In this issue

A special section devoted to Graphic Nonfiction, showcasing seven writers and artists from around the globe, headlines the Spring 2020 issue of World Literature Today. The issue also presents interviews with translators Antonia Lloyd-Jones and Isabel Fargo Cole; new fiction from Italy, France, and the Philippines; essays on Nigerian fiction and the “humanity on display” in museum exhibitions; poetry by Elyas Alavi (Afghanistan), Khaled Mattawa (Libya/US), and Mohamad Nassereddine (Lebanon); and Poupeh Missaghi’s recommended booklist about cities. More than forty book reviews also round out the issue, giving readers a wealth of titles to inspire their spring reading adventures.

LIT TRENDS - 3 Online Book Clubs with a Global Perspective

ONE OF LIFE’S GREAT pleasures is sharing a favorite book with a community of bright, engaging friends, wine in hand and the fireplace crackling. In a perfect world, the host of your local book club is charming, the introverts are cozy and the extroverts gregarious, the conversation is brilliant and never lags, and the serving board groans under the weight of everyone’s best-loved dishes.

2 mins

CONVERSATIONS ON THE FUTURE OF TRANSLATION

Good Storytelling Still Trending - An Interview with Antonia Lloyd-Jones

8 mins

The Pregnant Woman from Zamboanga

In this story by an indigenous writer from the southern Philippines, a crime continues to haunt a local’s thoughts.

7 mins

Translating History

A Conversation with Isabel Fargo Cole

10+ mins

Race, History, and the Body

Humanity on Display

7 mins

Cheating / Death

A girl learns her first lessons about cheating and death at her grandparents’ house, playing cards and Scrabble and listening to them read from the obituaries in the Detroit Jewish News.

10+ mins

Our Nations, Ourselves

A Conversation with Robin Hemley

9 mins

The Old Man Who Lives Two Floors Below

Down the first twist of stairs and Josie hears she is not alone, like hearing a tree in the wind beyond her bedroom window. The old man: splay-legged before his door like a failing easel, he moves slow as death.

4 mins

Of Comics and Bipolar Disorder - A Conversation with Rachel Lindsay

Rachel Lindsay is a cartoonist based in Vermont and the author of a graphic memoir, RX, that was published in 2018 by Grand Central Publishing. RX explores the powerful interplay of word and image that resists biomedical prescriptivism and espouses the political potential of sharing subjective experiences of living with bipolar disorder through comics. Her comic strip “Rachel Lives Here Now” appears weekly in Seven Days, an alternative newspaper in Vermont. In our conversation with Lindsay, we discuss the pertinent issues surrounding mental health and the role of graphic memoirs in reclaiming the identity of the patient in a hierarchical biomedical system, specifically in the context of her recent memoir, RX.

10+ mins

Tokyo's Mukōjima Hyakkaen Garden

NEAR THE HEART of old Tokyo, surrounded by the largest metro area in the world, the Mukōjima-Hyakkaen Garden provides a respite from the bustle of the city with a traditional and lush corner of peace and quiet. For more than two centuries, the garden has been a haven for the city’s writers and artists as well as anyone who desires a temporary escape from urban life into the subtle tranquility of nature.

2 mins

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World Literature Today Magazine Description:

Your passport to great reading. Each issue of World Literature Today delivers book reviews, fiction, poetry, interviews, and essays by the best new writers from across the globe. Now in its 90th year of continuous publication, World Literature Today has won dozens of awards including most recently the Apex Award for Excellence and Annual Gold Ink Award.