Notes on North Korea
Slowly I registered that those weeping over the death of the General in these sculptures were not Koreans but Africans, Indians, South Americans, people of all nations lamenting Kim… More
A Kentucky of Mothers
God my poor real mom she would have died. // But people say her eyes contain a twinkle they believe in. When they see it they don't need a… More
Five Poems by Liu Xia
I’m a philosopher who thinks / with my body, I’m biological / theater, non-fiction, the body / of spirit whose language is / poetry. I am prosody. More
An Odd Bird
Amal didn’t see when they took her mother away. She closed herself in her mother’s bedroom and smelled the lilac on her mother’s pillow until the sounds of the… More
The Metamorphosis: A New Translation
But Gregor had this foresight. The general manager would have to be detained, reasoned with, convinced and finally won over; after all, Gregor’s future and that of his family… More
Four Poems by Jamaal May
To the mop, galvanized bucket, / sawdust, and push broom—the felled / tree it was cut from, dulled saw, blistered hand, // I offer my apologies. To the road.… More
PEN Ten with Chris Abani
Writers and storytellers as a whole are curators of our common humanity. This is difficult because we curate not just the good, but also the bad, the totality that… More
Elegy with Crop-Duster
a great big nothingness happening / from field to canal / from canal to the fields beyond // power lines criss-crossing the formlessness of grief . . . The… More
Um Girassol da Cor do Seu Cabelo
Sometimes you have to stare a hundred times before an image sticks, before you understand half of what’s hidden there, still living, behind the snapshot. Uncle Pedro used to… More
A Song Called Shudder
Whose passions but your own startled you / yelling up to a window at night / for a love to come to the glass / & down the stairs?… More
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