World Literature Today back issues from September 2004:
Muriel Spark.(Author Profile)(Biography)
Sep 01, 2004 ... DAME MURIEL SPARK, born in 1938 in Edinburgh, Scotland, has been a professional writer since the 1940s. The author of nearly fifty novels, plays, nonfiction studies, and poetry and short-story collections, she made her publishing debut with Child of Light, a biography of Mary Shelley ...
The Creative Writing Class.(Three Poems)(Brief Article)(Poem)
Sep 01, 2004; ... <Pre> The Creative Writing Class 'There is," he declared. 'Really?' she grinned.'Undoubtedly,' he stated. 'Tomorrow,' she burbled.'A majority,' he chortled. 'The statues?" she enquired.'Public health,' he opined. 'The signature,' she ...
Letters.(Three Poems)(Brief Article)(Poem)
Sep 01, 2004; ... <Pre> Letters I'm sorry I can't come to-day:I have dozens of letters to write.Oh, letters. You and your dozens of letters.Yes, I've let them pile up by the grossAnd to-day's the day of reckoning....
Hats.(Three Poems)(Brief Article)(Poem)
Sep 01, 2004; ... <Pre> Hats I was writing a poem called Hats. I had seen a shop window in Venice, full of Hats. There were hats for morning, for evening, men's hats, girls' Hats. There were hats for fishingAnd hats dating back to ...
The May of Teck Club.(Excerpt)
Sep 01, 2004; ... LONG AGO IN 1945 all the nice people in England were poor, allowing for exceptions. The streets of the cities were lined with buildings in bad repair or in no repair at all, bomb-sites piled with stony rubble, houses like giant teeth in which decay had been drilled out, leaving only the ...
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o.(Author Profile)(Brief Article)(Biography)
Sep 01, 2004 ... NGUGI WA THIONG'O (b. 1938, Limuru, Kenya) is one of Africa's leading contemporary writers. His novels have been translated into more than thirty languages and have garnered numerous prizes, including the Nonino International Prize; the Paul Robeson Award for Artistic Excellence, Political ...
Recovering the original.(Essays)
Sep 01, 2004; ... HE LAY ON HIS TUMMY ON A HIGH TABLE IN THE ASSEMBLY HALL with all the students and staff present. Two teachers held his head and legs and pinned him to the table and called him monkey, as the third whiplashed his buttocks. No matter how horribly he screamed and wriggled with pain, they ...
Between tradition & innovation: the new Latin American narrative.
Sep 01, 2004; ... THE DAWN OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY is an appropriate time to pause and take stock of the resources at our disposal to confront the challenges of a new era. Caught between tradition and innovation, Latin American narrative is currently at a crossroads. Although people are reading and ...
Olive Trees.(Four Poems)(Brief Article)(Poem)(Biography)
Sep 01, 2004; ... <Pre> OLIVE TREES We drive between rows of olive treesthat lean into the road like ghosts,silver green under the moon of midnight,and remember spreading sheets on dry earth,knocking branches till the hard fruit fell,the glisten of hands smeared with oil. ...
Stone Fence.(Four Poems)(Poem)
Sep 01, 2004; ... <Pre> STONE FENCE I was a small child climbing walls, defying my father'sinjunctions. Who wants a tomboy for a wife? I clambered upcherry trees, skinned my knees, rode my bike farther than Iwas allowed to go. On picnics I collected rocks, hoardingthem in the old ...
Origins.(Four Poems)(Poem)
Sep 01, 2004; ... <Pre> ORIGINS My daughter knuckled her way down thebirth canal, emerging as from an ancientcave: eyes wide, brow furrowed at whatshe had witnessed. She had no words, justa cry echoing from the deep almond-shapedeyes that held my gaze insistently,daring ...
Words.(Four Poems)(Brief Article)(Poem)(Biography)
Sep 01, 2004; ... <Pre> WORDS They too have bodiesthat can be broken and maimed:war's first casualties. </Pre> Nicosia, Cyprus LISA SUHAIR MAJAJ, a Palestinian American, grew up in Jordan, studied in Lebanon, and lived in the United States for many years before moving to ...
