In the past decade, especially, much has been written about Iranian memoirs and particularly the nonfiction of Iranian females of the diaspora. Within that, many Iranian American fiction writers (such…
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Photo by Tanya TraboulsiIf ever an album has been created to invite the uninitiated to dip a toe into the deep water of contemporary Arab music, it is Alif’s debut release, Aynama-Rtama,…
The Mountain and the WallBy Alisa GanievaDeep Vellum The Vienna MelodyBy Ernst LotharEuropa Editions Alisa Ganieva’s The Mountain and the Wal…
While the US-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have been going on for fourteen years, much of American literature from these conflicts is only now emerging. I appreciate the veterans who’ve woven the s…
Photo by Christian Holzinger/UnsplashThe editors of WLT have each selected three books they’re looking forward to reading this summer. Peruse our selections to get ideas for your own summer r…
Summer is here, and that means one thing: vacation! Whether you’re on a grand exploration or simply relaxing with a staycation, WLT is here to provide a getaway that you can hold in your…
If a written, spoken language is one of the characteristics that distinguishes humans from other animals, what would happen if the ability to speak—to even comprehend the spoken word—suddenly vanished…
A still from Shelley Niro’s Honey Moccasin. We are all painfully aware of the dominant cinematic representations of Native women—the princess, the sexualized maiden, the work drudge (sq**…
Bridging Enigma: Cubans on CubaEdited by Ambrosio FornetThis special issue of South Atlantic Quarterly (vol. 96, no. 1, Winter 1997) presents Cuban reality as seen by sixtee…
Happy Are the HappyYasmina Reza John Cullen, tr. A short advance excerpt from Yasmina Reza’s new novel fairly crackles with electric wit and precise comedic timing. Her award-winning talent…
Graywolf Press, 2014How much of a poet’s biography can be read into (or behind) a book of poems? In the case of Fanny Howe’s latest collection, Second Childhood, the temptation to project a l…
Iceland enjoys a powerful literary tradition, underpinned by the old Icelandic sagas and Eddaic poems and also by the Icelanders’ struggle for emotional and spiritual survival during centuries of pove…
Still writing “on this earthquake fault” in San Francisco, feminist Beat poet Diane di Prima continues to create her revolutionary verse. At eighty, aged out of the thirty-under-thirty and forty-under…
A Ukrainian writer looks outside the country for three books that help illuminate what threatens modern Ukraine. Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North KoreaBarbara Demick …
It’s the holiday season once again, and whether you’re shopping for Diwali, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or Christmas, WLT has a new book for every reader on your list. For the BeatnikDia…
The spectacular sounds and exoticism of Mongolian music often attract audiences outside the Mongolian cultural area—the rough, unreal human voice of khöömii (throat singing), the wide range a…
With a dose of wit and self-deprecation, Aaliya is a narrator who doesn’t fail to entertain. Rabih Alameddine invites the reader into Aaliya’s late-life crisis where—after a few glasses of red wine—sh…
The following books offer insights into the hot, gritty quotidian of a desert nation and the machinations of an authoritarian power structure as integral to Egypt’s character as the Nile.The…
From our vantage point here on the Oklahoma plains, we’re constantly reminded that we live in “Native America” (every time we look at the license plate of a car in front of us), but few probably reali…
Digital media editor Jen Rickard Blair’s summer reading picks range from multiethnic mystery to dystopian sci-fi. We suspect she’ll read these in a lawn chair or on the c…
Cat people: we aren’t known for much other than spinsterhood, paranoia, emotional and social disconnection. Our one spokesperson who’s more than quaint at best is Catwoman. But lately there’s been…
The WatchtowerElizabeth HarrowerThe Watchtower, first published in 1966, is a psychological novel of class and power set in Sydney in the 1940s. Laura, the elder sister, had ambitions to be a…-
[Borges’s] Argentinians act out Parisian dramas, his Central European Jews are wise in the ways of the Amazon, his Babylonians are fluent in the paradigms of Babel.– Anthony Kerrigan…
Photos by Laura HernandezClimbing up the steep and narrow staircase to the hidden apartment is when it hits me: Anne Frank lived here; this is where she spent two years, secluded, waiting for…
Wilfred Price has established himself as a respectable, reliable member of his small and tightly woven rural community of Narberth, Wales. He performs his duties impeccably as the town’s undertaker, c…