Reckoning with Ourselves

I recently finished a course with my friends Dianne Lee and Martín Antonio Zaldívar-Barragán, “Reckoning with Russia, War, and Ourselves.” We read and discussed Tolstoy, Kuznetsov, Alexievich, and Politkovskaya. I invite you to check out…

“The Duality of Man”

No wonder, as Martin, Dianne and I have been making our way through Anatoli Kuznetsov’s Babi Yar: A Document in the Form of a Novel, that a phrase that I first heard in 1987 has…

In Medias Res/2

This Is What I Can Do When it comes to righteous indignation Reshma makes Arundhati Roy seem timid At a public reading of The Book of Mev I made sure she went last and read…

Reshma/2

My Psychic Powers Acknowledged in This Morning’s Email “How is it that you always know What I need to hear Even when we are 950 miles apart?” When I Listen and Re-listen to Your Messages…

The Work Goes on

Recollection In October 2003 We were in Nablus Awarta, Ramallah Being alert in the olive groves Dashing across the settler-only roads Learning a thing or two about sumud In Louisville the minister and civil rights…

The Reading Life/1

The Chasm between Them and Us Kadya Molodovsky, A Jewish Refugee in New York: Rivke Zilberg’s JournalTranslated by Anita Norich The accomplished Yiddish writer Molodovsky wrote this novel in serialized form in 1940-41, knowing obviously…

Another Class Is Finished

Appreciation is the sacrament. —Allen Ginsberg Another class is finished…the autumn one entitled “Facing the Future: Resources for a Rebirth of Wonder” “Rebirth of wonder” comes from lines in a Lawrence Ferlinghetti poem— “I am…