Granta

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.

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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.

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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.

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My First Husband ‘We had been having some marital problems, despite having been married for only eight months.’

‘He didn’t seem alarmed by the scene – his mother drinking wine with a woman who looked just like his dead wife, but then he was a man who had likely found the lifeless body of his own spouse.’

Fiction by Stephanie Wambugu.

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The Other Girl ‘You have always been dead. You entered my life dead the summer I turned ten. You were born and died in a story.’ Annie Ernaux on her secret sister, translated by Alison L. Strayer.

‘You have always been dead. You entered my life dead the summer I turned ten. You were born and died in a story.’

 Annie Ernaux on her parents’ refusal to acknowledge her dead sister. Tr. Alison L. Strayer.

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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.’

‘My armpits did stink a little from anxiety, and maybe my chest ached a trifle, so I had better toughen up if I expected to get any rest tonight and be of use tomorrow.’

For this issue, Granta sent William T. Vollmann into the Ukrainian Badlands.

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Granta 172: Badlands Our summer edition traverses inhospitable landscapes, from troubled childhoods to drone-infested Ukraine. Featuring reportage from...

A selection of pieces from Granta 172: Badlands are free to read throughout the month of August.

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Summer Reads 2025 Granta contributors, friends and staff share what they are reading this summer.

Granta contributors, friends and staff share what they are reading this summer.

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Mucker Play ‘When you said so loudly that you were the best, that you were worth the top dollar, then not just every game but every play became important.’ Nico Walker on the rise and fall of American football, f...

So I've been collecting examples of great sports writing. Like this recent Granta essay by Nico Walker. It's a bit of history, a bit of a player profile, and a lot of cultural criticism. I love this kind of writing that goes deep into sport as a way to understand society.

Queuing this up now. Loved and Missed was such a beautiful, heartbreaking, funny novel.

🛒 In the latest @grantamag.bsky.social, photographer Sana Badri captures the important role of London's corner shops, where 'a neighbourhood quietly (or not so quietly) performs itself.’

📖 Issue 172: Badlands, 'Corner Shops and Bossman' by @SanaBadri_

Summer Reads 2025 Granta contributors, friends and staff share what they are reading this summer.

Good summer reading recs in here. Anne Carson reading the stories of Elizabeth Taylor & Hardwick & Bowen; Tobi Haslett on Soraya Antonius; Diane Williams has "an immediate affinity" to the letters from Flaubert to Louise Colet.

@grantamag.bsky.social

Summer Reads 2025 Granta contributors, friends and staff share what they are reading this summer.

Granta contributors, friends and staff share what they are reading this summer.

granta.com/summer-reads...

the world's #1 QR code hater is BACK 🎉🎉🎉

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

‘Chagall is born / the night a great / fire breaks out’

Poetry by Nasim Luczaj.

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Constellations ‘Fireworks are furious playthings: in Mexico, they are the second most common cause of accidents involving hazardous materials.’ Cian Oba Smith’s photography of the annual firework festival in Tultepe...

‘Fireworks are furious playthings: in Mexico, they are the second most common cause of accidents involving hazardous materials.’

Julián Herbert on Cian Oba-Smith’s photography of a firework festival in Mexico, tr. Rosalind Harvey.

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Nothing New Here ‘Had they been going any faster, the party decided, things could have been much, much worse.’ Fiction by Natasha Stagg.

‘He couldn’t sit it out – the third wheel’s function in arguments was always pivotal.’

Fiction by Natasha Stagg.

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Five Poems ‘I was not drunk and I was not sober, / I was not in love with him because I did not / know him’ Five poems by Sharon Olds.

‘I was not drunk and I was not sober, / I was not in love with him because I did not / know him’

Five poems by Sharon Olds.

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Happy Ending ‘The first customer arrived at 10.20 p.m. As soon as the doorbell rang, the girls around me sprang to their feet and formed a semicircle in the center of the room.’ Fiction by Brittany Newell.

‘Hunter was hot but she made me feel stupid.’

Fiction by Brittany Newell.

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The Other Girl ‘You have always been dead. You entered my life dead the summer I turned ten. You were born and died in a story.’ Annie Ernaux on her secret sister, translated by Alison L. Strayer.

‘When I was little, I believed – I must have been told – that the baby was me. It isn’t me, it’s you.’

Annie Ernaux on the sister she never had the chance to meet. Translated by Alison L. Strayer.

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The new edition of Granta magazine

Book 59: Granta vol.172 Badlands.

Always out here counting the latest edition of Granta as a book! Some good short fiction, plus a long read on the war in Ukraine #AmReading

Bloody good article

The Other Girl ‘You have always been dead. You entered my life dead the summer I turned ten. You were born and died in a story.’ Annie Ernaux on her secret sister, translated by Alison L. Strayer.

First excerpt of THE OTHER GIRL, Annie Ernaux's newest book, is out today in the indomitable @grantamag.bsky.social. Coming in September from Seven Stories Press. granta.com/the-other-gi...

The Other Girl ‘You have always been dead. You entered my life dead the summer I turned ten. You were born and died in a story.’ Annie Ernaux on her secret sister, translated by Alison L. Strayer.

'When I was little, I believed – I must have been told – that the baby was me. It isn’t me, it’s you.' Read an excerpt of THE OTHER GIRL by Annie Ernaux, tr. Alison L. Strayer in the latest @grantamag.bsky.social granta.com/the-other-gi...
THE OTHER GIRL will be published in September.

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

‘Summer heats my heart, beats my heart. / Summer smothers me.’

A poem by Frederick Seidel.

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

Corner Shops and Bossman ‘This is where a neighbourhood quietly (or not so quietly) performs itself.’ Sana Badri photographs four London corner shops.

‘This is where a neighbourhood quietly (or not so quietly) performs itself.’

Sana Badri on London’s corner shops.

granta.com/corner-shops...

Four Stories ‘I want an outlook on life, a plan for my life. I want to feel like an excited dog.’

‘That was one little flash of something that nearly meant something to me.’

Four new stories by Diane Williams.

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Carousel ‘When the face is a mess, as we say to juniors, the rest follows, things begin to slip.’Fiction by Leopold O’Shea.

‘When the face is a mess, as we say to juniors, the rest follows, things begin to slip.’

Fiction by Leopold O’Shea.

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

‘Meyerowitz’s career began with the premise that the street could teach him everything.’

George Prochnik on Joel Meyerowitz’s photography.

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