A Yogi

Breakdown Precedes Breakthrough Graham earned enough to be under the taxable limitBecause he didn’t want to pay for war He couldn’t say “No” when someone asked“Would you help us fight back?” He gave and gave…

In Medias Res/1

    Beautiful Friendshipsby Clara Takarabe Mark, I’ve been ruminating on your last email. There are a few things that come to mind really strongly when you asked that question, “what is important and what…

Glossary

Mentsh, Yiddish, noun; decent, upstanding person. –Michael Wex, Born to Kveetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All of Its Moods (Saint Martin’s Press, 2005). Ekāgratā, Sanskrit, noun; one-pointedness, doing only one thing at a time,…

On-Going Introduction to Dear Love of Comrades

Yaele DiPlacido-Eastman questioned my title, which includes the trigger word–for someone who grew up in the Soviet Union–”comrades.” My choice of title stems not from apparatchiks of Stalinist oppression but from one of America’s greatest…

Inspirations

[A Beggar in Jerusalem] is neither novel nor anti-novel, neither fiction nor autobiography, neither poem nor prose—it is all this together. — Elie Wiesel My idea of the ideal text is still the Talmud. I…

Back from the Soulless Void

Chris Hedges and Laila al-Arian, Collateral Damage: America’s War against Iraqi Civilians  Campbell: But you have this: I remember my unit was coming along this elevated overpass. And this kid is in the trash pile below, pulls…