end to end
an experiment in collaborative writing and international friendship
In 2014, the Norwegian novelist Karl Ove Knausgård (he of My Struggle fame) and the Swedish writer Fredrik Ekelund (he of being-friends-with-Karl-Ove-Knausgård fame) decided to write letters during the World Cup, held that year in Brazil. Each day, either Knausgård, writing from Sweden, or Ekelund, writing from Brazil, reflected on the quality of the play, the Cup’s political and cultural context, and the texture of daily life. These letters were published as Home and Away: Writing the Beautiful Game, because when you’re a famous novelist your letters to your friend can become a book.
read the latest letter:
In 2022, two friends—a graduate student in Berkeley and a secondary-school teacher in Cape Town—decided to try it themselves, to publish the letters in real time. Ryan and Russel invite you to read along as they write through a World Cup that stages all the horrors and contradictions of sports—of all aesthetic and pleasurable things—in contemporary life, under contemporary capitalism. It will be an exercise in collaborative critique, a performance of personal writing, and one instance of a long connection.