World Literature Today最新文献

{"title":"Cien cuyes by Gustavo Rodríguez (review)","authors":"César Ferreira","doi":"10.1353/wlt.2023.a910293","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/wlt.2023.a910293","url":null,"abstract":"Reviewed by: Cien cuyes by Gustavo Rodríguez César Ferreira GUSTAVO RODRÍGUEZ Cien cuyes Lima. Alfaguara. 2023. 258 pages. IN EARLY 2023 Gustavo Rodríguez's latest novel, Cien cuyes, was awarded Spain's coveted Premio Alfaguara de Novela. Cien cuyes tells the story of Eufrasia Vela, a middle-aged woman from humble origins who cares for senior citizens in upper-class neighborhoods in Lima, Peru. Eufrasia is a migrant from northern Peru as well as a single mother who must provide for her son, Nicolás. To do so, she routinely crosses the city on public transportation to serve Ms. Carmen, an elderly widow who needs both domestic help and emotional support because her own daughter pays no attention to her. Later, Eufrasia works for Jack Morrison, a retired and widowed medical doctor who is fond of jazz and good whisky but lives in a state of soul-crushing solitude. After both Carmen and Jack pass away, the protagonist begins working in a retirement home where a group of upper-class seniors have formed a chosen family they call \"the magnificent seven.\" Eufrasia soon proves to be a warm and generous caregiver who looks after the group both physically and emotionally. For the seniors, life moves along in a slow routine of medications, bland meals, TV movies, ailments, and the occasional conversation in which they reminisce about key moments in their lives, only to remember that the end is around the corner. The bond Eufrasia establishes with her elderly patients is deep—so much so that when they ask her to help them end their lonely lives, she agrees to it. However, Eufrasia's choice ends up leading her to an ethical crossroads and many unanswered questions. Cien cuyes is a tragicomic novel about an important subject: our ability to care for the elderly in modern-day society and euthanasia as an option for dying with dignity. It is a fast-paced narrative with witty dialogue replete with references to film and pop culture. In addition to old age, Rodríguez's story touches on a number of significant issues, such as the many gaps between the rich and poor in Peru, empathy, and the ability to form human bonds regardless of social differences. It is also a novel that confronts the reader with important ethical questions about the meaning of a life well lived. A remarkable talent, Gustavo Rodríguez is a writer to follow in contemporary Latin American literature. César Ferreira University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Copyright © 2023 World Literature Today and the Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma","PeriodicalId":23833,"journal":{"name":"World Literature Today","volume":"145 2","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135161190","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Two Poems from China","authors":"Gao Qiongxian","doi":"10.1353/wlt.2023.a910255","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/wlt.2023.a910255","url":null,"abstract":"Two Poems from China Gao Qiongxian (bio) Translator's note: The practice of face tattooing was discontinued in 1966 but is still a cultural symbol of the Derung people, named after the River of Derung (Lone Dragon). There are about twenty women with face tattoos left. Nanmusa means a shaman/ witch or shamanism in the Derung language. Prophet When crows fly over the villagesPanic erupts like a flash floodSoon after, as Nanmusa has prophesiedA plague spreads along the valleySome life soon evaporated When cuckoo birds chirp aroundVillagers look at each other, at a lossSoon after, the prophecy of the old woman of face tattoosComes true, the birds' chirping has called awaySome human souls Time passes as in an hourglassOvershadowing the Nanmusa of Derung folksNow, women of face tattoos are becoming rareBut when crows circle, cuckoos crying outVillagers still wear sadness on their faces Click for larger view View full resolution Photo by Feng Weixiang (2012) Seven Color Lone-Dragon Blanket Grandma of tattooed face throws the twisted twinesInto a dyeing vat. The twines turn red, yellow, blue, blackRed is the orange-red bark of winter melonsBlack is the black of walnut barkYellow is the yellow of the bark of three-needle treesBlue is the blue of the roots of woad herbs Gru, a teenage-looking middle-aged Lone Dragon manLoves ancient crafts. He builds a traditionalLone Dragon plant-dyeing labOn the wisdom of old men's memoryWith red, black, yellow, and blueHe vows to make seven colorsFor the women weavers of Lone DragonNot far away, the old face-tattooed Li WenshiIs weaving a rainbow in the sky Translations from the Chinese [End Page 30] Gao Qiongxian Gao Qiongxian (b. 1986) is an ethnic minority poet of Derung (Dulong) nationality from the remote Yunnan region of southwest China. After obtaining a BA and MBA from the Central Ethnic University in Beijing, she returned to Yunnan in 2015 and became the deputy director of the Gongshan County Writers' Union in 2020. Her first book of poems is forthcoming in 2024. Ming Di Ming Di is a