On Tuesday, May 12, join U.S. Poet Laureate Arthur Sze, Noh Anothai, Wendy Call, Kola Tubosun, and Daniel Simon for a Zoom conversation about the urgency of literary translation.
March 26, 2026
March 24, 2026
Mbizo Chirasha interviews Zimbabwean cultural activist, writer, and performance poet Cynthia Marangwanda.
News & Events
“It isn’t easy to be stationary, and mute, even though / my corner of the park is comfortable—a corner splotched / with the moving shadows of the years,” from “Park Bench,” by Radhika Oberoi
“i’m winnie the pooh / with brown hair / winnie the pooh who spits up blood / on his tractor in the park,” from “winnie the pooh,” by Jean-Christophe Réhel (trans. by Neil Smith)
“The streets are growing empty / of human trappings, life’s color. / One after another, we pull back. / Nobody is calling out to me, / nobody is coming down the street,” from “I Am My Own ID,” by Mariam Meetra (trans. by Sabrina Nouri & Samantha Cosentino)
On December 11, 2025, Arthur Sze delivered his inaugural reading as the twenty-fifth Poet Laureate of the United States. The following is an excerpt from Sze’s latest book, Transient Worlds: On Translating Poetry, forthcoming in April 2026 from Copper Canyon.
Rematriation, a concept advanced by Lee Maracle (1950–2021), among other Indigenous women, is “the process of restoring lands and cultures, done with deep reverence to honor not only the past and present but also the future, and rooted in Indigenous law” (IndigiNews). Here, the authors relate their own rematriation work in Oklahoma, Iraq, and beyond.
Music can reach parts of the soul that have never been touched, leading to new revelations. Here, a classical musician traces the influence of Radiohead and other bands on his own development and how music can be one path to a new place.
Translator Michelle Mirabella interviews Catalina Infante Beovic.
A mother, her daughters, and the age-old walls between them play out in this short story from Chile.
For a roundtable conversation devoted to Cherie Dimaline’s work that ended with the author gifting pieces of jewelry to the panelists, Kimberly Wieser-Weryackwe tied together themes of storytelling, Indigenous futurisms, and going home in Dimaline’s writing. The following is an adapted version of her talk.
The Mandal Family and Their Belongings
As the Bosnian War comes knocking on their doorstep, the Mandal family must flee their home. They’re allowed to bring only two suitcases with them. How will they fit their whole life into a combined weight of thirty kilos?
The Suitcase
The suitcase smells, it’s unusable, but how can a daughter let go of her father’s suitcase, the very case he may have taken back to India on his first trip back after immigrating to the US?
The Red Ribbon
A request for a red ribbon unlocks a long-held family secret.
Both Freed and Constrained by Words: 9 Questions for Rie Qudan
An interview with Rie Qudan, whose novel, Sympathy Tower Tokyo, won the Akutagawa Prize, Japan’s most prestigious literary award.
“I Feel a Sacred Fire Inside Me”: A Conversation with Palestinian Writer and Filmmaker Liana Badr
An interview with Liana Badr, renowned Palestinian writer, filmmaker, director, novelist, and poet. She is the author of one novella, three collections of short stories, six children’s books, a book of interviews, a book of poetry, and four novels, including A Compass for the Sunflower, A Balcony over the Fakihani, and The Eye of the Mirror. She has also written and directed seven films.
“Look for What Feels Singular”: 5 Questions for Thomas Schlesser
An mini-interview with Thomas Schlesser, whose book Mona's Eyes, follows a ten-year-old girl whose grandfather begins taking her on outings to museums in Paris when she begins to experience temporary loss of sight.