Rachel Cusk, Raven Leilani and Hari Kunzru are among writers inspired by artists to find shape and form in their own works

Steve McQueen, Tracey Emin, Steve Coogan, Adjoa Andoh, Danny Dyer, Jesse Darling and many more spell out what must be done to restore Britain’s cultural lifeblood, from ending elitism to supercharging libraries – and flooding schools with music

These moments of precious fresh awareness can be found in authors from Oliver Sacks to Ottessa Moshfegh and Franz Kafka

Kunzru’s smart and thought-provoking sixth novel draws a line from German Romanticism to Trump and the alt-right

What to pack along with the aftersun and flipflops? From novels about gay footballers and updated Greek classics to biographies and poetry, our guest critics offer their holiday must-reads

Inspired by fragments of lyrics and old recordings, novelist Hari Kunzru set off through America’s deep south

Jonathan Franzen claimed he won’t write about race because of limited ‘firsthand experience’, while Lionel Shriver hopes objection to ‘cultural appropriation is a passing fad’. So should there be boundaries on what a novelist can write about?

From gripping fiction to history, brilliant poetry to biography, our guest contributors offer their recommendations for the beach and elsewhere