The Path to Publication: 40 Years of Granta magazine

with Ian Jack and Sigrid Rausing

From Nobel laureates to debut novelists, international translations to investigative journalism, Granta magazine has been publishing intelligent, ground-breaking writing for 40 years. Over the years it has featured Haruki Murakami, George Saunders, Julian Barnes, Maggie O’Farrell, Sally Rooney, Han Kang and many others.

Here, Granta editor Sigrid Rausing and writer and Guardian journalist Ian Jack discuss the practical skills and insider knowledge needed to succeed in your journey to publication.

Listen to Granta deputy editor Ros Porter in conversation with our programme director Peggy Hughes on the podcast:

Ian Jack

Ian Jack became the editor of Granta magazine in 1995, and remained in the post until 2007. Previously, he edited the Independent on Sunday, which he also co-founded.  Most of his career has been spent in journalism and his awards include those for reporter, journalist and editor of the year. He writes regularly for The Guardian.

He is the author of four books of non-fiction. Before the Oil Ran Out: Britain 1977-86 (1987), The Crash That Stopped Britain (2001), The Country Formerly Known as Great Britain (2009) and Mofussil Junction (2013).

Sigrid Rausing

Sigrid Rausing is the Publisher of Granta Publications and the Editor of Granta magazine. She has a PhD in Social Anthropology from University College London, and her first book, History, Memory and Identity in Post Soviet Estonia: the End of a Collective Farm, was published in 2004 by Oxford University Press. In 2015 her second book, Everything is Wonderful, was short-listed for the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize. Her third book, Mayhem, was published in 2017, and is forthcoming in a number of translations. It was shortlisted for the Wellcome Prize in spring 2018.

‘Granta had a fine tradition of what Americans call ‘long-form’ or ‘literary’ reporting, but this I thought might be pushing the boundaries of the possible…But I also felt there should be nothing Granta couldn’t tackle, so why not?’ – Ian Jack, The Scottish Review of Books

‘The SRB Interview: Ian Jack’ – (The Scottish Review of Books, 2009)

BBC Radio 4 – Desert Island Disks with Sigrid Rausing

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