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/

‘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...

‘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...

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...

‘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/

‘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/

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...

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.’ "

‘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...

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

‘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/...

‘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...

‘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.

"...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

‘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.

A selection of pieces from Granta 172: Badlands are free to read throughout the month of August. granta.com/products/gra...

Granta contributors, friends and staff share what they are reading this summer. granta.com/summer-reads...

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_

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

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 🎉🎉🎉

‘Chagall is born / the night a great / fire breaks out’ Poetry by Nasim Luczaj. granta.com/four-poems-l...

‘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. granta.com/constellatio...

‘He couldn’t sit it out – the third wheel’s function in arguments was always pivotal.’ Fiction by Natasha Stagg. granta.com/nothing-new-...

‘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. granta.com/five-poems-o...

‘Hunter was hot but she made me feel stupid.’ Fiction by Brittany Newell. granta.com/happy-ending...

‘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. granta.com/the-other-gi...

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

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...

'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.

Today we publish Granta 172: Badlands. Read the summer edition online for free for the next five days or subscribe today and receive unlimited access to this issue, as well as our archive. granta.com/products/gra...

Our longtime contributor @carmenboullosa.bsky.social , and our founding editor/board chairman @samanthaschnee.bsky.social !

‘Like hers, my ambition was all-consuming; the difference was that mine was to write a great poem, and hers was to save the world through Revolution.’ Carmen Boullosa on the friend who joined the Sandinistas, translated by Samantha Schnee. granta.com/the-dead-rev...

‘According to Benjamin, the ancients maintained close contact with the stars in a communal, ecstatic trance, since the days of Copernicus, Kepler and Tycho Brahe.’ Read Ryan Ruby’s ‘From the Planetarium’ today in honour of Walter Benjamin’s birthday. granta.com/from-the-pla...

‘nothing has ever supplanted the memories of first meeting – / the excitement, like two young dogs’ Poetry by Michael Hofmann. granta.com/exiles-letter/

‘He seemed to relish the reactions sparked by his open ambition.’ Audun Mortensen on friendship, ambition, and ‘Norway’s ugliest town’. granta.com/a-supposedly...

‘The closeness I attained with him was the closeness of an adversary; one as nourishing as friendship.’ Ralf Webb on friendship and loathing for our new series, Dead to Me. granta.com/thomas-tommy/

We are saddened to hear of Fanny Howe's death. In honour of her life and work, we have unlocked her poem 'Seen' from our archive. 'The wind cannot get in / so the flies are free / to buzz against the glass.' granta.com/seen/

‘Meanest friend breakup included the nastiest letter I have ever received and I tore it to shreds before I made my retort though I’ve regretted that for probably thirty years.’ Eileen Myles on breaking up with friends. granta.com/together-eil...

Chinese writer, Jia Pingwa with his thoughts on friendship in @grantamag.bsky.social Translated by Daniel Levi King. granta.com/friends-jia-...

This is Granta 172: Badlands. Our summer edition traverses inhospitable terrain, from troubled childhoods to drone-infested Ukraine. The issue publishes on Thursday 17 July.