poet from China based in the US. The author of seven books of poetry in Chinese and one in collaborative translation, River Merchant's Wife (2012), she has compiled and co-translated New Cathay: Contemporary Chinese Poetry, Empty Chairs: Poems by Liu Xia, The Book of Cranes, and New Poetry from China 1917–2017. For her translations of English poetry into Chinese, she received the Lishan Poetry Award and the 2021 Best Ten Translator Award in China. Copyright © 2023 World Literature Today and the Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma","PeriodicalId":23833,"journal":{"name":"World Literature Today","volume":"144 2","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135161196","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Suite from Martinique","authors":"Stephanie McKenzie","doi":"10.1353/wlt.2023.a910262","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/wlt.2023.a910262","url":null,"abstract":"Suite from Martinique Stephanie McKenzie (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution Author photo by Joel Zobel / Photo by Hunter W on Unsplash Familiar, Tartane, though I've never been herebefore. Whole coast, Atlantic, stops believingin sun, or maybe that's me, bouldered by winter.Presqu'île de la Caravelle points fingers.Look, some residue on shore.Know your home. Own it. All the way to L'Ajoupa-Bouillon, air's coolas blades, cut like mangroves' green leaves.I am not half what I was when I was firsthere.Let jungle disturb prisms. Can only touch surface but confessionslips in. I'm angry, want to writeat a distance.I reach out to traveling palms, watersomewhere in there.Wash all this away, I pray. I damn the first person,look over balcony.Ixora grows within steelmesh. I search out manchineel, urchins, poisonburns, puncture.Strange priests in this poem.Birds in the house ride comfortsof draft. But no danger.I want to say I'm tired of mirrorson vines that reach out. I can't decide on love so throw it highand away to trade winds.I should be writing about this islebut can't escape the self.I have arrived in the dry seasonlessons learned from thirst. For years, archipelagos rose drumsin my breath, couldn't get airand bam! Such beauty, such whirland, frenzied, I gathered palmsto place under feet.Know and now the worldhas stopped. Can only swimso much ocean, takeso much blue.Strange fort. Confusing, beautiful,rich.The Indies cut in half.Survey this slice. Aréquier and green fruit of the palmturned red. Time's grown.Gorge, their manic wings. If I couldreach out, I'd cage air. Some knowledge here. Sustenanceis fleeting, they say.Grab hold. I stand with my camera, raise hands,snap the photo.Belief is a martyr. Frame it. [End Page 42] Stephanie McKenzie Stephanie McKenzie has traveled extensively throughout the Caribbean and lived in Jamaica and Guyana for short periods. With Carol Bailey, she edited Pamela Mordecai's A Fierce Green Place: New and Selected Poems (New Directions, 2022). McKenzie has published three collections of poetry with Salmon Poetry and is full professor in the English Programme at Grenfell Campus, Memorial University. Copyright © 2023 World Literature Today and the Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma","PeriodicalId":23833,"journal":{"name":"World Literature Today","volume":"147 6","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135161317","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"My Father's Brain: Life in the Shadow of Alzheimer's by Sandeep Jauhar (review)","authors":"Katherine Schoeffler","doi":"10.1353/wlt.2023.a910290","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/wlt.2023.a910290","url":null,"abstract":"Reviewed by: My Father's Brain: Life in the Shadow of Alzheimer's by Sandeep Jauhar Katherine Schoeffler SANDEEP JAUHAR My Father's Brain: Life in the Shadow of Alzheimer's New York. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2023. 258 pages. \"NEW EXPERIENCES slipped through his fingers like grains of sand, never to be touched again.\" My Father's Brain: Life in the Shadow of Alzheimer's is the poignant tale of a family devastated by an Alzheimer's diagnosis. The flaws, celebrations, and challenges of its impact are exposed. Sandeep Jauhar's memoir is moving, emotional, and so challenging at times that I was forced to take breaks before continuing. Jauhar sincerely and personally details the transformation of his father's and his family's life after the diagnosis, detailing the messy realities of such a diagnosis and what it entails for a family. He shares his father's story as so much more than merely a life altered by the disease process, instead celebrating the beauty of his father's humanity, persistence as an immigrant, and his dedication to research, service, and his family. As a practicing physician, Jauhar shares with us the history of the disease, the science behind its progression, the current neurological aging research, and the epidemiology of Alzheimer's in an engaging manner. As he details even the cognitive ability tests at the neurologist's office, he patiently explains to the reader in medical and nonmedical terminology to balance both the emotional aspects of a doctor's visit as well as the scientific aims of each