i am a student from bangladesh. Julia Smith circled the “i” and the “b” with her red-ink ballpoint pen, her purple glasses hanging over her nose. She was sitting in her office marking papers. This particular one had...
Six Poems by Tomaž Šalamun
*Translated by Brian Henry “I saw how the planet fell” I saw how the planet fell. Hands became bumblebees. Apples sharpened my teeth in the first age of gold. Bumblebees became foil. The foil is recorded as A, as...
Three Poems by Stephanie Burt
MY 1993 I lived in a closet. Also I lived in a closet Belonging to my then-best friend’s then-beau Who lived with three other men in a Central Square Walk-up, spacious and sunlit, except For the closet. The closet...
Movie Night
I’ve been keeping something from my husband. I don’t anticipate this changing any time soon, as I’m concerned about the aftermath of confession. I’m not afraid of Aidan. Don’t even go there. Aidan is one of those...
Radiant – An Interview with Nawaaz Ahmed
Nawaaz Ahmed’s Radiant Fugitives, a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction, is the story of a family and a country grappling with changing identity. The novel...
Letter Written on the Anniversary of Roe v. Wade (on the Cusp of Its Reversal), January 23, 2022, to the Young Woman in Ruth Orkin’s An American Girl in Italy
Dear Jinx Allen, I love the pseudonym you chose and wore like a rosary around your neck for protection. But those men on the sidewalk standing around the sewer medallions weren’t under your spell. They fanned out like a...
BANANA FACTORY
Mike checked the gauges, and the buncher hissed like it was satisfied with a cruel new law it had just made up. “What would you do out there anyway?” Mike shouted over the earplugs. He motioned at the window half hidden...
Ukraine Diaries
Hello everyone! My name is Kate, I am from Ukraine, and I want to share my story with you now. I was born in Dnipro – it’s a city located in center-east Ukraine. My grandmothers were born in 1939, and they still...
New Prayer for Peace
May we see the day when war and bloodshed cease, when a great peace will embrace the whole world and right now especially Ukraine; when all who live on earth shall realize we have not come into being to drop bombs on...
Days until
I wake up. Russia will invade soon. I eat my breakfast. Russia will invade soon. I go shopping. Russia will invade soon. I buy buckwheat and chocolate. Russia will invade soon. I take a bus to work. Russia will invade...
Water Talks
VIRUS AND STREAM It was August. The stream ran low but was busy with creatures seeking to cool off. One day a little human stood on the bank, and sneezed, and a virus entered the stream. Stream said, Are you singing...