Not much has been written about Natasha Trethewey’s Bellocq’s Ophelia or Native Guard, and what has been written is mostly about the racial content of the poems. Quite a bit, however, has been written … [Read more...]
Panic In The Rear-View Mirror: Exploring The Work of Richard Siken and Ann Gale
What we are attracted to can sometimes intimidate or unsettle us. In the case of art and writing, the work we find powerful demands our attention, sometimes even a second encounter. Poets may shock us … [Read more...]
“Art has side effects,” I said.
“Art has side effects,” I said. quitting art finally at death I woke up at the end of a dark hall … a man was staring at me intensely … I felt a shock run through me … it was a guy from the … [Read more...]
On Empty Mirror’s First Twenty Years
On December 30, 1999 I left my last day as a retail store manager, and I never looked back. I'd worked in and managed bookstores and wanted to open my own. I'd been collecting out-of-print, signed, … [Read more...]
Remembering and Jane
That night you heard voices say remember, remember. You did your best not to remember. You spread a meter of cloth and started painting on it. Colors called for other colors and you portrayed the … [Read more...]
Pablo Neruda and the Virtues of Laziness
As history progresses, writings from the past can often take on fresh and unexpected potency; for instance, returning to the ecologically-focused poetry of Pablo Neruda, I found new significance in … [Read more...]
Kristin Garth on her new collection, The Meadow — an interview by Amy Suzanne
Kristin Garth, the author of several superb poetry collections, has built a career out of bringing together elements that seem strange in concert: Libraries and sex; Barbie dollhouses and stripping; … [Read more...]
Carlos Moreno, Translator of Agustín Guambo’s Andean Nuclear Spring, Interviewed by Clara B. Jones
It is not every day that one reads a poetry collection destined to become a collector's item. However, the emerging Ecuadorian poet, Agustín Guambo's, Andean Nuclear Spring, translated by Carlos … [Read more...]
Sitar and Sanskrit: Bill Wolak Interviews Srinivas Reddy
Srinivas Reddy began his musical training as a guitarist and composer. In 1998 he graduated from Brown University with a BA in South Asian Studies and completed his senior project entitled NaadaSat, a … [Read more...]
Readability Versus Creativity: On Susan Howe and Reading Poetry
Contemporary writing demands originality from the artists, and it requires they develop their creativity employing other means and materials in their works. With the written works, it is quite … [Read more...]
Boats for Women: An Interview with Poet Sandra Yannone
I first met Sandra Yannone through a series of emails, as one does in this day and age. She had found my work at a small bookstore in Washington State, and being the supportive literary … [Read more...]
Questioning Our Characters: Performative Identity in Nella Larsen’s Passing and Eugene O’Neill’s The Hairy Ape, by Ben Berman Ghan
The literary body of New York City is a literature of being tightly packed in, of living alongside the inescapable presence of millions of people, in layers of diversity that “encompass race, class, … [Read more...]
Beautiful Raft: An Interview with Tina Barry
Tina Barry is a poetry and fiction writer who mixes and bends genres with a deft touch. Her work can be found in journals and anthologies, on lists of Pushcart nominations, and in two larger … [Read more...]
Freedom in the Physical and Digital City: Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West
Within the text of Mohsin Hamid’s 2017 novel Exit West, migration is always possible, but the text radically overhauls what the journey involved now entails. Cities across the world are no longer … [Read more...]
Mutinous Jester: The Collage Novels of Akbar Del Piombo
Akbar del Piombo — illustrious subterranean luminary, mysterious, pseudonymous author of six darkly comic, wildly satirical collage novels. Akbar del Piombo — preposterous, portentous name, once … [Read more...]
Sait Faik Abasiyanik: The Man Who Faithfully Embraces the World
His face is hung on the top of my bed. Most of the time, when I walk towards the bed, I see the reflection of his face. I burst in anger. Before I go to sleep, I plan on how to get rid of him while … [Read more...]
Faces on the Tip of My Tongue by Emmanuelle Pagano: Nataliya Deleva interviews translators Sophie Lewis and Jennifer Higgins
I met Sophie Lewis and Jennifer Higgins at the launch event of Faces on the Tip of My Tongue (Peirene Press) in the cosy bookstore Ink@84. The conversation unfolded in a relaxed and … [Read more...]
Peacebuilding Through the Arts: An Interview with Mahmood Karimi Hakak
Mahmood Karimi Hakak is a poet, author, and translator. In addition, he is a theater and film artist whose creative and scholarly works are focused on peacebuilding through the arts. He is the founder … [Read more...]
Writing Through Icons: Rosalind Palermo Stevenson and Stephanie Dickinson on Franz Kafka and Jean Seberg
Authors Rosalind Palermo Stevenson and Stephanie Dickinson converse about writing through the personas of Franz Kafka and Jean Seberg. Rosalind Palermo Stevenson: Stephanie, your poetic and … [Read more...]
Fluency in Translation: Avoiding Homogeneity and Ethnocentrism by Alice Banks
Today, fluency is widely considered a necessity of literary translations into English. But what is fluency, and is it a goal to aim for in translating, or something we should avoid? First, we must … [Read more...]
