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I met Kwiatkowksi over a series of events in September and October of 2025, as he traveled in the US with the Cheuse Center at George Mason University and Yale University. Grzegorz Kwiatkowksi is the Cheuse Center’s Visiting Writer from Poland, and the center is collaborating with him on a series of events that mark the tenth anniversary of the Cheuse Center, founded in 2016. The center was named after Alan Cheuse, whose father was a Jewish refugee to America, from Stalin’s Russia (now Ukraine).

It was fun doing a book conversation with Olufemi Terry on October 19, 2025. Perhaps it was the venue—I’ve always enjoyed doing readings at the 14th Street Busboys and Poets. The event’s room, with pictures of Gandhi, MLK and other inspirational figures on the walls, makes one feel a sense of high seriousness and purpose. A surprise, Olufemi Terry’s parents, on the verge of their 90s, were there to lend their support to their son’s debut novel. The event was organized by the Cheuse Center and its director, Leeya Mehta, did the introductions. Most of its board members were there, including Kris O’Shee, the late Alan Cheuse’s wife. 

Olufemi Terry talks about his novel Wilderness of Mirrors with William "Bill" Miller on the Upstart Crow podcast, revealing the influence of Freud, and living in Germany, and it's impact on his writing and the provenance of his characters.

In Lviv this summer, my son and I had some of the most spectacular meals of our lives. Salads arrived garnished with fresh flowers. Pastries floated by us adorned with fragrant wild berries gathered by hand or a special wooden comb in forests unblemished by mines. We were offered mint drinks, locally sourced rose petal ice cream, and lemonade with crushed sea buckhorn. This same summer, people just like us in cities just like ours were blown to pieces by rockets, drones, bombs.  

Join Generation Women DC for a special fundraising evening in support of the Alan Cheuse International Writers Center. This November, we explore how stories connect us across cultures and continents. Each of our multigenerational speakers will share a personal tale of how travel, literature, or global voices have shaped their lives, perspectives, and imaginations.

As the tires of the airplane hit the runway of Narita airport, I closed my eyes and gripped the armchair. The whole flight, I was preparing myself for this, the jolting moment the plane meets the ground, an abrupt signal that you have finally made it to where you are going. I am no stranger to solo traveling, on admittedly more minor scales, leaving home for college twice. But I was always traveling to get away from one thing or another, a memory or feeling. And I guess in a similar way, I found myself traveling overseas for the first time just to look for one thing or the other, alone, and only after landing does the fact that I may not know the language as much as I told myself start to sink in.