Granta  Granta is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and make real." In 2007, "The Observer" stated: "In its blend of memoirs and photojournalism, and in its championing of contemporary realist fiction, "Granta" has its face pressed firmly against the window, determined to witness the world." "Granta" was founded in 1889 by students at Cambridge University as "The Granta", edited by R. C. Lehmann (who later became a major contributor to "Punch"). It was started as a periodical featuring student politics, badinage and literary efforts. The title was taken from the medieval name for the Cam, the river which runs through the town, but is now used only for two of that river's tributaries. An early editor of the magazine was R. P. Keigwin, the English cricketer and Danish scholar; in 1912–13 the editor was the poet, writer and reviewer Edward Shanks. In this form the magazine had a long and distinguished history. The magazine published juvenilia of several writers who later became well known, including: Geoffrey Gorer, William Empson, Michael Frayn, Ted Hughes, A. A. Milne  Sylvia Plath, Bertram Fletcher Robinson, John Simpson, and Stevie Smith. During the 1970s the publication, faced with financial difficulties and increasing levels of student apathy, was rescued by a group of interested postgraduates, including writer and producer Jonathan Levi, journalist Bill Buford, and Peter de Bolla (now Professor of Cultural History and Aesthetics at Cambridge University). In 1979, it was successfully relaunched as a magazine of "new writing", with both writers and audience drawn from the world beyond Cambridge. Bill Buford (who wrote "Among the Thugs" originally as a project for the journal) was the editor for its first 16 years in the new incarnation. Ian Jack succeeded him, editing Granta from 1995 until 2007. In April 2007, it was announced that Jason Cowley, editor of the "Observer Sport Monthly", would succeed Jack as editor in September 2007. Cowley redesigned and relaunched the magazine; he also launched a new website. In September 2008, he left when he was selected as editor of the "New Statesman." Alex Clark, a former deputy literary editor of "The Observer", succeeded him as the first female editor of "Granta".