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A History of Anti-Asian Violence in the United States

April 4, 2021 - By Beth Lew-Williams

The Inaugural Kay Johnson Lecture in Asian American Studies at Hampshire College

"The Chinese Must Go: A History of Anti-Asian Violence in the United States”

Beth Lew-Williams, Associate Professor of History, Princeton University

Wednesday 7 April 2021, 4:30 pm

The American West erupted in anti-Chinese violence in 1885  Following the massacre of Chinese miners in Wyoming Territory, more than 165 communities throughout California and the Pacific Northwest harassed, assaulted, and expelled thousands of Chinese migrants. Beth Lew-Williams will discuss this unprecedented outbreak, place it within the broader history of anti-Asian violence, and reflect on the implications for the present day. As we confront a new surge of...

10 Questions for Daniel Barnum

April 2, 2021 - By Edward Clifford

in 1980, my father saw my mother’s photo in a magazine, then
     left connecticut.

road-tripped to meet her where she lived in arizona. who would
     stay in connecticut?
—from “Qui Transtulit Sustinet,” Volume 62, Issue 2 (Spring 2021)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
How far back are we going? In first grade, I wrote and illustrated a story about my cats, Rosie and Marmalade, going on a road trip to visit my extended family in the southwest. One night, they went out camping out in the desert, then woke up the next morning and realized that, exhausted and surrounded by the spare landscape’s utter darkness, they’d set up their tent at...

In Memoriam: Adam Zagajewski

March 27, 2021 - By Piotr Florczyk

(Photo: Adam Zagajewski, New York Times, 03/25/2021, Alamy)

Adam Zagajewski, the great Polish poet and essayist, who died on March 21, wasn’t aloof, as some tried to paint him, especially in Poland, where he had many detractors in the poetry world; he was kind and generous with his time and advice. Was he as erudite as he appears in photographs? Or as his writings, which span the full gamut of so-called high culture, suggest? Absolutely. However, he was also genuinely curious about other people and their pursuits. Having cut his teeth as a writer and intellectual in Communist Poland, he fought falsehoods, especially of the political sort, with truth until the very end,...

Intersectional Voices for a New Generation: How A New Young Adult Anthology in Verse Continues a Conversation Started Decades Ago

March 26, 2021 - By Shanta Lee Gander

"The very act of writing then, conjuring/coming to ‘see’, what has yet to be recorded in history is to bring into consciousness what only the body knows to be true. The body—that site which houses the intuitive, the unspoken, the viscera of our being—this is the revolutionary promise of 'theory in the flesh…' (xxiv)"—Cherríe Moraga, co-editor of This Bridge Called My Back

You Don't Have to Be Everything: Poems for Girls Becoming Themselves Edited by Diana Whitney (Workman, 2021)

I was three years old when the voices of women of color came together and created living history with the anthology, This...

Bird Girl (Working Title Vol 6.1)

March 25, 2021 - By Avital Balwit

The Massachusetts Review presents the newest e-book in our Working Titles series: Bird Girl by Avital Balwit. Available now!

"It was August, and the days came damp and hot. The morning air shone so that you knew the afternoon would swelter. Sasha had AC, but kept her windows open anyways to let in the mild nights. It was 8 a.m. and time to close them. A faint buzz caught her attention, “11:48 p.m., Selby Street and 10th, 547XD1IY,” less than a mile away. She clicked accept and checked the map again. It looked like she’d be off-roading. She found her hiking boots in the closet and set out.

The job worked with her hours. She could do it early in the morning, or she could do it in the middle of the night. The light made...