Interview
‘Be yourself but worse’: Luke Kennard on how he wrote Black Bag
In a Booker Prize shortlist that includes tales of homophobic murder and suicidal ideation in the midst of the 2024 U.S.
Theatre & Literature
Theatre and literature at The Cold Magazine. New writing for the stage and the page: playwrights and novelists in conversation, reviews, reading lists and the work we think deserves an audience.
‘We wanted books that took risks’: the 2026 Booker Prize Shortlist is here
“Don’t be nostalgic for a great age of reading”, commands Dame Mary Beard, wearing a glittering sequin blazer. She has…
Raymond Antrobus explores deaf identity in The Quiet Ear
"How do you scaffold the wide, expansive possibility of a deaf life?"
Read an excerpt from Rosie Turner’s queer dating guide, Girlfriend Material
The number one question I get asked on social media is: “How is dating a woman different from dating a…
Luis López Carrasco on writing The White Desert: a nuclear love story
We’re unsure what, exactly, has happened, or where our protagonists, long-time couple Carlos and Aitana, have found themselves.
Hallie Elizabeth Newton on her debut novel Agnes Lives!: ‘a Fucked-Up Mrs Dalloway of Our Time’
Agnes exists in a pre-Trump, pre-COVID, pre-#MeToo New York.
Step aside, Sappho! Meet the Scottish lesbian poet hiding in a 500-year-old manuscript
Ashley Douglas, unravels the story of Marie Maitland’s secret lesbian love poetry
Karishma Jobanputra’s debut collection, The Body of the Thing, will make you fall in love with short stories
“Normal Jean Baker of Troy”: the debut short story collection from a British-Indian writer listed for the Brick Lane Short…
Reading the Season: Autumn
With summer ending, it’s time to turn to autumn reading — beginning with a man’s voice coming from the well.
Why do we know so little about the women who raise us? ‘And I Am the Arrow’ looks for the answer
From Lost Lambs to Lázár, writers are exploring secrets, power and inheritance. Pia Ghosh-Roy asks how well we can ever…
Are influencers supporting book bans?
Sixty years ago the Vatican abolished its ban on sexually explicit books. The Church was still at it when the…
You haven’t read a lesbian breakup novel quite like this before: Ruth Novaczek on Wrongness
“Violette Leduc first taught me that happy endings aren’t very queer”: in her 60s, Ruth Novaczek had her heart broken…
A book lover’s guide to Dolly Parton
“If I’m remembered 100 years from now, I hope it will be not for looks but for books”: a reading…