1912.(Two Poems)(Poem)
Sep 01, 2004; ... <Pre> 1912 1 Pamiec, ktora podobno jest narodzinami, zawsze (jej skalne iglice i wydmy-echa ...); mysle o nas na promie, doplywajac do wyspy.O tym, jak odgarniajac mi wlosy za ucho,szepnales: "Pojde do synagogi, podziekuje Mu, ze dal mi ...
Visby.(Two Poems)(Brief Article)(Poem)
Sep 01, 2004; ... <Pre>burty kamiennych kogciolow obrastaja bluszczem,wepchniete w szkierowy brzeg--potezne gotyckie lodzie wioza ziemiew lukach pod pokladami; sztorm ucichl. Chmury schodza amfiteatralnie w dol, w gorzyste morze,w szare aleje potrzaskanych kolumn, w ...
All that had evaded: a reclogue.(Seven Poems)(Brief Article)(Poem)(Biography)
Sep 01, 2004; ... <Pre> All that had evaded: a reclogue Realising the rangesformed a bowlwhen viewedfrom the reserve.she scooped the depressionwith a glanceand all it contained--fences, crops, sheep, treesthat had evaded the clearing--became the One ...
The sliding door disturbs the birds ...(Seven Poems)(Brief Article)(Poem)(Biography)
Sep 01, 2004; ... <Pre> The sliding door disturbs the birds. The sliding door of the shed disturbs the birds perchedin a shock of eucalypts; kookaburras. crows, white-faced heronscranking it up--grey anglepoise lampsinterrupting galahs, vaguely elan. drizzle muting ...
Liminal Devotional.(Seven Poems)(Brief Article)(Poem)(Biography)
Sep 01, 2004; ... <Pre> Liminal Devotional "Per omnia secula saeculorum ..." Whereupon in servicego you or I, refrained against the light,the show-through of texts upon the page,geographies of stanza shape: these hymnswe broadcast in times less bright,work as ozone, as ...
The Gift.(Seven Poems)(Brief Article)(Poem)
Sep 01, 2004; ... <Pre> The Gift for Mirjana Kalezic Snow so fine trees titanium white,their black veneered, crows charged,jagged choristers loudly brightas residue sharpens outlines; prayer suffersno loss in translationand scripts village airas it might an ...
On Not Seeing the Crested Bellbird at Duck Pool Reserve, Mortlock River: a graphologia.(Seven Poems)(Brief Article)(Poem)
Sep 01, 2004; ... <Pre> On Not Seeing the Crested Bellbird at Duck Pool Reserve, Mortlock River: a graphologia The fantail by the {tree [droppedover the trail]}, sandy soilholdall for the grim Mortlock'shydraulics eaten out, a rusty droolor special sort of tannin,...
Cultures.(Seven Poems)(Brief Article)(Poem)
Sep 01, 2004; ... <Pre> CULTURES imm Anna Rutherford The islands are low to the waterand flat with heat--the birdsmelt interiors, which spreadto the shore. There, the sandsshrink once more,and contract to belief. In other parts, the tuneof robins ...
A Maple Tree.(Seven Poems)(Brief Article)(Poem)
Sep 01, 2004; ... <Pre> A Maple Tree for David Taft 1. Fall Planted memorandum,this beginning for me--here, then--the leavesfrothing--vatic--lifeblood: usedso much here, a flavouringof local distinction. 2. Winter Negated, rough lawncuts ...
Here Is the Long Night.(Two Poems)(Brief Article)(Poem)
Sep 01, 2004; ... <Pre> HERE IS THE LONG NIGHT here is the long nightsplintering over the landscapea whitened hair of memoried hoursspills out of the moonlight my mother's hands reach across the tableinto another timewhere the wind moved without clocksand no one ...
All the Names for Rain Have Changed.(Two Poems)(Brief Article)(Poem)
Sep 01, 2004; ... <Pre> ALL THE NAMES FOR RAIN HAVE CHANGED all the names for rain have changedwe say the same wordstheir meaning burns in another place and the lightning crosses overin its mirrors of wind while the trees are falling outside trees made of hands ...
Maryse Conde.(Author Profile)(Biography)
Sep 01, 2004 ... WEST INDIAN AUTHOR MARYSE CONDE is a prolific novelist, playwright, and critic whose books explore the clash of cultures and races, particularly in African and Caribbean settings. Born in 1937 on the island of Guadeloupe, educated in Paris, and having lived in Ghana, Senegal, and the Ivory ...
