El-Ariss’s excavation of his past immerses readers in his youth in war-torn Beirut and his subsequent journey across the world.
Survival and Remembrance in Wartime Beirut Read More »
El-Ariss’s excavation of his past immerses readers in his youth in war-torn Beirut and his subsequent journey across the world.
The jacket copy of Hanif Abdurraqib’s latest book, There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension begins, addressed to the reader, “If you know, you know.” And, beholden to the unsubtle hype of the statement, it’s true. Anyone familiar with Abdurraqib’s past work knows that the book’s mix of prose and poetry will only sort
The jacket copy of Hanif Abdurraqib’s latest book, There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension begins, addressed to the reader, “If you know, you know.” And, beholden to the unsubtle hype of the statement, it’s true. Anyone familiar with Abdurraqib’s past work knows that the book’s mix of prose and poetry will only sort
My Friends is a brilliant political novel. Hisham Matar’s third work of fiction highlights several historical events, most importantly, Libyan officials’ shooting of anti-Qaddafi protestors at the London embassy (1984) and the Libyan Revolution (2011). Through his melancholic chronicle of Khaled, Hosam, and Mustafa, all Libyan exiles in the UK, Matar reminds us of the
The Capacity of Male Friendship in Hisham Matar’s My Friends Read More »
My Friends is a brilliant political novel. Hisham Matar’s third work of fiction highlights several historical events, most importantly, Libyan officials’ shooting of anti-Qaddafi protestors at the London embassy (1984) and the Libyan Revolution (2011). Through his melancholic chronicle of Khaled, Hosam, and Mustafa, all Libyan exiles in the UK, Matar reminds us of the
On a quick pass through the first several poems in Willie Lin’s debut collection, Conversation Among Stones (2023), I somehow formed the impression that Lin rarely used the lyric “I”. When I went back to truly read the book, I saw that I was wrong. “I” appears in most poems, but so obliquely that the
An Agenda of Smoke in Willie Lin’s Conversations Among Stones Read More »
On a quick pass through the first several poems in Willie Lin’s debut collection, Conversation Among Stones (2023), I somehow formed the impression that Lin rarely used the lyric “I”. When I went back to truly read the book, I saw that I was wrong. “I” appears in most poems, but so obliquely that the
Like all other important world cities, the great city of Aarhus, Denmark, has its own chronicler; an eminent writer whose accumulated fiction has become a topography by which readers can navigate the city. Paris has Honoré de Balzac, London has Charles Dickens, Barcelona has Carlos Ruiz Zafón, San Francisco has Armistead Maupin, and Aarhus has
Seven Ages’ Madness Read More »
Like all other important world cities, the great city of Aarhus, Denmark, has its own chronicler; an eminent writer whose accumulated fiction has become a topography by which readers can navigate the city. Paris has Honoré de Balzac, London has Charles Dickens, Barcelona has Carlos Ruiz Zafón, San Francisco has Armistead Maupin, and Aarhus has
