Ukrainian flag on Kyiv’s Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) / Photo by SerenityRose / Flickr
In November 2013 Ukrainian citizens took to the streets when their government suspended plans to s…
Essays
Bucha, Kyiv region, Ukraine – May 1, 2022: Russia's war in Ukraine Al Panteliat When the first explosions begin in the morning, people in Kharkiv do not yet know how to “properly” ac…
Destruction across Ukraine in the wake of Russia’s invasion Al Panteliat is a poet from Kharkiv—he and I have been in touch for over a decade, exchanging notes, translating poems. Now, one word that…
Evgeny Golubovsky Today, April 3, a new chapter of this war began in Odesa. For nearly forty days we have been telling the world that all is calm in Odesa. We convinced others, and o…
Steel anti-tank obstacles on the road near Mariupol, Ukraine For the first two months of war, I can’t locate my uncle in Odesa. Uncle Valerii, who is over eighty, and usually very active on social me…
Photo by SarahBelle Selig A frequent traveler currently winding her way through Central America celebrates the free book swaps along the way, and all the hope and longing nestled amongst their sh…
Named after Hollywood and Bollywood, Nollywood—Nigeria’s motion-picture industry—began on VHS tapes, literally gained altitude as in-flight offerings in the 1990s, and now has films streaming on…
In the following essay, the author explores the apathy she finds even within herself in the face of a gradually expanding drought in Chile, the country most affected by the water crisis in Latin…
Shipping containers seen over a rainwater pond and beyond the fence that surrounds Shoreham Yards / Photo by Magali Pijpers Can healthy fruits and vegetables grow on polluted soil? “The Long Nigh…
André Leon Talley, E@L of Vogue backstage at Tuleh | Courtesy of Glam Media / Flickr. A poet traces fashion editor André Leon Talley’s influence on her work and life. On January 19, 2022, An…
Todd Anderson, I-165 Deep Field Basecamp, Allan Hills, Transantarctic Mountains, Antarctica. Detail shot, 15 in. x 35 in., 10 runs, 18 colors, reductive woodcut with watercolor and pencil In 2019…
Lauren Alwan’s copy of Pictures, by David Hockney, edited by Nikos Stangos (Harry N. Abrams, 1979) A writer recalls how David Hockney inspired her, first as an art student and later as a writer,…
The following essay is a memorial tribute to Olga Krause’s friend and fellow LGBT leader Sergey Shcherbakov, who died under suspicious circumstances in 1999. The text situates their friendship wi…
Dereje Demissie (Ethiopia), Psychscape (2009) There are many things I wish to tell you about the state of African literature today, but none would be able to be contained in a single issue,…
“Doctor and the Doll” by PMillera4 is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Patient Message for Dr. Epstein: After an hour of pushing buttons and cursing at my keyboard, I figured out how to set up your pat…
The zhetygen is a stringed instrument of the peopoles of Central Asia and Kazakhstan Young Kazakh musicians are diversifying Kazakh music and putting an end to the previous generation’s…
DUE TO UNCERTAINTIES surrounding the Covid-19 delta variant, World Literature Today once again hosted the 2021 Neustadt Festival (October 25–27) as a 100 percent online gath…
Painting was called “silent poetry.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson Eager to emerge from isolation and encounter art and (safely) others, a writer in Florida takes in Van Gogh Alive at th…
China’s fifty-five officially recognized “minority peoples” make up less than 9 percent of the People’s Republic of China. Still, they number more than 130 million, and their literature deserves…
Photo by Christopher Assaf Monica Brown served on the jury that chose the 2021 NSK Prize winner and successfully championed Cynthia Leitich Smith as her nominee. On the final day of the 2021 Neus…
Photo by Christopher T. Assaf Let’s all take a moment to breathe in some glittering fairy dust and share a wonderful, lovely thought. Let’s contemplate the magic and power of stories and the life-cha…
Photo by Fowzia Karimi An Afghan American writer recalls her own departure from Afghanistan in 1980 and the weariness she observed on a 2015 visit back to Kabul. Now, having watched events unfold…
Poet Kali Regenvanu at the market in Port Vila Vanuatu’s fortieth independence anniversary in 2020 sparked an unprecedented literary wave of new writing. Harnessing the colonizers’ languages, as…
Life and politics are the same on an empty plate, in a body plagued by a pandemic. But in Cuba, people are rising up and challenging the regime. Here, Cuban American poet Carlos Pintado traces th…
Photo by Se Osomajtli Tsawi For Indigenous writers like Zoque poet and activist Mikeas Sánchez, language serves as a unifying element in the struggle to defend lands and life. This essay’s title…