The Road to Adjame-Santey.(Fiction)(Short Story)
Sep 01, 2004; ... This story was inspired by an event that took place in Guadeloupe in 1995, when a baby was found with her throat slashed on a heap of garbage. The incident sparked the imagination of many throughout the island, mine included. IVORY COAST 1901-1906 THIS WAS NOT THE ...
The Last Face (a fragment).(Excerpt)
Sep 01, 2004; ... WLT AUTHOR FACTS AUTHOR Alvaro Mutis (b. 1923) COUNTRY Colombia PRINCIPAL GENRES Verse, Fiction "The last face is the face death dons to greet you." From an anonymous eleventh-century manuscript in the Library of Mount Athos THE PAGES YOU ARE ABOUT TO READ ...
Girl inside girl inside girl.
Sep 01, 2004; ... WLT AUTHOR FACTS AUTHOR Nurit Zarchi (b. 1941) COUNTRY Israel PRINCIPAL GENRES Fiction AT THE SHOEMAKERS', I'm standing next to a barrel. I've been sent here because I lost my shoes. A scandal whirls around me. How is it possible to lose shoes? Last night, as soon as ...
Touba and the Meaning of the Night.
Sep 01, 2004; ... WLT AUTHOR FACTS AUTHOR Shahrnush Parsipur (b. 1946) COUNTRY Iran PRINCIPAL GENRES Fiction TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION SET IN LATE-NINETEENTH-CENTURY IRAN, still under the traditionalist Qajar dynasty (1779-1925), Shahrnush Parsipur's novel Touba and the ...
Breaking taboos in Iranian women's literature.(Currents)
Sep 01, 2004; ... WLT AUTHOR FACTS AUTHOR Shahrnush Parsipur (b. 1946) COUNTRY Iran PRINCIPAL GENRE Fiction SHAHRNUSH PARSIPUR was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1946. She received her bachelor's degree in sociology from Tehran University and studied for two years in ...
Twenty-five years ago in the pages of WLT.(Currents)
Sep 01, 2004 ... "Sadeq Hedayat's innovational use of the common man as tragic hero, his introduction of colloquial speech into Persian prose, and his sympathetic rendering of characters have justly positioned him as the foremost fiction writer of his age. As must be inevitable when a writer of Hedayat's ...
Neither heads nor tails: the middle province in Octavio Paz's ?Aguila o sol?(Currents)
Sep 01, 2004; ... WLT AUTHOR PACTS AUTHOR Octavio Paz (1914-98) COUNTRY Mexico PRINCIPAL GENRE Verse SHORTLY AFTER WORLD WAR II, Octavio Paz (1914-98) traveled to Paris to serve in the Mexican diplomatic corps. During the five years he spent there, he became ...
The republic of Jacques Jouet.(Currents)
Sep 01, 2004; ... WLT AUTHOR FACTS AUTHOR Jacques Jouet (b. 1947) COUNTRY France PRINCIPAL GENRES Fiction Verse SINCE THE VIOLENT FALL OF ITS MONARCHY IN 1789, France has been committed to the idea of the republic. So much so that in this interval it has known ...
Adrian C. Louis: poet of survival.(Currents)
Sep 01, 2004; ... WLT AUTHOR FACTS AUTHOR Adrian C. Louis (b. 1946) COUNTRY United States PRINCIPAL GENRES Verse, Fiction WHEN ADRIAN C. LOUIS WAS ASKED IN A 1999 INTERVIEW to define the "overriding concerns" of his work, he said, "The overall theme ... is ...
J.M. Coetzee's cultural critique.(Currents)
Sep 01, 2004; ... THERE ARE BOOKS ONE SHOULD HAVE READ PRIOR TO VISITING South Africa. Rian Malan's My Traitor's Heart comes to mind, as do Allister Sparks's The Mind of South Africa and Nelson Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom, of course. But do not forget J. M. Coetzee's Disgrace (1999), this brilliant novel ...
