With less than a thousand words (in her recent preface to a New York magazine photographic portfolio by Mark Peterson, with additional reporting by James D. Walsh), Claudia Rankine has offered what is, for her, a typically eloquent and essential assessment of the state of our nation. She begins with Dylann Storm . . .
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Lord, let me understand this barter of essences. You’ve taken my bohemian soul and left me another, strange, cold as a distant star. I look within and don’t recognize myself. Have I spent the magic dust of my previous life? Where are my fits, my excesses, Lord? —from “The New Skin” by . . .
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There is no denying that Polish poetry occupies a special place in the United States. Embraced by non-specialists and critics alike, the works of Czesław Miłosz, Wisława Szymborska, Zbigniew Herbert, and Adam Zagajewski have played a role in shaping the aesthetic of American poetry in the twentieth century. Anecdotal evidence sugg ests . . .
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Michael thinks about how his wife, Anne, is known at her work for making the right call when it matters most. She gladly accepts—preemptively asks for—the totally impossible assignment. Anne always gets the job done when nobody thinks that she, or anybody, will be able to do it. —From “The Rendezvous,” Volume . . .
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There is no sadness like today’s sadness—a spring day so achingly alive I want to breakout of my body. But somebody already said that. —From “There Is No Sadness” Volume 60, Issue 3 (Fall 2019) What writer(s) or works have influenced the way you write now?In my formative years—grad school in the . . .
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A Transnational View of Hong Kong Before I introduce our speaker this evening, I have a lot of thanks to give to those who supported and made this event possible. Thanks to Hampshire College Eqbal Ahmad Endowed Lecture Fund, the Ethics and Common Good Project, and the Creative Writing Program. Thanks to . . .
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The ongoing crisis in Chile has brought the country to a standstill, unsettling the daily lives of all citizens. However, it has done more than just that. Mass protests have a way of altering the personhood of everyone involved in ways previously unimagined. Over the last week, thirty days after the eruption . . .
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I flushed that flock of doves three times.An hour’s worth of wingbeats in a rushand then a rush and then a rush.—From “Walking on a Path by Fisher Creek, I Flushed a Flock of Doves,” Volume 60, Issue 3 (Fall 2019) Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.The first . . .
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MAJESTIC SALOON & HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE AAUP PRESENT:What’s Happening at Hampshire?: A Teach-in, Poetry Reading, & Dance Party Wednesday, December 4, 7:00-10:00 pm, Majestic Saloon, Northampton Last spring, many students, staff, faculty, and alums of Hampshire College successfully organized to resist a proposed merger and likely closure of Hampshire College. Now, almost a . . .
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“And there will be singing”: An Anthology of International WritingEdited by Jim Hicks, Ellen Doré Watson, and Q. M. Zhang 6×9 paper, 312 pages, $24.95, November 2019ISBN: : 978-1-943902-14-9 In celebration of our landmark 60th anniversary, the Massachusetts Review presents a collection of the best contemporary and emerging international writers and writers in translation, . . .
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