The Photography of David Murphy
These photos show northern Afghanistan, especially the area around Mazar-e-Sharif, from the years 2008–2010 when American and ISAF troops were in force and the war in Afghanistan was ongoing. Mazar is an ancient city,...
Blackout
At sundown, we would go for walks along the road that went from the airmen’s quarters toward Central School. It was a quiet road back then, when we lived there for a brief while in 1971. The streetlights beside the road...
Hidden Rooms
All things which areoutside lovecome to me now—This view and the old woman’s understandingof it, asking to liveone more year, one more yearone more generation, two generations, three,one more eternity. —Leah Goldberg, “In...
Theft of Fire
Bobby Ulili, Digital Sketch, 11.7” x 16.5” Through the window of the inn, Mathew could see the shadow of Rheinsberg Palace over the lake and a purple ribbon of sky dusted with stars. He drank a weissbier from a tall glass...
The Pforzheim Quartet
Editor’s Note: We're so excited and honored to be publishing this excerpt from Alexandria Peary's long poem, "The Pforzheim Quartet," which engages with history and memory through the use of extraordinary language, image, and sound. When we on the...
What the Black Sea Throws on the Shore
Identified by Unique Manicure Author’s Note: this poem was written in response to this image—created by Oana Maria Cajal—which is both about the war in Ukraine and part of a collaboration project titled "Shattered." Neptune Beach, 315 miles...
Peabody museum closed for renovations, March of 2020
We met under the octopus, tentacles suspended over us,gathering us in. I will return here over and overafter the war has separated us, the basementhas separated us, the dead dog in the streethas separated us. I will return here, I will turn my face...
At the End of the World
Clocks will still mark time. Only speechesby the president under siege will sound true. Bombedcities that refuse to fall will be decimated. Spring will stallas if waiting for war to end before it can arrive.Monuments will stand, protected by...
How We Spent the Fifties
Translator’s Note: “How We Spent the Fifties” is a satirical short story from a collection of humorous stories written by Miloslav Šimek and Jiří Grossmann that tells the tale of the turmoil and absurdity of a family that’s...
My Grandfather’s Fate
Sorrow, Uuganbayar Kh, uugan.art/ Uuganbayar Kh was born in 1979 in Mongolia. He earned his degrees in art from College of Fine Arts, Ulaanbaatar, in 1996, and Mongolian State University of Culture and Arts in 1998. He aims...
Outdoor Encampments
A sign for a restaurant at the Del Rio port of entry. Photo: Jenn Budd. Few Americans understand the policies that make up the immigration deterrence operations of the US Border Patrol. These mandates are often confusing and can change drastically from one administration to the next, or...
Congressional Hearings Are a Pretext for Assault on Higher Education
From left: Harvard president Claudine Gay; Penn's Liz Magill; Pamela Nadell, a professor of history and Jewishstudies at American University; and Sally Kornbluth, president of MIT. Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images....
Duck & Cover: America’s First Lockdown Drills
When danger threatened him, he never got hurt. He knew just what to do.—Bert the Turtle In 1950, Mayor William O’Dwyer announced a plan to protect New York City school children, not from active shooters, but from the atomic bomb. The plan—which continued for a decade—included the use of...
Deterrence Policies of the US Border Patrol
November, 1995 | 288th graduation Few Americans understand the policies that make up the immigration deterrence operations of the US Border Patrol. These mandates are often confusing and can change drastically from one administration to the next, or even within a single legislative term....
Farewell Valley: a Novel by Im Ch’ŏru
Farewell ValleyBy Im Ch’ŏru, translated from the Korean by Jennifer M. Lee and Jonathan R. Bagley (MerwinAsia, 2016) Readers new to Korean literature who value historical memory as a gateway to truth,...
War and Ukrainian Poetry in Translation: Three New Books from Arrowsmith Press
Today is a Different WarBy Lyudmyla Khersonska, translations by Olga Livshin, Andrew Janco, Maya Chhabra, and Lev Fridman (Arrowsmith Press, 2023). In the Hour of War: Poetry from UkraineEdited by Carolyn Forché...