An interview with Ariel Dorfman.(WLT Interview)(Interview)
Sep 01, 2004; ... ARIEL DORFMAN is a Chilean novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, journalist, and human-rights activist. Born in Argentina in 1942 to Jewish immigrants, Dorfman was forced to move to the United States with his family in 1945 due to anti-Semitism and political intolerance. They then became ...
Poetry and torture.(WLT Interview)
Sep 01, 2004; ... HOW CAN WORDS SPEAK THE UNSPEAKABLE? Poetry attempts to evoke the unspoken, as does torture, and yet it is difficult to connect these two extremes as moments in the making of language. How have recent events forced us to reconsider universal questions about the relationship between ...
Poetry from Russia: current trends and contemporary voices.(Essential Books)
Sep 01, 2004; ... ... and freedom Will meet us joyfully at the entrance. --Pushkin "His poems are so Soviet." "Soviet, anti-Soviet--what's the difference?" --A fragment of a conversation HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL PROCESSES do not directly determine the shape of ...
"She's grown dreadlocks": the fiction of Angela Johnson.(Children's Literature)
Sep 01, 2004; ... JOURNALIST LISA JONES'S Bulletproof Diva: Tales of Race, Sex, and Hair is a collection of essays originally published in the Village Voice. An entire section of the book is devoted to the topic of "the hair trade." The essay she calls "Hair Always and Forever" reads in part: <Pre> ...
Singing in the quietness.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
Sep 01, 2004; ... I READ WITH GREAT PLEASURE "In the Quiet House," by Tanure Ojaide (WLT, January-April 2004, p. 32). Often poems that have a deep political resonance degenerate into rants. This is not the case, however, with Ojaide. A very strong part of the appeal of this poem is its understatement and ...
Intense noirs and regulation hotties.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
Sep 01, 2004; ... J. MADISON DAVIS'S "Tough Guys with Long Legs" (WLT, January-April 2004, pp. 36-40) made me realize I had read some crime fiction but didn't know what I was still missing. Although my aunt lives on the outskirts of Gijon, Spain, I never had the opportunity to attend the Semana Negra, the ...
Slouching toward Slovenia.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
Sep 01, 2004; ... ALES DEBELJAK'S "The Political Meaning of the Slovene Neo-Avant-Garde" points to the difficulties faced not only by writers but by all kinds of workers in the transition from managed economy to the free market (see WLT 78:1, January-April 2004, pp. 43-45). Industrial workers were the first ...
Moses Isegawa. Snakepit.(Book Review)
Sep 01, 2004; ... Moses Isegawa. Snakepit. New York, Knopf. 2004. 259 pages. $24. ISBN 0-375-41454-1 MOSES ISEGAWA was a history teacher in Uganda before he emigrated to Holland in 1990. He has first-hand knowledge of Ugandan society--its culture, mores, and politics--which he eloquently ...
Alain Mabanckou. African psycho.(Book Review)
Sep 01, 2004; ... Alain Mabanckou. African psycho. Paris. Le Serpent a Plumes. 2003. 191 pages. 16 [euro]. ISBN 2-84261-438-0 ARRIVING RAPIDLY on the heels of Les Petits-fils negres de Vercinge-torix (2002; see WLT 77:2, p. 83), African psycho offers Alain Mahanckou's reading public another ...
Kwame Dawes. A Place to Hide.(Book Review)
Sep 01, 2004; ... Kwame Dawes. A Place to Hide. Leeds, England. Peepal Tree (Paul & Co., distr.) 2003. 312 pages. 7.99 [pounds sterling] / $14.95. ISBN 1-900715-48-1 KWAME DAWES, author of poetry and critical nonfiction, has crafted his first book of fiction according to what he calls a reggae ...
The Best Australian Poetry 2003.(Book Review)
Sep 01, 2004; ... The Best Australian Poetry 2003. Martin Duwell, Bronwyn Lea, eds. St. Lucia, Australia. University of Queensland Press (ISBS, distr.). 2003 (released 2004) xvi + 125 pages $20. ISBN 0-7022-3420-6 THE SELECTION OF FORTY POEMS BY FORTY POETS that comprises The Best Australian ...
