David Bradley, PhD (b. 1954, White Earth Ojibwe), Treaty Dollar (ca. 1998)/ Courtesy of the artist
Native dream songs are forever in the clouds, and once more the empire wars are und…
Essays
“Books,” writes Robert Bringhurst, “are things that humans make, or try to make, as persistently as birds make nests, and we do it for similar reasons.” In the following essay, the author mulls the fu…
Guadalupe Nettel, Samanta Schweblin, Mónica Ojeda, and other Latin American women writers are responding to themes that particularly speak to a younger, female audience—bodily autonomy, redefiniti…
Citizen-activist Evgenia Isayeva doused herself with red paint as part of the “Heart Bleeds” action near the Duma Tower, St. Petersburg, Russia, March 27, 2022. Her banner reads: “My heart bleeds. /…
Bridget Pitt, author of the novel Eye Brother Horn, reflects on how South Africa’s colonial history, and the entanglement of nature conservation with social inequality and violence, mea…
Photo by Gavyn Redd / Shevaun Williams Photography This essay is a stroll through the oeuvre of the 2022 Neustadt Prize winner, Boubacar Boris Diop. It offers a foray into his formative y…
Still from Sembène’s Borom Sarret (Cart Driver) (1963) | Courtesy of IMDB.com Boubacar Boris Diop’s novel Doomi Golo is a rich puzzle of personal and historical narrativ…
Photo by Gavyn Redd Diop delivered the following keynote talk to a packed audience at the University of Oklahoma during the 2022 Neustadt Lit Fest (October 24–26, 2022), which was also li…
Festival Presenters Anna Badkhen and Marame Gueye / Photo by Gavyn Redd FOR THE FIRST time since the start of the pandemic, World Literature Today resumed hosti…
Photo by Gavyn Redd Jennifer Croft, who nominated Diop for the 2022 Neustadt Prize, delivered the following encomium at the ceremony during which he received the award at the University o…
The Democracy Monument in Bangkok / Wikipedia Chiranan Pitpreecha’s poetry gave voice to Thailand’s mass pro-democracy movement of the early 1970s. After a violent government crackdo…
Photo: Jorge Prior Mexican writer Mónica Lavín recalls the tastes and places of her Mexico City neighborhood, tracing its changes through its food. When we moved to the house on Pr…
One of the most influential schools of twentieth-century art and design was known as The Bauhaus. Operating in Germany between 1919 and 1933 and bustling with experimentation in areas linking fine art…
Holmsland Klit on the west coast of Jutland, by Hvide Sande, Denmark When a landscape is in motion, people and buildings are compelled to follow. This is a basic rule when living with the…
Illustration by Inga-Wiktoria Påve / Courtesy of White Pine Press Niillas Holmberg’s collection Juolgevuođđu, co-translated by Jennifer Kwon Dobbs and Johanna Domokos and forthco…
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 pl…
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 “pro…
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 wo…
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, an…
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 s…
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…
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 L…
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,…
