was always the moody one – has apparently refused to take Granny’s hand.’

Andrew Miller reflects on three family photographs.

granta.com/captions-and...

Text reading "The best new writing here" with a hand pointing right to three covers of The Yale Review, and beneath, on a darker blue background "And there" with a hand pointing to three covers of Granta Magazine. Text beneath reads "Two magazines. One special price."

The best new writing here—and there.

This autumn, we've partnered with @grantamag.bsky.social to bring you a joint subscription deal. One year of the best writing from the U.K. and the U.S. for a special price.

Subscribe: subscribe.granta.com/store/produc...

Trying Times ‘As a good investor, she could compare patterns and connect links that others might overlook. And now, in the matter with her daughters, she was applying the same skills she brought to her investments...

‘Here she was at sixty-one still groping in the dark, dodging calls from her daughters and seeking comfort from her driver, a man with insufficient expectations, a man with no expectation beyond the day ahead.’

Fiction by Adachioma Ezeano.

granta.com/trying-times/

March 2025 ‘Ramadan starts at the beginning of March in Gaza, but it’s a different March and a different Ramadan to everyone else’s.’ Nahil Mohana on March 2025 in Gaza, translated by Katharine Halls.

‘We’re awoken at 2 a.m., around an hour before suhur, by the sound of rockets and explosions. The ceasefire had been violated.’

Nahil Mohana on March 2025 in Gaza, translated by Katharine Halls.

granta.com/march-2025/

Drones and Decolonization ‘On a bench I watched pigeons fly over a ring of bright rose bushes as easily as would a flock of murder drones.’

William T. Vollmann's reportage on Ukraine in @grantamag.bsky.social is touching and offers perspectives that are suprising and deeply personal. "I went help her in my helpless way, with journalistic good intentions which sorrowed into love." Drones and Decolonization share.google/cpmd5sIl187X...

Drones and Decolonization ‘On a bench I watched pigeons fly over a ring of bright rose bushes as easily as would a flock of murder drones.’

Speaking of the brilliance of William T. Vollman, consider this 15,000 word piece on his travels in Ukraine in Granta published in July of this year: "I shook his hand and he embraced me. Whenever he was not decolonizing, he was on the front line with his military unit: ‘I do small drones.’ "

The Pneuma Illusion ‘The intensity of it seemed in retrospect something inexplicable, like a sudden opening in the sky with an outpouring of visions.’ Mary Gaitskill on her experiences with Pneuma therapy.

‘My life had begun to seem wrong to me. Not broken exactly or meaningless. More like misguided or undeveloped.’

Memoir by Mary Gaitskill.

granta.com/pneuma-illus...

Granta 172 cover, showing a mostly tarpped car by a body of water with beachgoers in the background

A little behind on my #booksky

@grantamag.bsky.social 172
Highlights for me: Vollman touring the badlands of war-torn Ukraine

Photo essays of Mexico City firework celebrations and 1960s Malaga

Haunting fiction (Leopold O'Shea) of an elderly women's dementia stream of consciousness

Stalin, Lenin, Robespierre ‘He tried to think about what sort of person he wanted to be in this world and how he might bring that about.’ Fiction from Brandon Taylor.

‘He tried to think about what sort of person he wanted to be in this world and how he might bring that about.’

A story by Brandon Taylor.

granta.com/stalin-lenin...

Looking forward to tutoring the ‘Writing Nature’ course @grantamag.bsky.social this autumn, as my new book comes out! Details on an open day, below.

I’m tutoring short fiction again this autumn!

Considering the Granta Writers’ Workshop?

On 3 September, we will be hosting a free online session for prospective applicants. You’ll hear from alumni, chat with a course director, and receive guidance on applying. The session will conclude with an open Q&A.

tixoom.app/pwalecturer/...

The Virgin Suicides ‘I wanted to tell the magazines about my difficult thoughts and to be seen as interesting because of them. I wanted to be seen as a talented amazing person with a dark and complex heart.’

‘I put on Maggie’s gingham Urban Outfitters bikini and I looked like a model with a perfect figure. I think it’s okay to say that. I hated myself, I really did, but I looked totally amazing in Maggie’s teen girl bikini.’

Fiction by Harriet Armstrong.

granta.com/the-virgin-s...

Three Poems ‘When I get to the Hebrides I’ll call / my mother nursing her father in Mexico’ Three poems by Patrick Romero McCafferty.

‘When I get to the Hebrides I’ll call / my mother nursing her father in Mexico’

Three poems by Patrick Romero McCafferty.

granta.com/three-poems-...

The latest episode of the Granta Podcast features Diane Williams.

We discuss the four short stories Diane Williams contributed to Granta 172: Badlands, her love of surprise in fiction and the porosity between her identity as a writer and an editor.

Listen now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Obituary of a Soft Porn Translator ‘Using “ostrica” for vagina sounded bad in Italian, not representative enough, so clitorises became pearls. They were gone now too. Sex had once been a jewelry store, a jewelry store built on top of a...

"...figurative language had become a chimera."

Claudia Durastanti in @grantamag.bsky.social

granta.com/obituary-of-...

Take a quick look through @grantamag.bsky.social with us,
which features another fantastic Jerwood Photo Essay commission: Corner Shops by Sana Badri

The Virgin Suicides ‘I wanted to tell the magazines about my difficult thoughts and to be seen as interesting because of them. I wanted to be seen as a talented amazing person with a dark and complex heart.’

‘I put on Maggie’s gingham Urban Outfitters bikini and I looked like a model with a perfect figure. I think it’s okay to say that. I hated myself, I really did, but I looked totally amazing in Maggie’s teen girl bikini.’

Fiction by Harriet Armstrong.

granta.com/the-virgin-s...

The latest episode of the Granta Podcast features Diane Williams.

We discuss the four short stories Diane Williams contributed to Granta 172: Badlands, her love of surprise in fiction and the porosity between her identity as a writer and an editor.

Listen now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

The Artist as Aficionado ‘Meyerowitz’s subjects frequently appear enmeshed in some variegated social context where anything might happen.’

‘Over time, Meyerowitz’s idea of field pictures led him away from street photography to portraits, landscapes, and still lifes.’

George Prochnik on Joel Meyerowitz’s career.

granta.com/the-artist-a...

Four Poems ‘You will gain / situational awareness. / See how far / that takes you.’ Four poems by Nasim Luczaj.

‘Mac-grey to blend in / with the walls of Afghanistan’

Poetry by Nasim Luczaj.

granta.com/four-poems-l...

The Desert Song ‘Succumb to art and sigh and hold your breath and die.’Poetry by Frederick Seidel.

‘The United States of America, / It’s a fair bet, is going to die.’

‘The Desert Song’ by Frederick Seidel.

granta.com/the-desert-s...