Nonfiction by Lori Friedman

A personal essay where the author remembers her father and how an unexpected source, the movie Casablanca, helped her connect with him and his experiences as an Armenian refugee.

This advanced writing class is designed for writers seeking to refine their nonfiction narrative skills through personal experiences linked to major social events. Over six weeks, participants will bring their own writing—essays, memoirs, or personal narratives—to develop and receive feedback.

Translations by Olga Zilberbourg

Our latest translation feature looks at the poetry and photographs of Ukrainian author and poet Olga Bragina, who records the reality of life in Kyiv two years after the Russian invasion of her country.

A Review by Elizabeth Ferry 

“In her paramedic training, Ieva Jusionyte was told, when dealing with gunshot victims, to “always look for the exit wound.” Exit wounds are larger and more irregular than entry wounds, and their location helps medical workers discover the pathway a bullet has taken through the body, so they can make a better guess as to the damage it may have done. Her book about the movement of guns from the United States to Mexico and their role in the violence related to drug economies takes Exit Wounds as its title.”

Fiction by Anna-Christina Schmidl

Author’s Note: “Gaza by the Sea” was inspired by true events; the characters and plot line are fictional. The story was written in the summer of 2023, prior to the outbreak of the war in October. Since then, many of the landscapes it invokes—and the lives of the people inhabiting them—have been destroyed or transformed beyond recognition; the story cannot speak to this. It is also told through the eyes of an external observer; any inaccuracies are the author’s alone.