Literature

In their debut poetry collection I Am the Most Dangerous Thing, Candace Williams collages identity, political and economics matters to investigate the risks and joys of being Black, female and queer in a society where individuals and institutions are too often focused on their destruction. The seriousness of such topics belies the array of poetic

In “Sundae,” the third episode of the recently-released second season of Hulu’s The Bear, chef Sydney Adamu, played by Ayo Edebiri, spends a day-long culinary journey around Chicago as a palate “reset” for the menu she and her business partner, chef Carmine Berzatto, are developing for their restaurant-to-be. The original plan was for Syd and

Questions for My White Therapist Questions for My White Therapist Yes, I’m sure you were wild as a teenager, Linda, much more than my parents, Indians, all about their tradition. Tell me about your private school, Linda. Did you have a uniform? Plaid dress, white shirt, knee-high socks? Did you wear a black skirt? Did

Imagine the worst thing that anyone has ever done to you. Now imagine you have one year to seek justice, revenge, punishment. To make them pay. Of course, you’ll have to confront your torturers. Your nightmares will come back, along with the monsters you’ve keeping at bay. You’ll have to blow up your whole life,

There’s not much ordinary humans love more than ogling rich people. On reality television, on prime time, as they run our governments and corporations, we of humbler socioeconomic status can’t look away from the 1% and the gleam of their golden safety nets. Obviously, there’s vicarious living at play—the question of where we’d go in

I have always loved fairy tales. I love their economy of language and all their archetypes. They were the first stories I remember hearing, and they left their mark on me. I’m sure I’m not alone in this. Consider all that you imagine and remember when you read simple, two-word fairy tale phrases: “dark forest,”

Photo by Daniel Bernard / Unsplash A translator discovers that an author—whom she has translated and admired for so long—was complicit in a past administration’s efforts to silence dissenting writers. What does she find when, following her discovery, she revisits the author’s work? I had set out to write an ode. Oh Jung-hee was the

Photo by h heyerlein / Unsplash Field at Night On a night without you I descend into hellstreetlamps become enemiesSolitary I walk the salt minesmy footprints are saltmeasuring fate saltlike the fires of Sodomand in the middle of the burning streetin the market where the whole world’s for saletiny amulets with your nameseashells with your

Secrets Live Inside My Son’s Ears Joanna Pearson Share article The Oracle by Joanna Pearson You name it, Lola’s found it in someone’s ear. A green Skittle, a watch battery, the tarnished back of a gold earring, a bunched-up bit of mint floss, a Lego head. Insects—yes, of course. Roaches of various sizes, a wasp,

When I was 16, a teacher handed me a copy of The Joy Luck Club because it was a book about “people like me.” At night, in parking lots, guys like me rattled four-bangers, hoping to leave Hangul-like skid marks on blacktops while trying to decipher the art of donuts. Guys like me tried to

The last animal lives on, Ramona Ausubel promises. Loss changes us and leaves its imprint in “a reminder of the moment [we] trampled, gathered, built, destroyed, imagined, loved.” Joy abounds on each page, as does curiosity, playfulness, mischief. This is because the novel is told from the perspective of two teen sisters on an unlikely

Photo by Moussa Kane “A Soul of Small Places,” by Mame Bougouma Diene and Woppa Diallo, made history recently when it emerged as the first jointly conceived story shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writing since the first award was made in 2000 to Leila Aboulela. Diene is a Franco–Senegalese American humanitarian based in Pretoria,

World Literature Today, the University of Oklahoma’s award-winning magazine of international literature and culture, will award the 2023 NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s and Young Adult Literature to Gene Luen Yang, the legendary graphic novelist. On Wednesday, Oct. 25, Yang will receive the $35,000 prize, a silver medallion and a certificate at a ceremony at

I can go back to the morning I learned my father was dead moment by moment, exactly as it occurred, like I’m there again. I’m twelve-years-old. I’m supposed to be at school. I creep up the stairs, and I see my sisters and mother sitting on the couch. They stop whispering the moment they see

During a workshop for one of the stories in my new collection, So Much Heart, my professor said, “And now, from Drew, we have another wacky couple adventure.” I laughed, but on the inside, I suddenly felt self-conscious, thinking my stories were too similar to each other. He was right. There are a lot of

Once at a party, I met an anesthesiologist. I’ve always been horrified and fascinated by anesthesiology, and I was a few wines in, so I cornered him. “Where do we go?” I demanded. “When we go under, where do we go?” He didn’t seem surprised to be accosted with this question. Instead, he moved closer

Tania Malik’s new coming-of-age novel, Hope You Are Satisfied, takes place in 1990s Dubai, during the lead-up to Operation Desert Storm. The story follows Riya, a twenty-something Indian immigrant sending money home to her family while working as a guide for “rinky-dink” tour company Discover Arabia. Riya has a fraught relationship with Dubai: she’s making money

Photo by Lorraine Kinnear Tlotlo Tsamaase’s science fiction “Peeling Time (Deluxe Edition),” which asserts a feminist agency and voice in a patriarchal and oppressive speculative world, was shortlisted for this year’s Caine Prize for African writing. Tsamaase is a Motswana author. Xer debut adult novel, Womb City, comes out in January 2024 from Erewhon Books. Xer