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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,...

Hello Dr Rivers’ clinic? Thank you Yes Yes, doctor, I would like to be your patient With your permission, of course No It was Doctor Rosenthal who recommended you to me Yes, she and her husband, I’ve known them for a while They’re going to spend a year in Florence In a few days, I think That’s why she didn’t want to take me on Besides, it’s not advisable among friends, she said I’ve worked with him No, I’m not a poet I’m a filmmaker I write screenplays Well, that’s part of the problem I don’t want to write anymore, but I don’t know what else to do Can I? I suppose so No, nothing I’ve written has been produced, but almost Someone optioned one of my screenplays Of course, it’s better than nothing Maybe with a little more luck It was an action movie A sort of film noir, but set in the jungle, in Guatemala I’m from there El Petén It’s a wonderful place Have you been to the jungle? It’s a singular thing If you haven’t been you don’t know what I’m talking about The vegetation, the life, the energy everywhere Yes, I get excited talking about it In black and white Supposedly I was going to direct it, but the investors backed out at the last moment Yes, safety concerns By a stroke of bad luck, the producer was there when they lynched a North American woman A photographer She was in a little town, taking pictures of some kids Someone started the rumour that she was kidnapping kids You know, there have been cases For illegal adoption agencies, or for specialty brothels, and they say they are even used to supply the organ market Unthinkable, you said it But that’s what happened and the project fell through Money? Well, yes, I mean no, money isn’t really a problem at all Rich, not what you would call rich, no My father? My father yes, he was rich No, he died a long time ago He was killed It’s a bit of a complicated story Around,

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,...

READ NEXT

feature

February 2014

Only Responsible to Their Art: Heilan and the Chinese Avant-Garde

Chen Wei

TR. Tu Qiang

feature

February 2014

Heilan was established for a simple reason: over the past twenty years, there has not emerged a single medium...

feature

Issue No. 2

Three Poets and the World

Caleb Klaces

feature

Issue No. 2

In 1925, aged 20, the Hungarian poet Attila József was expelled from the University of Szeged for a radical...

Interview

March 2017

Interview with Bae Suah

Deborah Smith

Bae Suah

Interview

March 2017

The Essayist’s Desk, published in 2003 and written when its author Bae Suah had just returned from an 11-month...

 

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