Culture – Michigan Quarterly Review

Culture

Image of book cover of Willie Lin's "Conversations Among Stones" set against a orange-red background

An Agenda of Smoke in Willie Lin’s Conversations Among Stones

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

A photo of Madsen against a black-grey background.

Seven Ages’ Madness

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

Cover images of all novels referred to in the listicle set against a yellow-orange background.

10 Novels to Understand Rural America

It’s once again a presidential election year in the United States, and so I, like many other scholars of rural America, am bracing myself for an avalanche of simplistic political takes that paint rural America as a wasteland of conservative white people irretrievably behind the rest of the country. I study rural America through the

10 Novels to Understand Rural America Read More »

It’s once again a presidential election year in the United States, and so I, like many other scholars of rural America, am bracing myself for an avalanche of simplistic political takes that paint rural America as a wasteland of conservative white people irretrievably behind the rest of the country. I study rural America through the

Devastation After Israeli Airstrikes on Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Oct 26, 2023 (AP, photo by Mohammad Dahman)

Analogy and Tragedy in Israel’s War on Gaza

At the outset of Israel’s war on Gaza, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, as if lured by what the French poet Stephen Mallarmé termed “the demon of analogy,” likened Hamas to ISIS, a comparison that was subsequently echoed by the American President Joe Biden. And for good measure, Netanyahu also identified Hamas with Nazi

Analogy and Tragedy in Israel’s War on Gaza Read More »

At the outset of Israel’s war on Gaza, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, as if lured by what the French poet Stephen Mallarmé termed “the demon of analogy,” likened Hamas to ISIS, a comparison that was subsequently echoed by the American President Joe Biden. And for good measure, Netanyahu also identified Hamas with Nazi

Cover image of "Border Wisdom" set against a yellow-orange background

Border Wisdom: Ahmad Almallah at the edge of land, loss and language

In his second collection of poetry, Border Wisdom, Palestinian poet Almallah chronicles his negotiations with English, Arabic, exile, and loss at large—of a tongue, a mother, a home. This powerful collection then becomes the medium through which he re-visits personal memories as well as philosophical and linguistic preoccupations in death’s looming shadow.  “Is death a

Border Wisdom: Ahmad Almallah at the edge of land, loss and language Read More »

In his second collection of poetry, Border Wisdom, Palestinian poet Almallah chronicles his negotiations with English, Arabic, exile, and loss at large—of a tongue, a mother, a home. This powerful collection then becomes the medium through which he re-visits personal memories as well as philosophical and linguistic preoccupations in death’s looming shadow.  “Is death a

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