ISSUES | summer 2026

Comeback Kids It takes a long time to become young.   –Picasso The history of literature is replete with comeback books—masterpieces that came out late in their authors’ careers and were…    read more

The Mother-F-Word    “My mother has a mouth on her,” Charlie says. “She never held back, not even when we were little.” There’s a muffled response: laughter, then a few short words.…    read more

The Look-Alike    1974 was a cicada year. In Great Neck, the thumb-length insects emerged from the ground in droves, their hundred-decibel trills whiting out the more typical sounds of summer: the jingle-blaring ice-cream trucks, the…    read more

In the Movies   That year, I did my best to avoid violence, but violence kept finding me. In the movies, the parents were always falling to their knees. I was…    read more

The Visitation      “The produce whisperer!” someone shouted, and Daisy knew she’d been spotted. She had just exited “Historic Truths about Roots,” a key panel at the Culinary Historical Society’s annual conference.   Whenever Daisy was near a fruit or vegetable, her hands…    read more

Art or Activism: The Career of Paul Robeson  To be as good as someone else is no high ideal. I am myself.   –Paul Robeson  Paul Robeson’s acting career happened partly by accident. Late on a Saturday night in the spring…    read more

Warmblood  The minivan pulled onto the gravel shoulder. The woman and the little boy climbed out. They shook themselves loose, twirled their wrists, let their heads hang heavy on their necks. The boy peed against the fence post.   Peeing, he looked down into a green hollow, crisscrossed with wooden fences.…    read more

A Conversation with David Ryan  Tara Anne Dalbow  There are certain human experiences that defy articulation. Many of them are marked by longing, loss, desperation, abjection, desire. Conditions that, if not universal, are nearly so, which we—unable…    read more

​​​​​On the Fortieth Anniversary of Her Death, Ana Mendieta Brings the House Down at Haydee’s Restaurant  The flattened Jose Cuervo boxes make for a poor stage, but at the back…    read more

Sleepwalking Towards Bethlehem: On what we know but do not believe    Two years ago, my fiancée told me that I’d been sleepwalking and carrying on full-fledged conversations with her each night. When…    read more

The Scientific Term for a Midlife Crisis  Catastrophic molting, the ranger tells us. Most birds molt one feather at a time, but the penguins mating for life on this little island lose…    read more

The Dry Season    “You’re lucky,” the director said. “In another week or two, I doubt the road will be open.”  His passenger sat upright beside him, watching the passing terrain.…    read more

Beneath the Surface When I was eight years old, I would bike the six and a half kilometers to the Rawhitiroa Pool on the outskirts of Eltham to slog through width after…    read more

The Alchemy of Wendy C. Ortiz  Excavation: A Memoir by Wendy C. Ortiz, Northwestern University Press, 2025, 288 pp., $24.00 (paperback). Originally published by Future Tense Books, 2014.   Hollywood Notebook: Essays by Wendy C. Ortiz, Northwestern…    read more