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New Writing Anthology - Literature Matters - Creative reading - Publications and resources - Literature - British Council - Arts

Editors of , Diran Adebayo, Blake Morrison and Jane Rogers, have a retrospective muse on the selection process, the notion of post-post-colonial writing, the politics and trade-offs involved in editing, and literary envy.

Toby Litt, one of the editors of , considers the complexities of the editorial process.

by Vicki Feaver

by Patience Agbabi

by Alan Jenkins

Granta revisited, we select our favourites and the ones that Granta missed.

Behind the window there is an exercise class

In full swing. The ladies are kneeing – left, right

Like it was their husband's groin they focused on

And the pistons working in their thighs

Were fuelled by some mysterious hate: calories

Men, toddlers, parking spaces. This is their space

For purity of the flesh. Air-con, fluorescence, lino-ed

They burn the fat like souls in hell, they sweat

and taste

Fresh water from a baby's bottle. And one …

and one …

They pelvic-thrust and curve like cats, and hop

and clap

And jump and tap like figure-conscious dervishes.

And the woman in the front, whose model moves

and model size,

Inspire, exhales, screams thirty-something years

with him,

And let me tell you one thing, girls – if you fake it,

it's no sin.

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