exercise. He presents his experience in a way to allow readers to attempt to absorb as much information as possible about the case while getting to know a patient and their family closely and balancing the emotions that stem from being surrounded by both the great joys of healing and the devastating sufferings of medical disease. This was a difficult but engaging, educational, and inspiring book. Some chapters were challenging to get through, as the horrors of the diagnosis's progression are revealed in such a personal and emotional manner. Jauhar does a remarkable job of making each character human—exposing each gift and struggle of his family members. He never blames when sharing the most intimate arguments of his family through such a traumatic time, instead shifting the focus to the reality of human emotions, bioethical concerns, familial relations, and cultural expectations regarding healing. The story is impactful, personal even, as Jauhar transports us into his world and that of his father. Jauhar captures the precise power of medical literature to offer understanding of medicine as both an art and a science. This moving book instills empathy, understanding, and curiosity in its reader, and I could not recommend it more. For insight, compassion, and understanding, My Father's Brain: Life in the Shadow of Alzheimer's impacts the reader, captures an incredible man's story beautifully and powerfully, and weaves a unique tale of a f","PeriodicalId":23833,"journal":{"name":"World Literature Today","volume":"151 3","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135161441","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"My Hajj","authors":"Adnan Mahmutović","doi":"10.1353/wlt.2023.a910250","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/wlt.2023.a910250","url":null,"abstract":"My Hajj Adnan Mahmutović (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution Photos by Yousef Khanfar | www.yousefkhanfar.com The photos in Yousef Khanfar's Hajj project Humanity at Large, in cooperation with the United Nations, are impressionistic images that show human beings as islands within the waves of the great ocean of humanity, intertwined within the same fabric, stitched with fine threads of race, religion, color, and more. [End Page 10] The Puterbaugh series is a special feature sponsored by the WLT Puterbaugh Endowment. The tears, the rituals: a family goes on a journey and joins millions of strangers pouring into Mecca. In this moving essay, a writer evokes the beauty, movement, and emotion of the Hajj itself. In the beginning, there was the gravity of the call: And proclaim to the people the Hajj; they will come to you on foot and on every lean camel; they will come from every distant pass (The Qur'an 22:27). We answered as a family. All five of us. We were pulled out of our Nordic home to complete the circle of faith. Like a boomerang that throws itself out only to return to itself. A homecoming. I'd been feeling so old for years and dreamt of being buried in Mecca like men and women from old tales. But Hajj wasn't going to be that kind of story. The story of Hajj begins with your last will and testament. I asked people on social media what they wanted me to leave them. I didn't say why. They took me for my regular joking self while I was burning with the desire to finish my life in that holy place. I sat with SonNo.1 watching Swedish woods and told him I had nothing to leave them. Whatever I possessed would be regulated by state laws. I hoped that my writing would someday be enough for a few Swedish fikas. I named the person I entrust with sorting my unpublished mess. I didn't say I hoped my legacy to them was this family Hajj. A memory of my love. I imagined them without me, and I was missing them already, and I cried. I cried on the plane from Stockholm when everyone was asleep or watching movies. Cried in Istanbul while waiting for the delayed flight to Medina. Cried when some of the passengers were not let onto the plane because of visa issues and again when they fixed them. Cried at the passport check. At the first sight of people streaming into the Prophet's Mosque. When I met friends I didn't know were there. On the bus to Mecca when our guides sang Bosnian Nasheed songs. At first sight of the Kaaba. During our first tawaf around the Kaaba and at that first Fajr prayer outside Masjid Al-Haram as both men and women formed rows in ways I'd never seen before. At the break of dawn. I didn't cry because life was hard and unjust or because of past traumas or self-pity. That was new. From the onslaught of weird tears to the rituals, you will always be unprepared for Hajj. The guides will serve you practicalities and leave you to figure out the narrative as you become a character in that story: a family goes on a journey and joins mil","PeriodicalId":23833,"journal":{"name":"World Literature Today","volume":"149 1-2","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135161454","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Once upon a Prime: The Wondrous Connections between Mathematics and Literature by Sarah Hart (review)","authors":"Firdous Ahmad Mala","doi":"10.1353/wlt.2023.a910281","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/wlt.2023.a910281","url":null,"abstract":"Reviewed by: Once upon a Prime: The Wondrous Connections between Mathematics and Literature by Sarah Hart Firdous Ahmad Mala SARAH HART Once upon a Prime: The Wondrous Connections between Mathematics and Literature New York. Flatiron Books. 