Indies Elsewhere: Cardumen Libros
From figuring out how much pizza her royalties would purchase to leading a poetry publishing project in Colombia—Cardumen Libros—Alejandra Algorta has always been a supporter of the things that are urgent, that are important.
Maternal Bodies in Vi Khi Nao’s Fish in Exile
In Vi Khi Nao's Fish in Exile, Ethos and Catholic are grief-stricken at the deaths of their infant children. It is Catholic, however, whose body undergoes substantive change and becomes directly conflated with trauma and death.
Spying on the Rich in Crazy Rich Asians and Moll Flanders
In Crazy Rich Asians (2013), Kevin Kwan offers us a window into a world of wealth capable of altering the very ontological condition of the characters who enjoy it. Reading Kwan’s novel, I’m reminded of Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders (1722).
The Black Aesthetic: Money Talks in Jay-Z’s 4.44
Jay-Z’s latest album 4.44 rejects racial transcendence, while promoting Black business ingenuity. Although Jay-Z acknowledges America’s capitalistic history of enslavement and the tragic stories associated with Black celebrity, he promotes Black ownership as the dominant means for authentic financial freedom in America.
Art and Sustenance
Learning from artists, how to write, to draw, to see, taught me of bounty. Their insistence, their calling, always, attention to the smallest things, taught me the most precious kind of survival: the abiding joy and knowledge that there is always something.
Learning to Read Conflict in The Solar Grid
In The Solar Grid, the people on earth are screwed. A global ecological disaster. A corporate-sponsored attempt to “fix” it, and our willingness to assign the label of “third world” to a place so we can ignore it.
Living Through Translation: An Interview With Dr. Aron Aji
Dr. Aron Aji is a highly accomplished translator with a range of work under his belt, from Turkish writers that include Elif Shafak, Murathan Mungan, Bilge Karasu, and Latife Tekin. We chatted about his background, how Bilge Karasu subverts the stereotypical Turkish identity, and the internalization of exile.
What Is the Heart of a Poem?
The first word or two of a poem is such a small thing, one word out of many, but in a poem every single word can hold the weight of the entire piece.
You Can’t Trust Anybody in Elvira Navarro’s A Working Woman (And What That Says About Us)
Elvira Navarro’s A Working Woman, translated by Christina MacSweeney, interrogates the psyche of characters mired by the Spanish economic crisis and the realities and lies they build around themselves in search of catharsis.
Wielding Literature for Truth and Trust
Perhaps the core difficulty in discovering truth exists in lieu of our inability to trust.