Short Takes

A Time of Monsters: On Alaa Abd el-Fattah’s “You Have Not Yet Been Defeated”
Karim Alrawi is stirred by the prison writings of Alaa Abd el-Fattah, collected in “You Have Not Yet Been Defeated,” translated by an anonymous collective.
Karim AlrawiMar 24, 2022
“One Heart Left for Us All”: Poems from Ukraine by Yuliya Charnyshova and Danyil Zadorozhnyi
Two new poems from Ukraine by Danyil Zadorozhnyi and Yuliya Charnyshova, translated by Charnyshova with Elina Alter.
Danyil Zadorozhnyi, Yuliya CharnyshovaMar 23, 2022
A Generous Human in Our Midst: On Victoria Buitron’s “A Body Across Two Hemispheres”
Robert FrombergMar 22, 2022
Life Lessons for a Young Writer
Jervey TervalonMar 19, 2022
Ukrainian Poetry from Another Era
Ostap Kin revisits 11 collections of Ukrainian poetry in English translation from the second half of the 20th century.
Ostap KinMar 18, 2022
Another Look at India’s Books: Sanjay Seth’s “Subject Lessons: The Western Education of Colonial India”
In this column, Saikat Majumdar discusses books from India that haven’t received due attention.
Saikat MajumdarMar 17, 2022
A Stained Glass in Lviv
Yuliya Komska fears for the stained glass of Lviv, and argues that mourning the loss of art is not separate from mourning for the destruction of human life.
Yuliya KomskaMar 15, 2022
The Opposite of Destruction is Creation: Art is the Language We Need to Fight Climate Catastrophe
Benje WilliamsMar 14, 2022
New Pants
Jervey TervalonMar 12, 2022
News of the Heart: On Natalka Bilotserkivets’s “Eccentric Days of Hope and Sorrow”
Miriam O’Neal delves into Natalka Bilotserkivets’s collection of poems “Eccentric Days of Hope and Sorrow,” translated from the Ukrainian by Ali Kinsella and Dzvinia Orlowsky.
Miriam O’NealMar 11, 2022
“Impossible to Imagine Just a Few Days Ago”: The War from Kharkiv and Uzhhorod
Mariana Prokhasko, Yuliia IliukhaMar 9, 2022
A Suitcase, a Candle, and a Hammer: Ukrainian Artists Face the Russian Invasion
Alisa LozhkinaMar 8, 2022
Don’t Touch My Corner: The War from Ivano-Frankivsk
Ostap UkrainetsMar 7, 2022
A Good Man with a Very Wet Brain
Jervey TervalonMar 5, 2022
The Search for a Different Modernism: On Volodymyr Svidzinsky
Ostap Kin explores the old and new tricks of Ukrainian modernist poet Volodymyr Svidzinsky, who was killed in 1941.
Ostap KinMar 4, 2022
First Days of War: A Report from Bucha, Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine
A Belarusian writer records daily life in the first days of the Ukrainian war.
Siarhiej PryluckiMar 2, 2022