Reading Frantumaglia After the Unmasking of Elena Ferrante
It’s been impossible to ignore the furor surrounding the revelation of Elena Ferrante’s identity last month. Some consider it an inevitability, yet the majority of her fans seem to feel that it is enough to have been given the gift of her writing, without expressly violating her wishes.
Witches in Literature, or Bodies as Translators of Fear
Lady sorceresses are vessels of fear through their bodies , or representations used to translate terror. A witch’s greatest strength is her body, as when Circe seduces and distract Odysseus from his journey; it is her greatest weakness, too, as when the Wicked Witch of the West is destroyed:
“Writing is for Finding Out”: An Interview with Ciaran Carson
Ciaran Carson’s poems explore the risky territory between the personal and the political. They are grounded in the local, yet outward and upward tending—toward the larger truths he inspects with a sharp mind and a wary eye.
Flailing and failing and thinking: an interview with Stuart Ross
Over the past four decades, Cobourg, Ontario poet, editor, fiction writer and small press publisher Stuart Ross has become a Canadian institution. The co-founder of the Toronto Small Press Fair and the Meet the Presses collective, he sold some seven thousand of his self-published chapbooks on the streets of
Holding Back Poetic Tendencies: An Interview with Jordan Stump
For that reason, the translator has to hold back his or her poetic tendencies, which can be difficult in the horrific passages toward the end. Harder than that, though, is making sure that the plainness of the voice doesn’t turn into blandness.
Reading OCOSINGO WAR DIARIES in the Wake of Colombia’s Failed Peace Deal
I have a writer friend who is a punk, a recovering anarchist, a staunch Zapatista supporter. He plays bass in a punk band, writes poetry in the afternoons. He said to me one time: Why is it that American writers are the only artists in the
The Art of the Twitter Essay
Twitter is maybe one of the most ideal places to watch a draft shape itself into a finished essay—a public place for us to learn the bones.
One Thousand and One Nights: an interview with poet Gwee Li Sui
Gwee Li Sui is the author of the graphic novel Myth Of The Stone, the book Fear No Poetry!, and poetry collections The Other Merlion and Friends, Who Wants To Buy A Book Of Poems?, and Who Wants To Buy An Expanded Edition Of A Book Of Poems?. I
Translating China’s Modern History: An Interview with Carlos Rojas
Where Explosion Chronicles is distinctive, however, lies in its melding of a variety of different literary modes—ranging from mythic and Biblical language, to historical and political discourses, to Yan’s distinctive blend of parody and pathos.
Githa Hariharan Talks Indian Femme Fatales and Politics
A collection of essays, Almost Home is a wonderland of hybrid techniques. It contains post-colonial insight that goes beyond India and keeps readers coming back for more—more labyrinthine story lines, more social commentary, more pro-woman eroticism.