Literature

When Emmanuel Iduma was growing up in Nigeria, he learned little officially in school about the Biafran War, the civil war that split the country along ethnic lines between 1967 and 1970 when the secessionist Republic of Biafra declared its independence from Nigeria. Nor was the conflict talked about much at home, despite its great

Even with recent superhero blockbusters, Asian Americans in modern media are often presented as traumatized restaurant children with angry parents or as nerds who finally made it into Harvard or Stanford. All these books by Asian American women move away from traditional narratives into stories about unique individual experiences that celebrate and interrogate womanhood, identity,

Scene from the premiere of Omar at the Spoleto Festival in May 2022 / Photo by Leigh Webber / spoletousa.org The opera Omar, which had its North Carolina premiere at Carolina Performing Arts on February 23, 2023, is an intense journey into the life of its eponymous character. With the lead performed by Jamez McCorkle,

Finding Bigfoot Is Easier Than Finding Myself Jacqueline Vogtman Share article BI6FOOT by Jacqueline Vogtman I’ve always lived within view of a church steeple. From my childhood apartment to the living room of the duplex where I received my first kiss from the landlord’s son to the small split-level my parents were able to buy

In her debut novel A History of Burning, Janika Oza gives us the story of a family, one migration journey at a time. Beginning with indentured labor that leads the first member of the family, Pirbhai, from his home in India to East Africa, we follow four generations across several continents and over one hundred

When I first became a single mother, I hid it from everyone, including myself. In my new book, The Leaving Season: A Memoir in Essays, I track the evolution of my relationship with motherhood, starting as a reluctant mother of two in a married household and ultimately ending as a single mother in suburbia (I

Novels about intense romances are compelling because of the window of specificity it offers into something that from the outside might not make sense, but from the dizzying inside becomes intimately relatable. In this reading list, characters are desperate to be filled up and satiated. They look for meaning in their partners, and hope that

“It is not the slumber of reason that engenders monsters, but a vigilant and insomniac rationality”—Deleuze and Guattari The fly’s head is rendered in microscopic detail: its bulging compound eyes set above a fleshy proboscis, cradled between its mouthparts. There is, however, something more unusual about this intimate portrait. A pair of finely bristled, jointed

In the years since the summer of Crazy Rich Asians, Asian American representation in mainstream entertainment has experienced a triumphant swell, producing positive, sympathetic portrayals where there were once only unflattering, stereotype-driven clichés. So long, Long Duk Dong! Hello, Shang-Chi and the Eight Abs!  Now, during Asian American Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month each

All My Multitudes Will Eat You Alive Editors’ Note: The Commuter is moving to Wednesdays! Diverting flash fiction, poetry, and graphic narratives will now be your mid-week pick-me-up. Recommended Reading is moving to Mondays; other than that, everything else will remain the same. we dream of something, here hide my kids. Lady, don't eat me alive.

Karin Lin-Greenberg’s novel You Are Here places a dying mall in upstate New York at its center; its diverse cast of characters swirl in and around and through the mall, wrapped up in their various issues. Rotating between five different voices, this debut is an acute portrait of contemporary suburban America. At first glance, the

Nothing seems to rally theatre fans quite like a play starring, and about, attractive, complicated gay men. In London, The Inheritance, Angels in America, and A Little Life are among the most important cultural events of the last decade. But beneath the erotically charged marketing campaigns featuring solemn, turtleneck-clad or partially nude actors draped over

With so many pressing global issues, writing about the sport of cycling can easily seem trivial or indulgent and, in some regards, the sport of cycling (as distinct from riding a bike as a means of transportation) has done itself no favors in terms of how it’s perceived by the average person.  Among the general

Please Accept This Ghost-Written Apology From My Influencer Client Jade Jones Share article Live Today Always by Jade Jones The wellness influencer has said the n-word again, but this time there’s evidence. She was singing in a crowded East Hollywood bar, a disco ball twirling above her head, turning her bleached hair metallic. Her pale

In the very early drafts of my debut novel, Rootless, Efe took center stage. As a Ghanaian teenager moving to London and sinking under the weight of her family’s hopes, dreams and expectations, it was clear to me that Efe had a story to tell. But it wasn’t until later that I realized Efe’s story

I can’t remember exactly when I discovered The Baby-Sitters Club books. Maybe it was at a Scholastic Book Fair at my school. But I’ll always remember the very first book, Kristy’s Great Idea, with its bright yellow cover and alphabet block letters. I saw four friends hanging out, and I specifically saw an Asian American

When I was much younger, a seer in India foretold that I would never settle down but migrate from place to place as if there were wings on my feet. Or something to that effect. Either way, his prophecy came true and among the many places and countries I lived and worked was Dubai in

My intersectionality is a bullseye in the culture war spotlight. My wife and I conceal our growing worry within the safety of our floor-to-ceiling black-out shades in our bedroom. The surge of state bills targeting access to gender-affirming care have been proposed and mis-sold under the veneer of saving minors from child abuse, experimentation, and