Stars are shredding machines and From my mother’s sleep
I talk to who I want. Guten Tag Herr Gutenberg. The invention of movable type was inspired by his close observation of clouds, how when you look away they rearrange themselves in… More
The Flood Notebooks
This is another summer of the VanishingA summer of the country turning from more loss. Switch off the TV, power down the computer, stop the conversation.Everyone is tired of… More
Seven Small Apocalypses
Night and DayI drive by a motel when I need anything from the other side of town. Town’s built like an hourglass, and there’s a big lit sun shining… More
Revolution et literature
I spotted Professor Youssef sitting at his usual table. That lazy, pretentious, Algerian pseudo-French intellectual always dresses up in gabardine suits with the same thin tie that had its… More
Rosie’s Bridegroom
The wedding guests look upon the cracked, pink lips of Rosie’s bridegroom. They look at Rosie’s own lips, which owe their reddish pinkness to artifice, they think, and not… More
PEN Remembers Dr. John Hope Franklin
Dr. John Hope Franklin, eminent historian and vanguard of the Civil Rights Movement, passed away March 25th, 2009 at the age of 94.Dr. Franklin graduated with a doctorate in… More
Kwame Anthony Appiah: 2009 Inaugural Remarks
March 17, 2009 | PEN American Center | NYCKwame Anthony AppiahI am very honored to have been elected to the Presidency of the PEN American Center. PEN has a… More
On Translating Diary of a Wave Outside the Sea
Diary of a Wave Outside the Sea is separated into two parts: an older section, originally written and published in Iraq in 1995, and a newer section, written in… More
On Translating The Naked Eye
The Naked Eye by Yoko Tawada tells the story of a character trapped between cultures and languages. The unnamed narrator, a girl from Vietnam, travels to East Berlin for… More
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