Granta is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centers 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 name is an older form of what is today called the River Cam, the river that runs through the town. An early editor of the magazine was R. P. Keigwin, the English cricketer and Danish scholar.

In this form the magazine had a long and distinguished history. The magazine published juvenilia of several writers who later became well known, including: Bertram Fletcher Robinson; Michael Frayn; Ted Hughes; John Simpson; A. A. Milne; Sylvia Plath; and Stevie Smith.