John Freeman Archives

Boxing

by John Freeman

January 25, 2022

Posted on January 25, 2022 (January 27, 2022) by Zack Ravas

In the waning daysof those years in LondonI took up boxing. I didn’twant to unload on someunsuspecting soul so Ifound a sparring partner.She turned up, necktatted, face pierced, dred-locked and strong as hell.A Turkish woman withEast London stenciledon her left forearm. Beforeboxing she trained horsesin dressage and beforethat was trying not todrown herself in drink.After

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ZYZZYVA Interview Series: John Freeman

by editor

November 5, 2015

Posted on November 5, 2015 (August 10, 2020) by editor

John Freeman (whose poems were published in ZYZZYVA No. 95 and No. 101, and who is also a contributing editor) is a long-time book critic, author of How to Read a Novelist, and the former editor of Granta. Last month, he launched a new literary journal, Freeman’s, which will publish themed issues twice a year. The first issue features work from Louise Erdrich, Barry Lopez, Haruki Murakami, Dave Eggers, Alexander Hemon, Anne Carson, Helen Simpson, and many more. Before a packed house at City Lights Bookstore last month, ZYZZYVA Managing Editor Oscar Villalon talked to Freeman about the journal, about […]

The Fire of Work, and the Concerns of Literature: Q&A with John Freeman

by Oscar Villalon

December 12, 2013

Posted on December 12, 2013 (December 11, 2013) by editor

I’ve known author and former Granta editor John Freeman since (and I’m guessing here) 1998. At the time I was the deputy book editor at the San Francisco Chronicle, and Freeman was one of many freelance critics working for the paper’s Sunday Book Review section (which, thankfully, and perhaps miraculously, continues). Freeman is probably the most prolific freelancer with whom I’ve ever worked. (The book critic Martin Rubin would be a close second.) Month after month, it seemed as if his reviews and author interviews appeared in just about every periodical in the country that did any sort of book […]