''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story's supreme ability to describe, illuminate and make real."About Granta Magazine.
/ref> In 2007, '' The Observer'' stated: "In its blend of memoirs and photojournalism, and in its championing of contemporary realist fiction, ''Granta'' has its face pressed firmly against the window, determined to witness the world." ''Granta'' has published twenty-seven laureates of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Literature published by ''Granta'' has regularly won such prizes as the Forward Prize, T. S. Eliot Prize, Pushcart Prize and more.

History

''Granta'' was founded in 1889 by students at

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

as ''The Granta'', edited by R. C. Lehmann (who later became a major contributor to '' Punch''). It was started as a periodical featuring student politics, badinage and literary efforts. The title was taken from the River Granta, the medieval name for the Cam, the river that runs through the city but is now used only for that river's upper reaches. An early editor of the magazine was R. P. Keigwin, the English cricketer and Danish scholar; in 1912–13, the editor was poet, writer and reviewer Edward Shanks. In this form, the magazine had a long and distinguished history. The magazine published juvenilia of a number of writers who later became well known: Geoffrey Gorer, William Empson, Michael Frayn, Ted Hughes, A. A. Milne, Sylvia Plath, Bertram Fletcher Robinson, John Simpson, and Stevie Smith.

Rebirth

During the 1970s, the publication faced financial difficulties and increasing levels of student apathy, and was rescued by a group of interested postgraduates, including writer and producer Jonathan Levi, journalist Bill Buford, and Peter de Bolla (now Professor of Cultural History and Aesthetics at

). In 1979, it was successfully relaunched as a magazine of "new writing", with both writers and audience drawn from the world beyond Cambridge. The magazine's first issue as a national publication was entitled "New American Writing". Bill Buford (who wrote '' Among the Thugs'' originally as a project for the journal) was the editor for its first 16 years in the new incarnation. During this time, the staff included Richard Rayner and the novelist Carole Morin. Ian Jack succeeded Buford, editing ''Granta'' from 1995 until 2007. Since 2003, ''Granta'' has been published in Spain in Spanish. In April 2007, it was announced that Jason Cowley, editor of the ''Observer Sport Monthly'', would succeed Jack as editor in September 2007. Cowley redesigned and relaunched the magazine; he also launched a new website. In September 2008, he left after having been selected as editor of the '' New Statesman''. Alex Clark, a former deputy literary editor of '' The Observer'', succeeded him as the first female editor of ''Granta''. In late May 2009, Clark left the publication and John Freeman, the American editor, took over the magazine. , ''Granta''s circulation is 23,000. In the 164th issue Sigrid Rausing, who had served as editor since 2013, announced she would turn over editorship to Thomas Meaney with the Autumn issue of 2023.

Ownership

In 1994, Rea Hederman, owner of ''

The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of ...

'', took a controlling stake in the magazine. In October 2005, control of the magazine was bought by Sigrid Rausing. Rausing established the Granta Trust in 2019 as the owner of the magazine.

Granta Books

In 1989, then-editor Buford founded Granta Books. Granta's stated aim for its book publishing imprint is to publish work that "stimulates, inspires, addresses difficult questions, and examines intriguing periods of history." Owner Sigrid Rausing has been vocal about her goal to maintain these standards for both the magazine and the book imprint, telling the ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...

'', " 'Granta''will not publish any books that could not potentially be extracted in the magazine. We use the magazine as a yardstick for our books.... We are no longer going to look at what sells as a sort of argument, because it seemed to me that we were in danger of losing our inventiveness about what we wanted to do." Authors recently published by Granta Books include Michael Collins, Simon Gray, Anna Funder, Tim Guest, Caspar Henderson, Louise Stern and Olga Tokarczuk. When Rausing purchased ''Granta'', she brought with her the publishing imprint Portobello Books, founded in 2005; as of January 2019 the Portobello Books imprint was closed, with all its contracted authors therefter published under the Granta Books imprint. Granta Books are distributed by The Book Service in the UK. Granta Books are distributed by Ingram Publisher Services in the US.

