Latest Features
Fiction
Recall of Duty
Robert Lee, SGT (US Army Reserve). Recalled to active duty for current emergency plus six months. Report TDS Fort Riley, Kan. by 1300 hours, 6 July 1950 for retraining and overseas deployment. Oh-dark-thirty, 6 July 1950...
The Donkey
Photo credit: W. Greeson, USMC افغان “Yes, kaka zoi, I’m coming!” Hamid had been awake for an hour when he heard his cousin Kadir’s whistle. He had already revived the dying embers in the mud-brick fireplace, put a kettle...
Gaza by the Sea
Sunset in Gaza City, August, 2023 | Photo by author 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...
Poetry
Generational Scars
My grandmother hid in a hole in Nagoya. My grandfather was a soldier in China. My other grandmother watched the falling bombs. My other grandfather searched for a victim’s mother after...
Three Poems by Nwuguru Sullivan Chidiebere
The Marvels of Little Extents Our god is awake but chose to ignore us as a cloudemptying glass into a child's mouth there were days he gifted us the sky as a culture plate we madestreaks on it & hoped a colony of stars would grow...
Wounded Soldier to Fred
A poem by William Derge that pays homage to Fred Astaire and the part he played during the war by entertaining the troops.
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Article 2, Item E
In June, the apricot tree saggedwith squat fruit that fell splat on the sidewalk. Children jumped for the velvet orbsBy mid-July, all had disappeared.All, except juice stains on concrete. As if no velvet, no fruits, ...
Translations
Kagay-an and a Love in the Time of an All-Out War
Translator’s Note: Kagay-an and a Love in the Time of an All-Out War (2018) unfolds in the early 2000s, during former president and kleptocrat Joseph Estrada’s “all-out war” against Islamic separatists and communist...
Lessons in Palestinian Motherhood, 101
Palestinian Woman | Acrylic on canvas | 2024 To be a Palestinian mother, you must learn some simple things: how to hold your wounded child until he sheds his last drop of blood; crafting words to turn a child into a man...
Nonfiction
Defending the Tribe
Palisades Fire in Los Angeles by CAL FIRE_Official, January 2025. Public Domain. The scale of destruction inflicted by the wildfires that ripped through Los Angeles last month is unprecedented. Sixteen hundred buildings incinerated. Nearly two hundred thousand people evacuated. An...
A Walk in Budapest
First stop: Medieval Jewish Prayer House—Középkori Zsidó Imaház American historians say Hungary’s political system is dangerous, but conservatives find inspiration in its Christian government. I expected dark shadows in Budapest storefronts, people yearning for freedom. Instead, I found...
Navigating a Broken World
A poster left by a participant taking part in a candlelight vigil and silent protest organized as part of the #JewsAndArabsRefuseToBeEnemies | August 11, 2014 near the United Nations in New York.Photo credit: DON EMMERT/AFP via Getty Images Late last week, I switched on my car radio to...
Here’s Looking for You
Dad in the beige easy chair, a precursor to the blue chenille chair. Los Angeles, California. 1980sPhoto courtesy of the author The morning after my father’s first heart attack, I took the train from San Diego to Los Angeles to see him. It was December, near the end of my first semester...
Reviews
Still Here: Two Featured Reviews by Fred Marchant
Communiqués by Maria Galina / Russian and English, bi-lingual edition Translated by Anna Halberstadt & Ainsley Morse.Cicada Press, New York. (2023-24) $22.00. Those Absences Now Closest by...
The Beinart Notebook: A Review
The Beinart Notebook is a Substack site with a weekly “show” (via Zoom) in which the journalist Peter Beinart discusses issues concerning Israel-Palestine with his guests. These presentations are a...