The Brooklyn Rail

Life in Translation

By Hilary Reid

In Other Words marks a fundamental shift in Jhumpa Lahiri’s career. The memoir is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author’s first nonfiction book—and her first published work since her decision to read and write exclusively in Italian.

Between Homes

By Jill Dehnert

The recent media coverage of Syrian refugees is representative of only a small fraction of the people around the world who are forced to flee their homes in search of safety and security.

Out of Reach

By Katharina Smundak

My great-grandmother on my grandfather’s side was born in Odessa, Ukraine, in 1888. She was twenty-nine when the Russian Revolution toppled the Tsar.

In Conversation

MAKING ROOM FOR MYSTERY
PETER TURCHI with CHRISTOPHER CASTELLANI

Christopher Castellani and Peter Turchi have a few things in common. They met at the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College, where they both taught—and continue to teach—fiction.

In Conversation

PEN VS. SWORD
ILANA MYER with Nancy Hightower

Epic fantasy generally doesn’t conjure up images of rival poets battling for literary power and a chance to save the world from evil plagues. However, Ilana Myer’s debut novel, Last Song Before Night, might change your mind: it brings a refreshing twist to a genre most normally associated with swords and sorcery.

The Beauty of Independent Publishing

By Phong Bui

Along with James Laughlin of New Directions (founded in 1936) and Barney Rosset of Grove Press and Evergreen Review (1951 and 1957, respectively), George Braziller, of George Braziller Inc. (1955), who turns 100 this month, is one of the monumental figures in the history of American publishing.

America the Dysfunctional

By John Domini

Few writers can match the bifurcated career—bifurcated yet brimful—of Frank Lentricchia. Starting at the end of the 1960s, as a professor at Duke, Lentricchia established himself as a literary critic of muscle and subtlety.

Lennon’s Scream

By Weston Cutter

Kevin Barry writes the best sentences in English and his new novel, Beatlebone, is outrageously good—better even than his massively well-regarded and awarded (and excellent) début novel City of Bohane.