''Granta'' Best of Young British Novelists

In 1983, ''Granta'' (issue #7) published a list of 20 young British novelists as names to watch out for in the future. Since then, the magazine has repeated its recognition of emerging writers in 1993 (issue #43), 2003 (issue #81) and 2013 (issue #123). In 1996 (issue #54), ''Granta'' published a similar list of promising young American novelists, which was repeated during 2007 (issue #97). In 2010 ''Granta'' issue #113 was devoted to the best young Spanish-language novelists. Many of the selections have been prescient. At least 12 of those identified have subsequently either won or been short-listed for major literary awards such as the Booker Prize and

Whitbread Prize The Costa Book Awards were a set of annual literary awards recognising English-language books by writers based in United Kingdom, UK and Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Originally named the Whitbread Book Awards from 1971 to 2005 after its first ...

. The recognition of Adam Thirlwell and Monica Ali on the 2003 list was controversial, as neither had yet published a novel. Thirlwell's

debut novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to pu ...

, ''

Politics Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

'', later met with mixed reviews. Ali's ''Brick Lane'' was widely praised. Those controversially excluded in 2003 included Giles Foden, Alex Garland, Niall Griffiths, Zoë Heller, Tobias Hill, Jon McGregor (who won the International Dublin Literary Award less than ten years later), Patrick Neate, Maggie O'Farrell and Rebecca Smith. Dan Rhodes contacted others on the 2003 list to try to persuade them to make a joint statement in protest against the

Iraq War The Iraq War (), also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a prolonged conflict in Iraq lasting from 2003 to 2011. It began with 2003 invasion of Iraq, the invasion by a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition, which ...

, which was gaining momentum at the time. Not all the writers responded. Rhodes was so disappointed he considered stopping writing, but has continued. In 2023, the list for the first time included international writers who view the UK as their home.

Ageism controversy

As with other bodies giving awards to younger writers, ''Granta'' has been accused of contributing to ageism in the publishing industry by promoting an age-restricted list. Writing in

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

, Erica Wagner complained about the ageism of the ''Granta'' list, as well as its predictability. Writing in

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

, Joanna Walsh argues that age-restricted awards also unfairly discriminate against women, people of colour, LGBTQ people, and other groups that might come late to writing. Writing in the Irish Examiner, she queried the arbritrariness of the age limits, noting that ''Grantas sister publication in the Spanish-speaking world sets an age limit of 35 for the same award. She also noted that age restriction of this sort is legislated against in employment. David Cutler of the Baring Foundation is among those who pointed out that the Turner Prize abolished its age limit in 2017, six years before the latest ''Granta'' list. Writers selected for the list have also complained about its discrimination. Yara Rodrigues Fowler tweeted that “Age cut offs are discriminatory to women, carers, disabled + working class ppl” and make for "a more boring and homogenous literature". Philip Hensher has said that he "regards such age-related line-ups as artificial and particularly unfair to women".

1983

* Martin Amis * Pat Barker * Julian Barnes * Ursula Bentley * William Boyd * Buchi Emecheta * Maggie Gee *

Kazuo Ishiguro is a Japanese-born English novelist, screenwriter, musician, and short-story writer. He is one of the most critically acclaimed contemporary fiction authors writing in English, having been awarded several major literary prizes, including the 2 ...

* Alan Judd * Adam Mars-Jones * Ian McEwan * Shiva Naipaul * Philip Norman * Christopher Priest * Salman Rushdie * Clive Sinclair * Graham Swift * Rose Tremain * Lisa St Aubin de Terán * A. N. Wilson

1993

* Iain Banks * Anne Billson * Louis de Bernières * Tibor Fischer * Esther Freud * Alan Hollinghurst *

* A. L. Kennedy * Philip Kerr * Hanif Kureishi * Adam Lively * Adam Mars-Jones * Candia McWilliam * Lawrence Norfolk * Ben Okri * Caryl Phillips * Will Self * Nicholas Shakespeare * Helen Simpson * Jeanette Winterson

2003

* Monica Ali * Nicola Barker * Rachel Cusk * Peter Ho Davies * Susan Elderkin * Philip Hensher * A. L. Kennedy * Hari Kunzru * Toby Litt * David Mitchell * Andrew O'Hagan * David Peace * Dan Rhodes * Ben Rice * Rachel Seiffert * Zadie Smith * Adam Thirlwell * Alan Warner * Sarah Waters * Robert McLiam Wilson

2013

* Naomi Alderman * Tahmima Anam * Ned Beauman * Jenni Fagan * Adam Foulds * Xiaolu Guo * Sarah Hall * Steven Hall * Joanna Kavenna * Benjamin Markovits * Nadifa Mohamed * Helen Oyeyemi * Ross Raisin * Sunjeev Sahota * Taiye Selasi * Kamila Shamsie * Zadie Smith * David Szalay * Adam Thirlwell * Evie Wyld