2023. 304 pages. TO MANY, MATHEMATICS is quite separate from literature; however, that is very far from reality. Mathematics has remained an indispensable part of any ideal curriculum. Aficionados of literature have consistently demonstrated a profound appreciation for mathematics. For instance, Chaucer not only wrote The Canterbury Tales but also authored a treatise on the astrolabe. Plato insisted that only those with knowledge of geometry be allowed into his academy. Bertrand Russell, a Nobel laureate in literature, was also a highly accomplished mathematician. Wordsworth recognized mathematics as a distinct realm built on pure intellect, and John Locke considered mathematics a means to cultivate a habit of logical reasoning. Even renowned figures like the Persian poet Omar Khayyam and Lewis Carroll excelled in both mathematics and literature. Mathematics has always been an integral part of a well-rounded individual's cultural understanding. It also held a prominent place in Plato's quadrivium, encompassing arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy. In her captivating book Once upon a Prime, Sarah Hart recounts her initial reluctance to delve into the pages of Moby-Dick. However, her curiosity was piqued when she discovered a reference to the cycloid within the novel. This prompted her to contemplate the profound connections between mathematics and literature. The impact of this experience on Hart's life was nothing short of transformative—she describes it as an epiphany that forever altered her perspective. Mathematics, with [End Page 66] its capacity to enrich and liberate the mind, holds such profound influence that even Blaise Pascal sought solace from the agony of a toothache by immersing himself in thoughts of the cycloid. Hart further highlights how luminaries like Tolstoy, Joyce, Arthur Conan Doyle, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Michael Crichton seamlessly integrated mathematics into their literary works, granting mathematicians a notable and coveted presence within the pages of their masterpieces. It is worth noting that the interplay between mathematics and literature is not a recent phenomenon, as evidenced by Aristophanes' play The Birds, which debuted as early as 414 bce and showcased these intricate connections. The book commences by asserting that the connections between mathematics and poetry are not only profound but remarkably accessible. Subsequently, the author artfully unveils what is referred to as the \"geometry of narrative,\" a visual methodology for organizing a story. One illustrative example is the concept of \"Man in a Hole.\" By assigning the vertical axis (y-axis) to represent fortune and the horizontal axis (x-axis) to signify time, a rising curve denotes increasing fortune, whi","PeriodicalId":23833,"journal":{"name":"World Literature Today","volume":"144 5","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135161193","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Black Foam by Haji Jabir (review)","authors":"Rick Henry","doi":"10.1353/wlt.2023.a910289","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/wlt.2023.a910289","url":null,"abstract":"Reviewed by: Black Foam by Haji Jabir Rick Henry HAJI JABIR Black Foam Trans. Sawad Hussain & Marcia Lynx Qualey. Seattle. Amazon Crossing. 2023. 224 pages. BLACK FOAM, LONGLISTED for the 2019 International Prize for Arabic Fiction, is a painful cry for survival in a world where truth can be a death sentence. Informed by his own experiences, Haji Jabir, an Eritrean novelist now living in Israel, presents a cry special to refugees but more specifically bound to individuals and their immediate contexts. As his character moves from Eritrea to Israel, Jabir presents a variation on the theme: survival depends on the story one tells, a story created for different contexts and audiences, whether they be lovers, strangers, a graduate student conducting research on refugees, or a store owner who helps him navigate the international Neve Sha'anan quarter in Tel Aviv. Each encounter offers its own dramatic undertones. The novel's deepest drama comes from self as the audience for one's story, and the need to lie to oneself about oneself to survive. The novel opens in Eritrea under a repressive regime. Conscripted against his will, Dawit finds himself on the other side of the political line from his true love. So begin his lies. His response is to leave. He survives the border crossing into Ethiopia and the first prize, acceptance into the reception center in Endabaguna for placement into one of the refugee camps. The threats change with the move, with the Ethiopian government at war with the Tigray People's Liberation Front and its ongoing raids on the camps, and the government targeting Eritreans fleeing north to Sudan. Hunger, random threats of violence, and betrayals are everywhere present as Dawit runs. The bigger prize is becoming one of a small percentage of those who escape north and out of Ethiopia. For Dawit, this means through Sudan and Egypt to a camp in Tel Aviv. Each transition requires his telling different versions of his story. Among the complications for Dawit is that Israel has, in the recent past, closed its borders to sub-Saharan Africans. The complications faced by Eritreans in particular are fraught with a further set of difficulties and the official status of \"refugee.