Writing

Jean Cocteau Rose and Alfred  The following piece is from the February 1969 edition of The London Magazine edited by Alan Ross. French poet, novelist, playwright...

Jack Houstonjust dessert  it was then that they reachedacross the table & jammeda finger into the firmswirl of my custard& digit glistening withdrewto lick that indexslowly & purposefullyclean while I stareddown & watchedtheir knuckle’s circumferencesmoothly ooze...

Jen CallejaDivination  TW: The following piece contains themes that some readers might find upsetting.When the rain wept and wailed and hammered its wet fists against...

Natalie ShawIce House Love He rather liked the ice house No, he was already a little in love with the ice house No, even before they had been...

Joe GattUnder the Sun9. qtâl The ninth form is used to express the acquisition of some colour or quality, which may be either desirable or...

Will StoneThe Filth and the Fury – England’s Litter Problem  In spring 2021, the national road network of England lies in a state of unprecedented...

 Daisy Johnson at The London Book Fair  After a two-year hiatus The London Book Fair returned earlier this month, reuniting the publishing community and sharing...

Serena AlagappanShop Local  the stone pine is local, but a blueberry plant sprouts rampant: the wife takes to it with shears; she doesn’t mind the bees.her...

Nicola HealeyA Newer Wilderness ‘But Light a newer Wilderness / My Wilderness has made –’ – Emily Dickinson There is a world that must lie, always, just beneath and...

Dmitry Blizniuk (trans. Sergey Gerasimov)A Winter Morning a winter morning is like a crumpled cigarette the tobacco is spilled out the sidewalk is strewn with sand the color...

Erik MartinyAn Interview with Quentin Leclerc   Quentin Leclerc is an up-and-coming author, one of the rising stars of Les Editions de L’Ogre, an indie French...

Dorothy RichardsonData for a Spanish Publisher  Editor's NoteThis essay was sent to me on January 3, 1951, by the author of the twelve-part sequence novel...

Fernando SdrigottiPier  It's four thirty but the sun still stings - it must be forty and it's so humid you could drown. We drag our...

Joe DunthorneCold Call  It looks like you've recently been in an accident involving an opaque body of water, is that right? And you never received compensation, is...

Rishi DastidarI dreamed I stopped traffic (for Lynsey, after Vance Packard) not in my Maidenform bra more's the pity,but rather with my attempt to be...

Erik MartinyAn Interview with Hélène Bonafous-Murat  Hélène Bonafous-Murat writes historic suspense fiction for the French publisher Les Editions du Passage. A former academic specialized in...

Gabriel García MárquezThe Triumph of Balthazar  One of the most celebrated authors of the twentieth century, Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez reinvigorated Latin literature and popularised...

Simon ArmitageUntitled ~How will                the dawn arrive?                        ...

  Jeffrey MeyersInjustice and Violence A Set of Six, Joseph Conrad (Ed. Allan Simmons et al), Cambridge UP, 2021, 517 pp, £85.A Set of Six (1908) contains...

Tom ConaghanJulia Armfield on fiction writing, and the intersection of reality and fantasy Julia Armfield is the author of the critically acclaimed short story collection salt...

Max Sydney SmithI, Nerd The following text is excerpted from I, Nerd by Max Sydney Smith, the latest in Open Pen's series of novelettes. I, Nerd...

Rachel SpenceWaterbaby After my mother died, I started to swim in the river Teme. Down by the weir at Dinham Mill, sometimes alone, sometimes with...

ReviewToo Much Too Young: Jolyon Fenwick at Shapero Rare Books Taking centre stage at Jolyon Fenwick’s latest solo exhibition at Shapero Rare Books on Bond Street...

Leonie RushforthAn Irishman flies in from New York to see Krapp’s Last Tape and falls asleep on someone’s shoulder Up in the steep dark, body...