I never gave Judaism much thought until college. I happened upon a seminar on the Jewish theologian Abraham Joshua Heschel, who argues that holiness can be located not within space but across time, with each cycle of weeks binding us to the moment of creation. Enchanted by this idea, I started to . . .
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A Review of The Sea Elephants by Shastri Akella (Flatiron Books, 2023) “Once upon a time,” reads sixteen-year-old protagonist Shagun in a book of Hindu myths at the outset of Shastri Akella’s earnest and aching debut novel, The Sea Elephants, “the gods took away the first ancestor of the sea elephants, coveting him for his . . .
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Photo courtesy of Giacomo Sartori N.B. With this post, we inaugurate a weekly series penned by the brilliant Italian novelist and soil scientist Giacomo Sartori. We’ll be posting a new column each Friday, so stay tuned! Wars are as unfortunate for the earth as they are for people. The aerial footage from . . .
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Our ambulance pulls up to the white bungalow in Three Oaks, Michigan. The 911 caller, Tim Harris, is waiting for us outside his house. He circles his porch like a hound. I can see him from the back window, his hands stuffed into his blue slicker. Red Lights flash on and off . . .
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A Review of The Long Field: Wales and the Presence of Absence by Pam Petro (Little Toller [UK], 2023) In her memoir The Long Field, Pamela Petro reflects on her early adult years, which were spent in Wales redefining old notions of home and rediscovering herself, through a quiet exploration of her own sexuality and a distant, . . .
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Listen hard! Do you cheeka windchuckle against a coldyear? I promise you,in a place with everyonethere is patience, and a warmthready to give you full home. —from “My Heartful Songlikes,” Vol. 64, Issue 2 (Summer 2023) Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.I don’t really remember much of how the . . .
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Mimi herself wasn’t on great terms with the ancestors. Her altar was stuffed in the corner next to the laundry hamper, a sweat-stained sports bra thrown hastily over the incense sticks. She hadn’t made a chicken thigh or alcohol offering since Po Po’s diagnosis three years ago. And she certainly would never . . .
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Oliver de la Paz’s latest poetry collection, The Diaspora Sonnets, is out now from Liveright Press; three of these sonnets were published in our Spring 2023 issue. Crown for the Girl Inside, Lisa Low’s debut chapbook, is out now from YesYes Books; Low’s poem “Ars Poetica” was featured in our Spring 2022 issue. Trio . . .
Read MoreBut I like itBecause it is bitter—Stephen Crane It’s audaciously hoppy for me!Bring on bitterest beer ecstasies!They’re not one big “hop bomb.”Brewers craft, with aplomb,The hop spectrum. Such badassery! Some fear hops and endeavor to slayEvery tongue-biting flavor awayWith juicification—An abomination!Give me robustly bold IPAs! If your tongue is too weak, step aside!I advise . . .
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It helps to think of your mindas a landscape. Picture the groovesand valleys carved like a penknifeto bark from years of compulsions;it’s so easy following where the floodknows it must go.—from “From the Porch, A Moth,” Vol. 64, Issue 2 (Summer 2023) Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.One . . .
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