I workthe soil it echoes with the footsetps of the worldI make my body tremble like a fallen leaf and sinkand I thirst for words of life which may bud in tomorrow’s loam—from “Loam” by Shiki Itsuma, Translated by John Newton Webb, Volume 63, Issue 4 (Winter 2022) Tell us about one . . .
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Five minutes later and I was already regretting going with him. I fell behind, uneasy. I hoped he wouldn’t notice, that he’d carry on walking. But he stopped and turned around. It seemed he wouldn’t move an inch until I was right beside him. His smile read catch up, quick. I told . . .
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A Review of Nights of Plague by Orhan Pamuk. Translated from Turkish by Ekin Oklap. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2022. Orhan Pamuk is the first Turkish Nobel laureate for literature. His work focuses on Turkish culture and history, using labyrinthine plots, an overload of detail, operatic flights of imagination, and tongue-in-cheek word play. . . .
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Because of my poor hearingtwo old friends thinkthey can make mischiefin front of me.—From “I Blacklisted Two Old Friends” by Zuo You, Translated by Yi Zhe, Volume 63, Issue 4 (Winter 2022) Tell us about one of the first pieces you translated.Zuo You has suffered from a hearing impairment at the age . . .
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Rebecca Kaiser Gibson’s novel,The Promise of a Normal Life, is out now from Arcade Press. Her poem “Osmosis” was featured in our Summer 2021 issue. Climate Issue contributor Joseph Earl Thomas’ memoir, Sink, is out now with Grand Central Publishing. Joseph was also a part of our Climate Issue reading available for viewing . . .
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On Carole DeSanti’s work-in-progress: Plunder, The Exploits & Adventures of the Notorious Pyrates Anne Bonny and Mary Read. It is my great pleasure to introduce our Elizabeth Drew Professor of English Language and Literature, Carole DeSanti, who will be talking to us today about pirates. Now, I have known Carole for a very . . .
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She says, I care little about what’s said in the short term. She cracks her shoulder blades. She wonders if she waters them, would they grow wings? She says, I care about what happens tomorrow or the next day or the end of next month when the doctor pronounces my heart obsolete.—from . . .
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Our old ones are dying. Their parents restrained every syllable. the children floated away from their homes to boarding schools. graveyards, and war zones. It is my fifth day in the hospital. Outside for the first time. I hold my medicine bag in my pocket, and I think about Granny Marie. A . . .
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“I am a writer,” and I hate this part. I am a writer, so I am grateful for the requisite third-person: she is a writer and she hates writing about herself. This is her name. This is where she lives, and how. Here are a few facts that are true but safe, . . .
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A Review of Ernst Jünger, On the Marble Cliffs. Translated by Tess Lewis, Introduction by Jessi Jezewska Stevens, Afterword by Maurice Blanchot. New York Review Books, 2023. An elegant, refined, somewhat aloof writer whose oeuvre spans eight decades, Ernst Jünger is a towering figure of modern German letters. In addition to his correspondence . . .
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