Photos: Sarah Kamaya
IN THE WAKE of the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd, America woke up to find itself in the midst of a national reckoning over race. Cal…
In Every Issue
AS WITH ANY CITY, there is no one text that conveys the singularity of San Juan, Puerto Rico’s, eighteen distinct barrios. But there are books that capture the spirit of it—the metro…
Photo: Andre Benz / Unsplash IN REAL LIFE, TOSHIKO HIRATA (b. 1955) is a uniquely kind, warm, and outgoing person, famous for her sense of humor as one of Japan’s best-known living a…
The Theatre of Catania. Photo by askii / Flickr LAST OCTOBER, I chose to use Catania as a base for exploring the towns of southeastern Sicily I had yet to discover. What I didn’t exp…
Crowds gather almost every evening at The Book Lounge for regular book launches. Picture here: the launch of Henry Trotter's book Cape Town: A Place Between by Catalyst Press. NOD A…
Lauren CampTook House Tupelo PressI will speak of this wind . . . of the seams of desire. —Lauren Camp, “Remember It Was” The Greek mythological term omophagia refer…
Bonnie Huie’s translations include Qiu Miaojin’s Notes of a Crocodile, which won the Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize and was longlisted for the PEN Translation Prize. She is also th…
Illustration by Hayrullah Yorgancı / United Nations Covid-19 Response DURING A CRISIS, books provide solace and hope, offering comfort in the literary world. Even as we were held apa…
We asked several writers and our readers to tell us about a book that’s too heavy for beach reading, but they’re taking it anyway—if they’re able to get to a beach. Whether you (or they) are able…
Photo: Nick Fewings / Unsplash ONE MORNING, WHILE READING his newspaper, the narrator of Sadaa al-Daas’s “Zoo Syndrome” looks up to find his wife changed into a prancing doe. His ne…
Photo: Porto, Portugal by Daniel Seßler GRIPPING THE STEEP BANKS of the Douro like a pile of haphazardly shoveled rocks, the city of Porto feels only one pebble’s slip away from tumb…
Mukōjima-Hyakkaen Garden. Photo: Tyler McElroy NEAR THE HEART of old Tokyo, surrounded by the largest metro area in the world, the Mukōjima-Hyakkaen Garden provides a respite from the bustle of the c…
Nonfiction graphic narratives offer readers a powerful window into the lived experiences of the artists and writers who create them. In the hands of the right creator, the synergy of visual and verbal…
Antonia Lloyd-Jones has translated works by many of Poland’s leading contemporary novelists, including Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk, Jacek Dehnel, Mariusz Szczygieł, and Artur Domosławski. S…
Photo: Around the World in 80 Books ONE OF LIFE’S GREAT pleasures is sharing a favorite book with a community of bright, engaging friends, wine in hand and the fireplace crackling. I…
Photo: Yuris Alhumaydy / Unsplash ELIZABETH JOY SERRANO-QUIJANO’S stories are set in Matanao, Davao del Sur, a town in southeastern Philippines. She is part Blaan, an indigenous grou…
I'VE ALWAYS BEEN drawn to narratives of cities, both as a reader and as a writer. In the early stages of my writing life, I loved reading depictions of Paris by writers such as Stein,…
Photo: Leipzig by Herr Bohn / Unsplash IN ANY CITY, the best way to get a feel for the city is to walk around, wandering the cityscape. Leipzig, Germany, is no exception. Leipzig’s d…
Photo: Tyler McElroy TORONTO IS ONE of the largest and most diverse cities in North America, a vibrant urban center whose culture constantly fluctuates alongside the many unique peop…
Shimon AdafAviva-No Trans. Yael Segalovitz Alice James Booksthus I shall not let slip between my hands / a sister into time. – Shimon Adaf I must confess: Shimon Adaf’s Aviv…
In this new feature, Veronica Esposito interviews emerging translators who are changing the way we read world literature and beginning to reshape the translation field. While opening bookstores, lea…
Photo: Malte Wingen / Unsplash YOU FIND YOURSELF looking for a new book to read. You pick up a novel with a captivating cover, nice. After the first few chapters the protagonist seem…
ALTHOUGH I'VE SPENT most of my life in large cities, I’ve long been attracted to mystery novels set in more remote areas. Something about the isolated atmospheres of small towns—somet…
Photo: Hayley Mechelle / Flickr WHEN THE NARRATOR of Bibiana Camacho’s “The Other Woman” compares the face reflected in her mirror with the face on her work ID, she muses, “Yes, we l…
Photo: Museum aan de Stroom. Fred Romero / Flickr THE FIRST CITY most people think about when they hear of Belgium is Brussels. This I sincerely regret—not that I want to badmouth my…