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Happy Veterans Day

November 11, 2021 - By Doug Anderson

(Children and teachers in the Village of Dong Loc, Vietnam, where there are memorials to children and road workers killed by American bombing. Photo by Doug Anderson.)
 

Happy Veterans Day, brothers and sisters, especially those of wars that turned out to be unjustified and incompetently led.

I speak from the Vietnam generation of vets. We were young and dumb and following our parents—inhabitants of the “Greatest Generation.” It was in our cells, and the pull to serve overpowered whatever reflection we might have been capable of at that time. Some refused to serve, some went to Canada. I also consider them brothers, veterans not only of a war but of a historical moment we should have...

10 Questions for Natasha Lvovich

November 9, 2021 - By Edward Clifford

First, in complete silence, the yellow wall in my room cracks, spreading its spiderweb threads as quickly and as slowly as is possible only in a dream. Chills are crawling down my spine; hot flashes throb into my head. This is panic, fear, terror—a preverbal, pre-Russian sensation that as yet has no name.
—from "Phone Home," Volume 62, Issue 3 (Fall 2021)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
This is a complicated question because in my several lives—Russian, French, and American, with some overlapping—there have been different chronologies. I wrote my first book in Russian at the age of seven; it was called Papa, Mama, Eight Children, and a Truck, and it doesn’t matter that this book...

On Running. . .

November 5, 2021 - By Floyd Cheung

(The African American Cultural Center in Brunswick, Georgia. Photo by Bubba73)

Editor’s Note: With this exploration of the tension between privilege and vulnerability, we renew our collaboration with the Five College Asian/Pacific/American Studies Program. In September 2020, a panel of local scholars responded to the current violence and racism in the US by connecting APA histories and struggles with those of other communities. Only by building alliances can such violence be stopped.

On Running Through an Unfamiliar Neighborhood the Day After Ahmaud Arbery’s...

10 Questions with Kelly R. Samuels

November 4, 2021 - By Emily Wojcik

I slept the sleep of the dead
once. Once, could not be woken
in time to do what it wasI had to do.
Did not hear the ring of. Did not hear
the rap of. Was called. Was shaken. Rose
groggy, stumblingdown the hall, my mother saying, Look
at who has finally graced us with her presence. ...

—from "Only Somewhat Sleeping," from Volume 62, Issue 2 (Summer 2021)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote....

10 Questions for Kevin Prufer

November 2, 2021 - By Edward Clifford

Severalancient skulls unearthed in Ethiopia
with butchery marks around the eye sockets and occipital bones

It's called "pot polishing"—

A sign that bones have been boiled for reasons of cookery—
—from "Cannibalism," Volume 62, Issue 3 (Fall 2021)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
When I was about eight years old, I wrote a long story about a penguin who, one sunny day, wakes to find that his iceberg has floated far out to sea and is quickly melting. He has all sorts of adventures—with pirates, tourists, another lost penguin—trying always to get back to the South Pole. But I don’t think that’s what you mean by a “first” piece. My first serious...