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Stiltsville
When I stepped out of the cab, I saw Marse standing in the well of her little fishing boat, wearing denim knee shorts and a yellow sleeveless blouse, her… More
Celebrate Banned Books Week: September 24-October 1
It’s time again for Banned Books Week, that annual celebration of one’s freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. Held during the last week of September,… More
Oranges and Snow
My days will be a row of milk pails / and buckets filled with midnight liquids / darker and thicker than melted pitch, / so that in the end… More
Turkish PEN’s Ragip Zarakolu Sends Open Letter from Prison
Earlier this week, PEN reported that publisher, writer, rights advocate, and leading Turkish PEN Member Ragip Zarakolu was arrested in a roundup of writers and scholars in Turkey last… More
Turkish PEN’s Ragip Zarakolu Sends Open Letter from Prison
[caption id="attachment_5666" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Ragip Zarakolu in Oslo"][/caption] Earlier this week, PEN reported that publisher, writer, rights advocate, and leading Turkish PEN Member Ragip Zarakolu was arrested in a roundup… More
Free Expression in RSA: A Conversation with South African PEN’s Margie Orford
South Africa ended a civil war not through a fight to the death, but rather by saying we’ll just stop fighting and have a braii (barbecue) together and be… More
The Test (Good Simon Korach)
I’ll start with the tongue. And a box cutter. Which I’ll use to hack that flap of flesh out of her mouth so the world is spared her lies.… More
Renovating Tradition
To me, Kezilahabi’s poems communicate that any understanding achieved has meaning exactly because it is temporary, idiosyncratic, and subject to change. More
Ragip Zarakolu Releases Public Letter from Prison
Writer, academic and publisher Ragip Zarakolu, who has been formally charged with “membership of an illegal organization," released an open letter from prison on November 2, 2011, through his… More
Cultures of War: Pearl Harbor / Hiroshima / 9-11 / Iraq
Immediately, “infamy” became American code for “Pearl Harbor,” as well as code for Japanese treachery and deceitfulness—a stab in the back that cried out for retaliation and would never… More
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