Nîmes I was standing on a corner in Nîmes admiring the Maison Carrée, thinking that the roof of the Roman temple resembled the accent—the so-called petit chapeau—over the “i” in the town’s name, when a sudden blow knocked me off my feet, and there I lay, spreadeagle (or is it spreadeagled?) on the ground, like […]

“Palestine was a central part of the development of my political awareness, which was shaped by the cataclysmic American and American-backed aggressions in the Middle East.”

On February 26 the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) moved to block the proposed union of two giants of food retailing, Kroger Company and Albertsons Companies, respectively the second- and fourth-largest supermarket operators in the United States. In 2023 Kroger took in $150 billion from 2,750 stores in thirty-five states and the District of Columbia;...

Since the protests began on campuses throughout the United States, I have been struck by the verbal contortions many writers have gone through to avoid engaging with the gravity of Israel’s assault on Gaza—one of the most brutal, punitive military campaigns in modern history—and with the clarity of the students’ moral outrage. If you are […]

As a flute player and admirer of the Atlanta hip-hop duo OutKast, I should be well placed to appreciate André 3000’s New Blue Sun. And so, if I audibly scratch my head over the course of the ensuing paragraphs, please consider this a gesture of respect to an artist who has taken a sharp left turn […]

Maggie Doherty and I have known each other for thirteen years, which I know because I met her at the same party where I met my husband. For the past thirteen years, she’s been the person that I speak to daily about reading, writing, and teaching. Maggie is even-keeled, generous, and, above all, supremely responsible, […]