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On Shakespeare and Aemilia Lanyer

Sandra Simonds

‘I gently propose that for the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death we stop reading Shakespeare and shift our attention to the poems of Aemilia Lanyer’. Sandra Simonds on Shakespeare and Aemilia Lanyer.

Our Shining Castle

Julia Rochester

‘Europe, for me, meant family.’

Peace Shall Destroy Many

Miriam Toews

‘It creates deep-seated wells of rage that find no release.’ Miriam Toews on pacifism in Mennonite communities.

Possible

Wendell Steavenson

‘I don’t know how to think about this. How to stretch compassion for one person into a million.’ Wendell Steavenson on Europe’s migrant-refugee crisis.

Propagandalands

Peter Pomerantsev

From 2016: Peter Pomerantsev reports from Ukraine’s Donbas region.

Putting Down Strangers

Adam Thorpe

‘Home, after all, is a continual plangent threnody in the often uninterpretable clamour of being an immigrant.’ Adam Thorpe on Brexit.

Republicans

James Pogue

‘This American says he’s heard of Cross but that he’s still just passing through.’ He laughed and formed the shape of a pistol with his right hand. ‘Well you heard that part, didn’t ya? That is one thing that will never change here.’

The Cult of the Hindu Cowboy

Snigdha Poonam

‘The Hindu cowboy accords to the cow the holiest status in his imagination: of mother. It is his duty to protect her honour; it is his privilege to kill for her.’

The Fencing Master

David Treuer

David Treuer on learning to fence with Maître Michel Sebastiani and learning to write with Toni Morrison.

The Interpreters: Among the Brahmins of Benares

Aatish Taseer

‘That first sight of the city curled around the river goes through me like the breath of something old and known and familiar.’ Aatish Taseer revisits Varanasi.

The White Bloc

James Pogue

‘This election made clear that white people in this country have begun to vote how Southern whites always have: as a bloc.’

Things I Never Told Her

Marian Ryan

‘I will lay down what I want, and I will get it, and prove I am not the kind of woman who is controlled by a man.’

Torn Silk and Garlands of Garlic

Teffi

Teffi remembers the Armenian refugees in Novorossiisk during the Russian Revolution.

Travels in Pornland

Andrea Stuart

‘I can easily recall my first brush with porn’