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Buttermilk and Liverwurst

Phil Crockett Thomas

‘Incredibly, where her neck had once been, she could now see right through to the faded paisley paper on the opposite wall.’

Fiction from Phil Crockett Thomas.

Generation Gap

Lynne Tillman

‘A moment now swallowed in embarrassment, I asked a question only a young person might ask an older one.’

Lynne Tillman on trying to understand what makes a generation.

Two Poems

Maya C. Popa

‘Things assume a sort of peace / if you accept life’s limitations.’

Poetry by Maya C. Popa.

Ecce Senex: Stephen James Joyce

James Scudamore

‘He was “a Joyce, not a Joycean”, yet considered himself the supreme arbiter of what constituted valuable Joyce scholarship. At the same time, he admitted that he rarely read anything in full.’

James Scudamore on trying to ghostwrite Stephen James Joyce's memoir.

Yr Dead

Sam Sax

‘Behind the 7/11 after dark, anything is possible.’

Fiction by Sam Sax.

Stalin, Lenin, Robespierre

Brandon Taylor

‘He tried to think about what sort of person he wanted to be in this world and how he might bring that about.’

Fiction by Brandon Taylor.

Lifetimes of the Soviet Union

Yuri Slezkine

‘Bolshevism, like most millenarian movements, proved a one-generation phenomenon.’

Yuri Slezkine on Soviet history and the generational arc of revolution.

David Attenborough

K Patrick

‘Motherhood is this chapter, / we all love a mother, / disastrous as it is.’

Poetry by K Patrick.

Calais to Dover

Jana Prikryl

‘If you need a renewable resource / then look in the direction of the sea. / It’s deep as feelings you didn’t know you had.’

Poetry by Jana Prikryl.

Gettysburg

Jessi Jezewska Stevens

‘One did not have high hopes for Gettysburg. Nor for Pennsylvania in general. Having grown up in Indiana, Diana felt she’d earned her condescension.’

Fiction by Jessi Jezewska Stevens.

What the Germans Left Behind

Anna Parker

‘My Czech family’s house stands on a geopolitical rift: it occupies a place the political storms sweep through, uprooting everything that is settled.’

An essay by Anna Parker.

Allegro Pastell

Leif Randt

‘It was fantastic to own a phone, it was fantastic to have people you loved in your life.’

Fiction by Leif Randt, translated by Ruth Martin.

The Texture of Angel Matter

Yoko Tawada

‘When human beings fall silent, a music can be heard.’

Fiction by Yoko Tawada, translated by Susan Bernofsky.

From the Planetarium

Ryan Ruby

‘For some it is an endpoint, for others a tear in the very fabric of time.’

Ryan Ruby on the fall of the Berlin wall and the Zeiss-Großplanetarium.