All News

I came to the Talo, a tributary of the Brahmaputra, with a head full of second-hand knowledge. Arunachal Pradesh and Assam had existed for me mostly as abstractions—borderlands in textbooks, settings in novels, places mentioned more often than known. This journey was an attempt to let those fragments loosen and rearrange themselves through direct encounter.

The locals say a stampede of Eriskay ponies predicts a single death. Last year, one of Eriskay Isle’s oldest men did not see spring. Which horse starts the stampede, and what does it sound like, feel like? I picture their small herd breathing heavy, a trail of trampled sand behind them. I arrive in the summer. Eriskay Isle is small, just 2.5 miles long and 1.5 miles wide, encircled by perfect white beaches. The ocean is so clear, I can see all the way to the bottom, can count each fish in each school that swims past. I climb the boulders on the east shore and plug my nose before jumping in. It’s cold; it takes my breath away.

I came to the Talo, a tributary of the Brahmaputra, with a head full of second-hand knowledge. Arunachal Pradesh and Assam had existed for me mostly as abstractions—borderlands in textbooks, settings in novels, places mentioned more often than known. This journey was an attempt to let those fragments loosen and rearrange themselves through direct encounter.

I know exactly when and where I am the first time my sister tells me she is pregnant. It is snowing outside, and I am barefoot in my apartment in Fairfax, watching flakes press against the window. I am one year into my MFA in Creative Writing, far along enough to sound like I belong when I say things in class like “So… is the mother a metaphor? or “The dog feels symbolic, but I’m not sure of what.”, but not so far along that I didn’t flinch when people ask me what home means (which, by the way, I’ve learnt is a very popular question in creative settings).

Lately, all I can bring myself to eat is buckwheat soba. Hot, cold, iced or sauteed, dipped in sauce or submerged in broth, ladled from the communal pot or withdrawn from a plastic bento box, topped with a raw egg or vegetable tempura, a side of boiled seaweed or gyudon beef, eaten crouching, standing, even running–yet always, every meal, those same, spotty gray noodles. It doesn't taste like much, but, when I get hungry, I hear that constant rhythm of slurps in the distance, like footfalls thudding down the endless Tokyo cityscape...

In a poem by Jimale Ali Ahmed entitled “Portraiture” in his collection When Donkeys Give Birth to Calves (2012), a professor-persona warns his students “to beware of / Language: potent force that can manhandle us”. The Oxford English Dictionary renders the verb ‘manhandle’ thus: To attack an enemy; to handle roughly; to assault, maul, or beat up. In this essay, Kahyana reflects on how a Ugandan poet, academic and politician, Dr Stella Nyanzi, uses her writing to ‘manhandle’ Uganda’s long-ruling President, General Yoweri Kaguta Museveni (in power since January 1986) by portraying him in several metaphorical albeit irreverent ways.

Upstart Crow is a literary podcast affiliated with Watershed Lit Radio. We recently got the chance to interview the hosts, William Miller, Ken Budd, and Jennifer Disano.

We were going to tour Himeji Castle, Japan’s largest, most visited castle, a distinctive, shiny white structure in the town of Himeji, a train ride from Osaka, where we had put ourselves for a couple of days during a longer self-guided tour of Japan. For Himeji Castle, we’d booked an English-language tour guide, who said he would meet us at the train station. We almost never book tour guides but this one was offered by the on-line service through which we got the tickets for the castle. So, why not?

More than 80 languages are spoken on the campus of George Mason University. So, what better place for a Day of Translation? It’s an annual event sponsored by the Alan Cheuse International Writers Center, which is named for the late NPR book critic, author, professor, and, back more than 25 years ago, my MFA thesis advisor.