2023

* Graeme Armstrong * Jennifer Atkins * Sara Baume * Sarah Bernstein * Natasha Brown * Eleanor Catton * Lauren Aimee Curtis * Eliza Clark * Tom Crewe * Camilla Grudova * Isabella Hammad * Sophie Mackintosh * Anna Metcalfe * Thomas Morris * Derek Owusu * K Patrick * Yara Rodrigues Fowler * Saba Sams * Olivia Sudjic * Eley Williams

''Granta'' Best of Young American Novelists

1996

* Sherman Alexie * Madison Smartt Bell * Ethan Canin * Edwidge Danticat * Tom Drury * Tony Earley * Jeffrey Eugenides * Jonathan Franzen * David Guterson * David Haynes * Allen Kurzweil * Elizabeth McCracken * Lorrie Moore * Fae Myenne Ng * Robert O'Connor * Chris Offutt * Stewart O'Nan * Mona Simpson * Melanie Rae Thon * Kate Wheeler * Katharine Weber

2007

* Daniel Alarcón * Kevin Brockmeier * Judy Budnitz * Christopher Coake * Anthony Doerr * Jonathan Safran Foer * Nell Freudenberger * Olga Grushin * Dara Horn * Gabe Hudson * Uzodinma Iweala * Nicole Krauss * Rattawut Lapcharoensap * Yiyun Li * Maile Meloy * ZZ Packer * Jess Row * Karen Russell * Akhil Sharma * Gary Shteyngart * John Wray

2017

* Jesse Ball * Halle Butler * Emma Cline * Joshua Cohen * Mark Doten * Jen George * Rachel B. Glaser * Lauren Groff * Yaa Gyasi * Garth Risk Hallberg * Greg Jackson * Sana Krasikov * Catherine Lacey * Ben Lerner * Karan Mahajan * Anthony Marra * Dinaw Mengestu * Ottessa Moshfegh * Chinelo Okparanta * Esmé Weijun Wang * Claire Vaye Watkins

''Granta'' Best of Young Spanish-Language Novelists

2010

* Andrés Barba * Oliverio Coelho * Federico Falco *

Pablo Gutiérrez Pablo Gutiérrez is a Spanish writer. He studied journalism in Seville Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is ...

* Rodrigo Hasbún * Sonia Hernández * Carlos Labbé * Javier Montes * Elvira Navarro * Matías Néspolo * Andrés Neuman * Alberto Olmos * Pola Oloixarac * Antonio Ortuño * Patricio Pron * Lucía Puenzo * Andrés Ressia Colino * Santiago Roncagliolo * Samanta Schweblin * Andrés Felipe Solano * Carlos Yushimito * Alejandro Zambra

2021

* Andrea Abreu * José Adiak Montoya * David Aliaga * Carlos Manuel Álvarez * José Ardila * Gonzalo Baz * Miluska Benavides * Martín Felipe Castagnet * Andrea Chapela * Camila Fabbri * Paulina Flores * Carlos Fonseca Suárez * Mateo García Elizondo * Aura García-Junco * Munir Hachemi * Dainerys Machado Vento * Estanislao Medina Huesca * Cristina Morales * Alejandro Morellón * Michel Nieva * Mónica Ojeda * Eudris Planche Savón * Irene Reyes-Noguerol * Aniela Rodríguez * Diego Zúñiga

''Granta'' Best of Young Brazilian Novelists

2012

* Cristhiano Aguiar * Javier Arancibia Contreras * Vanessa Barbara * Carol Bensimon * Miguel del Castillo * João Paulo Cuenca * Laura Erber * Emilio Fraia * Julian Fuks * Daniel Galera * Luisa Geisler * Vinicius Jatobá * Michel Laub * Ricardo Lísias * Chico Mattoso * Antonio Prata * Carola Saavedra * Tatiana Salem Levy * Leandro Sarmatz * Antonio Xerxenesky

References

External links

''Granta'' official website

Granta Books official websiteFinding aid to Granta records at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
1889 establishments in the United Kingdom Literary magazines published in the United Kingdom Quarterly magazines published in the United Kingdom Digests Magazines published in London Magazines established in 1889 Publications associated with the University of Cambridge