\" The goal for refugees in Tel Aviv is to be processed and moved on to countries such as Holland or Australia or Canada. Israel doesn't want to identify Eritreans as \"refugees.\" With Dawit in Endabaguna, Jabir makes the case for survival being the result of telling an interesting story. A European interviews refugees and assigns them their futures. The consensus among refugees is that certain types of stories \"work,\" thereby reducing them to a successful stereotype, no matter how different their circumstances. Part of Dawit's conflict is existential. As Dawit comes to the European's question, \"And how did your mother die?\", he decides to tell something closer [End Page 73] to the truth. He declares himself a \"Free Gadli,\" which is roughly translated to the European as a c","PeriodicalId":23833,"journal":{"name":"World Literature Today","volume":"143 5","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135161198","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"These Visitations","authors":"Brian Turner, Dorianne Laux","doi":"10.1353/wlt.2023.a910260","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/wlt.2023.a910260","url":null,"abstract":"These Visitations Brian Turner (bio) and Dorianne Laux (bio) If a love song is made of water, the wateryou hold in your hands right now is a lyric, a song inside the rusty tap released, coil of silvered music unraveling, shiveringin your cupped palms. A sweet thing, that. A gift channeling the acoustic nature of the world, even if it cannot be heard, here it is, held in the light of day, this strange transport of tugboats sounding through the fog of the harbor, flights to Detroit and Singapore lifting off the tarmac across the Bay, even the sound of us way back, making love. And sweet, too, the salt lick horsesare drawn to, that wild desire, what we leave for the privacy of their twelve-muscled tongues, mucosa-covered, the dorsal peppered with papillae, rough to the touch. Is love also made of this? I lean back and dunk my head into the steaming waters of the bath, my ropy hair soaking in the heat as if drinking from a summer long gone, while a lover's palm guides a bar of milled soap made of cassis and lime down the twin slopes of my back, humming, calming the small hurricanes that spiral inside me on days like this, window open to the bay sparking, flaring with each ripple and wave, the sun hidden between boulders, beneath trees, my hands palm up, floating, as your body, a ghost lost in mist, begins to sing. [End Page 39] Brian Turner Brian Turner is a writer living in Orlando, Florida. With poet Dorianne Laux, Turner collaborated on this fictional poem for an upcoming book, When You Ask for Something Beautiful. Dorianne Laux Pulitzer Prize finalist Dorianne Laux's Only as the Day Is Long: New and Selected Poems is available from W. W. Norton, as are her award-winning books Facts about the Moon and The Book of Men. A textbook, Finger Exercises for Poets, is forthcoming as well as a new book of poems, Life on Earth. She is founding faculty at Pacific University's Low-Residency MFA Program. Copyright © 2023 World Literature Today and the Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma","PeriodicalId":23833,"journal":{"name":"World Literature Today","volume":"146 4","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135161325","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Writing, the Gambler's Art: A Conversation with Chigozie Obioma","authors":"Darlington Chibueze Anuonye, Chigozie Obioma","doi":"10.1353/wlt.2023.a910264","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/wlt.2023.a910264","url":null,"abstract":"Writing, the Gambler's ArtA Conversation with Chigozie Obioma Darlington Chibueze Anuonye (bio) and Chigozie Obioma (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution Photo by UNL Photography Darlington Chibueze Anuonye: In 2015, at the age of twenty-eight, you published The Fishermen to global acclaim, and it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize that year (WLT, Nov. 2015, 63). That was the second year in which the Booker, since its first award in 1969, extended beyond the UK, the Commonwealth, the Republic of Ireland, and Zimbabwe. By emerging as a finalist in such an international competition, you achieved a solid literary success that resonated with many struggling young African writers who saw in both your youth and your gift a testament to the validity of their dreams. When An Orchestra of Minorities emerged as a finalist for the Booker Prize in 2019, you became one of the few African authors to be shortlisted more than once for the prize. What are the impacts of the Booker recognition on your career? Chigozie Obioma: Thank you for your kind words. I think you know by now that writing is not easy: it is art, and therefore a gamble. No one ever sets out knowing how their work will be received. You can have a hunch that something positive can happen, but you must simply face the work and make sure you realize your artistic vision beyond all else. Now, let me emphasize the term \"artistic vision.