Granta

In this edition of the Granta podcast we speak to Astrid Alben, who reads a selection from her book of poetry Plainspeak, discusses her work as a translator and as an editor of the interdisciplinary journal Pars, shares a poem by Valérie Rouzeau – translated from the French by Susan Wicks – and explains how she develops her poetic alter ego.

In our latest podcast, Joanna Walsh discusses the Irish Writing Boom with Sarah Davis-Goff of Tramp Press; Susan Tomaselli, editor of Gorse Journal; and Amy Herron of the Irish Writers' Centre. They touch on the culture and history of Ireland’s literary journals; short story culture; the fight against marketing departments and the work of fostering literary innovation.

Sally Rooney and Joanna Walsh: The Granta Podcast, Ep. 80 by Granta Magazine

Ireland has one of the world's most distinguished literary traditions. In Granta 135: New Irish Writing, we showcase contemporary Irish fiction, memoir, poetry and photography.For the launch of the issue, Granta and Foyles hosted Peggy Hughes, Sally Rooney, Lucy Caldwell and Sara Baume in a discussion about their work, the state of Irish writing and the place of technology in literature. Audio production by Adam Barr.

Last year we celebrated the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, but the legacy of war and communism lives on in eastern Europe. In the new issue of Granta – No Man’s Land – Peter Pomerantsev writes about propaganda in Ukraine’s Donbas region, where pro-Russian activists battle with pro-Ukrainian, pro-democracy activists and Ukrainian nationalists, whilst Philip Ó Ceallaigh tells the devastating story of the Communist destruction of Old Bucharest. They joined us for the launch of the new issue at the Frontline Club in London.

Both writers encounter people who are longing for a strong leader to bring back security and pride. They discussed whether, following the challenges to democratic structures in Russia, Hungary, and most recently Poland, eastern Europe’s new democracies are at risk.

Chaired by author and journalist Oliver Bullough, who lived and worked in Russia from 1999 – 2006. He is author of two books about Russian history and politics: The Last Man in Russia and Let Our Fame Be Great.

Peter Pomerantsev is the author of Nothing is True and Nothing is Possible, Adventures in Modern Russia. He is a senior fellow at the Legatum Institute, where he runs a project on contemporary propaganda and how to deal with it.

Philip Ó Ceallaigh is the author of two collections of short stories, Notes from a Turkish Whorehouse and The Pleasant Light of Day. At present he is working on a book about the Jewish world of Eastern Europe and its destruction, as witnessed by its writers. Audio production by Adam Barr.

Neel Mukherjee and Patrick deWitt discuss their books, Undermajordomo Minor and The Lives of Others, subconscious influence, the power of the exclamation mark and love.

Hiromi Kawakami is a novelist, haiku poet, literary critic and essayist. Her books include 'Manazuru, Pasuta mashiin yūrei' ('Pasta Machine Ghosts') and 'Sensei no kaban' ('The Briefcase'), published as 'Strange Weather in Tokyo' by Portobello Books in the UK. She was awarded the 1996 Akutagawa Prize for 'Hebi o fumu' (Tread on a Snake).Here, she talks to Granta Books editor Anne Meadows on her essay for Granta 127: Japan, the presence of death in her work and the influence of Gabriel García Márquez, with interpretation by Asa Yoneda.'I never really thought about death or mortality, but coming to terms with this diagnosis, or the probability of this diagnosis, I realised that, medically speaking, death can always be thought of not as a certainty, but as a probability. Looking back, I never was aware of feeling that close to death, but actually if you think about it, just living every day there is a very small but definitely existing chance of death, whatever you're doing, wherever you are.' Image courtesy of Ryoko Uyama

Ruth Ozeki is the author of 'My Year of Meats', 'All Over Creation' and 'A Tale for the Time Being', which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. For Granta’s Japan issue, she wrote an essay on her grandfather: about a mysterious photograph she has of him and about the ways she feels linked to him across time.In the latest Granta podcast, she reads from the piece and discusses it alongside her latest novel, 'A Tale for the Time Being', touching on haiku, feminist Buddhist nuns, memory, the idea of cultural gyres and why and how she wrote herself into her book.'I'm mixed race, I'm kind of like the meeting point between these two cultures and these two histories. And somehow that is in my DNA, and growing up mixed race, it always did feel like there was a tension there between the two halves. And I never was quite sure who I was or who I was supposed to be... it seemed very odd and unstable to be who I was.'

In the latest Granta podcast, Mark Gevisser and Jonny Steinberg discuss recent South African history, their personal relationship to Johannesburg, and their personal relationship to a divided city. Mark Gevisser is the author of 'A Legacy of Liberation: Thabo Mbeki and the Future of the South African Dream', published by Palgrave Macmillan in the UK, and by Jonathan Ball in South Africa under the title, 'Thabo Mbeki: The Dream Deferred'. His latest book, 'Dispatcher', is published by Granta. Jonny Steinberg is the author of several books about South Africa's transition to democracy. His next book, 'A Man of Good Hope', will be published in January 2015. He teaches African Studies and Criminology at the University of Oxford.‘Johannesburg is such an enormously contradictory place, it’s a place of great fear it’s a place of high walls and electric fences, and yet it is also a place of wall-lessness in such profound ways… it is a very mercurial place, it’s of great fear and yet extraordinary energy.’

Lindsey Hilsum is International Editor of Channel Four News and the author of ‘Sandstorm: Libya in the Time of Revolution’.In 1994 she was the only English-speaking Foreign Correspondent working in Rwanda when the genocide began. Her essay in the latest issue of Granta tells of her return to the country 19 years after the conflict.Here we talk about her time in Rwanda, Libya and how countries can repair in the aftermath of war. The podcast begins with Lindsey reading from her essay ‘The Rainy Season’, in Granta 125: After the War.‘I think that for me there were a lot of things that were unresolved which I tried to resolve by going back and by writing, but maybe I have to accept that some things will never be resolved.’