A History of Trauma
KHALED MATTAWA: What’s ringing in my ear now is the adverb “originally,” and I want to discuss with Hanan and Fadhil the issue of origins. My question for them… More
Postcolonial Passages: Assia Djebar & Lyone Trouillot
"Postcolonial Passages," with Assia Djebar and Lyone Trouillot, appears in PEN America 7: World Voices. This talk was presented, in slightly different form, at the 2005 PEN World Voices… More
Africa and the World: Writers at Home and Away
BREYTEN BREYTENBACH: If one mentions the word “Africa” in a global context, it tends to evoke many responses and perhaps even some obsessions. People tend to project on the… More
Power Struggles: Tsitsi Dangarembga & Achmat Dangor
I think one learns early where one’s place in life is meant to be and one has to decide whether to occupy that place or not. Luckily, my parents… More
Enormous Changes: Ha Jin & Eliot Weinberger
ELIOT WEINBERGER: Your life has had such an amazing trajectory from semi-literate Chinese soldier to distinguished American novelist in such a short amount of time. You joined the army… More
Continental Divides
I’ll begin by reading from my book Facing the Lion: Growing Up Maasai on the African Savanna:During the middle of the night, I woke to this huge sound—like rain,… More
Confronting the Worse: Writing & Catastrophe
I have been a roaming correspondent in Africa, Asia, and Latin America for a long time, have seen many catastrophes, and have often had to write about them. There… More
Something Radical
In the 1970s I traveled to Cuba for an international writers’ conference. After I had read a paper to an appreciative audience, some of the organizers asked me if… More
Narrative Transmutations
Ralph Manheim, the great translator from the German, compared the translator to an actor who speaks as the author would if the author spoke English. A sophisticated and provocative… More
Grace Notes
Before Langston died—long before he died—he prepared the order of his funeral service: no minister, no prayers, not even an MC. The folks invited got there, and a jazz… More
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