\" This is simply the wholistic portrait, a kind of unwritten map, you have in your mind concerning said work and what you want to achieve with it. In my own experience, that map/vision is always so grand it can be sometimes overpowering. So, my work when in the field of writing is actually all about trying to meet the vision as faithfully as possible. Most of the time, if I achieve 50 percent of the initial vision, the work is a success to me. But the ideal is 60 to 70 percent. I don't believe it is possible to achieve the vision at full scale for any project ever. Perhaps, at some point I might try this, but I'm also wary of overexerting myself. So, what am I saying here? I think what appeals to people in my work—if anything appeals—is a sense that I have tried to grapple with something big and significant, even if just significant to me and my people, as is the case of Odinani in An Orchestra of Minorities. In essence, I think this is perhaps why both novels have gained recognition from the Booker Prize and other prizes around the world. Of course, the prize changes lives. I don't believe anyone would be reading me today if not for the Booker. Even a longlist, due to massive coverage, brings you so many readers, let alone a shortlisting. So, I've [End Page 44] been very lucky and very grateful, which was why I agreed without hesitation to judge the prize since it has done so much for me and my career as a writer. Anuonye: You told Amanda Curtin that you wrote The Fishermen as a tribute to the love growing between two of your older brothers who did not ge","PeriodicalId":23833,"journal":{"name":"World Literature Today","volume":"143 2","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135160989","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Shy: A Novel by Max Porter (review)","authors":"Felix Haas","doi":"10.1353/wlt.2023.a910279","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/wlt.2023.a910279","url":null,"abstract":"Reviewed by: Shy: A Novel by Max Porter Felix Haas MAX PORTER Shy: A Novel Minneapolis. Graywolf. 2023. 136 pages. MAX PORTER BURST on the literary scene in 2015 with his debut novel, Grief Is the Thing with Feathers, which went on to win the Dylan Thomas Prize. In April of this year, his fourth novel—Shy—was published in the UK. It is similar in its brevity and unusual form to Porter's previous work, living somewhere between concrete poetry and prose. Set in 1995, it follows the sixteen-year-old Shy, who, after an impressive array of violent excesses—\"he's sprayed, snorted, smoked, sworn, stolen, cut, punched\"—finds himself at a home for children with behavioral problems, appropriately named Last Chance. The novel opens one night when Shy begins to make his way out of his room, headed for the school pond with a rock-filled rucksack to weigh him down. Much of the novel then unfolds as a stream of memories and dreams, told by an omniscient narrator, interlaced with a variety of voices, which the author keeps in distinct fonts. The physical form of his text is generally less daring than that of Porter's second novel, Lenny, but still includes a handful of pages that are little more than word clouds. Porter's books are as short as they are complex. They ask the reader to engage with the text and struggle to form a whole from the individual voices and forms the author provides. In Shy, some of the more adventurous voices include outtakes from a TV documentary on the school, filmed during Shy's stay there, two dead badgers, and Eve, a girl that had lived in Shy's room thirty years before him. At times, some of these voices meet to transform his otherwise coherent recollection into a feverish dream: \"The badgers show Shy himself, asleep in his room, watched by another, . . . waking up as a girl called Eve. . . . Shy feels at home inside her head.\" Shy is a serious and ambitious novel, not only in style but also in content. Porter shows himself unwaveringly empathetic with his protagonist, who often comes to regret, but seldom to understand, his own actions. Whether despite or because of this leniency, the reader might struggle to find the same kind of emotional proximity that Porter achieved with Grief Is the Thing with Feathers. We never truly understand the \"why\" of Shy's outbursts yet meet an author who seems to forgive his every transgression. Porter's newest novel is dark without losing a continuous undercurrent of hope. And so, too, a hopeless ending remains hopeless only on its surface, with Shy's rucksack, his \"heavy bag of sorry,\" finally emptied. [End Page 65] Felix Haas Zurich Copyright © 2023 World Literature Today and the Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma","PeriodicalId":23833,"journal":{"name":"World Literature Today","volume":"145 3","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135161189","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}