On Translating Matieu Caragiale

One of the central texts of Romanian literature, its singular, impossibly ornate Romanian weds so well to its decadent subject that asking the work to embrace English seems a… More

On Translating Zou Jingzhi

‘Nine Buildings’ works through what he [Zou] witnessed and suffered as a child and young man, all the while retaining his customary spare, elegant prose and detached vision. More

Murder is Murder

Murder is typically a desperate crime committed by desperate people who typically don’t think or care about the punishment options they might face if they are caught. More

Prison Diary

How can I communicate what it is like to get arrested when you have one four month old daughter and a second daughter on the way, and then be… More

When the King Saved God

Abraham Lincoln lay dying in a room full of educated and literate men, in the age of the wireless telegraph, and not far from the offices of several newspapers,… More

Alibis: Essays on Elsewhere

I did not even know whether the perfume was my reason for being in there or whether it had become an excuse, the mask behind the mask, because if… More

The Stew of Discontent

Part of the perennial problem with the Texas prison system stems from an inherent comprehension deficit. To use an idea of Alexander Solzhenitsynts, it seems we’ve lost capacity for… More

Illinois Abolishes the Death Penalty

The governor of Maryland, Martin O’Malley, argued in 2007 that the money could be better spent on providing drug treatment or extra police, which actually prevent crime. Such an… More