Han Shaogong. A Dictionary of Maqiao.(Book Review)
Sep 01, 2004; ... Han Shaogong. A Dictionary of Maqiao. Julia Lovell, tr. New York. Columbia University Press. 2003. xviii + 323 pages. $27.95. ISBN 0-231-12744-8 IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY, with the ever-changing socio-economic kaleidoscope in modern China, literature gets it share in terms of ...
Li Yung-p'ing. Retribution: the Jiling Chronicles.(Book Review)
Sep 01, 2004; ... Li Yung-p'ing Retribution: The Jiling Chronicles. Howard Goldblatt, Sylvia Li-chun Lin, trs. New York. Columbia University Press. 2003. 246 pages. $24.50. ISBN 0-231-12874-6 ESPECIALLY SINCE IT IS NOW IN TRANSLATION, Li Yung-p'ing's separate short stories from the later 1970s, ...
Zheng Danyi. Wings of Summer: Selected Poems of Zheng Danyi.(Book Review)
Sep 01, 2004; ... Zheng Danyi. Wings of Summer: Selected Poems of Zheng Danyi. Luo Hui, tr. Hong Kong. Sixth Finger. 2003. xxxxi + 293 pages. HK$120 / US$16. ISBN 988-97075-1-9 ZHENG DANYI (b. 1963) has recently emerged as one of the most acclaimed poets on the admittedly low-profile Chinese ...
Carmo D'Souza. Portugal: in Search of Identity.(Book Review)
Sep 01, 2004; ... Carmo D'Souza. Portugal: In Search of Identity. Calangute, Goa. Agnelo D'Souza. 2003. 136 pages. Rs90. CARMO D'SOUZA'S Angela's Goan Identity proposed that Goan identity was fluid and that many people who were not Goans contributed to it (see WLT 69:3, p. 646). In Portugal: In ...
Ashok Banker. Prince of Ayodhya: the Ramayana, Book One.(Book Review)
Sep 01, 2004; ... Ashok Banker. Prince of Ayodhya: The Ramayana, Book One. New York. Warner. 2003. 387 pages. $24.95. ISBN 0-446-53092-1 MORE THAN THREE THOUSAND YEARS AGO, Valmiki, a thief-turned-sage, told a tale. The same tale has been told over and over again ever since. Tulsidas repeated the ...
Prakash Kona. Streets That Smell of Dying Roses.(Book Review)
Sep 01, 2004; ... Prakash Kona. Streets That Smell of Dying Roses. New York. Fugue State Press. 2003. 246 pages. $14. ISBN 1-879193-10-8 ALTHOUGH ADVERTISED AS A NOVEL, Prakash Kona's Streets That Smell of Dying Roses is out of the ordinary and defies any attempt of literary classification ...
Ryu Murakami. In the Miso Soup.(Book Review)
Sep 01, 2004; ... Ryu Murakami. In the Miso Soup. Ralph McCarthy, tr. Tokyo. Kodansha International. 2003. 180 pages. $22.95. ISBN 4-7700-2957-8 CONTAINING ALL THE REQUIRED ELEMENTS, from the sorcery and Satanism of medieval Europe to a grisly mass murder in contemporary Japan, Ryu Murakami's ...
Sara Suleri Goodyear. Boys Will Be Boys: a Daughter's Elegy.(Book Review)
Sep 01, 2004; ... Sara Suleri Goodyear. Boys Will Be Boys: A Daughter's Elegy. Chicago University of Chicago Press 2003. 121 pages $22 ISBN 0226-30401-9 THERE HAD BEEN SUCH A LAPSE OF TIME since Sara Suleri Goodyear wrote Meatless Days that I was beginning to fear she would never write another ...
Whetu Moana: Contemporary Polynesian Poems in English.(Book Review)
Sep 01, 2004; ... Whetu Moana: Contemporary Polynesian Poems in English. Albert Wendt, Reina Whaitiri, Robert Sullivan, eds. Honolulu. University of Hawai'i Press. 2003. xiv + 274 pages. $22. ISBN 0-8248-27562 THE EDITORS OF WHETU MOANA, a collection of Polynesian poems in English written since ...
Claire Tham. The Gunpowder Trail and Other Stories.(Book Review)
Sep 01, 2004; ... Claire Tham. The Gunpowder Trail and Other Stories. Singapore, Times International. 2003. 271 pages. S$12.90. ISBN 981-232660-X I READ THE TITLE STORY of The Gunpowder Trail and Other Stories, Claire Tham's fourth volume of fiction, as foreign judge of the 1999 NAC Golden Point ...
