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Amber Husain

Amber Husain is a writer, academic and publisher. She is currently a managing editor and research fellow at Afterall, Central Saint Martins. Her essays and criticism appear or are forthcoming in 3AM, The Believer, London Review of Books, LA Review of Books, Radical Philosophy and elsewhere. She is the author of Replace Me, to be published by Peninsula Press in November 2021.



Articles Available Online


Slouching Towards Death

Book Review

July 2021

Amber Husain

Book Review

July 2021

In January, a preview excerpt in The New Yorker of Rachel Kushner’s essay collection The Hard Crowd (2021) warned us that this might turn...

Book Review

August 2020

Natasha Stagg’s ‘Sleeveless’

Amber Husain

Book Review

August 2020

‘The thong is centimetres closer to areas of arousal,’ writes Natasha Stagg in Sleeveless: Fashion, Image, Media, New York,...

ADVICE FROM BENJO CORTEZ GALLERY OWNER, CHELSEA THE RED CAT, NEW YORK, 2AM    When I feel something It doesn’t show I got rid of the signs With injections in the forehead I can tell you where to go But not anywhere My eyes got fucked up in Milan Some bitch Can you see the scar?   Keep your skin perfect Put these SkinCeuticals on   Every day Each morning           And I swear   Vitamin B5 Gel Serum 10 Notre Coeur           That one twice a day Daily Moisture           Do that daily Tinted SPF5O, Dead Sea Live Dark Room, RV5, Eska Formula Swallow aloe vera Are you writing this down?   And only eat soup You can put anything in it But only soup   I lost nearly everything   My whole body   And then now Well, now I’m eating this cream mousse It’s all back But that was because of Massimo He disappeared   This was before James Before James I only dated architects           Which Massimo wasn’t He was a model But up until then Architects only He kept saying Massimo kept saying You only want me because I am not an architect Which was true And I told him it was true Otherwise I would date an architect I’m an honest person You should always be honest   But he disappeared I hurt easily He knew this   Now I have James Yes, he’s very young But it’s because he has good skin, He uses all those creams   I used to get jealous But he’s good Knows how not to hurt people His brother just died So he knows           But once He was in a restroom in a club And I was unsure He was in there a long time I knocked, and went away Or pretended I was watching from the sink Looking for signs in the mirror But I was quiet Then I came back, or didn’t because I didn’t go away But I knew he was not in there alone And there was this guy I’d seen him looking at James And so after a while I made James open the door and he was In there Alone   Massimo disappeared though Back to Milan He was from Milan I tracked him down We went to therapy It was at that point Massimo admitted he knew how to hurt me and Sometimes Did it on purpose That’s when I realised Massimo was not a good person I didn’t want to talk anymore But we were always at the therapist Because I had set it up like that And Massimo kept on talking For weeks Until the therapist had to stop him What about Benjo, she said What does Benjo think?       PLEDGE DRIVE   Weightless beside his possessions In bags bound To

Contributor

November 2018

Amber Husain

Contributor

November 2018

Amber Husain is a writer, academic and publisher. She is currently a managing editor and research fellow at Afterall,...

On Having No Skin: Nan Goldin’s Sirens

Art Review

January 2020

Amber Husain

Art Review

January 2020

The feeling of drug-induced euphoria could be strips of gauze between beautiful fingers. Or a silver slinky sent down a torso by its own...
In Defence of Dead Women

Essay

November 2018

Amber Husain

Essay

November 2018

The memorial for the artist was as inconclusive as her work, or anybody’s life. Organised haphazardly on Facebook by one of her old friends,...

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fiction

March 2016

Red

Madeleine Watts

fiction

March 2016

It was the first week of 1976 and she had just turned 17.   The day school let out...

Interview

May 2012

Interview with Jonathan Safran Foer

Jacques Testard

Interview

May 2012

Much has been written about the precocity and talent of Jonathan Safran Foer, whose debut novel Everything is Illuminated...

Interview

October 2014

Interview with Jem Cohen

Steve Macfarlane

Interview

October 2014

Jem Cohen may be one of the quintessential New York filmmakers of our era. Peerless in his knack for...

 

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