Reluctantly Reading a Colonial-Era White Male Writer in Mexico
In this literary chain, we have two old white men surveying Mexico, followed by me, a young, Indian woman, whom most strangers in Oaxaca assumed was Mexican.
Weekly Round-Up: Schoenhof’s Foreign Books, Accessibility, and “Books N Bros”
From a Harvard Square bookstore closure to a book club for boys, here's the latest literary news.
Wishes Gone Wrong: A Woman’s “Place” in Fairy Tales
“I wish” is a foolish phrase in fairy tales. It even has its own Aarne-Thompson tale type (750A), aptly called “Foolish Wishes.” It’s easy to see why wishing pops up in stories (and movies and television), but why are wishes so often foolish?
Translating Turkish: An Interview With Agency Owner and Translator Amy Spangler
Amy Spangler is the co-founder of the Turkish literary agency, AnatoliaLit, and a translator of several novels from Turkish to English. Amy's latest translation, Noontime in Yenişehir, was published by Milet Publishing last year.
Beyond War: Jorge Argueta’s Poetic Memoir and Moving Beyond Displacement
As with other non-fictional accounts and ruminations on the Salvadoran civil war, Argueta is not afraid to look the violence and trauma of the war in the eye with Flesh Wounds: A Poetic Memoir.
Space Fiction vs. Space Discovery
Much of Earth is no longer habitable; still, the child reaches for the milk, the branch drinks from the root, and time goes on. You don’t remember when or where you heard it, but every so often you yearn for the reminder that the stars look very different today.
Dismantling Binary: Three Reviews of Genderqueer & Trans Writers’ Chapbooks
This month, I read work from both genderqueer and transgender writers. Inspired by recent tweets, blog posts, and press releases supporting works by these writers, it seemed a good opportunity to spotlight these three chapbooks.
How to Tell a Story in a Quiet Year
There is no one way to tell a story and at the table. Some stories can be told with a map, a deck of cards, and a group of friends trying their best to build a civilization.
Review: PACHINKO by Min Jin Lee
Pachinko is as much a story about money and prejudice as it about colonialism, war and globalization. Lee explores how politics effect the family unit, but more profoundly and perhaps perniciously, individuals’ sense of identity and self-worth that underpin their decisions.
The Readers: David Orr and Careers of Loneliness
I stumbled upon David Orr’s work through his piece “Why Is a Poet’s First Collection So Important?” published in the New York Times at the beginning of February. The Facebook preview of the piece featured pictures of poets Donika Kelly and Max Ritvo below that earnest headline.