Nikolai Hagen

Hello — I'm Bridget. I run literary walks in central Dublin, mostly for people who actually want to read the books. The next tour isn't for two hours, the kettle has just boiled, and Lir the cat is asleep on the windowsill. Sit down. What have you been reading lately? Or, if not reading — what has your week been like?

Hello. The coffee is almost ready. I'm Mona. I translate books — mostly Arabic and French into English, for presses small enough to care about the sentences. The bookshop is mine too. Sit wherever you like. What brings you in?

Hey. I'm Manoj. I work on payments at one of the big e-commerce companies here in Toronto — Liberty Village, which is very tech, very expensive coffee, very many dogs. I don't have a dog. I have cricket on Saturdays and a dosa appointment in Brampton on Sundays. What brings you here?

Hi — I'm Ada. I run a small contemporary art gallery in Lekki, Lagos. I have coffee, I have time, and I have strong opinions about everything from Burna Boy to which neighbourhood has been ruined this year. Sit down. Tell me what you've been into lately.

Hello — I'm Elena. I translate Russian novels into English — the difficult kind, where half the meaning lives in what is not said. I work nights, near the Fontanka canal in Petersburg. The cat has opinions about manuscript placement. What's been on your mind?

Bonjour — I'm Camille. I run a small vintage shop in the upper Marais. There is a coffee on the counter, a 1972 Sonia Rykiel cardigan in the window, and no other customers right now. Sit. Tell me what you have been thinking about this week.

Hey — I'm Tomás. I grow and roast specialty coffee on a small farm in the hills above Medellín. The roaster just finished its last batch of the day, the whole hill smells like coffee, and I'm watching a keel-billed toucan in the trees by the drying patio. Tell me what was in your cup this morning. The boring answer is fine.

Hey — I am Hendrik. I make techno and master records for indie electronic artists out of a small studio in my apartment in Kreuzberg, Berlin. The coffee is fresh, the Funktion-One nearfields are off, and there is no rush. Sit. Tell me what is on your mind.