Translated from Armenian by Peter Balakian and Aram Arkun (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2018) In the late eighties, I was teaching at the Uskudar Girls School in Istanbul, and I went on a trip with my partner at … Continued
Translated from Dutch by Liz Waters (New York, NY: World Editions, 2018) In March 2003, thousands of protestors swelled into Tahrir Square, enraged over America’s incursion into Iraq. I was looking out the window of my office at the American … Continued
(Lost Places: On Losing and Finding Home. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2018) Samuel Morse’s invention of the telegraph revolutionized communication in 1844. Yet we are now living in a world where messages are travelling faster than the click of … Continued
Translated from the Italian by Jamie Richards (New York, NY: New Vessel Press, 2017) Adua, by Igiaba Scego, translated by Jamie Richards, is a lyrical novel that describes the cultural alienation of Somalis living in Italy, both in the present … Continued
Translated from the Korean by Deborah Smith (Rochester, NY: Open Letter Books, 2016) Reading Bae Suah’s novel, A Greater Music, is much like the experience of listening to the concertos of Beethoven. I listened to Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2, … Continued
(New York, NY: Other Press, 2015) After regaling us with entertaining anecdotes about his life as a screen writer in Hollywood, the late Gill Dennis threw out a curve ball: “What was your greatest moment of shame?” He was teaching … Continued
(New York, NY: Catapult, 2016) Margaret the First was not a queen, like Katherine of Aragon or Ann Boleyn. But she could be considered an early queen in the history of women’s literature: Margaret Lucas Cavendish, a 17th century Duchess, … Continued
Translated from the Arabic by Thoraya El-Rayyes (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2015) Hisham Bustani’s third collection of fiction, The Perception of Meaning, translated by Thoraya El-Rayyes, is like a house of mirrors at a carnival, reflecting the distortion, absurdity, and … Continued