Politics
Examining the politics of representation.
The writer discusses growing up in the Borscht Belt, the prevalence of literary humor, and the power of feminist punch lines.
We are street people. Nomadic by nature. We are the grandchildren of poor, adventurous strangers. Our living radicalizes their legacy.
Two poets and a photographer discuss the presence of absence, the power of the number three, and art as documentation and disruption.
Broken, the madrilenial butterfly finally suckles / from the dime blood at the ankle of the tube sock.
Putting diverse cultural and aesthetic traditions in dialogue, Schaal’s new performance work, Jack &, is a comedy of errors based on prison reentry programs and debutante balls.
A new collection of criticism and reportage considers Trump, Bellow, and the pleasures of close reading.
Two poets reflect on colonialism, iconoclastic writers, and the political dimensions of translating literature under authoritarianism.
The poet on prison writing, collective art-making, Bay-area resistance, and being read in a thousand years.
Featuring selections by Jaime Manrique, David Grubbs, Molly Surno, Lynn Melnick, Lucio Pozzi, and more.
“My work simply reflects the world, which seems to have been created by an absolute moron.”
Reminding us of what should never have been forgotten
The French writer Édouard Louis recorded his days in New York, around the time of the American release of his novel The End of Eddy. The following entries originally appeared in French in the June 6, 2017, edition of Les Inrockuptibles.
You might be an heir to the throne,
but I’ve abolished the monarchy
before the sun comes out
and washes away the DayGlo.
Ives discusses chasing false lures, testing the limits of relationships, and what’s been cut from her novel Impossible Views of the World.
Disastrous screenings, Nam June Paik’s meeting with Bill Clinton, and time spent as a dog.
“Literature is a way of establishing the humanness of others. It’s interested in the relationships between people, between authenticity and truth. That in itself has to make us better disposed to each other.”
After playing video poker and walking the boardwalk all night, we stopped by Trump Taj Mahal on our way out of town to gawk at the business our president ran into the ground.
“I admire my characters for their ability to do something that I would find far too embarrassing to do myself. Fiction can get us to experience what we might do if we were braver. Or dumber.”
