Category: Non-Fiction
Kodak, one of the most familiar names on the market in the world of photography, launched research into ways in which to produce darker tones simply in response to interest from chocolate producers and furniture factories, that were increasingly impatient to have photographs that captured a diversity of shades. At the beginning of the […]
Seven years ago, as fate would have it, I arrived in Indonesia for the first time in my life, on Vesak. Vesak is the celebration of the birth, enlightenment, and departure from earthly existence—or Parinirvāna—of Gautama Buddha. Parinirvāna cannot really be called death, much like the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Christ. From the perspective […]
I was reading Thomas Lynch’s The Undertaking recently. It’s a good book. First published in 1997, it came out at a time when, let’s be honest, most white Americans—like me—thought “race relations” were in a better place than most white Americans think they are now. Americans of color were, as ever, not fooled. They also […]
Many years ago, in Berlin, I met a Hungarian writer. He was tall, smoked a pipe, and walked slightly bent forward, his black suit topped with a matching black hat. He had a child’s smile and a mole on his left cheek. Though both of us were multilingual, none of our languages matched. We were […]
on October 4, 2021 We have asked the linguist credited as being the most cited living scholar of our time about race, language, cancel culture, the world order, and the climate catastrophe. At 93 years of age, Professor Chomsky is doing fine. The same cannot be said of the world. Over the course of roughly […]
(Sex On Wheels?) (Sexual Healing?) You’re so pretty for a girl in a wheelchair. Angelique Vito has to laugh; it’s just one of the more memorable things well-meaning people have said to her. Oh, it’s so unfortunate you can’t have children. Oh, you’re such an inspiration. “They see me in this chair and the thinking […]
I was sitting in my apartment in Bolgona when I got a phone call from Gábor Gyukics, my Hungarian translator. I had been to Hungary several times, and my poems had been included in two anthologies. For a few years now, depending on how busy I’ve been or he’s been, Gábor has tried to set […]
It’s winter, a winter ten years ago. We’re sitting in the office of the national child protection network, we’re sorting the adoption papers of our child to be. Worn chairs, tired employees, tired paint peeling in flakes on the windowsill. I’ve been watching it for minutes, and the lead-grey sky outside above the rooftops. We […]
I am terrible at saying “No.” I’m too eager to please, or, more accurately, I am terrified of disappointing people. But it’s more than that. I rarely feel like I have a right to say “no.” And so I say yes to nearly everything or I say nothing and people interpret my silence as consent. […]