‘Some of these bigger characters, Muhammad Ali or Lennox Lewis, they can become these mythologic, mythological characters, or these godlike figures.’
Declan Ryan on contemporary boxing.
In this episode of theGranta Podcast, we speak to the poet and critic Declan Ryan. His debut collection of poems,Crisis Actor, was published in 2023.
We discuss Declan Ryan’s essay ‘The Hurt Business’, published inGranta 170: Winners, the fight between Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois, and the commercialisation of boxing.
Follow these links to subscribe to the podcast onSpotify and Apple Podcasts.
Leo Robson is a cultural journalist whose work has appeared in the London Review of Books, the New Yorker, and the New Left Review, among other publications. His first novel will be published in 2025.
Josie Mitchell is senior editor atGranta.
‘I think there should be a National Service of Hospitality. The best way to see the true face of humanity is to serve it a plate of chips.’
Camilla Grudova on bad-mannered customers.
‘Anyone who has ever worked night shifts will understand the vertiginous feeling that comes with staring down the day from the wrong end.’
A.K. Blakemore on working nights.
‘I was constantly reading job ads, trying to find my holy grail – a job I could stand to do, and someone foolish enough to hire me.’
Sandra Newman on learning how to play professional blackjack.
‘I loved being a receptionist. What I loved about it was playing the part of being a receptionist.’
Emily Berry on being a temporary office worker.
‘Every part of you would swell, including your eyeballs, and no matter how much water you drank, you were always dehydrated.’
Junot Díaz on working for a steel mill.
Declan Ryan’s first collection of poems,Crisis Actor, was published in 2023.
Photograph © Chris Larkin
‘Honour, or anything approaching it, sits vanishingly low on the priority list.’
Declan Ryan on boxing and the fight between Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois.
‘The military recruits around football – they try to pick up the surplus player population. You couldn't make it on the college team? Well, you know, this is kind of similar. Both are violent.’
Nico Walker on American football.
‘Everybody knows a game is not worth watching unless the players are trying to win.’
Thomas Meaney introduces the issue.
‘I suddenly had one of those I can’t find words for it one of those moments of joy I suppose it is.’
Fiction by Caryl Churchill.
‘It was important to touch them, a ritual to wake them up and keep them alive.’
Fiction by Martín Felipe Castagnet, translated by Frances Riddle.
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