November 15, 2023
A new booklist for 2023’s International Day for Tolerance, drawn from recommendations by University of Oklahoma faculty/grad students and featuring teachable books on the theme of tolerance especially from a literary, cultural, an
November 09, 2023
Reflecting on a visit to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Cambodia and on the Dirty War in Argentina, her home country, Liza Martín wonders what the motto “Nunca Más” really means when wars never cease.
October 24, 2023
September 06, 2023
Erik Gleibermann offers this intimate glimpse of Mexico City as seen from within its Metro system.
Four artists of Iraqi descent are achieving global recognition for their paintings and handbag design. Both proud of their culture of origin and open to resources beyond national designations, these four artists are reckoning with vibrant identity issues.
From the Middle Ages to Seinfeld, schlemiel and schlimazel characters enjoy an interesting history. Veronica Esposito traces this history and considers why the idea of the schlemiel has survived and resonated so widely.
“If a love song is made of water, the water / you hold in your hands right now is a lyric, / a song inside the rusty tap released,” from “These Visitations,” by Brian Turner & Dorianne Laux
“If you proclaim your love / it will return, empty, hollow, your same old voice / because you didn’t have the courage to pass by all / the boarded-up doors, worn-out footsteps, / muddied streets,” from “All Alone,” by Katerina Anghelaki-Rooke (trans. by Karen Van Dyck)
“When crows fly over the villages / Panic erupts like a flash flood / Soon after, as Nanmusa has prophesied / A plague spreads along the valley / Some life soon evaporated ,” from “Prophet,” by Gao Qiongxian (trans. Ming Di)
Ruins
“Ruins give us this beautiful idea,” writes the author, “that you could make something, something wonderful and strange, as pleasing as you could, imbuing it with something of yourself.” Yet even the self, subject to time, must evanesce.
My Friends, They Did This, Too
Franco’s legacy falls across a celebration of two friends’ birthdays but fails to stifle the hard-earned, uncontainable, savored joy.
A Story in Five Stages
“He waited all afternoon. A dog is the last creature you’d expect to abandon you for a glimpse of plenty. Yet that was what happened, as good as sealed in writing,” from “A Story in Five Stages,” by Armonía Somers
After a decade of talking to strangers while traveling, J. R. Patterson explores why strangers make some of the best conversation partners.
“The judge and lawyers argued, the judge became annoyed, the case was adjourned. Not a single case was brought by a female lawyer. No one in the courtroom was female except me.”
When Irina Flige visited the University of Oklahoma to receive the 2022 Clyde Snow Social Justice Award earlier this year, she delivered the following public lecture, based on her work with the Russian human rights network Memorial.
Prophetic Witness and Radical Love: A Conversation with Cornel West
Karlos K. Hill interviews Cornel West, who recently retired from Princeton University, as part of his ongoing column Bearing Witness, which highlights the efforts of cultural figures doing works of essential good around issues of social justice.
Writing, the Gambler’s Art: A Conversation with Chigozie Obioma
An interview with Nigerian writer Chigozie Obioma, whose debut novel, The Fishermen, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2015. His third novel, The Road to the Country, a Biafran War fiction, is forthcoming from Hutchinson Heinemann.
Making Things Brighter for the Next Generation: A Conversation with Oscar Hokeah
Kyrié Eleison Owen interviews Oscar Hokeah, whose book Calling for a Blanket Dance, a cutting novel about challenge, resilience, and the support of one’s community, won the 2023 PEN America/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel.
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