Rilla Askew, a writer of historical fiction located in the US heartland, considers the pandemic’s languid creep and anticipates how writers will one day write about it.
In this work of creative nonfiction from Cuba, plague is something common shared with those who lived in Thebes.
In Greece, a son who has returned to his mother’s home to care for her during the Covid-19 crisis contemplates what the global pandemic can reveal about our character.
“Lust, they say, / should only exist alongside love / and this was a vast and lustful crime: / but I wanted you defenceless / a banquet / your lips my banquet,” from “Salome after the Crime,” by Ana Luísa Amaral
“don’t hold within yourself any dream discounted / on the public square / don’t look at the will-o’-the-wisp / constantly climb back up the slope / even if steep,” from [draw your strength] by Alain Mabanckou
“‘A day for swimming!’ / you shouted / and I began to laugh / only madmen leaped into these waters / (I don’t remember if I said it / or just thought it).” - from “The Coastal Path,” by Eleni Kefala
“Papa received a scythe from a co-worker as a present. Mama is horrified. ‘A scythe in our house?’ Papa wants to reassure her: ‘I’ve set it in the cellar.’” - from “The Scythe,” by Christa Reinig
In this short piece of fiction by Etan Nichen, students notice an opening at the bottom of the fence, a tear in the wires.
Shokoofeh Azar recalls her refugee journey from Iran to Christmas Island and reveals why Iranians continue migrating to Australia, despite the absence of war.
Encountering postapartheid Afrikaans fiction for the first time, particularly the fast-paced crime novels of Deon Meyer, Peter Constantine finds that the most unexpected element is the new lack of segregation between Afrikaans and English.
Antonio Alessandro Mercadante uses a suitcase once belonging to Italian poet Umberto Saba to reimagine the world it, and he, inhabited.
Adam J. Goldwyn interview poet, translator, and essayist Zisis D. Ainalis, who has published seven books of poetry: Electrography (2006), Fragments (2008), Michalis Tatsis—Holding up the Stake with the Hands (2011), Sheba’s Silence (2011), Mythology (2013), Desert Tales (2017), and Desert Monody (2019).
In this interview, conducted by Tiffany Hawk, Robin Hemsley explores the notions of borders, nationhood, and identity, bringing readers to a number of in-between places, from a Bengali resettlement camp in India, to a preposterously extravagant Chinese mansion smack in the middle of a destitute village, to a painstakingly fabricated indoor rainforest in Nebraska.
In this conversation, Isabel Fargo Cole and Andrea Bryant consider the roles that historical context, location, and translation play in her writing.
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