Toby Isaac surveys the evolution of the shoegaze genre in Japan’s music scene and elsewhere in East Asia since the 1990s.
July 08, 2025
Ryan Long reviews Elena Poniatowska’s 2023 book Women of Mexico’s Cultural Renaissance: Intrepid Post-Revolution Artists and Writers, translated by Elizabeth Coonrod Martínez
“Let the world know that we are ghosts indeed—since ghosts cannot be extinguished, nor can they be defeated.”
Nettel delivered the following keynote talk, “Escribir con luz,” in Spanish, alternating with the English read by her translator, Rosalind Harvey.
“Dreaming of a clear sky, unmarred by airplanes. / Of clouds observing their own reflection in the windows’ tears. / An innocent day: no news of dead friends in the mail,” from “Dreaming of a Clear Sky,” by Nasser Rabah (trans. Wiam El-Tamami)
“A moment ago I was screaming under ash and rubble — / A final missile sent me vaulting up your way / and now I’ll inform you of what you’re incapable of / understanding!,” from “To That Final Missile, My Thanks,” by Hend Jouda (trans. Ali Al-Jamri)
“I have fingers, for feeling the shiver my friend described when her lover kissed each finger / Not for wiping away my nephew’s tears as his chest is eaten by the infection in the tent,” from “What I Have,” by Shrouq Mohammed Doghmost (trans. Omnia Amin)
Beach Penguins
Photo by Dav
Misfire
A Russian police officer tracks the surprising release of a prisoner to fight in the war against Ukraine. Recalling the prisoner’s capture, the officer regrets his gun’s misfire. Or was it?
Pizza
A mourner at a funeral reflects on the role of queer elders.
A writer living in Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza faces great loss with no way to say goodbye.
“Gaza Voices” is a collection of stories, poems, and reflections that journey on the moving locomotive of literature and history. These are not mere words on a page; they are the breath of survival, the rhythm of defiance, the heartbeat of a people whose story has been written in the ink of struggle.
Myth lives on in Central Asia, but it has changed shape. Through multimedia projects, audiences become participants in rituals rather than mere participants, and multimedia artists create myth anew.
Traversing the Human/Simian Divide: A Conversation with Prateek Vats
A conversation with Prateek Vats, whose film Eeb Allay Ooo! is part of an emergent oeuvre of multispecies cinema from India.
Punishment Without Crime: A Conversation with Laila Lalami
A conversation between Emily Doyle and Laila Lalami, whose The Dream Hotel, takes a harrowing look at data-driven surveillance.
Doubt and Interpretation in Someone Like Us: A Conversation with Dinaw Mengestu
An interview with Dinaw Mengestu, whose latest novel Someone Like Us, is both “mystery and meditation” that “challenges [the] dominant narrative with a multiplicity of stories.”
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