Blog

Haunting. . .

November 3, 2023 - By Jim Hicks

At long last, I’m finally sitting down to write a piece that I promised ages ago. This will be an admittedly partisan review, responding to the latest book by Tabish Khair, who is both a friend and on the MR masthead. Yet, given that it’s Hallowe’en today, on several levels it does seem the perfect moment to tell everyone why they should read Namaste Trump & Other Stories (Interlink Books, 2023).

The worldwide expansion of a holiday where children traditionally transvest as monsters, witches, and ghosts seems innocent enough—surely a form of what Joseph Nye, more than three decades ago, called “soft power.” That this year...

10 Questions for Thea Matthews

November 2, 2023 - By Franchesca Viaud

                       Teeth marks are found in the back of a cop car.
Cymbals clang on too-hot grits.

            My mental chatter is at the speed of rabbits thumping.
Asphalt tapes the blood spill.

A gold tooth crater smiles into a blow.
                        The blow is the lingering smoke of a body left
unrecognizable. A rollercoaster of adrenaline
                                                          shines bright
the red pollock splatter....

Divine Blue Light

November 1, 2023 - By Michael Thurston

A Review of Divine Blue Light (for John Coltrane) by Will Alexander (City Lights (Pocket Poets Series, 63), 2022)

Some poets, the best among them, make you learn to read their work. Sure, some structures and narratives inform their poems, but these are not familiar ones (the pentameter line, the regular stanza, the myths of Greece or Rome). The rules must be intuited then tested, confirmed in confrontation with the texts. A certain stubborn humility is required, but this attitude is also invited by the shimmering verbal surface, by the promise of some understanding to be wrought in the poem’s collaborative communicative act. You come, let’s say...

A Statement from the UK Sex Workers Union

October 31, 2023 - By Abla Abdelhadi

Introduction from Abla Abdelhadi
All support for my people in Gaza under the genocidal Zionist campaign is important. But this statement is especially meaningful to me as a Palestinian Jordanian feminist. It demonstrates to Arab societies that while Arab leaders spout empty statements of "solidarity" with Gaza, it is the people of the world who are taking a firm stance against genocide.

In Jordan recently, a course on feminism met heated public opposition, with accusations that feminism harms Arab families and societies. Meanwhile, Gazans suffering genocide at Israel's hands watch Arab governments continue to normalise relations with Israel. All the mass protests in Jordan make the same demand: that Jordan end its 1994 Peace Treaty with Israel...

Beers for a Sober October

October 30, 2023 - By Marsha Bryant

I hear you’re having a sober October?
That option, for me, is a Noper.
But for you I’ve pursued
An assortment of brews
So your boozeless pursuits can be proper.

1.
Translucent, refreshing, and light
Is this Upside Dawn Golden. So bright-
ly concocted it zips
As it passes your lips
With a fizz on your tongue that delights.

2.
Just the Haze is a near beer that’s fruity,
With citrusy sweetness and beauti-
ful deep yellow hue.
And the hops that come through
Give some heft to this thirst-quenching brewski.

3.
Sober Carpenter’s ale, Irish Red,
Has a frothy and beige-colored head.
It’s malt-forward. A trace...