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Lauren Elkin
Lauren Elkin is most recently the author of No. 91/92: notes on a Parisian commute (Semiotext(e)/Fugitives) and the UK translator of Simone de Beauvoir's previously unpublished novel, The Inseparables (Vintage). Her previous book Flâneuse: Women Walk the City (Chatto/FSG) was a finalist for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay, a New York Times Notable Book of 2017, and a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week. Her essays have appeared in Granta, the London Review of Books, Harper’s, the New York Times, and Frieze, among others. Her next book, Art Monsters, will be out in July 2023 (Chatto/FSG). She lives in London.

Articles Available Online


Maria Gainza’s ‘Optic Nerve’

Book Review

May 2019

Lauren Elkin

Book Review

May 2019

In his foreword to A Thousand Plateaus, on the pleasures of philosophy, and of Deleuze and Guattari’s philosophy in particular, Brian Massumi writes:  ...

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Issue No. 8

Barking From the Margins: On écriture féminine

Lauren Elkin

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Issue No. 8

 I. Two moments in May May 2, 2011. The novelists Siri Hustvedt and Céline Curiol are giving a talk...

Due to a clerical error on my part, the current Prime Minister is now living in the box room at our house The former Prime Minister was, of course, replaced at the last election by an almost formless howling mass resembling a fleshy cyst lump This fleshy cyst lump now lives in a city centre flat share with some not quite young, almost professionals It’s an awkward situation but we’re really trying to make the best of it The highly confidential policy documents he leaves in our communal living space give me an illicit thrill but his nightly wailing is very distracting I suppose overall the situation is slightly worse than when Helen decided to sublet her room to an actor but not as bad as Nina and Karen breaking up and continuing to live in the same room They’ve divided the room down the middle with balled up socks and dirty knickers and secretly fuck on the dividing line two out of seven nights a week, leaving the undeniable tang of sex hanging in the space around their faux innocent faces  I’m going through quite a stressful time in the office right now It’s mostly, if not entirely, due to the clerical error, the consequences of which I could never have predicted three or four months ago when certain machinations created the tragic circumstances which led me to commit such a heinous mistake Therefore right now I could do without the Prime Minister’s howling and crying when I get home Certainly life would be improved without his rending of garments and the haunting screams that disturb the air for hours after they have left his so called body But I suppose as long as he pays the rent on time I can cope I’ve left it to Nina to chase him up on that She complains about the responsibility associated with this role but I know she secretly loves the task: every month flogging us until we pay up It seems the weeping sores on my back heal just in time for the next message

Contributor

August 2014

Lauren Elkin

Contributor

August 2014

Lauren Elkin is most recently the author of No. 91/92: notes on a Parisian commute (Semiotext(e)/Fugitives) and the UK...

The End of Francophonie: The Politics of French Literature

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Issue No. 2

Lauren Elkin

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Issue No. 2

I. We were a couple of minutes late for the panel we’d hoped to attend. The doors were closed and there was a surly-looking...

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Interview

Issue No. 1

Interview with Paula Rego

Ben Eastham

Helen Graham

Interview

Issue No. 1

Dame Paula Rego introduces me into her North London home with a crooked smile and a plate of biscuits....

poetry

April 2012

The Disappearance

Dana Goodyear

poetry

April 2012

A yellow veil dropped down at evening, and when it lifted everyone was gone. Good mothers fled their young...

poetry

May 2015

Europe

Kirill Medvedev

TR. Keith Gessen

poetry

May 2015

I’m riding the bus with a group of athletes from some provincial town they’re going to a competition in...

 

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