Before we brush our teeth and get dressed, beforeI take two kinds of blood pressure pills and threefiber gummies, put coffee in one kind of go-cup,kale smoothie in another, get into the car, I say I wantto have one more cup of coffee in bed and read youthis Ellen Bass poem, but it’s . . .
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(Photo by Victorgrigas – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0) (An earlier version of this essay, titled “They tried to kill the truth, but it came back stronger” was published in Issue 4 (Spring 2024) of the print magazine, Discontent.) 1. Every time I’ve opened this document to continue writing, I’ve had to turn . . .
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As Jewish academics, researchers, and higher education professionals, we are appalled by, and refuse to accept, the deliberate mischaracterization, and weaponization of persisting fears about Jewish safety and well-being on campuses across the United States as the singular excuse for a series of misguided and dangerous policies by university administrators. These include . . .
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At dawn, when I have to pee and there is that dread of standing, and afterI pee and drink a small jam jar of water, you’re the first thing I put in my hand, Pill. In my palm you’re so perfect and white and round, and then I addanother one of you, . . .
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It must be awful to be a Republican these days. So many reasons to be terrified: immigrants flooding across our borders, gender subversion from within, swarthy people rising from below, and so few of “our nation’s core principles” left unassailed. Even Sean Hannity, culture warrior supreme, can’t seem to keep up. How . . .
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Drawing by Grant Hoskins, published with permission from the artist Students Called for Divestment from Weapons Manufacturers as State Police Entered Campus AMHERST, MASS.—Over 130 students, faculty, and community members were arrested by state police on the University of Massachusetts Amherst campus on Tuesday evening and into the early hours of Wednesday . . .
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(Palestinian Flag, with bullet hole, pace Jasper Johns.) “Palestinians are one of the final reminders that a future without colonialism is possible.” – Devin Atallah and Sarah Ihmoud, “A World without Palestinians” In the time since we posted the call for our special issue, “The View from Gaza,” which will be guest-edited by Michel . . .
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We knew what we would lose before we had it, but I know why I stayed.When I close my eyes, I can still seeour kitchen skin and half a lemon left there,turning in on itself like the fistsour mothers made in every cardinal direction,and how late it was in the afternoon.You were rinsing . . .
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A review of Bianca by Eugenia Leigh (Four Way Books, 2023) “Trauma” and “grief,” or rather such shallow incarnations of serious psychological phenomena that they merit air quotes, have become trendy concepts in recent 21st century discourse and media. Movies and television use the traumatic past as a major plot revelation (The Matrix Resurrections, Succession, Yellowjackets), or . . .
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A Review of Under Our Skin, by Joaquim Arena, translated by Jethro Soutar (Unnamed Press, 2023) I like to say that Joaquim Arena’s memoir/travel narrative Under Our Skin, translated by Jethro Soutar and published by Unnamed Press, arrived to me at the perfect time, because I had been learning about extraordinary historical figures from . . .
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