Operation Mare Nostrum, June 2014 Photo by Massimo Sestini A person runs out of his burning house. Outside he finds firemen, but before letting him go they ask for his papers. If he doesn’t have them, then he can die in the flames. This is what happens today on the borders of . . .
Read More“Even when we’ve got the seats and they’re standing up, they’re still taking our places.” With this line the Brazilian poet Ledo Ivo captured our sense of intolerance towards the foreigners that misfortune has thrust among us. It was Easter in 1997 when the Italian military ship Sibilla rammed its bow into the Albanian . . .
Read MoreThis year August marked the seventieth anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the end of the American war in the Pacific. Had I not been involved with Global Zero, an organization that works to eliminate nuclear weapons, I would likely have spent August 6th and 9th working at my . . .
Read MoreNeil LindsayVice President, MarketingAmazon410 Terry Avenue NorthSeattle, Washington 98109 August 25, 2015 Dear Mr. Lindsay: After reading the August 16th New York Times article about Amazon, I believe I have a lot of what your company desperately needs in an employee. I’m not just a talented and conscientious worker, I also have a soul. And . . .
Read MoreAll cities, it seems safe to say, have their history written on—and by—their walls. In some places, though, the past is more present than elsewhere. Paris, for instance. Earlier this week, I spent a night in the 12th arrondissement, near Porte Dorée, an area of the city I don’t know well. It’s not . . .
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Editor’s Note. On May 20, 2015, Erri De Luca appeared in a courtroom in Turin, as a witness in his own defense, to counter the charges brought against him by the Italian state for “instigating violence.” De Luca’s alleged offense was simply expressing his opinion during a 2013 phone interview with the . . .
Read MoreMy father and mother came by plane to Italy. No run-down boat for them, they had the luxury of a regularly scheduled flight. Last century, back in the seventies, people like my parents who came from the global South still had the possibility of traveling like any other human beings. No rickety . . .
Read MoreThat picture of the Garissa University massacre which left 148 students strewn across the floor—I did everything in my power not to come across it on Twitter. But that picture, heavy with death and desperation, forced itself on me. Young bodies, partially clothed, now robbed of a future, killed off like rats. . . .
Read MoreJust back from the AWP in Minneapolis, I’d love to be writing this morning about the fun of chatting with writers—some we have published, some we would love to publish, some we look forward to getting to know—or about the splendid haul of books and magazines that pushed my carry-on to the . . .
Read MoreIn 2012, I went to a rally for Senate hopeful Joe Donnelly, the Democratic candidate for the Indiana senate seat vacated by Dick Lugar, a Republican moderate that in the primary had been run out of office by the Tea Party candidate, Richard Mourdock. You might remember that name because he and . . .
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