"Pan-lingual Gobshite Quarterly, where Paul Krassner meets Vénus Khoury-Ghata, is my favorite source for Hungarian fiction that reads like a song... In its pages English language poems, short stories, and "reasoned rants" nervously traverse a dark alley, past a gauntlet of hipster Arabs, dangerous Czechs, and Spanish cantoras."
—
Chris Dodge,
Utne Magazine
IN THIS ISSUE:
Carlos Fuentes Prize Winner Luisa Valenzuela nails a mother-daughter dynamic.
Hugo & Nebula Award Winner Ursula K. Le Guin reveals the benefits of preaching to the choir.
Mahmoud Darwish explores the dimensions of a state of siege.
Julienne Eden Busić reminds us that wars go on long after the shooting stops.
Holbrook Literary Legacy Award winner Douglas Spangle shows us Spring roaring across the universe;
Oregon Book Award winner David Biespiel shows us autumn in Texas Past.
New Yorker cartoonist Shannon Wheeler visits Occupy Wall Street and survives the day; gonzo chronicler and
Portland performance artist Jennifer Robin travels the neofeudal edges on Portland Public Transport and survives the night.
Nastashia Minto and Selena Bekakis describe breathing together, love and in love;
Melanie Alldritt looks at how she's looking at that girl's hair, to examine the way she's becoming infinite.
Portland translator Paul Merchant ushers us into a love poem by
Constantine Cavafy.
Oregon Book Award finalist Matthew Robinson writes us a timelapse Western history,
Clark County Poet Laureate Armin Tolentino takes us into outer space, and
Leah Rainer tells us a true story, a portrait of a tragedy.
From further afield we have cartoons from musician, writer, illustrator, director and actor
Liz Swados, and Lithuanian Holocaust scholar
Miglė Anušauskaitė.
Cristina Álvarez Lopez writes about running with Keith Jarrett, and she and
Adrian Martin talk about Chantal Ackerman's
Nuit et Jour. Croatian writer
Josip Razum tells us about a man, his wife, his family and a painting. Danish
Birgit Munch describes a peculiar form of disownment; Lebanese
Vénus Khoury-Ghata, translated by
Marilyn Hacker, lets us in on the secret prehistory of words. Australian poet
Les Murray displays his precise perceptions and
Alemannic Prize Winner Christoph Keller remembers Murray's kindness; Croatian
Armin Harambašić shows us all of life, waiting at a train station; Oregonian
Ann Farley's dahlias lighten last days.
Oregon Book Award winner Lidia Yuknavitch tells us how to escape from Group,
Susan Daitch guards the night,
Rick Moody names the things the legend omitted.
Mo Daviau nails Norman Mailer;
Oscar winner Frederic Raphael nails a tale told by Petronius.
Croatian graphic artist
Mirolsav Nemeth goes on a lighthearted graphic journey to Rome. Japanese artist
Midori Oki's graphic installation dives beneath the skin; Croatian
Monica Herceg and Estonian
Triin Paja relate souls to forests; Portland's
Michael Shay gardens.
Lance Olsen describes an increasingly disjointed street conversation and
Croatian multiple prize winner Dubravka Oraić Tolić explains how the world had changed even before Bader Meinhof changed it.
PNW writers
Poe Ballantine and
Kurt Eisenlohr go their sardonic ways while poets near and far —
Coleman Stevenson,
Leanne Grabel and
Brenda Taulbee; Greek poets
Dinos Siotis,
Thanos Gogos,
Phoebe Giannisi and
Petros Skythiotis; poets from other climes
Robert Walser,
Miroslav Kirin,
Tomica Bajsić,
Nina Wieda,
Andrei Sen-Senkov and
Marge Piercy — prose artist
Peter Fogtdal, and graphic artist
Tânia Cardoso (Brazil/Netherlands) — round the issue out.
