Leaf Racing
My sister Lena was a mess when Funtown Playland let her go. Two months of playing Princess Thistle in their daytime production – and nothing. She came home in street clothes with her gaudy yellow dress crumpled to her chest. Back when Lena first moved into my spare room, I hoped Funtown Playland w
Catherine
One of the women I worked for when I first moved here was also named Catherine. She lived in one of those pretty Georgian terraced houses in an expensive suburban fold of the city that I never usually found cause to visit. The front entrance to the house was through a narrow feature door that [&hell
Silk Road
金, the gold caged bodhi tree among monks one quick-tempered another on the phone another ten years old dying monks among dying tourists among red eaves and paper walls they speak of peppered chives and burnt tea (and a cat strutting across the floor) 火, the fire has long deserted t
the smell in my room
What if the smell in my room is not the brown skin samosa cold in the corner, grease leaking through wooden floors, or the curry my mother left dead on the desk next to the photos where sunlight from a distant summer is caught between some fat boy’s teeth, laughing with [&h
Tapioca Age
My grandfather was born in Malaya, a first-generation ethnic Chinese immigrant. Gong-gong’s temperament – quiet and minimalist – fits a man of his humble background, but his eagerness for adventure is exceptional. His extensive travels grant him a remarkably inquisitive palate that is rare amo
Staff-Student Relationships: Where Permissive Policy Goes Wrong
trigger warning: sexual harassment “In our story, there’s no villain, no witch, no fairy godmother, no moral imperative or cautionary conclusion,” reads My Oxford Year, a novel by Julia Whelan featuring a romance between American student Ella Duran and her lecturer, the ‘troubled’ J
British Community Spirit (‘At Its Very Best’)
The following is a composition of electronic music exploring attitudes towards the pandemic and lockdown within the UK. The piece consists of Tweets being read aloud and processed by coronavirus-related statistics, accompanied by funeral songs from communities across the globe.
The Isis Podcasts: In Conversation with Samira Ahmed
Join The Isis for a conversation with the journalist, writer and broadcaster Samira Ahmed, discussing Ahmed’s journey into journalism, her childhood in London and why she regrets pulling all-nighters at Oxford. Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3HmOYPliDt4SvZPqD4s6jv?si=kuHWPDJf