Theatre & Literature
‘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…
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.
Theatre & Literature
‘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.
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Theatre & Literature
Raymond Antrobus explores deaf identity in The Quiet Ear
"How do you scaffold the wide, expansive possibility of a deaf life?"
Theatre & Literature
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…
Theatre & Literature
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.
Theatre & Literature
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.
Theatre & Literature
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
Theatre & Literature
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…
Theatre & Literature
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.
Theatre & Literature
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…
Theatre & Literature
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…
Theatre & Literature
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…
Theatre & Literature
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…
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Theatre & Literature
“I’m glad that I didn’t grow up in a castle”: Nelio Biedermann on writing Lázár
Theatre & Literature
Weird Books are Back: Cold’s Guide to the 2026 Booker Prize Longlist
Theatre & Literature