Leland Bardwell. Mother to a Stranger.(Book Review)
Sep 01, 2004; ... Leland Bardwell. Mother to a Stranger. Belfast. Blackstaff (Dufour, distr.). 2003 ([c] 2002). 186 pages. $15.95. ISBN 0-85640-716-X IN IRELAND IN THE 1950S AND 1960s, unwanted pregnancy was surrounded by shame and secrecy, and women almost invariably were forced to give up their ...
Angela Barry. Endangered Species and Other Stories.(Book Review)
Sep 01, 2004; ... Angela Barry. Endangered Species and Other Stories. Leeds, England. Peepal Tree. 2003. 231 pages. 8.99. [pounds sterling] ISBN 1-900715-71-6 ONE OF THE MOST SATISFYING BOOKS OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM, the five stories contained in Endangered Species explore, in spacious ways, the ...
James Carroll. Secret Father.(Book Review)
Sep 01, 2004; ... James Carroll Secret Father. Boston. Houghton Mifflin. 2003. 344 pages. $25. ISBN 0-618-15284-9 JAMES CARROLL'S Secret Father is about three teenagers, children of American parents in occupied West Germany, who decide to go to Berlin to see the massive May Day parade the East ...
Tim Gautreaux. The Clearing.(Book Review)
Sep 01, 2004; ... Tim Gautreaux. The Clearing. New York. Knopf. 2003. 305 pages. $23. ISBN 0-375-41474-6 TIM GAUTREAUX'S recent novel The Clearing is essentially a fable of the struggle between civilization and barbarism of a sort that is familiar from innumerable novels and flints of the male ...
Pico Iyer. Abandon.(Book Review)
Sep 01, 2004; ... Pico Iyer. Abandon. New York. Knopf. 2003. 354 pages. $24. ISBN 0-375-41505-X ABANDON, the recent novel by Pico Iyer, examines the life of British graduate student John Macmillan as he attempts to complete his thesis on the Persian poet Rumi. Macmillan's work is complicated by ...
Jhumpa Lahiri. The Namesake.(Book Review)
Sep 01, 2004; ... Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake. Boston. Houghton Mifflin. 2003. 291 pages. $24. ISBN 0-395 92721 8 JHUMPA LAHIRI'S The Namesake appears within one year of publication of Bharati Mukherjee's Desirable Daughters (see WLT 77:3-4, p. 86). Both novels have identical plots: a young ...
Manuel Luis Martinez. Drift.(Book Review)
Sep 01, 2004; ... Manuel Luis Martinez. Drift. New York. Picador. 2003. vii + 244 pages. $14. ISBN 0-312-30995-3 MANUEL LUIS MARTINEZ'S first novel, Crossing, made visceral the tragic story of Mexicans trying to cross the border into the United States in search of a better life. hl his recent ...
Steven Millhauser. The King in the Tree: Three Novellas.(Book Review)
Sep 01, 2004; ... Steven Millhauser. The King in the Tree: Three Novellas. New York. Knopf. 2003. 242 pages. $23. ISBN 0-375-41540-8 STEVEN MILLHAUSER'S best book may be his 1996 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Martin Dressier; his least successful book may be his trio of novellas, The King in the ...
Preethi Nair. One Hundred Shades of White.(Book Review)
Sep 01, 2004; ... Preethi Nair. One Hundred Shades of White. London. HarperCollins. 2003. 294 pages. 12.99 [pounds sterling]. ISBN 0-00-714345-1 PREETHI NAIR'S debut novel, One Hundred Shades of While, tells with great finesse the coming-of-age story of Maya Kathi. Told alternately from the point ...
Leroy V. Quintana. La Promesa and Other Stories.(Book Review)
Sep 01, 2004; ... Leroy V. Quintana. La Promesa and Other Stories. Norman, University of Oklahoma Press. 2002. 158 pages. $24.95. ISBN 0-8061-3449-6 MOSCO ZAMORA, town drunk and visionary, is the patron saint of San Miguel, New Mexico. Claro, he sees things. A burning rosary, a headless man, the ...